Peace is a gift from Allah

From July to November 1917, the British and their allies fought a battle against the Germans and their allies. 500,000 men were killed during this one campaign. Many of these ‘men’ were no older than teenagers. They died for the sake of a ridge of land and not some noble cause. One side sacrificed its young men in order to capture it and the other side to defend it. At Passchendaele in 1917, the heaviest rainfall for thirty years turned the ground into soft mud. These young men crawled on their stomachs in this mud and filth, each one trying to kill his counterparts on the opposing side. Those who glorify war should go and stand in one of the cemeteries so beautifully maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and see the tombstones which stretch out as far as the eye can see. If this does not convince people of the futility of war, and that humility is better than arrogance, then nothing will.

This is why the Holy Quran says: The servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say words of peace. And further: Peace, a word from a Merciful Lord. When the fallen are remembered let us also remember these wise words and while praying for the fallen, let us not glorify the terrible carnage of the innocent which was WWI.

• The Ahmadiyya Association for the Propagation of Islam (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam) was established in 1914 at Lahore to promote the informed understanding of Islam in the West. In the UK it operated the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking until the early 1960s. Its new UK headquarters is at the above address. In 1924, it built the first mosque on the Continent at Berlin. This mosque is now recognised by the German government as part of the German national heritage. From its European and other centres around the world this organisation has taught that Islam promotes peace, harmony and mutual respect between all communities and nationalities.