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. ------ 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. ۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ 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 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism