Occasionally...

Occasionally, it is possible that a suspicion or mistake or misunderstanding angers individuals – and often there will be those who will inflame the situation and increase the mistrust even further – resulting in an argument setting two parties at one another’s throats, even when initially neither side intended any harm to the other.

In this case, the Qur’an advises the well-wishers and peacemakers of the society to step in and mediate between the two parties and attempt reconciliation before the situation escalates out of control and blood is shed. However, unlike the last portion of the verse, the Qur’an does not initially state that peacemaking be contingent on justice, it merely states that the well-wishers should bring about peace and reconciliation between the two factions ( faslihu baynahuma ).

This is in the particular case where neither party has violated the others’ rights, and only a quarrel has broken out. At this point it was not necessary for God to order reconciliation, that too, accompanied by an emphasis on justice. However, if one of the two quarrelling parties aggressively resorts to violent behaviour and tramples on the principles of decency and civility, then it must be stopped by any means.

If stern action that causes the aggressors to desist and accept God’s law, then the Qur’an directs that reconciliation be affected by keeping in mind fairness and justice.

There is a very subtle but important point that can be inferred here from the verse, which is that, one must in every situation keep in mind Islam’s primary objectives of nurturing and developing society, and its emphasis on establishing and administering the nation of Islam on the foundation of justice and fairness in its truest and widest meaning, and its desire to remove every tendency for injustice and transgression from the minds of individuals in the society; it is only through these considerations that we can gain a profound understanding of the Qur’an’s emphasis on reconciliation accompanied by justice.

When the Qur’an advises mediators and peacemakers to reconcile between two quarrelling parties with absolute justice and equity, it does not mean to warn the mediators not to do themselves injustice to one part while they seek peace and compromise, because mediators are normally impartial and well-meaning.