The Truth on Jihad
By:
Dr. Seyed
Mostafa Azmayesh
Nowadays, the word "jihad" is used wildly, often with a
strongly negative, even terrifying connotation, within a discourse referring to
"Islamic" terrorism and suicide attempts. It is time to clarify the real spiritual
meaning of the "jihad". But
before getting to the heart of the subject, one must take seriously the dangers
inherent to the arbitrary comments of the sacred texts. Every individual can read the Qur’an, the Gospels, or the Torah, but not everyone is
competent to interpret them because everyone projects their own state of mind
in their interpretation. People who are stuck in obscurantist darkness are
governed by their ego's drive and, consequently, they dwell in a time of
ignorance, even while living in the twenty-first century. Their interpretation of the sacred texts, the
Bible, the Gospels and the Qur’an, corresponds to the
very low and highly materialistic level of their understanding and
imagination. One cannot incriminate the
text if its interpretation is erroneous.
Derived from the root "j-h-d"
meaning "effort," "jihad" means "supreme
effort." Whoever puts his efforts
to maximum use in order to reach an important objective is a "mujahid."
"Jihad" and all the words derived from it are part of the Qur’anic vocabulary and are used 41 times in the holy
text. "Jihad" is -according to
Shiite Muslims- one of the eight pillars of the Islamic faith, ordered as such:
Salat (daily prayer), Soum
(fast), Khoms and zakat (two
religious taxes), Hadj (pilgrimage to Mecca),
Jihad (using one's efforts for God), Amr bil Ma'rouf (to order one's
spirit to do charity), Nahi menal Monkar (to prevent the ego
from committing wrong acts). (According
to Sunni Muslims, the religious obligations of Muslims are in the number of
five: Salat; Zakat; Soum; Hadj; Jihad).
The Qur’an
describes Believers as people who regularly perform their prayers, pay their
religious tax, and make plentiful efforts by sacrificing their tangible assets
and their "ego" in God's path.
In other words, to become a good Muslim, it is necessary to respect the
importance of jihad. But contrary to
today's common belief, the religious obligation of jihad is utterly devoid of
any warlike meaning. The words used in
the Qur’an
to denote war are "harb" and "kétâl," with their derivatives:
1. Harb is a
kind of war that can be declared by an individual or a group of people against
moral or physical enemies. For instance,
when the Qur’an
firmly condemns in verse 275 of the Surat
al-Baqarah (Sura of the
Cow) "usury," it speaks thus: "God has permitted trade and has
made usury unlawful. (2:275) Believers,
have fear of God and waive what is still due to you from usury, if your faith
be true or war (harb) shall be declared against you
by God and His apostle" (2:279). Elsewhere, in Surat
al-Ma'idah (Sura of the
Table), the Qur’an
speaks thus: "Whenever they [the enemies] kindle the fire of war (harb), God puts it out" (5:64).
2. Kétâl means:
"to initiate warring actions. “Kétâl” can be negative if it is to mock justice and oppress
the freedom of a people, and positive if it is to defend in a legitimate
fashion one's or others' life, dignity, possessions, dwelling against an
invading and belligerent enemy. God has
allowed Muslims to wage war against the unfaithful when the Prophet and his
companions were unfairly compelled to leave Mecca for Medina and repeatedly
attacked by their enemies; verse 39 of the Surat al-Hàjj (Sura of the Pilgrimage)
which marks this historic event uses the word "kétâl",
not "jihad": "Permission to take up arms (yokâtéloun)
is hereby given to those who are attacked, because they have been wronged. God has power to grant them victory" (22:39). Moreover the
Qur’an
hints at the military confrontation between the prophets' companions in a
defensive position and their invading opponents in various verses almost
exclusively using the word "guetal," of
which here is an example concerning the history of the confrontation between
the Israelites ruled by David and their enemies led by Goliath (2:245-251):
"Have you not heard what the leaders of the Israelites demanded of one of
their prophets after the death of Moses? 'Raise up for
us a king.' they said, 'and we will fight (gâtàtà) for the cause of God.' . . . 'Why should we refuse
to fight (gâtàlà) for the cause of God,' they said
'when we and all our children have been driven from our dwellings?' . . . Their
prophet said to them: 'God has appointed Saul to be your king.' . . . they
said: 'We have no power this day against Goliath and his followers.' But those of them who believed that they
would meet God replied: "Many a small band has, by God's grace, vanquished
a mighty army. God is with those who
endure with fortitude.' . . . By God's will, they routed them. David slew Goliath, and God bestowed on him
sovereignty and wisdom and taught him what He pleased."
