BASICS OF ISLAM :
Aspects of Jihad.Part2
Stages of jihad After he received the first Revelation, the command Read!, God's Messenger returned home in excitement. He was sleeping wrapped in a cloak "enwrapped" by the suffering of people and the heaviness of his responsibility, when God commanded him:
O enwrapped one! Keep the vigil the night long, save a little (a half of it or diminish a little or add a little), and recite the Qur'an in measure. For We shall charge you with a word of weight (73:1-5).
The short period between the first revelation and the public preaching was meant to prepare the Prophet for what lay ahead. He was to keep night vigils and recite the Qur'an in measure, because during the night impressions are keener and recitation is more penetrating. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed:
O enshrouded one, arise and warn. Magnify Your Lord, purify your robes, and flee defilement. Show no favor, seeking worldly gain. And, for your Lord's sake, be patient (74:1-7).
Thus was the Prophet ordered to begin his mission. He began with his relatives and nearest kin, and then reached out to his tribe after receiving the revelation:
Warn your tribe of nearest kindred (26:214).
This was followed by public preaching and various reactions: derision, threats, torture of followers, offers of the most alluring kind, and boycott.
In Makkah, God's Messenger never resorted to or allowed retaliation, for Islam came only to bring people out of the darkness of unbelief and into the light of belief, to free them from serving that which is not God to serving the One God, and to elevate them from the pit of "earth" to the height of "heaven." Islam also came to establish inner peace, which leads to people being at peace with themselves, with God and nature, and then engenders peace on a global scale. As peace and order are fundamental in Islam, it always seeks to spread peacefully and only uses force as the last resort to maintain its existence against those who seek to maintain the corrupted order they built on injustice, oppression, self-interest, exploitation, the usurpation of others' rights, and the blocking of freedom of belief.
Some rules related to jihad Believers cannot exceed the limits established by God. In the case of jihad, some of these rules are as follows:
As believers have sold themselves to God in exchange for Paradise (9:111),
they cannot strive for any causes based upon fame, material gain, and racial or other similar ideological beliefs. They can strive only to attain God's good pleasure.
They cannot fight those who do not oppose them, cannot engage in indiscriminate killing and pillage, and must remain honorable while fighting (no deliberate killing of women, children, or the elderly, mutilation of corpses, and destruction of land and crops). Force is to be used only when there is no other choice (2:190).
Conclusion We must consider jihad in its entirety. Those who say one thing and then do another cause nothing but trouble in the ranks of Muslims. Since they cannot discipline themselves and overcome self-regard, ostentation, and the desire to dominate, they bring only disharmony to the cause of Islam. On the other hand, those who live in almost total seclusion and try to attain some high spiritual station without working to promote the truth reduce Islam to mere mysticism, like certain aspects of yoga. Such people argue that a Muslim's foremost duty is to acquire spiritual maturity so as to be saved from Hell. What they fail to realize is that those who regard themselves as safe from Hell are deceived, for God decrees that we should continue to serve Him as long as we live (15:99).
Thus we can say that jihad is a balance of internal and external strife. Reaching spiritual perfection and helping others do so are points of consideration. Attaining internal perfection is the greater jihad; helping others attain it is the lesser jihad. When you separate one from the other, jihad is no longer jihad. Indolence is born from one and anarchy from the other. However, we expect one Muhammadan spirit to be born. As is always the case, this is possible only by following and conforming to God's Messenger. How happy are those who search for a way to salvation for others as much as they do for themselves. And how happy are those who remember to save themselves while saving others.
