جذبۂ جہاد کی ضرورت

Jabir ibn Samurah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “This religion (Islam) will remain established until the Day of Resurrection, because a group of the Muslims will keep waging jihad (in every age) for the dominance of the religion.” (Muslim)

This blessed hadith makes it plain that the religion of Islam did not come to be effaced or suppressed, but to prevail over the whole world. The thing in which the elevation of Islam and its establishment lie hidden is jihad. Therefore, wherever the need arises to fight the disbelievers, one must not shy away from jihad — for the greatness of Islam and the eminence of the Muslims lie precisely in it. As long as the Muslims held aloft the banner of jihad, the flag of their greatness and eminence flew throughout the world and their culture and civilisation held sway; and once the Muslims forgot this important duty, they fell into the depths of humiliation and their matchless civilisation became worthless and disregarded in the world.

Today the Muslims number more than a billion throughout the world, yet they are humiliated and abased, and their civilisation has been unable to regain its lost currency — a civilisation they themselves are unready to adopt — nor is there within them any yearning, devotion, or spirit of jihad to restore its former glory.

This is because there is only one road and one way — the road and way of jihad — which today's pleasure-loving Muslims are unwilling to take. The governments of Muslim lands too are devoid of Islamic feeling, indeed hostile to Islam, and so the disbelievers roam freely; they have made life narrow for the Muslims and have silenced them, while over the whole Muslim world hangs the stillness of death. The crusading powers and Zionist schemes are anxious only to preserve their own rule, and the rulers of Muslim countries are absorbed in indulgence. Even now, if the Muslims — individually and collectively — turn to Allah and become sincere, and rise up with the resolve to raise Islam high, then just as Allah dealt the People of the Elephant a humiliating defeat through the birds (Ababil), He can send that same help today. But for this it is essential that the Muslims rely on Allah alone and prostrate before Him, and not keep pinning their hopes on those disbelievers who are bent on effacing Islam.

Allah has commanded jihad in order to make Islam dominant and disbelief subdued; but complete reliance must be on Allah alone, for He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise. Allah says:

“Those to whom the people said, ‘The people have gathered armies against you, so fear them’ — but it only increased them in faith, and they said, ‘Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs.’ So they returned with grace and bounty from Allah; no harm touched them, and they followed the good pleasure of Allah; and Allah is the possessor of great bounty.” (Al-Imran 173-174)