The True Jihad
Preface
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PREFACE
A perusal of the Qur’an followed by a study of
latter-day Muslim history will reveal a blatant
contradiction between the two—that of principle
and practice. Where recent developments in some
Muslim countries bespeak the culture of war, the
Qur’an, on the contrary, is imbued with the spirit of
tolerance. Its culture is not that of war, but of
mercy.
At the very beginning of the Qur’an, the first
invocation reads: “In the name of God, the most
Merciful, the most Beneficent.” Throughout the
Qur’an, God’s name is thus invoked no less than
113 times. Moreover, the Qur’an states that the
prophets were sent to the world
as a mercy to the
people
(21:107).
The word ‘
jihad
’ has nowhere been used in the
Qur’an to mean war in the sense of launching an
offensive. It is used rather to mean ‘struggle’. The
action most consistently called for in the Qur’an is
the exercise of patience. Yet today, the ‘Muslim
Mujahideen’ under unfavourable conditions have