Right after these verses, the Qur’an infers
thus: "Had God not defeated some of the might of others, the earth would
have been utterly corrupted" (2:251) while also remarking: "Fight (kâtélou) for the cause of God and bear in mind that God
hears and knows everything" (2:243). One may take it from this that,
according to the logic of the Qur’an, resistance in the face of injustice, invasion and
inhumanity is a justifiable act. It is,
however, necessary to underline that, despite this observation, the word
"jihad" never was used in any the verses quoted on this subject. Rather, the terms "kétâl"
or "mokâtéleh" are used. In other words, "jihad" corresponds
in no way to a military action, be it offensive or defensive. The word "jihad" means "a very
important effort," and corresponds to an individual internal action each
"Believer" is summoned to undertake to come gradually closer to the
final goal of his esoteric ascent towards Allah. On this subject, the Qur’an gives this precision in
the Surat
al-'Ankabut (Sura of the
Spider): "Those that fight for Our cause (jâhàdou) We will surely guide to our own paths"
(29:69). And, in the same Sura, this verse completes the explanation: "He that
fights for God's cause fights for his own good" or "He that fights,
fights for raising his nafs" (29:6). ("Man jâhàdà faénnàmâ youjâhid strip nafseh"). Thus
jihad is in fact only a fight that every Believer declares inside himself
against his primitive drives and instinctive impulses. During this relentless and merciless fight,
the Believer tries to further develop in him the human and chivalrous
attributes, such as friendship, love, bequests upon others, while containing
negative features such as jealousy, rancor, wickedness…. ▲
"Nafs"
The jihad's objective is to fight the "Nafs". In fact, nafs does
not really mean "soul" but rather "ego", the part of each
of us that bears the instinctive drives where inhumanity, obscurantism and
ignorance originate. Nafs
is the most primitive aspect of the human being that corresponds to the
reptilian brain. Generally man lingers
within the law of the jungle under the pressure of the nafs. Nafs goes against
everything that pertains to the divine spirit.
The Persian mystic poet of the sixth century of the Hegira, Attar,
compares the nafs and its characteristics to a jungle
prevailed upon by different animals such as the wolf of savagery, the fox of
guile, the bear of sexuality, the tiger of aggressiveness, the snake, the bat,
the scorpion, etc. It is incumbent upon
the Believer to fight all these animals to turn the jungle of his personality
into a garden of flowers and perfumes.
The famous seventh century Persian mystic poet Mowlana
of Balkh -known in the West as Rûmi-
compares the nafs to a dragon endowed with seven
hundred heads, each raised between heaven and earth. The prophets come on behalf of God to call
men to wake up from the sleep of self-centeredness and to identify the source
of danger concealed within themselves.
The Qur’an explains in Surat
Yusuf (Sura Joseph):
"Not that I am free from nafs; man's nafs is prone to evil"; (12:53) and Moses launches
this explicit call to the Believers "Turn in repentance to your Creator
and slay your nafs" (2:54). Fighting the "nafs'
bad deeds enjoining" ("àmmarà bissou'") is a necessary condition to develop the soul
towards the superior values of humanity, unity, and divinity. By annihilating this first obstacle, the
individual can conform bit by bit to God's image so that he can, at the end of
a long and arduous journey, become his vicar.
