Document-Based Question: Religious Views on War

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Selection from the Confucian Analects: On War

13:29

The Master said, "Let a good man teach the people seven years, and they may then likewise be employed in war."

13:30

The Master said, "To lead an uninstructed people to war is to throw them away."

Credit: James Legge, Confucius, Mencius, The Chinese Classics: Life and Teachings of Confucius. Vol. 2. The Life and Works of Mencius. Vol.3. The She King; or, the Book of Poetry (Trübner & Company, 1875), 207.

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Statements made by the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak, and the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh

Poem from the First Sikh Guru

No one is my enemy

No one is a foreigner

With all I am at peace

God within us renders us

Incapable of hate and prejudice.

Words from the Tenth and Last Guru

When all efforts to restore peace prove

useless and no words avail,

Lawful is the flash of steel,

It is right to draw the sword.’

Credit: J. Ferguson, War and Peace in the World’s Religions (London: Sheldon, 1977).

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Passage from Hebrew scripture

Isaiah 2:4

They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Credit: The Old Testament: Isaiah 2:4

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Scripture in the New Testament

Matthew 5: 9

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

Matthew 5: 44

"Love your enemies."

Credit: The New Testament: Mathew 5:9 and Mathew 5:44

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Commentary on the Christian stance toward war

Defensive war is, then, righteous, and only defensive war. Aggressive war is wholesale robbery and murder. If the magistrate is armed with righteous power to destroy the domestic murderer, a fortiori he has the right to destroy these alien murderers, committing the crime wholesale. The "Peace Society" used to argue that all war is sinful, from the horrors of war. They are enormous. But common sense would rather argue from this the guilt of the perpetrators and the right of punishing it in some appropriate way. Who may do it if not the magistrate? But war should only be defensive. As soon as the invader is disarmed, his life should be spared; especially as individual invaders are usually private subjects of the invading sovereign, who have little option about their own acts as private soldiers. It is scarcely needful to add that the Scriptures of both Testaments expressly teach the righteousness of the patriot soldier’s profession. The Apostle, in Heb. ii [11], teaches that the valour of the defensive soldier is one of the noble fruits of religious faith, a principle he ascribes to the in working of God himself. A moment’s reflection shows that the rightfulness of capital punishment stands or falls with the lawfulness of defensive war.

Credit: Robert Lewis Dabney, The Practical Philosophy: Being the Philosophy of the Feelings, of the Will, and of the Conscience, with the Ascertainment of Particular Rights and Duties (Hudson, Kimberly Publishing Company, 1897), 437.

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Verses from Hindu scripture

Bhagavad Gita 2.37

If thou fallest in battle, thou shalt obtain heaven; if thou conquerest, thou shalt enjoy the earth. Therefore, O son of Kunti, arise and be resolved to fight.

Bhagavad Gita 2.38

Regarding alike pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, fight thou the battle. Thus sin will not stain thee.

Rig Veda 1.39.2

May your weapons be firm to attack, strong also to withstand. May yours be the more glorious strength, not that of the deceitful mortal.

Rig Veda 10.191.3-4

Common be the prayer of these (assembled worshippers), common be the acquirement, common the purpose, associated be the desire. I repeat for you a common prayer, I offer for you with a common oblation.

Common, (worshipers), be your intention; common be (the wishes of) your hearts; common be your thoughts, so that there may be thorough union among you.

Credits: Paramananda (Swami), trans. Srimad-Bhagavad-gita: or, The Blessed Lord's son, 5th ed. (The Vedanta Centre, 1913), 16–17.

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A position on war taken by the Buddha

"This triple world is my own possession. All the things therein are my own children. Sentient or non-sentient, animate or inanimate, organic or inorganic, the ten thousand things in this world are no more than the reflections of my own self. They come from the one source. They partake of the one body. Therefore I cannot rest quiet, until every being, even the smallest possible fragment of existence, is settled down in its proper appointment. I do not mind what long eons it will take to finish this gigantic work of salvation. I work at the end of eternity when all beings are peacefully and happily nestled in an infinite loving heart."

'In times of war

Give rise in yourself to the mind of compassion,

Helping living beings

Abandon the will to fight."

Credit: Sōen Shaku, Zen for Americans (Dorset Press, 1906), 193.

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Guidelines in Islam

Qur'an 2:190

Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits. God does not love transgressors.

Qur'an 5:32

If anyone killed a person—unless it was for murder or for spreading mischief in the land—it would be as if he killed the whole people.

Qur'an 47:4

So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners, and afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war terminates.

Qur'an 4:74

Those who readily fight in the cause of God are those who forsake this world in favor of the Hereafter. Whoever fights in the cause of God, then gets killed, or attains victory, we will surely grant him a great recompense.

Abu Bakr

Do not commit treachery or deviate from the right path.

You must not mutilate dead bodies.

Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man.

Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, especially those which are fruitful.

Slay not any of the enemy's flock, save for your food.

You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone

Credit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/islamethics/war.shtml

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Sayings of Lao-Tzu, founder of Daoism

He who serves a ruler of men in harmony with Tao will not subdue the Empire by force of arms. Such a course is wont to bring retribution in its train.

Where troops have been quartered, brambles and thorns spring up. In the track of great armies there must follow lean years.

The good man wins a victory and then stops; he will not go on to acts of violence. Winning, he boasteth not; he will not triumph; he shows no arrogance. He wins because he cannot choose; after his victory he will not be overbearing.

Weapons, however beautiful, are instruments of ill omen, hateful to all creatures. Therefore he who has Tao will have nothing to do with them.

Where the princely man abides, the weak left hand is in honor. But he who uses weapons honors the stronger right. Weapons are instruments of ill omen; they are not the instruments of the princely man, who uses them only when he needs must. Peace and tranquility are what he prizes. When he conquers, he is not elate. To be elate were to rejoice in the slaughter of human beings. And he who rejoices in the slaughter of human beings is not fit to work his will in the Empire.

On happy occasions, the left is favored; on sad occasions, the right. The second in command has his place on the left, the general in chief on the right. That is to say, they are placed in the order observed at funeral rites. And, indeed, he who has exterminated a great multitude of men should bewail them with tears and lamentation. It is well that those who are victorious in battle should be placed in the order of funeral rites.

Credit: Lionel Giles, trans. The Sayings of Lao Tzŭ, Wisdom of the East Series (Orient Press, 1904).