Jihad according to Tariq Ramadan
-
How often has one heard apropos the expressions ?the holy war?, the fanatic mobilisation of ?God's madmen? and ?new flaw of rampant fundamentalism?. The world of Islam, which is lately haunted by the gangrene of {jihad}, scares and terrorises minds.
How is it that one of the most fundamental notions of Islam has itself come to express one of the most sombre traits?
How can a concept, which is loaded with the most intense spirituality, become the most negative symbol of religious expression?The reading of events of recent history has certainly its share of the blame, but the distortion began much earlier and dates back to the Middle Ages. The understanding of certain Islamic notions was from very early on confined to an exercise of pure comparison. There were the crusades as there were Muslim expansions; there were holy crusades and, thus, there must have also been ?holy wars,? the famous {jihad}.
While the West has happily gone beyond the initial stage of religious war and crusade, the observer, witnessing groups, movements, parties and governments that call for ({jihad}) armed struggle and political violence, is indeed forced to notice that the Muslim world is still today lagging behind. The symbolical arsenal seems medieval and obscurantist, to say the least.
Here also then the question arises will Islam evolve? This question seems legitimate and its expression brings up, nonetheless, another misunderstanding which is nowadays undoubtedly upheld voluntarily.
But, one must go back to the source of this notion and try to better understand its spiritual and dynamic scope. {Jihad} is the most fulfilling expression of a faith for it seeks to express balance and harmony. One must say a word here about its individual scope and its literally ?inter-national? dimension, and finally, the subject that interests us here, about its social actualisation.
{{a)Peace of Heart}}
Can any human being assert, from the depth of his heart, that he has never been subjected to violence, aggression, hatred, anger and even the excitement of a destructive instinct? Mastery over self, serenity, respect of others and gentleness are not natural, but are acquired by means of a vigilant, personal effort. Such is the lot of men. They board the shores of their humanity by means of a long, well-thought and measured work on the self. Everyone knows this and each heart feels it. All the world's literature, from the dawn of time, has plainly documented representation of this tension. A tension that is sometimes appeased, sometimes agitated, and at other times tears apart men's inward focus. From the Baghavad Gita to the Thora and Gospels, from Dostoievski to Baudelaire, the landscape of human experience remains the same.
The Qur'an, too, confirms the most daily of experiences {By the soul, and That which shaped it and inspired it to lewdness and Godfearing! Prosperous is he who purifies it, and failed has he who seduces it}.
The two paths are explicit; they are apprehended in the most vivid and moral fashion coupled with remembrance of the life to come. Life is a test to achieve this balance by men capable of inducing both the best and the worst from themselves.
Here, we are in approximating to grasp the notion of {jihad}, which cannot be understood except as an implicit concept that pertains to this tension within man. Tension is natural and the internal conflict is {human}. Moreover, man proceeds and realises himself in and by the effort that he exerts in order to give force and presence to the inclination of his least violent, irascible and aggressive self. He struggles daily against the most negative forces of his being, for he knows that his humanity will be the reward for mastering them. This inward effort and this struggle against the ?postulations? of interiority is the most appropriate (literal and figurative) translation of the word ?{jihad}?.
It is not question here of reducing {jihad} to a personal dimension ({jihad'l-nafs}), but rather returning to its most immediate reality. {Jihad} is to man's humanity what instinct is to an animal's behaviour. To be, for man, is to be responsible and such responsibility is linked to a choice that always seeks to express the goodness and respect of oneself and others. Choosing, in the reality of inward conflict, is to have a resolve for peace of heart.
We know the words of the Prophet (pbuh) in a {hadith} whose chain of transmission is acknowledged as weak ({da {who created death and life, that He might try you which of you is fairest in works}.}
The real meaning of Islamic spirituality lies in reforming one's inner space, appeasing one's heart at the chevet of acknowledgement of the Creator and within a generous human action; it is loving in transparency and living in the light. This spirituality joins the horizons of all other spiritualities that require man to be equipped with a force of being rather than being subjected to the despotic fierceness of a life that is reduced to instinct. This tension towards the mastery of the self is conveyed in Arabic by the word {jihad}.
Understanding this dimension is a necessary part of a larger discussion on the meaning of armed conflict. What needs to be retained in the first instance, on the individual plane as well as on the international plane, is that God has willed this tension. He made it by His management of one of the conditions of access to faith and to humanity. ?The Prophet (pbuh) exclaimed one day ?Who is the strongest among men?? The companions responded ?It is him who overcomes his enemy,? and the Prophet (pbuh) responded ?No, the strongest is him who keeps his anger in check.?(29){{b)The reality of conflicts}}
? http//www.tariqramadan.com/article.php3?id_article=65