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Spiritual Significance of Jihad
“And
those who perform jihad for Us, We shall certainly guide
them in Our ways, and God is surely with the doers of good.
(Quran XXXIX; 69)
You
have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad.
(Hadith)
The
Arabic term jihad, usually translated into European
languages as holy war, more on the basis of its juridical
usage in Islam rather than on its much more universal
meaning in the Quran and Hadith, is derived from the
root jhd whose primary meaning is to strive or to
exert oneself. Its translation into holy war combined with
the erroneous notion of Islam prevalent in the West as the
'religion of the sword' has helped to eclipse its inner and
spiritual significance and to distort its connotation. Nor
has the appearance upon the stage of history during the past
century and especially during the past few years of an array
of movements within the Islamic world often contending or
even imposing each other and using the word jihad or
one of its derivative forms helped to make known the full
import of its traditional meaning which alone is of concern
to us here. Instead recent distortions and even total
reversal of the meaning of jihad as understood over
the ages by Muslims have made it more difficult than ever
before to gain insight into this key religious and spiritual
concept.
To
understand the spiritual significance of jihad and
its wide application to nearly every aspect of human life as
understood by Islam, it is necessary to remember that Islam
bases itself upon the idea of establishing equilibrium
within the being of man as well as in the human society
where he functions and fulfills the goals of his earthly
life. This equilibrium, which is the terrestrial reflection
of Divine Justice and the necessary condition for peace in
the human domain, is the basis upon which the soul takes its
flight towards that peace which, to use Christian terms, 'passeth
understanding'. If Christian morality sees the aim of the
spiritual life and its own morality as based on the vertical
flight towards that perfection and ideal which is embodied
in Christ, Islam sees it in the establishment of an
equilibrium both outward and inward as the necessary basis
for the vertical ascent. The very stability of Islamic
society over the centuries, the immutability of Islamic
norms embodied in the Shari'ah, and the timeless
character of traditional Islamic civilization which is the
consequence of its permanent and immutable prototype are all
reflections of both the ideal of equilibrium and its
realization as is so evident in the teachings of the
Shari'ah (or Divine Law) as well as works of Islamic
art, that equilibrium which is inseparable from the very
name of islam as being related to salam or
peace.
The
preservation of equilibrium in this world, however, does not
mean simply a static or inactive passivity since life by
nature implies movement. In the face of the contingencies of
the world of change, of the withering effects of time, of
the vicissitudes of terrestrial existence, to remain in
equilibrium requires continuous exertion. It means carrying
out jihad at every stage of life. Human nature being
what it is, given to forgetfulness and the conquest of our
immortal soul by the carnal soul or passions, the very
process of life of both the individual and the human
collectivity implies the ever-present danger of the loss of
equilibrium and the fact of falling into the state of
disequilibrium which if allowed to continue cannot but lead
to disintegration on the individual level and chaos on the
scale of community life. To avoid this tragic end and to
fulfill the entelechy of the human state which is the
realization of unity (al-tawhid) or total
integration, Muslims as both individuals and members of
Islamic society must carry out jihad, that is they
must exert themselves at all moments of life to fight a
battle both inward and outward against those forces that if
not combatted will destroy that equilibrium which is the
necessary condition for the spiritual life of the person and
the functioning of human society. This fact is especially
true if society is seen as a collectivity which bears the
imprint of the Divine Norm rather than an ant heap of
contending and opposing units and forces.
Man is at
once a spiritual and corporeal being, a microcosm complete
unto himself; yet he is the member of a society within which
alone are certain aspects of his being developed and certain
of his needs fulfilled. He possesses at once an intelligence
whose substance is ultimately of a divine character and
sentiments which can either veil his intelligence or abet
his quest for his own Origin. In him are found both love and
hatred, generosity and coveteousness, compassion and
aggression. Moreover, there have existed until now not just
one but several 'humanities' with their own religious and
moral norms and national, ethnic and racial groups with
their own bonds of affiliation. As a result the practice of
jihad as applied to the world of multiplicity and the
vicissitudes of human existence in the external world has
come to develop numerous ramifications in the fields of
political and economic activity and in social life and come
to partake on the external level of the complexity which
characterizes the human world.
In its most outward
sense jihad came to mean the defence
of dar al-islam, that is, the Islamic world, from invasion and intrusion
by non-Islamic forces. The earliest wars of Islamic history which
threatened the very existence of the young community came to be known as
jihad par excellence in this outward sense of 'holy war'. But it was
upon returning from one of these early wars, which was of paramount
importance in the survival of the newly established religious community
and therefore of cosmic significance, that the Prophet nevertheless said
to his companions that they had returned from the lesser holy war to the
greater holy war, the greater jihad being the inner battle against all
the forces which would prevent man from living according to the
theomorphic norm which is his primordial and God given nature.
