The Greatest Enemy Of Humanity Is The Evil Self, Or Nafs, Which Calls For Jihad Bin-Nafs
By
Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam
30 January
2023
Jihad Akbar, As Defined By The Holy Prophet,
Is Jihad Bin-Nafs Which Is Waged Against The Evil Self
Main
Points
1. The greatest
enemy of Muslims is their evil self (nafs), which motivates them to behave
immorally and conduct bad deeds.
2. Muslims must
wage Jihad against the internal enemy described as "the evil self".
3. The
situation in Muslim countries like Syria, Iraq, and others leads us to the
conclusion that anyone who calls for Jihad Bil-Qitaal is an enemy of Islam and
Muslims.
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Nowadays,
Jihad is a hot topic of conversation worldwide. There is a contentious debate
regarding jihad, particularly in English-language publications including
periodicals, journals, newspapers, and websites. Everyone seems to be speaking
within their respective intellectual comfort zones and areas of expertise. The
truth for common Muslims in India is that they actively begin raising voices
for justice and resistance whenever a Muslim is brutally and oppressively
attacked through lynching in India. However, despite the fact that extremist
organisations have killed millions of Muslims in Muslim countries to date, no one
is speaking up loud enough to put a stop it. Everyone is aware that extremist
organisations exploit words like "Jihad" in depraved ways to commit
horrific acts of violence against weak and defenceless individuals. In this
instance, Jihad will undoubtedly be covered in newspapers and on social media.
As a result, people today dislike hearing the word "Jihad" since
every time it is used, violent acts carried out by extremist groups come to
mind.
There are
numerous forms of jihad in Islam, but Jihad Bin-Nafs and Jihad
Bil-Qitaal are the two that are most frequently discussed, according to
Muslim experts from all over the world.
Go wherever
in the world right now, and if you can successfully convey the essence of Jihad
Bin-Nafs to one person, even if they are unable to carry out its demands,
at least they won't want to condemn it. This is so because Jihad Bin-Nafs
upholds all the ideals connected to high moral character and honourable deeds. Jihad
Bin-Nafs promotes the well-being of all people, adherence to human values
and customs, as well as patience, tolerance, peace, security, and the avoidance
of evil activities.
Jihad
Bin-Nafs is the
struggle against evil thoughts, impulses, and capacities for lust, rage, and an
insatiable imagination, bringing them all under the control of reason and faith
in obedience to Allah Almighty's commands, and ultimately purifying oneself of
all satanic influences and concepts. Jihad Bin-Nafs also counsels people to
abstain from doing evil activities like slandering and accusing others, lying,
backbiting, stealing, cruelty, disobedience, mischief, robbery, looting,
reducing measure and weight, and other similar deeds.
Jihad
Bin-Nafs
illuminates the heart and mind of a true believer to such an extent that his
heart overflows with compassion and affection. He thus views the well-being of
humanity, assistance for the impoverished, and human compassion and goodwill as
the springs of life. He keeps his distance from any egocentric greed. As a
result, he has a such inner peace that the idea of terrorism never even enters
his mind. He despises the idea of terrorism so intensely that he does not
believe it is appropriate to bring it up in conversation.
This could
be explained by the fact that those who engage in Jihad Bin-Nafs are
fully aware that even the mere perception of terrorism will disturb his
peacefulness. His heart develops accustomed to receiving kindness and
gentleness and stays away from all sorts of harshness and extremism as a result
of being intoxicated by the love and sincere devotion of Allah Almighty. In
short, those who practice Jihad Bin-Nafs pose no threat to human life because
they are such devoted servants of Allah that they believe that the unjust
killing of any human being created by Allah or its illegal termination can
itself result in humiliation and shame in the presence of Allah in the
Hereafter. He shall therefore participate in Jihad Bin-Nafs to abstain from all
forms of oppression, injustice, dishonesty, breach of promise, and wrongful
killing. Similarly, if he is successful in avoiding all the other crimes of the
evil self, it will be asserted in his favour that he has actually performed
Jihad Bin-Nafs.
This short
article has shown how important it is to remember that the wicked self (nafs)
is the biggest enemy of mankind since it is the evil Nafs that drives people to
join terrorism and extremism in order to gain control over politics and the
government, wealth, and other things. Some people are in such a situation that
they (astaghfirullah) are not ashamed to cite the texts of the Quran and hadith
of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) outside of their
context and do not fear God Almighty in order to achieve their own selfish
objectives. The divine words of God which came to enlighten humanity are now
used to commit illegal acts of terrorism. Tyrants who are addicted to human
blood have gone so far as to misuse the words of God Almighty for justifying
their forbidden acts.
