Even the devil himself can quote scripture! It is easy for anyone to take a quotation out of context and touse this quotation in support of any spurious argument. The idea of Islam fighting non-believers, for example, is one of the most widely spread misconceptions, partly because those who wish to defame Islam and Muslims confuse people with this idea and partly because Muslims themselves have not done a good enough job in explaining and promoting their faith. Islam and Muslims have great respect for what others believe. If there are people who do not know this, be they Muslim or non-Muslim, they have not understood Islam at all. One of the most widely misunderstood concepts, for example, is that of jihad. Some people translate this Arabic word as “holy war". In Islam, there is no concept of “holy war". War is either just or unjust. It is never holy. The much misunderstood term, jihad, comes from an Arabic root word, juhd, which means to exert ones utmost efforts. There are two kinds of jihad. The first is the duty incumbent upon all Muslims to fight in defence of what is right. This is defensive and it means fighting back where there is injustice or oppression. It might be to defend one's city from attack or it might be to defend Islam itself from attack. Such jihad, though, must be called for by the legitimate authority. It is too serious a thing to be taken lightly. In other words, it cannot be called for just by any man in the street or even any sheikh in the street! It is for the ruler or the highest Islamic authority in the land to make such a call. Also, and very importantly, there are strict rules which apply to this kind of jihad. For example, the Muslims must stop fighting as soon as their enemies call for peace. Similarly, no civilians may be hurt. Not even plants can be damaged in such fighting! If what we see on our television screens does not comply with this exemplary code of conduct, then those behaving in such a way are behaving contrary to what Islam commands. There is another kind of jihad, though, which we might call an even greater jihad. This would suggest how important it is compared to the other jihad. It means that each Muslim must struggle daily and exert his utmost efforts to struggle inwardly to combat all those things in his life and in his personality which keep him from being a good person. The Qur'an tells us that Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change themselves first. In the earliest days of Islam, when Muslims were constantly under threat of being wiped out, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) showed the early Muslim community how they should act towards those of other faiths. In the city of Madinah, for example, which became the very first Muslim state, he drew up a treaty between the Muslims and the other two groups who lived there: the polytheists and the Jews. Each group was free to practice its own religion and each group was to defend the other under attack. There are also many quotations in the Qur'an which show how the Muslims have much in common with the “People of the Book", namely Christians and Jews, and even enjoin the Muslims to fight in their defence if they are being persecuted, or if their religious buildings or holy men are under attack. However, in those first days of Islam, not everyone kept to the terms of treaties they had signed. Different groups banded together to attack the early Muslim community, as they saw in it a great threat. In such a circumstance, the polytheists and the Jews attacked the Muslims. On other occasions, Christian armies marched against the early Muslim community. In such particular circumstances, it was revealed that the Muslims should fight back against these groups. “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day," refers specifically to such circumstances. It most certainly does not mean that Muslims should always be at war with Christians and Jews. It was revealed for a particular situation. For it to mean otherwise would contradict everything the Prophet had done (pbuh). If you look at the so-called “Golden Age" of Islam in Southern Spain, where Muslims ruled for nearly eight hundred years, you will not only see a very refined civilisation in which education and learning were promoted, but you also see that Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together in peace. Christians and Jews were free to practice their own religion. It was only in 1492, when the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella finally defeated the Muslims, that the persecution began. Muslims and Jews were forced to convert and mosques and synagogues were ransacked and burned. Similarly, when Jerusalem was taken by Caliph Umar he signed a treaty with the Christian Patriarch guaranteeing the rights of the Christians there to their lives, their property and their worship. No lives were lost. It was only when the Crusader armies retook the city that 70,000 men, women and children were indiscriminately slaughtered. Yes, even the devil can quote scripture, using it to support any argument. There are people who have deliberately chosen to twist the facts to make it seem as though Muslims are forever called upon to fight Christians and Jews. “And slay them wherever ye catch them," they quote from the Qur'an, but this is to quote out of context. It referred specifically to the Muslims under attack and the same quote goes on to say, “And turn them out from where they have turned you out." Such fighting is fighting in self defence. People fear that which they do not know. One of the great problems of our world is that wars have been fought because people have been afraid of other people who are different to them. Misunderstandings have sometimes got so out of control that people have quite the wrong idea about what others believe. It is so true that people in this world have so much in common. All people, for example, know what is the difference between right and wrong. All people can recognise goodness when they see it. What a pity that misconceptions about religion make us forget these important things. Many bad things have been done in the past in the name of religion. People of all religions have used religion to justify their actions. In the Qur'an, though, we read: “O Mankind! We have created you from a single soul, male and female. And we made you into nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Verily, the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is the greatest of you in piety. (49:13). By getting to know one another better, inshallah, our world can be a better place. British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, teaches at Al-Azhar University and is the author of nine books about Islam. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com, you can join him on Facebook at Idris Tawfiq Page and you listen to his Radio Show, “A Life in Question," on Sundays at 11pm on Radio Cairo 95.4 FM.