Throughout Islamic history, the lesser holy war has echoed in the
Islamic world when parts or the whole of that world have been threatened
by forces from without or within. This call has been especially
persistent since the nineteenth century with the advent of colonialism
and the threat to the very existence of the Islamic world. It must be
remembered, however, that even in such cases when the idea of jihad has
been evoked in certain parts of the Islamic world, it has not usually
been a question of religion simply sanctioning war but of the attempt of
a society in which religion remains of central concern to protect itself
from being conquered either by military and economic forces or by ideas
of an alien nature. This does not mean, however, that in some cases
especially in recent times, religious sentiments have not been used or
misused to intensify or legitimize a conflict. But to say the least, the
Islamic world does not have a monopoly on this abuse as the history of
other civilizations including even the secularized West demonstrates so
amply. Moreover, human nature being what it is, once religion ceases to
be of central significance to a particular human collectivity, then men
fight and kill each other for much less exalted issues than their
heavenly faith. By including the question of war in its sacred
legislation, Islam did not condone but limited war and its consequences
as the history of the traditional Islamic world bears out. In any case
the idea of total war and the actual practice of the extermination of
whole civilian populations did not grow out of a civilization whose
dominant religion saw jihad in a positive light. On the more external
level, the lesser jihad also includes the socio-economic domain. It
means the reassertion of justice in the external environment of human
existence starting with man himself. To defend one's rights and
reputation, to defend the honour of oneself and one's family is itself a
jihad and a religious duty. So is the strengthening of all those social
bonds from the family to the whole of the Muslim people (al-ummah) which
the Shari'ah emphasizes. To seek social justice in accordance with the
tenets of the Quran and of course not in the modern secularist sense is
a way of re-establishing equilibrium in human society, that is, of
performing jihad, as are constructive economic enterprises provided the
well-being of the whole person is kept in mind and material welfare does
not become an end in itself; provided one does not lose sight of the
Quranic verse, 'The other world is better for you than this one'. To
forget the proper relation between the two worlds would itself be
instrumental in bringing about disequilibrium and would be a kind of
jihad in reverse.
All of those external forms of jihad would remain incomplete and in fact
contribute to an excessive externalization of human being, if they were
not complemented by the greater or inner jihad which man must carry out
continuously within himself for the nobility of the human state resides
in the constant tension between what we appear to be and what we really
are and the need to transcend ourselves throughout this journey of
earthly life in order to become what we 'are'.
From the spiritual point of view all the 'pillars' of Islam can be seen
as being related to jihad. The fundamental witnesses, 'There is no
divinity but Allah' and 'Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah', through
the utterance of which a person becomes a Muslim are not only statements
about the Truth as seen in the Islamic perspective but also weapons for
the practice of inner jihad. The very form of the first witness (La
ilaha illa' Lla-h in Arabic) when written in Arabic calligraphy is like
a bent sword with which all otherness is removed from the Supreme
Reality while all that is positive in manifestation is returned to that
Reality. The second witness is the blinding assertion of the powerful
and majestic descent of all that constitutes in a positive manner the
cosmos, man and revelation from that Supreme Reality. To invoke the two
witnesses in the form of the sacred language in which they were revealed
is to practice the inner jihad and to bring about awareness of who we
are, from whence we come and where is our ultimate abode. . . .
The great stations of perfection in the spiritual life can also be seen
in the light of the inner jihad. To become detached from the impurities
of the world in order to repose in the purity of the Divine Presence
requires an intense jihad for our soul has its roots sunk deeply into
the transient world which the soul of fallen man mistakes for reality.
To overcome the lethargy, passivity and indifference of the soul,
qualities which have become second nature to man as a result of his
forgetting who he is constitutes likewise a constant jihad. To pull the
reigns of the soul from dissipating itself outwardly as a result of its
centrifugal tendencies and to bring it back to the centre wherein
resides Divine Peace and all the beauty which the soul seeks in vain in
the domain of multiplicity is again an inner jihad. To melt the hardened
heart into a flowing stream of love which would embrace the whole of
creation in virtue of the love for God is to perform the alchemical
process of solve et coagula inwardly through a 'work' which is none
other than an inner struggle and battle against what the soul has become
in order to transform it into that which it 'is' and has never ceased to
be if only it were to become aware of its own nature. Finally, to
realize that only the Absolute is absolute and that only the Self can
ultimately utter 'I' is to perform the supreme jihad of awakening the
soul from the dream of forgetfulness and enabling it to gain the supreme
principal knowledge for the sake of which it was created. The inner
jihad or warfare seen spiritually and esoterically can be considered
therefore as the key for the understanding of the whole spiritual
process, and the path for the realization of the One which lies at the
heart of the Islamic message seen in its totality. The Islamic path
towards perfection can be conceived in the light of the symbolism of the
greater jihad to which the Prophet of Islam, who founded this path on
earth, himself referred.
In the same way
that with every breath the principle of life which functions in us
irrespective of our will and as long as it is willed by Him who
created us, exerts itself through jihad to instill life within our
whole body, at every moment in our conscious life we should seek to
perform jihad in not only establishing equilibrium in the world about
us but also in awakening to that Divine Reality which is the very
source of our consciousness. For the spiritual man, every breath is a
reminder that he should continue the inner jihad until he awakens from
all dreaming and until the very rhythm of his heart echoes that
primordial sacred Name by which all things were made and through which
all things return to their Origin. The Prophet said, 'Man is asleep
and when he dies he awakens'. Through inner jihad the spiritual man
dies in this life in order to cease all dreaming, in order to awaken
to that Reality which is the origin of all realities, in order to
behold that Beauty of which all earthly beauty is but a pale
reflection, in order to attain that Peace which all men seek but which
can in fact be found only through the inner jihad.”
http://al-islam.org/al-serat/jihad-nasr.htm
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