The First Pre-Requisite – Jihad
In order to fulfill our obligations to God, it is essential to strive in
His cause (which is the literal meaning of Jihad). This is the
starting point and also the culminating point.
Nothing can be accomplished without making sincere and concerted
effort. Likewise, Muslims are supposed to
strive in the light of their faith.
The clashes that take place as a result of this striving (which might be of multiple natures such as personal and internal, psychological, ideological or even physical) are called “Jihad”.
Let us discuss the term Jihad with reference to its three basic and fundamental demands.
The clashes that take place as a result of this striving (which might be of multiple natures such as personal and internal, psychological, ideological or even physical) are called “Jihad”.
Let us discuss the term Jihad with reference to its three basic and fundamental demands.
This Jihad relates to our first
obligation of personal submission. The
question arises that what can possibly the Jihad be when one is
submitting to God as an individual? The
obvious answer is that one has to wage Jihad, a fierce battle, against
one’s own self. One will have to strive
hard to make his/her self sub-servant to the commands of God. The human self is vulnerable and prone to
transgressing on the basis of the uncontrollable desires of his material existence:
The (human) soul is certainly prone to evil. (Yousuf 12:53)
First of all one has to bring these
desires under the control of his/her real self, the soul that was breathed into
each and every one of us by God himself.
For example, at dawn, there is Adhan signifying God’s call to
Prayer, but the self desires the sweet sleep of the early morning hours. If one has control over one’s self, one will
be able to overcome this physical desire in favor of a spiritual one and will
rise to pray. A failure to do so might
ultimately lead to total disregard of one’s duties in favor of this-worldly
pursuits of wealth, luxuries and personal gratification at the material level. The struggle against the self is, in fact,
the foremost and perhaps most vital stage of Jihad. The following Hadith demonstrates the
importance of the struggle against one’s own self:
The real mujahid is one who strives against the desires of
his/her material existence.
It is therefore evident from the above Hadith
that the primary level of Jihad and its starting point is to fight
against one’s own material self and try to control and subjugate it.
2. Jihad Through Qur’an (Jihad Bil
Qur’an)
This Jihad corresponds to our
second religious obligation, that of taking the message of Islam to
others. When one enters the field of
inviting others to faith, countless obstacles come in the path to spread the
word of truth. Striving against these
obstacles is Jihad, but more at the conceptual level. Many ideologies such as atheism, materialism,
fascism, communism and other faith and belief systems are poised to confront
every effort of yours.
Forces representing unbelief are very well entrenched throughout society - a reality that truly dawns only when one enters the struggle to confront them with the pristine light of Islam. However this confrontation is purely on an ideological and philosophical level. Our wealth and energy must be invested in this battle. When Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was calling towards monotheism, Abu Jahl and his followers were defending polytheism and idolatry. This eventually led to a bitter encounter between them.
Do you honestly think that if there is a struggle to preach faith, invite others to the path of Islam, enjoin good and forbid evil, and act as a witnesses of God unto mankind, that atheism and disbelief will fold in their cards all at once without offering any resistance? It is a folly to assume that the forces of falsehood will vanish into thin air. It should be known clearly that there will ensue a long drawn out ideological battle whenever there is a call for Islam in the real sense. Thus this represents a more difficult or advanced stage in Jihad than the first one. In the first stage man engages in a Jihad against his own self, but at this stage he must confront the forces outside of himself – forces of falsehood, atheism, permissiveness and wrong ideologies.
Forces representing unbelief are very well entrenched throughout society - a reality that truly dawns only when one enters the struggle to confront them with the pristine light of Islam. However this confrontation is purely on an ideological and philosophical level. Our wealth and energy must be invested in this battle. When Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was calling towards monotheism, Abu Jahl and his followers were defending polytheism and idolatry. This eventually led to a bitter encounter between them.
Do you honestly think that if there is a struggle to preach faith, invite others to the path of Islam, enjoin good and forbid evil, and act as a witnesses of God unto mankind, that atheism and disbelief will fold in their cards all at once without offering any resistance? It is a folly to assume that the forces of falsehood will vanish into thin air. It should be known clearly that there will ensue a long drawn out ideological battle whenever there is a call for Islam in the real sense. Thus this represents a more difficult or advanced stage in Jihad than the first one. In the first stage man engages in a Jihad against his own self, but at this stage he must confront the forces outside of himself – forces of falsehood, atheism, permissiveness and wrong ideologies.
Note that the first struggle (against
one’s own self) intensifies as these challenges are confronted. As to the instrument to be employed in this Jihad,
God guides Muslims to wage this Jihad with the help of the Qur’an:
But strive against them with this (Qur’an) a truly great struggle!
(Al-Furqan 25:52)
God makes plain that the Qur’an stands
out as a sword that is capable of rooting out each and every false ‘ism’. The Qur’an is described here in terms of a
weapon. Iqbal voices the same view when he
says that with the sword of the Qur’an Satan himself can be conquered:
Since in the battle against the self,
Satan is your baser self’s ally and he whispers in the depths of the heart, if
a real sword is used, one will end up killing oneself rather than Satan.
