10 - Islamic Gnosticism and Peace

Summary

The need for a new approach to peace isself-evident. A novel perspective that can go beyond systemic understanding of the behavior of human communities is required to offer new insight into the workings of peace and the outbreak of war. The Islamic gnostic outlook does exactly that. Without any claims to the political leadership of human communities and bereft of ideology and dogmatism, the mysticinquiry on war and peace turns its attention from the structural trademark of systemic approaches to the agency of the most fundamental unit, the individual. It ascertains that the roots of all good and evil are found within ourselves; we hold the key to understandingthe defects of our outward social and political behavior. In this essay, Idescribe Islamic mysticism and discuss its importance for peace and peace processes. I next discuss mysticism and the idea of self-negation, and I comparemysticism’s notion of peace with the concept of peace embodied in several theoretical schools. Iexamine the rather dismal prospect for peace engendered by Western paradigms and demonstrate how Islamic mysticism holds greater promise for achieving positive peace.