JIHAD

Returning from a battle successfully won, the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) turned to his men and said, “You have left the lesser Jihad, now you are coming to the greater Jihad, the struggle against yourself,” meaning the battle against your own demons…and that is the greater jihad.

If you are a drug addict, a womanizer, an alcoholic, a gambler, a corrupt politician, or simply a smoker, you know that battling your own demons is a war that very few can win. It is a jihad that is easier said than done, and many, except for a few, succumbed to it in the end. Not only does it destroy oneself, but it pains and sometimes destroys the people around you in a way like collateral damage in times of war. It is a jihad you and the people around must wage to victory or be destroyed.

Instead of quoting Moses telling the Pharaoh to let his people go, Cory Aquino, after being sworn in as president, could have better quoted the prophet of Islam; “the jihad against our corrupted ways must now begin, and that is the greater jihad.” Pork Barrel…anyone?

The word jihad has been around for as long as the Arabic language was spoken, but it has never been as abused as it is in recent times, thanks to the Western media that recast it with malevolent meaning. Jihad simply means the struggle against evil, either of tyrannical kings or the tyranny of oneself.

Saladin (Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub) was a jihadist who struggled and fought to win Jerusalem from the un-heavenly grips of the crusading demons from Europe; they who slaughtered Jerusalem’s original inhabitants of Jews and Muslims.

Osama Bin Laden was a Jihadist who fought against the tyranny of empires, first against the Russians and later against the American empire. Not only did he contribute to the downfall of the Russian empire (Russia’s defeat in Afghanistan), he pauperized the American empire beyond repair: 17 trillion dollars in debt and counting. For the victims of the beasts of empires, OBL was a superhero.

Jihad, with its malevolent meaning, is a modern creation of the Western media in as much as the word ‘Moro’ applied to the Muslims of the Philippines was a Spanish creation.  It is an intellectual conditioning where repetitiveness becomes as sticky as glue. Continued use of such words not only becomes acceptable; it becomes the word of the day. “Jihad” becomes acceptable to whoever struggles against their leaders and governments perceived to be deviating from their own brand of Islam. The West has successfully created chaos (fitna) in the midst of Islam.

Every disgruntled revolutionist (they think they are) is proud to be tagged as a jihadist in as much as most, if not all, Muslims in the south of the Philippines are happy to be (mentally conditioned as) a Moro. I am a jihadist battling my demons, and I am a Moro battling the tyranny of the Spanish inheritors of my country.

NK