Striving

Now

we know that the struggles of life are the greater Jihad,

taking up so much more of most lives than the lesser jihad at times of war,

but those real life moments of the lesser Jihad

though comparatively brief are inevitably extraordinarily intense.

These are the times when you have to decide

if you are prepared to die for your belief and your right to believe.

For times of war are not make believe,

and you can bleed and die for real,

so it's not a bad idea to give the matter some thought

when you are considering whether you are willing to be a martyr.

For a start,

who will you follow in the absence of the Messenger?

And where do you define the edges of your Dar-al-Harb,

your land of warfare.

And what area do you think of as your Dar-al-Islam,

your land of peace

and mercy and justice?

And who gets to decide?

When the Messenger was with his community in Madina,

in all the lands beyond their small local area

they faced clans who had vowed to destroy them,

simply because they didn't like what they were saying,

simply saying that there is indeed a God,

One God,

and that Muhammad had been chosen as Messenger

to transmit a worded Message

from God to humankind.

Madina was, to a certain extent, under siege,

and travel to the outside world meant a constant threat of attack,

so that world was known as the Land of Warfare,

the Dar-al-Harb.

Now Arabic has lots of different words that speak of armed conflict,

so as well as Harb meaning 'war',

there is Sira's meaning 'combat',

Ma'araka meaning 'battle',

and Qutl meaning 'killing',

but the Qur'an uses none of these when describing the kind of conflict it calls Jihad .

Jihad is a vaguer, richer word than the others,

one which has a wide range of associations,

implying not just a physical effort,

but also a moral, spiritual and intellectual effort

The fight takes place inside

as well as outside.

An offensive jihad

is not considered lawful

unless it involves inviting those who reject belief

to surrender to God.

And the jihad must end if they do that,

or if they accept a protected status within Islam,

or if it is agreed that muslims are no longer under threat from them.

Obviously it is considered legally impossible to undertake a jihad against muslims,

but people will fight

because of human nature,

and so wars will happen,

but that doesn't mean you can just call any old war you fancy a 'jihad'.

And the way of fighting in Jihad

is itself to be kept on a moral leash.

A Jihadi must not wilfully kill women and children,

old people or non-combatants.

They must not burn crops or houses,

or kill by fire

considered a punishment reserved for Hell,

They must not kill cattle or uproot trees.

A Jihadi must be focused on their moral purpose at all times.

Now the prospect of imminent agony and death

surely helps focus the mind on that moral purpose

and the meaning of your life,

and of course on your prospects for the afterlife.

Things that when facing death

are obviously fairly crucial considerations.

But they are actually crucial all of the time,

when imminent death does not seem so likely.

Lack of fear eases the way to forgetfulness,

and it is not good to forget what is crucial.

One reason that the Greater Jihad is greater

is because in times of peace

it takes a greater struggle to remember what we are doing here,

what we are here for,

our real purpose in life.

The Qur'an frequently urges Taqwa on humankind,

a constant Mindfulness of God,

and to stay Mindful of God

amidst all the distractions and temptations of everyday life,

it surely helps to retain some fear

at least some small fear of the possible trials God might send for us to struggle with.