ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a framework that shows the possibilities for an organic Islamic hermeneutics of nonviolence—interpretations based on Islamic sources—with the aim of widening the horizons of the discussion of an Islamic pacifist approach. It focuses on some nonviolent possibilities that are often hidden in the trenches of victorious religious histories and narratives. But the word Islam, often mistranslated in English as "submission", could more accurately be translated as peace-activation, or peacemaking, since it is a verb noun referring to the active moving or spreading of peace. But what he/she find somewhat ironic as a Muslim living in the twenty-first century, having grown up in a family committed to nonviolence, is to hear or see Islam singled out as a violent religion or one that promotes violence. The Awakened one or the Prophet offers a new vision: instead of tyranny, justice; instead of suffering, salvation; and instead of violence and chaos, compassion and peace.
