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The Spiritual
Significance of Jihad
Seyyed Hossein Nasr Vol. IX, No. 1
And those who perform jihad for Us, We shall certainly guide them in Our ways, and
God is surely with the doers of good. (Quran XXXIX; 69) You have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad. (Hadith) The Arabic term jihad, usually translated into European languages as holy war,
more on the basis of its juridical usage in Islam rather than on its much more universal
meaning in the Quran and Hadith, is derived from the root jhd whose primary
meaning is to strive or to exert oneself. Its translation into holy war combined with the
erroneous notion of Islam prevalent in the West as the 'religion of the sword' has helped
to eclipse its inner and spiritual significance and to distort its connotation. Nor has
the appearance upon the stage of history during the past century and especially during the
past few years of an array of movements within the Islamic world often contending or even
imposing each other and using the word jihad or one of its derivative forms helped
to make known the full import of its traditional meaning which alone is of concern to us
here. Instead recent distortions and even total reversal of the meaning of jihad as
understood over the ages by Muslims have made it more difficult than ever before to gain
insight into this key religious and spiritual concept. To understand the spiritual significance of jihad and its wide application to
nearly every aspect of human life as understood by Islam, it is necessary to remember that
Islam bases itself upon the idea of establishing equilibrium within the being of man as
well as in the human society where he functions and fulfills the goals of his earthly
life. This equilibrium, which is the terrestrial reflection of Divine Justice and the
necessary condition for peace in the human domain, is the basis upon which the soul takes
its flight towards that peace which, to use Christian terms, 'passeth understanding'. If
Christian morality sees the aim of the spiritual life and its own morality as based on the
vertical flight towards that perfection and ideal which is embodied in Christ, Islam sees
it in the establishment of an equilibrium both outward and inward as the necessary basis
for the vertical ascent. The very stability of Islamic society over the centuries, the
immutability of Islamic norms embodied in the Shari'ah, and the timeless character
of traditional Islamic civilization which is the consequence of its permanent and
immutable prototype are all reflections of both the ideal of equilibrium and its
realization as is so evident in the teachings of the Shari'ah (or Divine Law) as
well as works of Islamic art, that equilibrium which is inseparable from the very name of islam
as being related to salam or peace. The preservation of equilibrium in this world, however, does not mean simply a static
or inactive passivity since life by nature implies movement. In the face of the
contingencies of the world of change, of the withering effects of time, of the
vicissitudes of terrestrial existence, to remain in equilibrium requires continuous
exertion. It means carrying out jihad at every stage of life. Human nature being
what it is, given to forgetfulness and the conquest of our immortal soul by the carnal
soul or passions, the very process of life of both the individual and the human
collectivity implies the ever-present danger of the loss of equilibrium and the fact of
falling into the state of disequilibrium which if allowed to continue cannot but lead to
disintegration on the individual level and chaos on the scale of community life. To avoid
this tragic end and to fulfill the entelechy of the human state which is the realization
of unity (al-tawhid) or total integration, Muslims as both individuals and members
of Islamic society must carry out jihad, that is they must exert themselves at all
moments of life to fight a battle both inward and outward against those forces that if not
combatted will destroy that equilibrium which is the necessary condition for the spiritual
life of the person and the functioning of human society. This fact is especially true if
society is seen as a collectivity which bears the imprint of the Divine Norm rather than
an antheap of contending and opposing units and forces. Man is at once a spiritual and corporeal being, a micro-cosm complete unto himself; yet
he is the member of a society within which alone are certain aspects of his being
developed and certain of his needs fulfilled. He possesses at once an intelligence whose
substance is ultimately of a divine character and sentiments which can either veil his
intelligence or abett his quest for his own Origin. In him are found both love and hatred,
generosity and coveteousness, compassion and aggression. Moreover, there have existed
until now not just one but several 'humanities' with their own religious and moral norms
and national, ethnic and racial groups with their own bonds of affiliation. As a result
the practice of jihad as applied to the world of multiplicity and the vicissitudes
of human existence in the external world has come to develop numerous ramifications in the
fields of political and economic activity and in social life and come to partake on the
external level of the complexity which characterizes the human world. In its most outward sense jihad came to mean the defence of dar al-islam,
that is, the Islamic world, from invasion and intrusion by non-Islamic forces. The
earliest wars of Islamic history which threatened the very existence of the young
