The True Jihad
The True Jihad
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to the
sunnah
of the Prophet, there is no aggressive
or offensive war in Islam. Islam allows only a
defensive war and that, too, only when there is no
other option.
The truth is that in life we have to face the problem
of choosing between two courses: between the
confrontational and the non-confrontational,
between the peaceful and the violent. The study of
the Prophet’s life tells us that the Prophet, in all
matters, abandoned the violent or confrontational
course in favour of the peaceful or non-
confrontational course. The whole life of the
Prophet provides a successful, practical example of
this principle. We give here some examples of this
nature.
1. After being appointed as Prophet, the first
question before him was which of the two above-
mentioned courses he should follow. As we know,
the Prophet’s mission was to bring polytheism
(
shirk
) to an end and establish monotheism in its
place. The Kabah in Makkah had already been
established as a centre of monotheism, but at the
time of the Prophet 360 idols were already installed
