Can religious leaders resolve conflicts instead of causing them?

Yes, but only when they act out of love for God and for people. When religion is harnessed for political aims, the attempt fails, because peace that comes from faith begins with a change within the human being.

Time and again people have tried to bring the religious forces of the world together so that they might make peace jointly. Most of these attempts have failed. One reason is obvious. They were often driven by political aims rather than by love for God, for religion or for people.

Politics has always liked to make use of religious feelings to support its own order. But political solutions cannot simply be transferred to religion. The blessing that religion can bring does not arrive by itself just because someone is seeking political peace.

Peace that comes from faith starts somewhere else. It first changes the person, the way they think and the way they live. The old person becomes, as it were, a new one. Only such people can bring about a moral revolution and give peace to mankind as a whole. Books, conferences and good intentions alone cannot produce this inner change.

That is why everything depends on motive. The first verse above says that the only counsel that brings good is counsel that calls for charity, kindness and making peace, and does so seeking the pleasure of Allah. The second verse demands justice even when facing an opponent. And the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) set out himself to reconcile people who were in dispute.

Religious leaders who act in this way do not cause conflicts. They heal them, because they win hearts first.