professor of the seminary and university in Qom stressed that Islam has never proceeded with force and bayonet and will never do so in future either.

“Farzaneh Hakimzadeh”, professor of the seminary and university in Qom, in her speech at the webinar of 37th International Islamic Unity Conference noted that peace means compromise and ending clashes and any effort made in any field is called Jihad, reported Taghrib News Agency (TNA).
 
“What we mean here is Jihad with enemy or any effort made to strengthen right and defend the right camp, while weakening the false and those acting against the right camp”, she said.
 
“Islam favors any one of them based on conditions. Any of the two is selected and advised when conditions are right. It should be said that Islam is for peace because it is the religion of mercy and invitation. Islam starts with defining and not with clashes or Jihad”, Hakimzadeh added.
 
She mentioned that messengers are sent with the enlightening mission and grow minds and God says messengers were sent with all these missions and also God does not say that messengers are sent with swords or to be tough.
 
“God’s messengers need to have perception because they have the mission to invite the public on behalf of God. The messengers want to tell the public that they have enough perception and are well informed of the environment around, while being cognizant of man and his needs and interests”, the professor of Qom university continued.
 
Pointing out that single nation means people were in a single path prior to prophet’s assignment to prophethood, she said: “they were in the path to paganism and blasphemy. All people were atheists and pagan before assignment of prophets to prophethood.”
 
“Overall, people used to worship idols. They were atheists and worshipped idols, doing all indecent things. When Prophet was assigned to prophethood and raised the call, there were widespread difference, which is highly natural”, she added.
 
Hakimzadeh also noted that Islam has never proceeded with force and bayonet and will never do so in future either and continued: “Prophet’s Jihad is defensive in nature and he did not initiate wars.”
 
“There were many wars and army buildups in different parts of the world, including Iran and Rome. No infallible person led the army those times and all know that after Prophet (PBUH), Imam Ali (AS) was dismissed from political, social and military scenes and had no management role”, she clarified.
 
“Peace and war in Islam are possible under special conditions. Religion starts with peace, mercy and invitation and if such conditions change and certain people used sword and created conditions of war, then Islam allows defense”, Farzaneh Hakimzadeh concluded.