The True Jihad
Non-Violence and Islam
~ 65 ~
Arabia during the life of the Prophet. Later, during
the pious caliphate, the Sassanid and Byzantine
empires were dismantled with special divine
succour. Consequently, intellectual oppression at
the international level was replaced by intellectual
freedom.
In this connection those traditions are worth noting
which are enshrined in
Sahih al-Bukhari
. When, after
the fourth Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, political conflict
ensued between Abdullah ibn Zubayr and the
Umayyads, Abdullah ibn Umar, one of the
seniormost companions of the Prophet, held himself
aloof from the battle. People approached him and,
quoting the verse of
qital-al-fitna
, asked him why he
was not joining in the battle. Abdullah ibn Umar
replied that
‘fitna’
as mentioned in the Qur’an did
not refer to political infighting, but rather to the
religious coercive system, that had already been put
an end to by them. (
Fathul Bari
, 8/60)
From this we learn that the war against
fitna
was a
war of limited duration, temporary in nature, meant
to be engaged in only until its specific purpose had
been served.
