The True Jihad
Non-Violence and Islam
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and only when avoidance has become impossible, is
battle to be resorted to in self-defence.
3. According to the Qur’an, there was one form of
war which was time-bound strictly in relation to its
purpose. This was to put an end to
fitna
. ‘Fight
against them until
fitna
is no more.’ (2:193) In this
verse
fitna
signifies that coercive system which had
reached the extremes of religious persecution. In
ancient times this coercive political system
prevailed all over the world. This absolutism had
closed all the doors of progress, both spiritual and
material. At that time God commanded the
believers to break this coercive system in order to
usher in freedom, so that all
doors of spiritual and material
progress might be opened to
man.
Bringing monarchy to an end
and establishing the caliphate in
its place in the first phase of
Islam was the beginning of this
process. The system was first
established in Arabia. At that
According to
the teachings of
Islam, war is to
be waged not
against the
enemy but
against the
aggressor.
