/l!tdi/fa, ufi, ,,!'Ii War^99
checked one set o f people Ime oppressors] by means of another, the
earth would indeed be full o f mischief.,,4
At the origin o f creation, the angels had asked God about His inten-
tions in crearing humans as His vicegerents: "Will You place th erein one
who will make mischief th erein and shed blood... ?"s They thereby
recalled that hwnans are, by nanlre, greedy for power and inclined to
spread evil and to kill: the other aspect o f humans, their love of good and
iustice, must resist and, by reaching a balance, produce th e co nditions for
peace-th e fragile fru it of a balance betwcen opposite fo rces and tenden-
cies. Thus, both jihad and qil«1 are the ways th at, by resisting the dark
temptatio ns o f the inner sdf as well as human beings' proclivity for war,
will make it possible to reach peace, the fruit of an ever-renewed effort to
overcome temptations as well as oppressors. The essence of jihad is the
quest for peace, and qital is, at times, the necessary path to peace.
A new era was opening for the Muslim community in Medina. They
were to face the aftermath of wars, their toll o f death and sufferin g inten-
sified by the fact that their enemies were from the exiles' own clans, their
own relatives. Such was th e cost of their survival.The Ch a nge o f Qibla
The Muslims had been settled in Medina for about a year and a half when
the Prop het received the second Revelation mentioned above. Qibla, o r
the directio n in which Muslims had prayed, had hitherto been toward
Jerusalem, bu t Revelation sud denly ordered:
We see the turning of r OUt face [for guidance] to the hea\'cns: now shall
We tum )'ou to a qibla that shall pleasc you. So turn your face in the direc-
tion of the:: Sacred i\losl:Jue! \\;' herever you are, turn your faces in that direc-
tionl The people o f the Book know well that [this commandment} is the
truth frum their Lord, and God is not unmindful of what they do.^6T his verse carried several message s and was to have consequences fo r
the Prophet's relatio ns with J ewish and C hriscian tribes, as this change
established a distinctio n, and a di stance, bet\\'een the monothcistic tradi-
tions. Although Jerusalem's place remained essential at the heart of Muslim