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Before
a Muslim steps into the battlefield, he has already fought a great
battle within himself against Satan- against his own desires and
ambitions, his personal interests and inclinations, the interests
of his own family and of his nation; against anything which is
not from Islam; against every obstacle which comes into the way
of worshipping Allah and the implementation of the Divine authority
on earth, returning this authority to Allah and taking it away
from the rebellious usurpers.
Those who say that Islamic Jihad was merely for
the defense of the 'home land of Islam' diminish the greatness
of the Islamic way of life and consider it less important than
their 'homeland'. This is not the Islamic point of view, and their
view is a creation of modern age and is completely alien to Islamic
consciousness. What is acceptable to Islamic consciousness is
its belief, the way of life which this belief prescribes, and
the society which lives according to this way of life. The soil
of the homeland has, in itself, no value or weight. From the Islamic
point of view, the only value which the soil can achieve is because
on that soil Allah's authority is established and Allah's guidance
is followed; and thus it becomes a fortress for the belief, a
place for its way of life to be entitled the 'homeland of Islam',
a centre for the movement for the total freedom of man.
Of
course, in that case the defense of the 'homeland of Islam' is
the defense of the Islamic beliefs, the Islamic way of life, and
the Islamic community. However, it's defense is not the ultimate
objective of the Islamic movement of Jihad but it is a mean of
establishing the Divine authority within it so that it becomes
the headquarters for the movement of Islam, which is then to be
carried throughout the earth to the whole of mankind, as the object
of this religion is all humanity and its sphere of action is the
whole earth.
As
we have described earlier, there are many practical obstacles
in the establishing Allah's rule on earth, such as the power of
state, the social system and traditions and, in general, the whole
human environment. Islam uses force only to remove these obstacles
so that there may not remain any wall between Islam and individual
human beings, and so that it may address their hearts and minds
after releasing them from these material obstacles, and then leave
them free to choose to accept or reject it.
We
ought not to be deceived or embarrassed by the attacks of the
orientalists on the origin of Jihad, nor lose self-confidence
under the pressure of present conditions and the weight of the
great powers of the world to such an extent that we try to find
reasons for Islamic Jihad outside the nature of this religion,
and try to show that it was a defensive measure under temporary
conditions. The need for Jihad remains, and will continue to remain,
whether these conditions exist or not!
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