By
forbidden acts, I mean the actions of some extremist groups that bomb
monasteries, mosques, holy sites, gatherings of people, and markets while
justifying their actions by quoting the Quran and the Sunnah out of context.
They do so while referring to suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks as
"Jihad." When they refer to jihad while engaging in such behaviour,
they mean Jihad Bil-Qitaal. Contrary to what they believe in this regard,
Islamic texts draw many parallels between Jihad Bil-Qitaal and military
operations as both are agreed upon by the leadership of a country.
According
to Islamic texts, Jihad Bil-Qitaal is a struggle that is fought to
protect human lives and remove oppression, and it can only be declared by an
Islamic country, a king, or the Sultan of Islam. Islamic law of Jihad
Bil-Qitaal strictly forbids harming other individuals, including women,
children, monks, priests, and members of other faiths. However, despite these
restrictions, terrorist organisations continue to target individuals with
bombing and suicide attacks.
The
extremist organisations overstepped the bounds of Islam and deceived the youth
by exploiting phrases like Jihad, Sharia, and Islamic laws mentioned in the
Islamic books to achieve their nefarious goals of acquiring power and
authority. As a result, the destruction is evident in the Muslim countries
where these groups have established themselves. Citizens, mostly Muslims,
women, and children, have only seen disaster in any country where extremist
beliefs have started to grow, whether it be Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, or
Kashmir.
The
oppressed and those who have been the targets of extremist violence have no one
to turn to for protection. In the terror-affected areas, women are living as
widows, children are orphans, and aging parents have lost their young sons.
Many people are compelled to cross borders and live as refugees outside of
their own country because they have lost not only their family but also their
possessions. The majority of them have requested asylum in Western nations,
while Muslim countries are hesitant to accept them. Who is responsible for this
situation? In truth, these conditions are the result of radical organisations
misusing the term "Jihad" and destroying their own country.
Knowing the
Quran and Sunnah can help you to comprehend that Jihad bin-Nafs, rather than
Jihad bil-Qitaal, is what contemporary Muslims should carry out. The person who
succeeds in Jihad Bin-Nafs will undoubtedly understand that Jihad bil-Qitaal,
which occurred during the lifetime of the Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him),
was a defensive war that occurred in an unavoidable situation. In Makkah,
Muslims were subjected to religious persecution for almost thirteen years. They
migrated to Madina to flee religious persecution, but their adversaries
followed them. It was at this time that the verses of the Quran referring to
Jihad Bil-Qitaal were revealed in order to protect human rights, life, and
religion.
The virtue
of Jihad, the greatness of the martyrs, and the glad tidings of Paradise was
also revealed through the verses of the Quran during the blessed time of the
Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) so that the Muslims
would not fail to engage in it and so take a keen interest in eliminating the
oppression. The practical form of jihad that the Prophet Muhammad and his companions
waged cannot ever be condemned by a just historian of history.
In other
words, the Quranic verses declared Jihad bil-Qitaal, or the Jihad to end the
terrorism of that time. But in the present day, this jihad is misconstrued as a
justification for terrorist acts. In reality, this is a planned war against
Islam itself, which aims to weaken Muslims economically and socially and is
equivalent to eliminating Muslims from the face of the earth permanently.
Although the extremists do not admit this, their actions lead to such results
and this fact is in front of everyone.
Muslims
must now engage in Jihad bin-Nafs rather than Jihad bil-Qitaal. They
must absolutely refrain from their own wicked deeds. The hearts and minds of
Muslims are being attacked by morally repugnant acts like lying, cruelty,
distorting weights and measures, accepting usury, committing adultery,
stealing, breaking promises, and generally being impolite to others and thereby
violating the rights of Allah as well as the human rights.
These wicked
activities motivated by the evil self (Nafs) are what drive most people's bad
morals and deplorable behaviours. The bad deeds are the real enemies. Muslims
must therefore first fight jihad against the enemies they have within. This
suggests that people must engage in Jihad Bin-Nafs, which the Prophet referred
to as Jihad Akbar (the Greatest Jihad) (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him).
It is also
important to note that the person calling for Jihad bil-Qitaal in the current
situation is an adversary of Islam, Muslim life, property, honour, and dignity.
This is especially true in light of the situations in Syria, Iraq, and other
countries. Since the evil Nafs is our internal enemy and extremist
organisations are our external enemies, our first job is to protect ourselves
from both enemies.
----
A
regular Columnist with NewAgeIslam.com, Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi Dehlvi is a
Classical Islamic scholar with a Sufi background and English-Arabic-Urdu
Translator.
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Urdu
Article: An Overview of Jihad Bil-Qitaal and Jihad Bin-Nafs جہاد بالقتال اور جہاد بالنفس کا جائزہ
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/enemy-humanity-evil-nafs-jihad/d/128988
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