‘Jihâd’ means ‘amr-i-ma’rûf’ and ‘nahy-i-’an-il-munkar’[1]. The former means ‘to introduce Islam to disbelievers, and thereby to rescue them from the blight of disbelief’, and the latter means ‘to teach Muslims Islam’s practices, and thereby to protect them from committing Islam’s prohibitions’. There are three ways of performing either one of these two duties (of jihâd). The first way is to do it physically, or, in clearer terms, to perform jihâd by employing all sorts of weaponry; this sort of jihâd is conducted against dictators and imperialistic powers for the purpose of eliminating their obstructive policies over hapless masses of people who have fallen into the pit of disbelief as a result of being unaware of Islam or blindly following others or living under tyranny, oppression, persecution, exploitation or misguidance. The most up-to-date weaponry are used to fight these dictators and imperialistic tyrants, to annihilate their forces, and thereby to rescue the wretched slaves and the oppressed peoples from their talons. Then Islam is preached to these people and they are offered to become Muslims willingly. If they prefer not to become Muslims, they are allowed to live and practice their religion of choice equally with Muslims under the Islamic state, which provides freedom, equality and justice to all. This type of (jihâd) is done only by Islamic states or by their armies. It is never permissible for any individual Muslim to attack and rob any disbeliever without the prior order, permission and knowledge of an Islamic state. Islamic religion punishes severely those Muslims who murder any citizen of another state with whom the Islamic state has a peace accord. As can be seen clearly from the foregoing, in the Islamic religion, fighting does not mean destroying other countries or killing other people. What it really means is striving for the introduction of Islam to others so that they might become Muslims willingly and lovingly and save themselves from the eternal disasters. Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sal-lam’, the Sahâba ‘alaihim-ur-ridwân’, and real Islamic states, for example Ottomans, all performed this type of jihâd. They never attacked weak and defenceless people. They fought against enemies of Islam, tyrannical disbelievers, imperialists and heretical and disruptive people who carried Muslim names and yet who were preventing Islam from reaching those poor people and communicating its message to them. They fought against them and destroyed their imperialist powers and freed enslaved people who were living miserably under their torturous powers. They, taught them Islam and thus provided opportunity for them to become Muslims of their own free will and thus helped them to find the eternal happiness.
The second duty of the Islamic army or the Islamic state is to protect Muslims and Islam and to make jihâd against disbelivers and heretical separatists who attack Islamic countries in order to destroy and annihilate Muslims and Islam. Allâhu ta’âlâ commands in Sûra Anfâl that the Islamic state should conduct scientific research during peace time, learning and making the latest weaponry manufactured in disbelievers’ countries. State officials who neglect this duty of producing new weaponry are insubordinate to Islam’s Sharî’at and are responsible for the death of millions of Muslims and the debilitation of Islam as a result of their failure to counter the attacks of their enemies.
The second way of Islamic jihâd is to exploit all sorts of means of communication to spread Islam and to announce it to humanity. This type of jihâd is done only by Islamic scholars with the help and under the control of Islamic states. In our time, enemies of Islam, i.e., missionaries, communists, freemasons, and people who do not follow any madhhab, (la‑madhhabiyya) are attacking Islam by using all kinds of communication means. They are trying to deceive people and ignorant Muslims through fabricated lies and slanders and thereby to destroy Islam. Recently, in 1992, we have heard that Christians prepared eleven questions and distributed them to all Islamic countries. The scholars of Bangladesh wrote answers to these and thus disgraced the Christian clergy, the behind-the-scene plotters. Hakikat book-store located in Istanbul added these answers under the name of “Al-Akazib-ul-jadidatul-hiristyaniyya” to the book Assirat-ul-mustakim and is now distributing it throughout the world. Also, another group, i.e., Qâdiyânîs (Ahmadiyyas), Bahâîs, followers of Mawdûdî, people of Tabligh al‑Jamâ’at, the group called Salafiyya, and those people who do not belong to any madhhab (la-madhhabiyya) and wahhâbîs have deviated from the correct path of Islam by deriving wrong and corrupt meanings from the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs. Some of these miscreants have carried their heresy too far and lapsed into disbelief. They all spread their corrupt and deviated beliefs by publishing books, magazines and booklets and by way of radios. They spend millions for this purpose. On the one hand, they are destroying Islam from within by deceiving “Ahl as‑Sunnat Muslims”, i.e., “Sunni Muslîms” and on the other hand, they are introducing to all peoples something in the name of religion which is not pure and correct Islam. Amidst all these various propaganda, people who want to become Muslims are becoming confused and they are either giving up the idea of becoming Muslims or entering into a wrong path with the credulity that they have become Muslims.
Today, the greatest jihâd is performed by “Ahl as‑Sunnat scholars” against the destructive and cunning propagandas of the internal and external enemies of Islam by spreading the teachings of the knowledge of “Ahl as‑sunnat”, i.e., the way of our Prophet Muhammad ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sal-lam’ and his Sahâba by using all means of communication to all peoples of the world.
The third way of jihâd is to do it through prayer. It is “fard al‑ayn” or in other words it is a must duty for every Muslim to perform this type of jihâd. Not performing this type of jihâd is a grave sin. Performing this third type of jihâd is done by praying for those who perform the first two types of jihâd. Those who are doing the first two types of jihâd are in need of the prayers of those who are not actively participating in the first two types of jihâd. All prayers performed with sincerity will surely be accepted.
Allâhu ta’âlâ without any doubt will help those who trust the help of Allâhu ta’âlâ and obey Islam’s commandments and perform the above-mentioned three types of jihâd. Allâhu ta’âlâ will not accept the prayers of those who do not prepare themselves for the jihâd and who do not prepare the necessary newest war equipment beforehand and who do not establish strong brotherhood and love among themselves but instead assume that they do their duty of jihâd only by praying. There are conditions to be fulfilled for the acceptance of the prayer (dua.) These conditions stipulate that we hold fast to the causes which will provide the results that we pray for. As we have stated above, in order to be successful in jihâd, we have to follow the commandments of Islam. Islam commands us to prepare ourselves for jihâd. The first type of jihâd requires acquisition of the most modern weaponry and training on how to use them. Moreover, it also requires discipline and obedience to the leaders and commanders who are in charge as well as avoiding separatist movements. If the commanding posts have trusts (waqf), every Muslim who has the means should help such trusts. Helping “Ahl as‑sunnat scholars” or trusts which support such scholars constitutes jihâd through property. Allâhu ta’âlâ promises the eternal Gardens of Paradise to those who perform jihâd physically and financially. Alî Muhammad Belhî explains jihâd at length in his book Muftî-i-mujâhid, written in Persian and printed in1411 A.H.]
[1] Ref: This paragraphes are quoted from the book “Ethics of Islam” page 84, which is the translation of the book Berîka written by Abû Sa’îd Muhammad bin MustafâHâdimî ‘rahima hullâhu ta’âlâ’, who passed away in 1176 Hijrî, 1762 A.D. in Konya / Turkey and the book Akhlâq-i-Alâî written in Turkish by Alî bin Amrullah ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ,’ who passed away in 979 Hijrî, 1572 A.D. in Edirne / Turkey. You can find the whole book and the other valuable books in the web site www.hakikatkitabevi.com.tr and download in PDF format for Adobe Acrobat Reader, EPUB format for iPhone-iPad-Mac devices and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle device.
