HISTORY OF ISLAM - JIHAD
In the Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary the definition of Jihad is: 1) a
holy war waged
on behalf of Islam as a
religious duty; 2) a crusade for a
principle or belief.
In Islam jihad is an
Islamic legal term that means the Muslims are to fight in the way of Allah so
they can establish a just
system that will uphold the laws of the Sharia
and they are to seek and
realize the aims of Islam
on earth.
I would like to show
because of Jihad the Crusades were formed to save Christendom.
Jihad wasn’t
only against the Jews it was against non-Muslims (infidels) no matter who they
were. It is true that Muslims had enmity toward the
Jews for both religious/Islamic and
political/pragmatic
reasons which were just a smokescreen but nonetheless they always used
that for Arab-Israeli
conflicts. The political/pragmatic was
based only on the land and the
religious Islamic was
based on Islamic mandates toward the Jews and the land.
When Palestine and later
Jerusalem were lost to the Muslims to non-Muslims and worse of all
the Jews, the Muslims went
ballistic. That was the last draw. They couldn’t take it any longer.
The “Nakbah” better known as the Catastrophe gave the Muslims their
right to unilaterally
declare by “fiat” (an authoritative or arbitrary order:
decree or dictate…) [Webster’s
Dictionary] the struggle they are going through to
proclaim Jihad (Religious War) against
them.
The Naksah (setback) characterization
of Israel’s founding and victories is what gave the
Muslims their political
engagement toward the Jews and non-Muslims (infidels).
The people in the West
believe the enmity of the Jews and non-Muslims have to do with the
possession of Palestine
and Jerusalem but if these two areas were
given back to the Muslims
would Jihad be over? No. This is just a
smokescreen. The Quran wants everyone to turn to
Islam and if not Jihad can
be brought against you. The Mission
Call: The Da’wa is to bring all
back into the Islamic fold
by all means necessary. All Muslims are
to participate in this move
with their tongue,
finances, themselves, migrations and even volunteering to go to battle so
they can personally engage
the enemy. This Jihad aids the Islamic
missions for the reversion
(conversion) of people bring them back to Allah’s Fold by force or voluntarily. They are to
embrace Islam or pay the
consequences.
Muslims believe through
their teaching of Islam that this is the only true way to return and
restore mankind to Allah’s
fold unlike we in the Christian faith don’t force people and God
doesn’t force anyone to
accept Him. He gives us free will. We have the right to choose and the
choice we make will tell
where we will spend eternity. Jihad on the other hand wants action
now, here in the
present. This is their salvation to
mankind. If you don’t return to the fold
you
are considered rebelling
against Allah, making war on Islam the penalty, death.
Looking at and
understanding jihad from the
beginning will help us to understand why they use
it not saying that they
are right because in my opinion they are not because it is still going on
today.
The word jihad to the Arabs means endeavor,
training, exertion, effort, diligence, and fighting.
Traditionally basic jihad was to be executed for three
purposes: to repel invasion or its
threat,
to punish those who had
violated treaties, and to guarantee freedom for the propagation of
Islam.
You have many types of jihads.
The struggle against religious or political oppression is
considered the lesser type
between the soul’s struggle with evil.
Muhammad was smart by
associating warfare with being in the way of Allah so people would
follow him by the power of
the sword according to the Quran and here are a few verses in that
respect: Quran 8:65; 2:216; 2:191; 48:20; 8:38; 8:12; 9:111; 9:73; 9:123. Some Muslims believe
that jihad is the 6th pillar of Islam, the second greatest
command of Muhammad found in
Hadith: Al Bukhari Volume 1:25.
There are other
Hadiths (the sayings of Muhammad) that
refer
to Jahid: Sahi
Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Numbers 46, 53, 48, 50, 42. According to
Muhammad the greater jihad
is the inner struggle of faith.
The reason why Muslims are
willing and ready to carry out jihad throughout history and still
today is because of Jihad-i-Kabir (The Great Jihad) which
means: “1) To exert one’s utmost for
the cause of Islam, 2) To dedicate all one’s resource to this
cause, and 3) to fight against the
enemies of Islam on all possible fronts with all one’s resources
in order to raise high the “word
of Allah.”
The aim of Jihad is the expansion and defense of the
Islamic state not the conversion of non-
Muslims to Islam by force.
There are two types of religious
warfare, offensive jihad when
Muslims launch an offensive
attack on non-Muslims (kafir). These are the people who have previously
received the message
of Islam but rejected
it. Now if the message of Islam didn’t
reach them they give them the
chance to hear it and if
they reject it they will have to pay Jizyah
(kufr tax). If they refuse to pay
this tax then the Muslims
can fight them. Offensive jihad is performed in the enemies own
territory.
You also have defensive jihad which entails when Muslims are
attacked it is their duty to
defend themselves. This means armed struggles. They have to defend their territory at all
cost.
There are different
methods of jihad just to name a few:
1.
Jihad
of Words: To use oratory, in a war of
nerves, to inspire their own side in order to intimidate the opponent and to
demoralize the self-esteem of the kafir (infidel).
2.
Jihad
of Deception: To confuse the enemy, it
is acceptable to tell a lie, even if one is under oath.
3.
Jihad
of the Sword-To-Kill the enemy, loot his possession and take hostages for
ransom.
4.
Jihad
of Taxation: To have extra financial
burden on non-Muslims, so that they are pressured to leave the land or convert
to Islam.
5.
Jihad
of Slavery: To use as a weapon to
subjugate non-Muslims and to have men as labor and woman and young boys for
sexual pleasure.
6.
Jihad
of Sharia Law: To degrade non-Muslims to
a lower status, deny them equal access to the law because the testimony of the
non-Muslim is considered invalid.
7.
Jihad
of Polygamy: A Muslim has permission to
have four legal wives (Surah 4:3,4). That’s how Islam is propagating itself.
8.
Jihad
of the Spirits: A Muslim is to fight on
Muhammad’s behalf both in his life and after his death. Hadith Volume 1 Chapter 43).
Islam was practiced only
in Saudi Arabia after Muhammad died in 632 AD but in less than 100
years different
territories were conquered.
In closing if you look at
the Quran more than 80% is filled with Holy War (Jihad). In
the Arabian
Peninsula early Islam was
spread mainly by Jihad. Many war battles were fought and the
Crusades which consist of
only eight battles had to be fought to protect Christendom from
Islamic invasions. The Roman Catholic Church was the one to
initiate the Crusades. It was not
commanded or referenced to
in the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Remember He was a peace
maker not a peace
breaker. You will not see the word
crusade anywhere in the Bible. It was
the cruel, ruthless, and
determined expansion of Islam by the sword that the Roman Catholic
Church initiated the
Crusades. The purpose of the crusades
launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II
was to reclaim the sacred
city of Jerusalem and the Holy land. So
peasants and knights from
many Western Europe
nations travelled over land and sea towards Jerusalem and captured the
city on July 1099
establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem. “The Crusades were fought from 1095
and 1291 over a period of less than 200 years.” Even though the Crusades were launched in
1096, Islamic Jihad had already been in action
against Christendom for nearly five hundred
years and it is still
going on now but the Crusades are over.
REFERENCES
Al-Yahud: Eternal Islamic
Enmity & the Jews, By:
Elias Al-Maqdisi & Sam Solomon, Copyright 2010 Sam Solomon,
Published by ANM Publishers
MIRACE: The Love Language
of Islam!, By:
David Ibrahim, Copyright 2010 David Ibrahim, Published by ANM Publishers
Webster’s Dictionary
The Quran
The Hadith
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