It is for this reason that the Believer can never part from his sword of
devoutness, or ever give up this inner struggle. Mystics explain that man can really succeed
in overcoming and surpassing these successive stages to finally, thanks to the
jihad, achieve and internalize within himself God's image which is the Walker's
only guarantee of protection against the vicissitudes of his nafs.
The prophets' first call to their
addressees is to initiate a jihad, because this supreme effort opens the way to
perfection: a jihad against one's own ego, because our own nafs
is each of us' harshest enemy, and as long as we do not manage to conquer our nafs,
we cannot develop the latent capacities that hide within us. Distinction
between Jihads The Fogaha (Doctors in Islamic Law)
have therefore distinguished in the Sunna (i.e. the
Muslim tradition) three kinds of jihad, namely: 1. the biggest jihad ("jihad to al-akbar"), or that against the internal enemy; 2. the smallest jihad
("jihad al-asgar"), or that against the
outside enemy to defend the religion;
and 3. the
noblest jihad ("jihad al-afdal"). The latter means: "saying the truth in
front of an oppressor." (Hadith quoted by Muslim
and Bokhari).
One particular event that took place during the wars of Islam's early
days clarifies the importance of the evolutionary and spiritual meaning of
jihad. One day, after an army from a
heathen tribe attacked the Prophet and his followers. Muslims organized
resistance from their defensive positions and won the battle. After the enemy's retreat, the Prophet, upon
finding Muslims very satisfied with their efforts and their victory, threw out
at them: "We now return from this small battle to the big battle and
engage into the biggest jihad." ("farajénâ ménal jihad alasgar elâ aldjihad
alakbar") (Hadith
quoted by Muslim and Bokhari and quoted by Mowlana in Maçnawi, 5:1). Understandably, these words shocked the
Muslims who retorted: "But this is the most mortal enemy we ever
defeated!" Muhammad then replied:
"No, your biggest enemy dwells within each one of you; each must fight
one's own ego." ("à'dâ àdovokom alnafs allati baina djanbeikom"). Mowlana of Balkh remarks on this case: "Consider as little brave
a lion who bores the ranks of the enemies; consider as
the real lion the one who subjugates himself" (Maçnawi,
5:1, p. 38).
Suicide
The Prophet of Islam said: "Die before death takes you." (Hadith quoted by Muslim and Bokhari
and recounted by Sanaï Sanaï/Divan
Qassayed) In the opinion of theologians, interpreters
and mystics, this sentence alludes to the principle of substantial evolution:
because man is a being who develops and surpasses himself, he is the only
"animal" who knows how to conquer his instinctive drives in order to
allow his mind to be perfected. In fact,
man consists in an existence and a substance.
The latter is an evolutionary reality.
Every individual can become at any time a demon or an angel. He becomes absolutely a demon if the ego's
demonic drives gets the upper hand, or an angel if the
mind's angelic attributes wins the day.
The struggle between the demon and the angel ceases only once victory is
granted to one of two parties. A fight
between an eagle and a dragon symbolizes the taking place of this everlasting
struggle.
The erroneous interpretations attempted
by those unqualified to expound the holy texts have given way to a lot of
admixtures regarding this hadith. Mohammed's word "Die before the death takes
you" as well as the Qur’anic verse quoting
Moses' word: "Turn in repentance to your Creator and slay your nafs" (2:54)
do not encourage suicidal acts, but self-betterment. For suicide is, in the eyes of God and his
prophets, the most abhorrent act since suicide puts a definitive end to our
substance's evolutionary process. The Qur’an explicitly prohibits engagement in any suicidal act
in this verse: "do not with your own hands cast yourself into
destruction." (2:195)
Preserving one's life and that of others
is the living individual's highest responsibility. He who commits suicide kills an individual:
himself; now the Qur’an stipulates that "whoever
killed a human being . . . shall be looked upon as though he had killed all
mankind; and that whoever saved a human life shall be regarded as though he had
saved all mankind" (5:32). ▲
