http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=5/11/2004&Cat=15&Num=001
True Jihad
By Hamid Golpira
Once I was the student of a very great shaikh. He taught me and the
other students many things. May Allah bless him for teaching us so
many things and accept his jihad of teaching.
Once our teacher taught us about the rules of jihad. He said that
every Muslim must first do jihad-i-nafs, the struggle against the
desires of the lower self, for self-purification. Prophet Mohammad
(peace be upon him and his family) said that jihad-i-nafs is the great
jihad. We should reflect upon this deep hadith.
After performing jihad-i-nafs to a satisfactory level and committing
oneself to lifelong performance of jihad-i-nafs, a Muslim can do the
other jihad, the lesser jihad.
This jihad determines the three types of people in the world: (1) the
true Muslims; (2) the non-Muslims who are not enemies of Islam
actively fighting against Islam; and (3) the enemies of Islam, which
includes all munafiqin (hypocrites who claim to be Muslims).
The true Muslims are our brothers and sisters and we must never fight
against them. Also, we must never fight against the non-Muslims who
are not enemies of Islam, since some of them live in Islamic countries
and have paid the jeziya tax, making them dhimmis (people protected by
Islam), and others are citizens of non-Muslim countries who are not
personally fighting against Islam or assisting a war against Islam.
As far as the enemies of Islam, we are only permitted to fight against
them if we have done everything in our power to avoid war and to
encourage them to stop being enemies of Islam and to join one of the
other two groups.
Our wise teacher explained it to us like this. First we must invite
them to Islam. Even if they declare war against us, we should invite
them to Islam by calling a one-day truce for them to think over our
invitation. If after one day they embrace Islam, we should accept them
as Muslim brothers and sisters and war has been averted.
If they do not embrace Islam, we should invite them to pay the jeziya
tax and become dhimmis or to make a peace treaty with the Muslims, and
we should again call a one-day truce for them to think over our
proposal. If after one day they decide to pay the jeziya tax and
become dhimmis or to make a peace treaty with the Muslims, we should
accept their decision, and again war has been averted.
However, if they do not embrace Islam and do not decide to become
non-Muslims who are not enemies of Islam but decide to make war
against the Muslims, then, under such circumstances, we are allowed to
wage war against them, as long as we observe all the other rules of
jihad, such as treating prisoners fairly and not attacking civilians.
And Islam teaches that genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity,
and terrorism are always haram (forbidden).
Once, before a battle, Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him and his
family) gave Imam Ali (peace be upon him) a flag on which was
inscribed la ilaha illa ‘llah (there is no God but Allah) and told him
to go out to the battlefield to invite the enemies to Islam while
carrying the banner. And Imam Ali (peace be upon him) went out to the
battlefield carrying the banner of Islam and inviting the enemies to
Islam. This is the best example of true jihad.
--
( W W P D ) - What Would Patton Do?
http://www.marianland.com/Patton/PattononTerrorists.gif
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