Muslims in Peacemaking

Peacemaking means acting to overcome hostility

Peace is more than the absence of fighting. People may stop arguing but remain resentful, frightened or unfairly treated. Peacemaking means actively addressing hostility and helping people build peaceful relationships. For Muslims, this can be an expression of obedience to Allah: faith should shape how a person treats others, including those who oppose them.

Justice, forgiveness and reconciliation have different roles in this process. Justice addresses what is wrong; forgiveness can interrupt revenge; reconciliation helps people live together again. Lasting peace may require all three, rather than simply asking people to forget a dispute.

Surah 41: responding to evil with something better

Surah 41:31–38 connects righteous conduct with trust in Allah. Verses 31–32 describe the blessings of the Hereafter and identify Allah as Forgiving and Merciful. This gives forgiveness a religious context: mercy is not simply a convenient way to avoid an argument.

Verse 33 praises the person who invites others to Allah, does righteous deeds and identifies as a Muslim. Words and actions belong together. A Muslim’s behaviour towards an opponent can therefore demonstrate their faith, not just their statements about it.

The central peacemaking teaching comes in verse 34: “Repel [evil] by that [deed] which is better”. The verse describes how someone with whom there is enmity may become like a devoted friend. Its emphasis is on changing the relationship through a better response, rather than copying the other person’s hostility.

For example, suppose someone responds to an insult with another insult. Each person now has a fresh grievance. A calm response, an offer to listen or an act of kindness could interrupt that pattern and make conversation possible. This applies the teaching; it does not mean kindness guarantees that every opponent will become friendly.

Verse 35 stresses that this response requires patience. Peacemaking may involve repeated setbacks rather than one successful conversation. Verse 36 tells believers to seek refuge in Allah when faced with an evil suggestion: resisting the temptation to retaliate has a spiritual as well as a practical dimension.

Verses 37–38 turn to worship, teaching that Allah, rather than the sun or moon, should be worshipped and describing tireless praise of him. These verses are not instructions for negotiating a dispute, but they place the passage’s moral teaching within devotion to Allah.

Justice: peace must address wrongdoing

Justice means treating people fairly and putting wrongs right. It matters because an agreement that leaves someone exposed to abuse or deprived of their rights may silence a conflict without resolving it.

For a Muslim engaging in peacemaking, justice and the better response encouraged in Surah 41 need not be opposites. Rejecting revenge does not require pretending that wrongdoing was acceptable. A peaceful settlement can include acknowledgement of harm, compensation or safeguards against its repetition.

Forgiveness and reconciliation are not identical

Forgiveness involves letting go of resentment and the desire for revenge. It can help prevent a cycle in which each side justifies fresh harm by pointing to an earlier injury. Allah’s description as Forgiving and Merciful in verse 32, alongside verse 34’s better response, gives Muslims reasons to value mercy.

Reconciliation means restoring a damaged relationship. Forgiveness can help make this possible, but rebuilding trust usually requires cooperation. Someone may forgive while still keeping a safe distance from a person who continues to cause harm.

This distinction matters when evaluating peacemaking. Forgiveness can open a way forward, but pressure to reconcile without accountability can leave an injured person unprotected. A stronger approach combines mercy with justice and evidence that behaviour has changed.

Imam Muhammad Ashafa: from hostility to cooperation

A contemporary example is Imam Muhammad Ashafa, who works with the Christian pastor James Wuye in northern Nigeria. They were opponents during violent Christian–Muslim clashes in the 1990s and had encouraged hostility towards the other religious community. In 1995, they co-founded the Interfaith Mediation Centre in Kaduna State, turning from promoting division to building peaceful relationships.

Their partnership makes reconciliation concrete: former enemies now work together without having to agree on every religious belief. This resembles the change from enmity to friendship described in Surah 41:34. Their example also shows that religious commitment can motivate cooperation across a religious divide, rather than requiring people to abandon their faith.

Ashafa explains his motivation through the belief that God loves his creation. He argues that religious convictions should not be used to justify causing others pain or promoting hatred. He also stresses that his own peace and security depend on his neighbour’s peace and security. Peacemaking therefore involves responsibility for others, not merely keeping oneself out of conflict.

What their peace work achieves—and how to judge it

The Interfaith Mediation Centre brings communities into dialogue and trains people to become peacebuilders. Its activities include youth peace clubs, leadership training and equipping women, religious scholars and traditional leaders to act as peace advocates. It also engages with militia groups. These activities seek to replace mistrust with communication and to give influential people the skills to resolve disputes peacefully.

By its thirtieth anniversary in 2025, the centre had worked in more than 50 communities across Nigeria. Ashafa and Wuye received the inaugural Commonwealth Peace Prize in March 2025 in recognition of their peacebuilding work. These provide evidence of sustained activity and public recognition, rather than simply good intentions.

Their approach has important strengths. Former opponents working together can demonstrate that reconciliation is possible, while training young people can help peaceful ways of handling disagreements spread beyond the two founders. Dialogue can build trust without requiring everyone to hold the same beliefs.

However, participation and awards do not prove that every conflict has been resolved. Dialogue needs people willing to listen, and improved relationships cannot by themselves guarantee justice or protection from further harm. A justified judgement is that Ashafa’s work offers a valuable practical expression of patient, faith-motivated peacemaking, but lasting peace also requires grievances to be addressed fairly and people to be kept safe.