Jihad

 

 

Jihad, plainly translated means “strive” or “struggle”. It can be commonly known as “striving in the way of Allah (al-jihad fe sabeel Allah)”. A person engaged in Jihad is called “mojahid” and the plural form is “mujahideen”.

Now most of what I write are taken from Wikipedia, written in my own words to make it easier for the reader to understand. Texts in italic blue are my own comments, so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong about anything I’ve mentioned.

This is aimed at the readers who are both Muslim and non-Muslims who would like to know what Jihad can really be interpreted as, so read on and feel free to comment.

A minority of Sunni scholars think that Jihad is considered as a sixth pillar of Islam. As most may already know, Islam contains 5 pillars which are as follows:

1. The Shahadah (Shahadah): There is no God to be worshiped except Allah (only ONE God.), and that Mohammad (P.B.U.H.) is Allah’s messenger. (ašhadu ʾan lā ilāha illā-llāh, wa ʾašhadu ʾanna muḥammadan rasūlu-llāh) ¹
   
2. Performing prayers (Salaat): Praying as instructed 5 times a day.
   
3. Fasting (Siyam): Fasting once a year for the entire month of Ramadan, from sunrise to sunset.
   
4. Charity (Zakat): Alms given to the poor and needy once every year.
   
5. Pilgrimage (Hajj): Where every able-bodied Muslim is required to perform a pilgrimage to Makkah once during his lifetime, if he can afford it. Hajj is performed during the month of Dhu Al-Hijjah.
   

1. God, Allah and Yahweh: Are all the same God that Christians, Muslims and Jews worship. All three faiths worship the same God only with different names for Him.
   

Now I won’t get into details about the pillars of Islam, my main point here is to clarify what Jihad really means. Now this may surprise you, what I’m doing (writing this) is considered one of the forms of Jihad, which is commonly known as “Jihad by the tongue (jihad bil lisan)”. I’ll get to that later.

Jihad has been classified as either jihad il-akbar (the greater jihad) or jihad il-asghar (the lesser jihad). The greater jihad is a struggle against one’s soul (jihad al-nafs), the lesser jihad is the external struggle which involves physical effort, sometimes implied as fighting.

Muslims are in a constant struggle with themselves, jihad il-nafs, constantly fighting to resist the temptations and sins of everyday life, such as lust.

 

 

Now to the best part where I’m sure most of you are waiting for, there are four kinds of jihad:

 

• Jihad of the heart (jihad bel qalb/nafs): Fighting the devil and resisting his temptations to do evil. (This is considered jihad il-akbar, many of you will most likely argue that this is considered jihad il-asghar. Scholars are still arguing about this point till this day.)
  
• Jihad by the tongue (jihad bil lisan): Speaking the truth and spreading the word of Islam with one’s tongue. In other words, educate people about Islam either by spoken or written means. Which is exactly what I’m doing, educating readers of this blog. So I’m considered a mojahid (with the keyboard not the sword.).
  
• Jihad by the hand (jihad bil yad): This is a matter of choosing to do right, fight injustice and wrong-doing with appropriate action.
  
• Jihad by the sword (jihad bis saif): Fighting in the way of Allah, or holy war.
  

 

Jihad by the sword has been so grossly mistranslated by so many fundamentalists. In Islam there are strict rules associated with armed warfare; one basic principle clearly stated in the Quran is that other communities should be treated as one’s own. Fighting is only justified for self-defense, to aid other Muslims and after a treaty violation.

 

Under Islamic military laws, diplomacy and warfare are acted on in accordance with the traditional Islamic code. The majority of military rulings are taken from the Quran and the traditions of Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H.) which are known as Hadeeth.

 

The basic ten rules of the Muslim army are:

1. Do not commit treachery or deviate from the right path.
   
2. You must not mutilate dead bodies.
   
3. Do not kill a child, woman or the elderly.
   
4. Do not harm the trees, especially those that bear fruit.
   
5. Do not kill the enemies flocks, save them for your food.
   
6. Leave alone those who have dedicated their lives to monastic services. (Priests, nuns and etc.)
   

 

The Islamic rules on the Muslim military are quite clear and straightforward. As far as I can see, none of these rules have been applied in modern warfare. The Iran-Iraq war, Sept 11 attacks and the Iraq war have all been in violation of the true laws of jihad and Islamic warfare rules. Innocents have been killed which violate the Prophet’s (PBUH) own command to his own army, in which the command should still stand for ANY Muslim army in today’s world.

 

 

Sadly, the United States Dept. of Justice, during its indictments defines jihad as:

 

“‘Jihad’ is the Arabic word meaning ‘holy war’. In this context, jihad refers to the use of violence, including paramilitary action against persons, governments deemed to be enemies of the fundamentalist version of Islam.”

 

“violent jihad’ or ‘jihad’ include planning, preparing for, and engaging in, acts of physical violence, including murder, maiming, kidnapping, and hostage-taking.”

 

 

Killing innocents regardless of their religion does not make you a mojahid. Suicide bombing does not make you a martyr (shaheed) and suicide is a one-way ticket into hell, not heaven. Saying the Shahadah before blowing yourself up or ramming that plane/car into a building full of women, children and the elderly does not mean you are guaranteed heaven. There are other ways to fight, even Islamic scholars called Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle against the British as a form of jihad and praised him.

 

Learn the lessons from the goodness of our ancient Muslim armies led by the great leaders, such as Salah Al-Deen. Salah Al-Deen was considered one of the most righteous and greatest Muslim leaders during his time by his Christian counterparts, to this day they still praise him.

 

I know I didn’t write much, most of the stuff taken from sites and such, but at least it’d give anyone a basic idea of what’s really in the mind of a normal Muslim person.

 

 

~ by Я on March 28, 2008.