What is to be noted is that even in the case of the offensive being launched by the other party, the believer's are not supposed to retaliate immediately. Instead, all efforts should be made to avert war. Only when avoidance has become impossible battle is the inevitably resorted to in defence.

This stand point is fully supported by the example of the Prophet.

The biographers of the Prophet have put the number of ghazwa (battle) at more than 80. This gives the impression that the Prophet of Islam in his 23 year Prophetic career waged four battles in a year. But this impression is entirely baseless. The truth is that in his entire Prophetic life , he engaged in war only on three occasions. All the other incidents described as ghazwa (war) were intact examples of avoidance of war, and not instances of involvement in battle.

For instance, in this books of Seerah (Biography) the incident of Al Ahzab is called a ghazwa (battle), where as truth is that on this occasion, the armed tribes of Arabia, twelve thousand in number, reached the borders of Madina for waging war, but the Prophet advised his Companions to dig a trench between them. This successfully prevented a battle from taking place. The same is the case of with all the other incidents called ghazwa.

The opponents of the Prophet repeatedly tried to get him embroiled in war, but on all such occasions, he managed to resort for some such strategy as averted the war, thus defusing the situation invariably.

There are only three instances of Muslims really entering the field of battle. Badr, Uhud and Hunayn. The events tell us that at all these occasions, war had become inevitable.

The prophet was compelled to encounter the aggressors in self-defence. Furthermore, these battles lasted only for half a day, each beginning from noon and ending with the setting of the sun.

Thus, it would be proper to say that the Prophet in his entire life-span had actively engaged in war for a total of a day and a half that is to say, the Prophet had observed the principle of non-violence throughout his 23-year Prophetic carrier, except one and a half days.

Another well-known instance of the Prophet's dislike for hostilities is the Hudaybiya peace treaty made by accepting, unilaterally, all the conditions of the enemy. In the case of the conquest of Mecca, he avoided battle altogether by making a rapid entry into the city with ten thousands Muslims - a number large enough to awe his enemies into submission. In this way, on all occasions, the Prophet endeavoured to achieve his objectives by peaceful means.

This makes it quite clear that Muslims are not permitted to initiate hostilities. Except in cases where self-defence has become inevitable. The Quran in no cir tances gives permission for wanton violence.

In the past, when the sword was the only weapon of war, militancy did not lead to mass loss of life and property such as modern warfare brings in its wake. In former times, fighting was confined to the battlefield; the only sufferers were those engaged in the battle. But today, the spear and the sword have been replaced by megabombs and devastating long range missiles, so that killing and destruction take place on a horrendous scale. It is the entire human community which has now become the global arena of war. Even the air we breathe and the water we drink are left polluted in war's aftermath. Hence people find Islam outdated and irrelevant today precisely because of its militant interpretation.

What is needed is to discard the militant and political interpretation of Islam, and to adopt the original 'old' version of Islam based on peace, mercy and the love of mankind. The so called Muslim Fundamentalists have been exhorting their co-religionists to do battle all over the world. But the Quran says: ...and God calls to the home of peace. (10:25).