Living The Quran
From Issue: 988 [Read full issue]
The Last Resort
Al-Baqara (The Cow) Sura 2: Verse 216
"Fighting has been prescribed for you, although it is a matter hateful to you. But it is possible that you hate a thing which is good for you, and that you love a thing which is bad for you. God knows, and you know not."
This verse deals with the proper restraint we should have for violence and warfare, the last resort argument, and that while it might be 'ordained' in the sense of being inevitable under certain circumstances, it always comes with limits and should be against our better judgements.
We can hate something that is good for us, just as much as we might love a thing that is bad for us. The line of judgement we have to make concerns the conditions, the circumstances that make the last resort inevitable. War is heinous, but the balance is that 'persecution is worse than slaughter'. Sometimes it is necessary to defend those who are being demeaned, denied their freedom and rights, who are made second-class citizens or worse because of who they are or what they believe. This verse must be read in conjunction with verse 190-193, 'do not commit aggression', as it is definitely not a blanket warrant for going to war, but rather an argument about the judgement that has to be made between two evils. It is clearly addressing the historical context of the time of the Prophet while generating universal principles.
There are obvious parallels, far too many of them, in our own time where communities have been left to suffer oppression, persecution even genocide, without the rest of the world springing to their aid. However, every universal principle we derive from the Quran should come with one caveat: the examples it provides are moral examples. As times change so the means we use to apply these moral principles can and perhaps should change. There are more ways than going to war to fight oppression, combat persecution and defend the dignity and freedom of those afflicted. Sometimes it may be impossible to find another way, but that does not mean we should stop trying to find peaceful means; though equally, it can mean, however heinous, it may be necessary literally to fight for the sake of a greater good. The trouble is that human beings have been much better at devising the means of destruction, the techniques of war and array of modern weaponry than devising strategies for making peace.
Compiled From:
"Reading the Qur'an: The Contemporary Relevance of the Sacred Text of Islam" - Ziauddin Sardar, pp. 156-157