Jihad: Its Two Facets
15 Dec, 2001 · 665
Brig Chandra B Khanduri finds out the two meanings of jihad: a struggle against evil – as was initially perceived, and a holy war against unbelievers – what it now has transcended to
Jihad, a word rarely found in the holy Quran, has gained coinage and its importance has gained salience as an Islamic symbol of holy war against the unbelievers. The American military offensive against
Afghanistan
, following the carnage of September 11, is being regarded by Islamic fundamentalists as a war against the Islamic civilization, and its clash with the west.
This question revolves around fundamentalism, which represents a deliberate effort by the clerics to superimpose the percepts of the holy Quran without taking into account socio-political and contemporary realities. In its fundamentalist fervour, the basic tenets of democracy such as individual rights, social homogeneity and national integration have all been ignored.
The divine message of the Quran, written in the 7th century AD, could not have predicated the changed needs of the 20th and 21st centuries. There is nonetheless, incredible foresight and vision in the book. The spirit of Islam, propagated by Prophet Mohammed, was liberal and humanist. It accommodated enquiry and hence spiritual fulfillment. Its pristine beauty lay – and continues to lie – in providing a practical code of human conduct. It became a law for the common man and woman, virtually from womb to tomb, by adopting a simple but strict monotheism of one God (Allah) and of Mohammad being His apostle, charged with disseminating His commandments to a people steeped in superstition, prejudice and idolatory. Those messages became the literal and infallible words of God conveyed through the Quran. It became the unchallenged source of the new religion, beliefs and practices with a law (sharia) providing ‘a straight path’.
The basic message of Islam of brotherhood and observance of righteousness is universal. It shuns compulsion, best demonstrated by the Arabic lexicon, ‘La ikra fi idadin’ meaning, ‘your religion is yours, mine my own’. Islam, thus forces no proselytization. The Prophet allowed autonomy in the observance of their faith to Christians and Jews albeit imposing a Zajiya or a tax on them as a measure of political control.
And while Islam perpetuates piety and righteousness, it equally stresses jihad and terror as stratagem, for the presentation of faith. “Evil is the end of the evildoer”, says the Quran (30:9). To enjoin good and forbid evil so that there is no mischief and corruption in the world, the Quran exhorts jihad. Jihadis, or the army of God, was designated a place of honour; it aided and abetted the Prophet throughout his ten year struggle against his enemies with fidelity and sacrifice. The Prophet had stressed that the jihadis should observe the ‘cause of truth’ (one God, one religion and one book). Persuasion to win over the ‘insincere and hypocrites’ was also a part of jihad (9.73 & 66:9). In an earlier Sura, he asks all to give “courage to the believers”. The jihadis were required to be steadfast; for, “twenty steadfast men shall vanquish two hundreds”. So they were required to stand and fight and withdraw only if such a withdrawal could provide greater tactical advantage.
The Quran also sees jihad in its spiritual divinity as a way of God, expressed in the holy book as Jihad-fi-Sabilaallah. Also known as the ‘Great Jihad’, it aims at cleansing oneself of evils within. Control of the satanic evils of lust, greed, anger, desire and passion is the objective. Vainglory and arrogance are unrighteous and pride is the cardinal sin of human beings – both being impediments to obtaining God’s grace.
This form of jihad, which most Islamic leaders, intellectuals and clerics hold is the true meaning of the word, epitomizes a condition of emancipation from all cravings and indulgence of the body, and is intended towards achieving righteousness. At the Quran urges all men to “excel one another in piety (as) the noblest of you in Allah’s sight is the most righteous”. It is salvation by faith, achieved through one’s own acts and God’s mercy. It aims at dispelling ignorance and spiritual blindness. Sura 28:15 is poignant: “Forgive me my Lord; I have sinned against my soul”.
Jihad, therefore, is like a coin with two faces – both originating from the same fountainhead Islam, the religion of peace. The temporal and the spiritual are like the body and the mind or soul. Both were meant to strengthen the faith and the resolve of believers. It is this universal appeal of Islam – its virtue of universal brotherhood, that has created the second largest religion of the world.
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