The Islamic concept of Jihad
Jihad is usually translated as 'holy war,' although jihad also refers to the psychological war you wage within yourself to establish the kingdom of God in your behavior and build a lifestyle in keeping with God's dictates. Jihad an-nafs, war against one's lower self, is a psychological war one wages in order for the higher self to have control over the lower self, and is mentioned in the following Prophetic hadith.
Returning from a battle, the Prophet Muhammad once remarked to his companions that they were returning from the lesser jihad to the greater one, meaning from the battle fought with swords to the battle we wage within our hearts and minds to live the godly and good life. The greater jihad is advanced in the name of justice and religious and social pluralism. This is the Jihad of Peace—conducted on behalf of all humankind.
In another hadith, a man came to the Prophet and asked, "What of a man who joined us in jihad (fighting), his intention being for fame and booty?" The Prophet answered, "He receives nothing." The man asked the question three times and each time the Prophet said, "He receives nothing." Then he said, "Allah only accepts actions that are intended for His pleasure."
The lesser jihad is usually advanced in the name of retributive justice and parochial (in many contemporary cases secular) interests. There is a concept of 'just war' in Islamic jurisprudence just like there are concepts of just war in western and Christian law. When are we permitted to conduct war? Under what circumstances? What are legitimate targets? What are legitimate means and actions to carry out the war? Islamic jurisprudence details an understanding and description of who is to be considered a legitimate target and who is not.
The first Quranic verse allowing the Prophet and his followers to fight those who had unjustly aggressed against the Muslims, expelling them from their homes because of their religion, reads as follows:
"Permission [to fight] is given to those against whom war is wrongfully waged, and have been oppressed—and God is indeed able to aid them—those who have been unjustly expelled from their homes for no other cause than they say "Our Lord is God." And had God not repelled some people by others, it is certain that cloisters and churches and synagogues and mosques, in which God's name is much extolled, would have been destroyed." (Quran 22:39-40)
The Quranic mention of cloisters, churches, synagogues, and mosques clearly proves that the objective of fighting must be, first, defensive and, second, to establish a pluralistic religious society, where God's name is extolled in all languages. Jihad is therefore legitimate only to further the Abrahamic ethic (the cluster of monotheism's core ideas and its concomitants of human liberty, equality, fraternity, and social justice).
The Quran adds,
"God does not forbid you respecting those who do not fight you on the basis of religion, nor expel you from your homes, that you be kind and deal justly with them. God indeed loves those who deal justly. God only forbids you regarding those who fight you on the basis of your religion, who expel you from your homes, and aid others in your expulsion—that you ally with them. Whoever allies with them are unjust." (Quran 60:9-10)
It urged the Muslims to "fight in the way of God those who fight against you, but do not yourselves commit aggression: God does not love the aggressors" (Quran 2:190); "Expel them from where they expelled you" (Quran 2:191); "Fight them until there is no more persecution, and people are free to worship God [literally, 'and religion is for God's sake']. But if they desist, then all hostility shall cease except against the oppressors" (Quran 2:190).
Fighting against oppression is not limited to the military sphere, however. The Prophet said, "The most excellent jihad is to speak up for truth [meaning to stand up for what is right and just] in the face of a tyrannical authority."
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