22 June 2018

Jihad Is Not Holy War

Murad Ali Baig

Islam changed significantly over the years. After the sacking of Baghdad Ahmad ibn Tamiyya (1263 – 1328) was driven out of Iraq by the Mongols under Genghis Khan’s grandson Halagu who destroyed Baghdad and reportedly slaughtered some 90,000 Muslims in 1258 or six centuries after the death of Muhammad. Halagu was evidently a Buddhist married to a Christian but the sack of Baghdad was a matter of brutal political expediency with no religious significance. The Mongol destruction of Baghdad however marked the end of what had been described as Islam’s Golden Age and Muslims became more belligerent.
The word Jihad is found only four times in the Quran but is referred to 199 times in the Hadis. In the beginning Jihad was just an Arabic noun that had simply meant struggle. Muhammad’s own words had made it clear that he had meant a struggle to overcome one’s own inner weaknesses. The word “jihad” is derived from the Arabic word “jahd” which meant “striving hard”. An early Arab authority had said that “Jihad can be of three kinds. Against a visible enemy, against the devil or against the self (nafs)”. By no stretch could jihad to be termed as an offensive holy war.
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