Jehad
The believers are required emphatically to do whatever they can towards
popularizing, defending and keeping alive and flourishing, as the best
and the truest way of life, the way of Islam and servility to God they
have chosen for themselves. This, in Islam, is called Jehad. It can
take many forms depending on the circumfrom time to time and place to
place.
Suppose there arises a situation in which it becomes difficult or even
dangerous for a person or his family or community to profess Islam and
to remain true to it. To be a Muslim may become the hardest thing to
do in the world. In that case Jehad will lie in doing one’s best
for oneself, one’s family or community to stay firmly devoted
to Islam. It would, certainly, be a most splendid Jehad in those circumstances.
Similarly, should Muslims, through their own folly or negligence, start
drifting away from the faith, then, at such a time, to devote one’s
time and energy to their religious revival and reform, too, would constitute
a kind of Jehad.
To carry the Divine guidance to those that are ignorant of it and to
make an earnest effort to persuade them wisely and sympathetically to
accept it is yet another form of Jehad.
Should believers in God and the Prophet be in power somewhere and the
conditions demand that collective force be used for the defence and
assistance of the faith then, in the case, the use of force for the
defence and assistance of faith according to the rules laid down for
it, will constitute Jehad. Two conditions, however, are essential for
it. Firstly, such a step must not be motivated by any personal or national
self-interest, greed or enmity. It should be taken solely to carry out
the command of God and to serve the cause of His faith. And, secondly,
that the rules prescribed for it are scrupulously observed. If force
is used without the fulfillment of these conditions, it will not be
Jehad according to Islam but wanton wickedness and mischief.
To speak a just word before a tyrannical ruler (be he a Muslim or a
non-Muslim) is, again, a form of Jehad. In the Traditions it has been
spoken as “the best of Jehad”
All these forms of religious struggle and endeavour, at their proper
time and place, are among the obligatory duties of Islam, and, as we
have seen, the term Jehad is applied to them in various degrees.
We now proceed to examine some of the verses of the Quran and Traditions
of the Holy Prophet enjoining on Muslims the duty of Jehad and revealing
to them what unique glory and spiritual merit lies in it. First, the
Quranic verses:
And strive in His cause as ye ought to strive (with sincerity and under
discipline). He has chosen you. (XXII: 78)
O ye who believe! Shall I lead you to a bargain that will save your
from a grievous penalty? That ye believe in God and His Apostle, and
that ye strive (your utmost) in the cause of God, with your property
and your person: that will be best for ye if ye but knew! He will forgive
ye your sins and admit ye to Gardens beneath which rivers flow, and
to beautiful mansions in Gardens of Eternity: that is, indeed, the Supreme
Achievement. (LXI: 10-12)
After these, the Traditions:
“To believe truthfully in God and to strive in the cause of Faith
is the best of all deeds.”
“It shall not be that a person whose feet are covered with dust
in the path of God went to Hell.”
“For anyone of you to rise in the way of God (i.e., in the defence
of Islam and to take some part in the struggle for its progress and
glory) is better than seventy years of worship in the corner of his
house.”
May it be allotted to us also by Allah to earn the Divine reward that
is for those who make earnest exertions in the path of His faith!
