What It Means - Day 307

"A rich vein of peace thought runs through the Qur'an. Its earlier chapters celebrate thee tranquility of heaven, depicting well-being and concord as its spiritual reality and its pinnacle. The Qur'an goes on in the subsequent decades to address the ways the beleaguered band of Believers in the one God could live among intolerant pagans in Mecca and elsewhere, insisting on repelling evil with good, wishing tranquility and welfare on one's enemies, and urging forgiveness. It counsels a mixture of firmly preaching hellfire to the heathen and forbearance in this world of their foibles. 'To you your religion,' the Qur'an has Muhammad say to the pagans, 'and to me mine.' This tolerance grows naturally out of the conviction that it would be wrong to attempt to compel a person's conscience: 'Will you then coerce the people to become believers?' (Jonah, 10:99)" Juan Cole, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires, pp. 197-198

A new copy of Cole's biography unexpectedly showed up in the mail the other day. I initially read it last year and liked it quite a bit. Recently I donated some money in support of one of the young men at the masjid and I forgot that this was one of the thank you gifts. So, if any of you are looking for a nice biography of the Prophet this would be a good place to start. What's great about Cole's biography is that he focuses on the central role of peace in Muhammad's teaching, spoken during a remarkably warlike age. I guess I do now actually have an extra copy of Cole's work, which would make an excellent prize for the student in this semester's Islam class that achieves the highest grade . . .