Prophet Muhammad’s Patterns of Peaceful Communication By: Ali Zohery
Background
The Prophet Muhammad was assigned the Mission of peace in the world by Allah. The fundamental purpose was to attain peace with the lord, peace with the universe and peace with the people. The Quran, in very plain words, announces the arrival of the prophet of peace in these words: “ O People of the book! Our Messenger has come to you, Light has come to you from Allah and a book which guides to the truth, whereby Allah leads to ways of peace those who seek His pleasure.” ( 5:17-18) These verse stress that the Prophet was sent to guide the people to the way of peace. The west misunderstood Islam and stereotyping it with violence and terrorism.
What does it mean to be a Muslim? Islam literally means submission, and, in Arabic, the root word for Islam (SLM) is peace. To be Muslim, then, is the struggle to peacefully submit to reality, and this implies a perfectly balanced sense of self. Self that is founded on the knowledge of its place in Creation, and that exists in perfect empathy with the rest of Creation.)from an article in Islam online: The Conquering Force of Islam,By Ramzi Kysia, 11/12/2001)
Peace is the most common word on a Muslim's tongue. Whenever two people meet, they exchange greetings, wishing each other peace: "Peace be upon you." But peace cannot prevail except through justice. Since the concept of justice may differ from one man to another, or from one society to another, Muslims believe that real justice is that which is specified by Allah (God).
Research Questions:
History proves that religion has been one of the main causes of resentment and enmity among humans. Millions of people lost their lives fighting against each other only in the name of religion. In view of this how can we say that the religion of Islam is a source of peace? How wars could be used for the specific purpose of securing peace and justice?
Methodology:
Textual analysis is a method used by researchers to “describe and interpret the characteristics of a recorded or visual message” (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, p.225). Textual analysis describes the content, structure, and functions of messages contained in texts. The purpose is to ascertain the meaning intended by the producer of a text (Hirsch, 1967); other scholars focus on how consumers perceive and interpret text, regardless of the meaning intended by the producer.
Textual analysis can be used to answer the two major questions posed in communication research: “What is the nature of communication?” And “How is communication related to other variables?
Within textual analysis is embodied rhetorical criticism that owes its working definition to Aristotle’s work on “the available means of persuasion” Rhetorical criticism itself is defined as “a systematic method for describing, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating the persuasive force of messages embedded within texts” (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, p.229)
Textual Boundaries:
Where does A text begin and end? If a text has a determinate state, then it would necessarily follow that we should be able to localize the text. But where? The language of the text suggest that we end the text where language ends. (Joseph Grigely, Textualterity, Art, Theory, and Textual Criticism, P. 130) The language that the prophet used set unlimited boundaries to the text. The message of the prophet was not intended for his local people. It was for all people every where and for all generations to come.
Textual Event:
Joseph Grigely argues that text might be prepared for a specific event and he raises the issue of the notion of iterability (iterare, to repeat; iterum, again). Repeatability is a universal quality in textual studies, where efforts are made to produce or reproduce a particular text. (Joseph Grigely, Textualterity, Art, Theory, and Textual Criticism, P. 93)
Significance of the Study:
The religion of Islam is misunderstood in the western world. The Muslims images in the west are stereotyped with violent, terrorism and backwardness. Understanding the Religion of Islam would correct the wrong ideas and introduce the religion of Islam with its valuable values and principles to the non-Muslims. The values of Islam, if applied, would be a public and private policy. A way of life, every one would enjoy and live in peace with each others regardless their different backgrounds, colors or ethnicity’s.
Theoretical Framework
The Narrative Paradigm Theory
We are a species of storytellers. And it should be no surprise—humans have been on Earth far longer than written language. Long before recorded history, the only means our ancestors had to preserve their history is through stories told and retold through countless generations. Today we call these folk tales, old wives tales, fairy tales. Although the Bible is a book of stories, its really a book of rules and human values cleverly disguised to be infinitely applicable.
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