community came to be known as jihad par excellence in this outward sense of 'holy
war'. But it was upon returning from one of these early wars, which was of paramount
importance in the survival of the newly established religious community and therefore of
cosmic significance, that the Prophet nevertheless said to his companions that they had
returned from the lesser holy war to the greater holy war, the greater jihad being
the inner battle against all the forces which would prevent man from living according to
the theomorphic norm which is his primordial and God given nature. Throughout Islamic
history, the lesser holy war has echoed in the Islamic world when parts or the whole of
that world have been threatened by forces from without or within. This call has been
especially persistent since the nineteenth century with the advent of colonialism and the
threat to the very existence of the Islamic world. It must be remembered, however, that
even in such cases when the idea of jihad has been evoked in certain parts of the
Islamic world, it has not usually been a question of religion simply sanctioning war but
of the attempt of a society in which religion remains of central concern to protect itself
from being conquered either by military and economic forces or by ideas of an alien
nature. This does not mean, however, that in some cases especially in recent times,
religious sentiments have not been used or misused to intensify or legitimize a conflict.
But to say the least, the Islamic world does not have a monopoly on this abuse as the
history of other civilizations including even the secularized West demonstrates so amply.
Moreover, human nature being what it is, once religion ceases to be of central
significance to a particular human collectivity, then men fight and kill each other for
much less exalted issues than their heavenly faith. By including the question of war in
its sacred legislation, Islam did not condone but limited war and its consequences as the
history of the traditional Islamic world bears out. In any case the idea of total war and
the actual practice of the extermination of whole civilian populations did not grow out of
a civilization whose dominant religion saw jihad in a positive light. On the more
external level, the lesser jihad also includes the socio-economic domain. It means
the reassertion of justice in the external environment of human existence starting with
man himself. To defend one's rights and reputation, to defend the honour of oneself and
one's family is itself a jihad and a religious duty. So is the strengthening of all
those social bonds from the family to the whole of the Muslim people (al-ummah)
which the Shari'ah emphasizes. To seek social justice in accordance with the tenets
of the Quran and of course not in the modern secularist sense is a way of re-establishing
equilibrium in human society, that is, of performing jihad, as are constructive
economic enterprises provided the well-being of the whole person is kept in mind and
material welfare does not become an end in itself; provided one does not lose sight of the
Quranic verse, 'The other world is better for you than this one'. To forget the
proper relation between the two worlds would itself be instrumental in bringing about
disequilibrium and would be a kind of jihad in reverse. All of those external forms of jihad would remain incomplete and in fact
contribute to an excessive externalization of human being, if they were not complemented
by the greater or inner jihad which man must carry out continuously within himself
for the nobility of the human state resides in the constant tension between what we appear
to be and what we really are and the need to transcend ourselves throughout this journey
of earthly life in order to become what we 'are'. From the spiritual point of view all the 'pillars' of Islam can be seen as being
related to jihad. The fundamental witnesses, 'There is no divinity but Allah' and
'Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah', through the utterance of which a person becomes a
Muslim are not only statements about the Truth as seen in the Islamic perspective but also
weapons for the practice of inner jihad. The very form of the first witness (La
ilaha illa' Lla-h in Arabic) when written in Arabic calligraphy is like a bent sword
with which all otherness is removed from the Supreme Reality while all that is positive in
manifestation is returned to that Reality. The second witness is the blinding assertion of
the powerful and majestic descent of all that constitutes in a positive manner the cosmos,
man and revelation from that Supreme Reality. To invoke the two witnesses in the form of
the sacred language in which they were revealed is to practice the inner jihad and
to bring about awareness of who we are, from whence we come and where is our ultimate
abode. The daily prayers (salat or namaz) which constitute the heart of the
Islamic rites are again a never ending jihad which punctuate human existence in a
continuous rhythm in conformity with the rhythm of the cosmos. To perform the prayers with
regularity and concentration requires the constant exertion of our will and an unending
battle and striving against forgetfulness, dissipation and laziness. It is itself a form
of spiritual warfare. Likewise, the fast of Ramadan in which one wears the armour of inner purity and
detachment against the passions and temptations of the outside world requires an
asceticism and inner discipline which cannot come about except through an inner holy war.
