Jihad: As a holy
war?
Of the various
teachings of Islam, jihad appears to be the most widely misunderstood and
misinterpreted topic by the non Muslims and even Muslims alike.
The widespread of this
misunderstanding has made it that nearly all the Islamic books written by the
western authors, the term jihad had been made synonymous with war or “holy
war”. This wrong notion was also maintained by Klein in his book “Religion of
Islam” where he defines jihad in the following words:
“the fighting against unbelievers with the
object of either winning them over to
Islam, subduing or exterminating them in
case they refuse to become Muslims
and causing Islam to spread and triumph
over other religions is considered as
as a sacred duty of the Muslim nations”
What a great
misinterpretation?
Even in the Ivory
towers or our citadel of learning like university, polytechnic etc where people
are expected to be highly educated and well enlightened, the same ignorance
prevails with regard to the duty of jihad in Islam. Whenever Muslim students in
any campus of our institution organizes “jihad week” which is designed to make
people understand some basic principles of Islam better, some misinformed and
pleasure seeking students will start panicking unnecessarily because of the
word “jihad”.
Journalists are also
not left out of this misinterpretation, either out of ignorance or for
sabotaging purpose.
Anytime there is any
social or political uprising in the Muslim world not connected with religious
issue, some over zealous journalist will
caption the headline of their paper or news as “jihad” to describe the event,
the motive of this writers of such
articles is known to everybody I.e “To give dog a bad name”.
Since Islam and Muslim
are increasingly being the spot light of everyone, even governments of
countries have to connect Muslims to so many things not related to them in
other to sabotage them and hunt them down, all in the name of trying to draw
attention that he is a strong government cracking down of the so called Muslim,
while pretending to be a government for everyone, they indirectly preach that
“all Muslims are terrorist but all terrorist are not Muslims” this ideology now
dwells in the minds of non Muslims therefore rising tensions in the society between
Muslims and non Muslims.
It is realized that
this general misinterpretation has had a great adverse effect on Islam and it
is necessary to attempt and correct this misinterpretation so that Muslims and
non Muslims alike can live together peacefully without fear of one another.
The word Jihad is
derived from jahd or juhd meaning ability, exertion or power and jihad means
“the exertion of ones power in
repelling the enemy, fighting
against ones inner evil desire or spreading the light of
Islam to the
unbelievers and believers
alike”
in a wider sense jihad
had been categorized into three types namely:
(a) Carrying on of
struggle against a visible enemy who are persistent in preventing a Muslim from
spreading message of God peacefully.
(b) Struggle against
devilish practices in the society,i.e “by condemning or speaking out against
vices like bribery, corruption, prostitution, gambling, drug addiction,
tyrannical leader etc.
© struggle against self.
i.e. struggle made to attain nearness to God and to subdue evil passion. It is
the third type which prophet Muhammad(S.A.W) described as the best form of
jihad.
With this analysis we
can therefore deduce that jihad condemns any form of violent activities either
personal or community-wide of Muslims in attempting to harm innocent Muslims or
non Muslims alike.
Jihad could also
involve war where necessary but literally jihad does not mean war as explained
above, it is any form of effort one makes to help the vulnerable and poor and
also to spread the word of God, examples of jihad is given below:
If one is endowed with
knowledge and he strives to enlighten the ignorant ones, he is making jihad( in
this case the knowledge can either be religious or other educational
knowledge), so also if a wealthy Muslim uses his money in the cause of
God(either by helping the power or making the society a better place), he is
equally making a jihad and the same thing apply to a person who strives
consistently to keep his soul purified from indecent act, jihad in general
means anything done for the sake of Allah to help any human or even animal, for
example when a boy walking on the road sees a harmful object on the road and
removes it, he is performing jihad, likewise when someone testifies in a law
court and says the truth to free the accused, he or she is also performing a
jihad.
Having defined what
jihad is, one will realize that it is totally wrong to limit the word jihad to
only “holy war” or forced used by
Muslims to force non Muslims to embrace Islam, the first people to use the term
holy war were the christian crusaders who tried to win over people by force,
Muslims never started terrorist activities in the world, and neither did they
any of the world wars, they only helped in a war that wasn't there’s in
fighting side by side against non Muslims that were threatened during the world
wars.
Some European, Western
or non Muslims often point to the fact that because prophet Muhammad waged some
wars during his lifetime that Islam must have been spread by sword and
compulsion. Was this true?
