Jihad

  • April 24, 2014

This month’s article is on one of the most asked questions – Jihad.

The following is taken from Stage Three of the course:

What is the true meaning of the concept of Jihad

The root of the Arabic word Jihad is Jahd which connotes endurance of rigorous conditions. Thus Jihad means to strive to the utmost for the achievement of a purpose and to leave nothing undone in pursuance of it.

Jihad is of three types

  1. The Jihad against oneself – which in Islamic idiom is called the greatest Jihad (Jihad Akbar) - To purify oneself.
  2. The Jihad that is waged against Satan and Satanic teachings and designs, and is called the great Jihad (Jihad Kabeer) - Propagate the religion.
  3. The Jihad that is waged against the enemy of freedom of conscience; this is called the lesser Jihad (Jihad Asghar) - Holy War

The Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Has described the striving against self as Jihad Akbar. It is mentioned in the sayings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, when returning from an expedition (Tabuk), he said:

“We are returning from the Jihad Asghar (fighting) to Jihad Akbar (struggle against self)”. (Kashaf)

He also said:

“The Mujahid (one who does Jihad) who is exalted above other Mujahids is the one who strives against his own self”.

Jihad Akbar

The greatest Jihad is the Jihad Akbar (purifying oneself). This is because one’s internal struggle to lead a pure good life is very difficult. God always guides us to good, but our natural tendencies are inclined to evil. The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 12, verse 54, describes this as Nafse Ammarah, ‘the self that inclines to evil’. Our natural state, as long as we are not guided by reason and understanding, is to follow our natural bent of eating, drinking, sleeping, waking, anger and provocation, like the animals. Once a person is guided by reason and understanding and brings their natural state under control and regulates it in an appropriate manner, then they start to develop their moral state to the second stage of development called Nafse Lawwama, ‘the reproving self’ (75:3) and then to the final moral state of Nafse Mutmainnah, ‘the soul at rest’ (89:28). Thus to purify one’s self is a constant internal struggle which one must strive to practise in order to achieve paradise.

Jihad Kabeer

The second type of Jihad is Jihad Kabeer (propagating the religion). This is because to go out and spread the message of God and to try to improve the society that one lives in, means that first you have to overcome your inhibition and be ready to face abuse, humiliation and even persecution. To propagate the religion means that you have to lead by example and live by what the religion teaches. You cannot say to someone that this is what my religion teaches me, but I personally do not follow it, and then expect that person to take you seriously. It is for this reason that to spread the message of God through word and personal example, is the second hardest type of struggle that one must strive to do.

Jihad Asghar

The third type of Jihad is Jihad Asghar (Holy War). This is placed third, because no war can be Holy! But, Allah recognises that in certain circumstances, there is a need to defend yourself for the sake of your faith – This is the Jihad Asghar. A trueJihadshould only be raised when these two conditions are there a) It is in defence b) The aggressors are trying to prevent you from practising your faith. Because ultimately our purpose in life is to worship God, if someone prevents you from worshiping God, then you should reason with them. If that fails, then Islam teaches us that we should move away and worship in a different place. But if they follow us and still prevent us from worshipping God, then we are permitted to fight them as a means for our freedom of belief and worship.

According to the teachings of Islam, if a person fights in a true Jihad and dies, he will die as a martyr and will go to paradise. When fighting a true Jihad therefore, a Muslim is not scared of dying, instead he welcomes it as a means to attain paradise. An army that does not fear death, becomes a very strong army! It is for this reason that the Muslim Leaders desire to call any war aJihad, knowing the effect it has on their army. In this last Century, there have been many Jihadscalled by the Muslim leaders, sometime against Muslims themselves i.e. Iran v Iraq war, where both sides called a Jihad!

The question that is often raised then is – when is a war, a Jihad, according to the teachings of Islam? The most complete definition of Jihad isfound in Chapter 22, verse 40-41 of the Holy Qur’an:

“Permission to take up arms is given to those against whom war is made, because they have been wronged and Allah, indeed, has power to help them – Those who have been driven out from their homes unjustly, only because they said, ‘Our Lord is Allah.”

The majority of Jihad’s that have been called are political wars and any political war, whether it is between Muslims and non-Muslims or just between Muslims, does not become a Jihad. In fact, some people start considering a war of rights a Jihad since each party believes that “we are in the right”; then each party declares that the war is in the name of God and for the sake of truth, therefore, it is a Jihad. This may be a secondary definition of Jihad, but whether it is called Jihad or not in the terminology of Islam, its definition does not apply because this definition is against the basic logic that whoever of the two parties is based on truth, their wars will become Jihadin the Qur’anic terminology. All kinds of wars have and are being fought. Whenever two parties are fighting it is obvious that if one party is not based 100% on truth it will attest to be based on truth. It is very rare that the two parties are equally to be blamed or the two are equally right. Generally, one party is the oppressed and the other is the oppressor. The war of every oppressed people is not called a Jihad.The war of that oppressed group is called Jihad who are being stopped from declaring their faith in God, who are being punished for their religion. The Holy Qur’an states“They have committed no crime except that they say, ‘Our Lord is Allah.’ “So, if a war is being imposed on someone only for this reason and the enemy has started the war and it is the enemy who has raised the sword and not the Muslims, then the crime of the Muslims should be none except that they declare God as their Lord and deny other Lords besides God then such a war is called Jihad.

I hope this explained the true Jihad for you.

Wassalam (may peace be with you)

Tahir Selby
Course Compiler