Nor is the hajj to the centre of the Islamic world in Mecca possible without long
preparation, effort, often suffering and endurance of hardship. It requires great effort
and exertion so that the Prophet could say, 'The hajj is the most excellent of all jihads".
Like the knight in quest of the Holy Grail, the pilgrim to the house of the Beloved must
engage in a spiritual warfare whose end makes all sacrifice and all hardship pale into
significance, for the hajj to the House of God implies for the person who practices
the inner jihad encounter with the Master of the House who also resides at the
centre of that other Ka'bah which is the heart. Finally the giving of zakat or religious tax and khums is again a form of
jihad not only in that in departing from one's wealth man must fight against the
coveteousness and greed of his carnal soul, but also in that through the payment of zakat
and khums in its many forms man contributes to the establishment of economic
justice in human society. Although jihad is not one of the 'pillars of Islam', it
in a sense resides within all the other 'pillars'. From the spiritual point of view in
fact all of the 'pillars' can be seen in the light of an inner jihad which is
essential to the life of man from the Islamic point of view and which does not oppose but
complements contemplativity and the peace which result from the contemplation of the
One. The great stations of perfection in the spiritual life can also be seen in the light of
the inner jihad. To become detached from the impurities of the world in order to
repose in the purity of the Divine Presence requires an intense jihad for our soul
has its roots sunk deeply into the transient world which the soul of fallen man mistakes
for reality. To overcome the lethargy, passivity and indifference of the soul, qualities
which have become second nature to man as a result of his forgetting who he is constitutes
likewise a constant jihad. To pull the reigns of the soul from dissipating itself
outwardly as a result of its centrifugal tendencies and to bring it back to the centre
wherein resides Divine Peace and all the beauty which the soul seeks in vain in the domain
of multiplicity is again an inner jihad. To melt the hardened heart into a flowing
stream of love which would embrace the whole of creation in virtue of the love for God is
to perform the alchemical process of solve et coagula inwardly through a 'work'
which is none other than an inner struggle and battle against what the soul has become in
order to transform it into that which it 'is' and has never ceased to be if only it were
to become aware of its own nature. Finally, to realize that only the Absolute is absolute
and that only the Self can ultimately utter 'I' is to perform the supreme jihad of
awakening the soul from the dream of forgetfulness and enabling it to gain the supreme
principal knowledge for the sake of which it was created. The inner jihad or
warfare seen spiritually and esoterically can be considered therefore as the key for the
understanding of the whole spiritual process, and the path for the realization of the One
which lies at the heart of the Islamic message seen in its totality. The Islamic path
towards perfection can be conceived in the light of the symbolism of the greater jihad
to which the Prophet of Islam, who founded this path on earth, himself referred. In the same way that with every breath the principle of life which
functions in us irrespective of our will and as long as it is willed by Him who created
us, exerts itself through jihad to instill life within our whole body, at every
moment in our conscious life we should seek to perform jihad in not only
establishing equilibrium in the world about us but also in awakening to that Divine
Reality which is the very source of our consciousness. For the spiritual man, every breath
is a reminder that he should continue the inner jihad until he awakens from all
dreaming and until the very rhythm of his heart echoes that primordial sacred Name by
which all things were made and through which all things return to their Origin. The
Prophet said, 'Man is asleep and when he dies he awakens'. Through inner jihad the
spiritual man dies in this life in order to cease all dreaming, in order to awaken to that
Reality which is the origin of all realities, in order to behold that Beauty of which all
earthly beauty is but a pale reflection, in order to attain that Peace which all men seek
but which can in fact be found only through the inner jihad.