A thorough and
objective research into Islamic history will reveal that prophet Muhammad(PBUH)
actually fought some wars but the motive of these wars were never to compel non
Muslims into embracing Islam, On the contrary they the wars were fought in self
defense, i.e. to defend the rapidly growing Muslim population in Medina.
The foes or enemies of
prophet Muhammad are divided into three.
The first category
comprised of the aristocratic class in Mecca who saw the prophet as a threat to
their position, they spared no effort to eliminate the prophet physically and
when the prophet could no longer guarantee the safety of his life and that of
his followers, he migrated to Medina where he stayed for thirteen years.
The second category
were the hypocrites who signed treaty with the prophet to foster a peaceful
co-existence but they later betrayed prophet Muhammad by conspiring with the
enemies of Islam against Muslims, this was the reason for the repatriation of
Jews living in Mecca in the early days of Islam.
The third category were
the non Muslims living with the Muslims, enjoying the services rendered by the
Muslim government under the able leadership of prophet Muhammad(PBUH) but refused
to pay the termly tax paid to the government. Jihad this time holy war had to
be declared against them at the end of four months notice given to them to make
up their mind. Islam being a religion and a total way of life has stuffs that
really appeals to intellect. Some of these can be seen in the simple and
unambiguous way it, it explains the nature of God who is absolute and
independent without partner, it recognizes all the earlier prophet who came
before Muhammad including Jesus Christ the son of Mary and Moses. It opens door
for prayer, charity, fasting, restraint during trial,etc. All in an attempt to
attain nearness to God.
One may further argue
that if it had been true that Islam was spread by sword and compulsion, why are
the same people alleged to have been forced to embrace Islam in various parts
of the world still practicing Islam till today and are even ready to loose
their life in the defense of the religion when the jihadist or Islamic
missionaries are no more?.
Allah made emphasis on
the Qur'an on freedom of conscience. In Qur'an 2:256 and 18:29-30 we are made
to understand that faith is a matter of conscience which cannot be imposed on
anyone by force. Allah says in Qur'an:
“Let there be no
compulsion in religion.
Truth stands out
clear from error.
Whoever rejects
evil and believes in God
hath grasped the
most trustworthy handhold
that never breaks. And
God heareth and
knoweth all
things. (Qur'an2:256).
In the Qur'an Allah
also instructed the prophet to tell
mankind:
Say: “ The truth is from
your lord”let him who will, believe and
let him who will,
reject(it), for the wrong-doers we have prepared
a fire whose(smoke and
flames) like the walls and roof of a tent will
hem them in, if they
implore relief they will be granted water like melted
brass, that will scald
their faces. How dreadful the drink! How
uncomfortable a couch to
recline on! As for those who believe and
do righteousness, Verily we
shall not suffer to perish the reward of any
who do a(single)righteous
deed. For them will be gardens of eternity,
beneath them Rivers will
flow, they will be adorned therein with bracelets
of gold and they will wear green garments of
fine silk and heavy brocade
they will recline therein in
raised thrones. How good the recompense!
How beautiful a couch to
recline on(Qur'an18:29-31).
It becomes clear in the
light of the Qur'anic verses quoted above that the Qur'an never make it
obligatory or mandatory to use force for propagation of Islam, but in a
situation where Muslims are being intimidated, provoked and persecuted for the
simple reason that they are Muslims, then they have the right to rise up and
defend themselves, jihad in this case is pure Holy war to repel attack. This
assertion can be explain by the Qur'an below where Allah says:
“ Fight in the cause of God those who
fight you but do not trangress
limit for God loveth not
transgressors.
Here the condition is
plainly laid down, the Muslim must not be the first to attack but in a
circumstance where they are “ pushed to the wall” by any over zealous ruler or
group, it is a command that they must rise up to the challenge and aggression
was expressly prohibited. Allah says in the Qur'an:
“ To those against whom war is
made, permission is given
to fight because they are wronged
and surely Allah is most
powerful for their aid”
(Qur'an22:39).
Finally, from the above
analysis it will be realized that jihad is not meant to force people to Islam,
nor is it confined to war to repel the forces of oppressive political system
under which people are prevented from expressing their freedom to choose
whatever belief they want because according to Qur'an2:217 :
“...............Oppression
is worst than killing...............”(Qur'an2:217).
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