Therefore, in order to defeat him, a special sword needs to be used that slices
through the heart, killing Satan whereas leaving the heart intact and pure, and
this is the sword of Qur’an! God has
blessed the Muslims with this mighty and effective sword, which represents the
greatest miracle granted to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). It is a pity that we
treat the Qur’an as a mere object around which we can perform our rituals
rather than making it a living entity to be used in this dynamic fashion.
Therefore, in this stage of Jihad,
Muslims should equip themselves intellectually and ideologically by means of
the Qur’an. They are supposed to uphold
and establish truth and in so doing they should expend their money and physical
resources to spread the light of Qur’an. They will have to use both the tongue
and the pen in order to fulfill the requirements of taking the message of Islam
to others. They have to employ all the modern mediums of communication and the
facilities of the mass media in order to promote and circulate the Qur’anic
call and teachings.
3. To Fight in the Cause of Allah (Jihad Bis-Saif)
The third and final level of Jihad corresponds
to the third and final religious obligation of establishing Islam as a
socio-politico-economic reality. At this
stage, Jihad reaches its zenith, for it stands for an open conflict in
the battlefield against the forces that represent other ideologies. At the
stage of calling and inviting people to the path of Islam, one is faced with an
ideological and intellectual battle. However, in the stage of enforcing Islam
at the collective level, there is a conflict with the forces of
immorality. They will naturally
obstruct, rather obliterate, the efforts for enforcing Islam in public life in
a desperate effort to maintain the status quo in which they have their vested
interests. They will not easily bear
with a situation in which Islam gains ascendancy.
There are privileged classes in every
system based upon a false ideology. They
govern public life and reap the benefits of power and authority, and they will
never take kindly to the efforts for depriving them of their sway. Therefore, confrontation is inevitable at the
physical level, in spite of winning the battle at the ideological level. This final confrontation will be in multiple
stages. The first level is of passive
resistance, the second of active resistance (agitation or challenging the
system in the form of civil disobedience) and the third one is physical
confrontation (which today might take the form of unarmed revolt against the
system).
If people of faith lack the material resources (human or otherwise), they should restrain themselves to passively resisting persecution and slander as they wage their ideological battle. As a strategic move they should not initiate any physical revolt against the system. We find that this was the policy that was followed by the Prophet (SAW) and his companions during the Makkan period. The believers were directed to bear all kinds of persecution, violence and oppression. They were not allowed to retaliate in the same coin, but were asked to bear it patiently. Their example is perhaps the highest representation of passive resistance witnessed in human history. However, after gaining enough strength and resources, the believers are obliged to launch an offensive against the status quo. Those who were forbidden from taking an initiative in Makkah were permitted in Madinah to wage war according to the following ayahof the Qur’an:
If people of faith lack the material resources (human or otherwise), they should restrain themselves to passively resisting persecution and slander as they wage their ideological battle. As a strategic move they should not initiate any physical revolt against the system. We find that this was the policy that was followed by the Prophet (SAW) and his companions during the Makkan period. The believers were directed to bear all kinds of persecution, violence and oppression. They were not allowed to retaliate in the same coin, but were asked to bear it patiently. Their example is perhaps the highest representation of passive resistance witnessed in human history. However, after gaining enough strength and resources, the believers are obliged to launch an offensive against the status quo. Those who were forbidden from taking an initiative in Makkah were permitted in Madinah to wage war according to the following ayahof the Qur’an:
To those against whom war is made, permission is given to fight,
because they have been wronged. And
verily, Allah is most powerful for the aid.
(Al-Hajj 22:39)
Armed conflict is the final stage of
this struggle and in the fulfillment of our ultimate obligation to God – to
make a society whose principles are based on His commands – a society based on
justice and fair play. It has already
been pointed out with reference to Surah As-Saff that fighting in the
cause of Allah is the highest obligation that is worthy of God’s highest pleasure
and approval. The Qur’an says:
Truly Allah loves those who fight in His cause in battle array, as if they
were a solid structure. (As-Saff 61:4)
Let us take note of the following Hadith
cited in Sahih Muslim and narrated on the authority of Abu Hurairah, who
said that the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said:
One who dies in a state that he did not fight in Allah’s
cause and he did not even wish that he should do so, he suffers
from a sort of hypocrisy. .
It is possible that some of the people
participating in the struggle pass away to their eternal abode before the final
stage of armed confrontation arrives.
Nevertheless, they should at least entertain this desire in their
heart. If one has genuine faith, he
should all along nurse the desire that he will lay down his life for
establishing the system of Islam. Those
devoid of this desire suffer from at least a shade of hypocrisy according to
the teachings of our beloved Messenger (SAW).
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