While?many American “experts” tell us only a small minority of Muslims support?Jihad or that Jihad has a non-threatening ?spiritual? meeting to most Muslims, mainstream Muslim scholars suggest something far different.??
This piece was posted just?two months after the 9/11/2001 murders of 3,000 Americans.?? It is still online and still very popular.?? It does not?even hint at any apology for the mistaken invocation of?Jihad by?”misguided” Muslims.????? It only regrets that the Muslim world has not had a??Khilafah? or Caliphate since 1923 to officially determine when and how Jihad should be declared.?
The article begins:???
“We must realise that Jihad is a pillar of Islam and was described as its peak by Sayyidina* Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam). It is the thing, which Allah (Subhanahu Wa ta’ala) in the Qur’an states that gives the Ummah life; indeed Umar ibn al Khattab (ra) stated, “There is no izza (honour) without Jihad”. Hence any misunderstanding of this vital concept would have huge ramifications. Hence, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of Jihad and make clear these corruptions, which have been propagated by the Kuffar*, their agent rulers and their “scholars”.
*Sayyidina:?? Master
*Kuffar:?? Non-Muslim (Often used in insulting and derogatory manner)
It points out that there is no? Islamic?authority for the claim that Jihad refers to an inner spiritual struggle.
“Some have attempted to justify their stance on this concept with what is apparently intended as a daleel (Islamic evidence), and so have used a narration to justify this concept of Jihad an-Nafs or dealing with all the political and military problems we face by becoming introspective or looking inwardly as opposed to looking at the Ahkam Shari’ah and seeing what Allah (Subhanahu Wa ta’ala) has demanded from us.?? So they use what they claim is a hadith, or saying of Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam), “We have returned from the lesser Jihad to the greater Jihad, that is the struggle against the evil of oneself.” This is in fact a fabrication and is known as Mawdu’ (spurious).?. .”
It also rejects the idea the Jihad can only be used?in self-defense.
“Another distortion that is promoted is the idea that Jihad is only defensive. The protagonists of this idea again utilise certain misinterpretations to justify their positions.
“Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress the limits. For Allah loves not the transgressors” [TMQ Al-Baqarah: 190].
“And if they incline to peace, you incline to it also, and trust in Allah. Verily! He is the hearer, the knower” [TMQ Al-A’raf: 61].
“These two verses however, cannot abrogate the 119 other verses of Qur’an that suggest that Jihad is not merely limited to defensive war alone. These 119 verses, which are general and absolute, indicate that Jihad encompasses all of the following types of war:
- Defensive war
- Offensive war
- Limited war
- Unlimited war
- Protective war”
The complete article is posted at:? http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/KhilafahJihad.php. You may have to enter the title of the article ?Jihad?the Highest Peak of Islam? in the ?search? index box to access the article. Seth Grossman for www.libertyandprosperity.org