Congress leader Salman Khurshid’s niece, Maria Alam Khan recently gave a clarion call for Muslim voters to do ‘Vote Jihad’. While discussing the vote jihad issue, a ‘journalist’ while interviewing BJP leader Kapil Mishra tried to downplay Jihad saying that it means ‘internal struggle’ in a bid to justify that Islam is a religion of peace. The firebrand BJP leader, however, strongly objected to the India Daily Live’s Priyank Vajpai and schooled about the meaning and purpose of Jihad as history demonstrates.
“Why did they say vote jihad, what is the meaning of jihad? The simple meaning of jihad is to kill kafirs [infidels] and make them Muslims. [Ajmal] Kasab came to do what? Jihad. Those who attacked the parliament came to do what? Jihad,” Mishra said, as Vajpai interrupted to say that the term Jihad implies an internal struggle within oneself.
To this, an infuriated Kapil Mishra questioned if terrorist Ajmal Kasab came to Mumbai for self-struggle. “What are you even saying? There have been killings and violence in the name of jihad. You don’t judge a word by its dictionary meaning but how it is used. Kasab came to kill Hindus. Go and tell the meaning of Jihad to those in Rawalpindi…you will sit among Hindus and explain to them the meaning of Jihad and justify those who hurl bombs on Hindus…” Mishra said, adding that Kasab did Jihad with guns, and now the opposition wants to do Jihad with votes.
As the ‘journalist’ passes off self-struggle as the true definition of ‘Jihad’, it is pertinent to delve into what the term means and what the Islamic text Quran says about it. The discussion around the Quranic meaning of Jihad warrants recounting 26 verses from the Islamic text that former Shia Central Waqf Board Chairman Waseem Rizvi claimed to promote terrorism.
Waseem Rizvi had approached SC seeking omission of Quranic verses that justified attacks on kaafirs
Rizvi had even moved a PIL in Supreme Court to get these verses omitted from Quran arguing that these verses are allegedly used by Islamist Terrorist Groups as justification for attacks on Kafirs/non-believers and civilians. One such verse mentioned was taken from Surah 2 (Al-Baqarah) Verse 191: And kill them [in battle] wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and fitnah1 is worse than killing. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al-Ḥarām until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers. A detailed list of the 26 verses in question can be checked here.
In response to a query about why Muslims wage Jihad, Islamqa.info says that Jihad is undertaken to make non-believers believe in and worship Allah. It says that Allah calls upon Muslims to fight until there is no more ‘Fitnah’ which means worship of Gods other than Allah.
“The main goal of jihad is to make the people worship Allaah alone and to bring them forth from servitude to people to servitude to the Lord of people. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): “And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and worshipping of others along with Allaah) and (all and every kind of) worship is for Allaah (Alone). But if they cease, let there be no transgression except against Az-Zaalimoon (the polytheists, and wrong-doers) [al-Baqarah 2:193],” the website’s response to a query reads.
The Islamic texts contain special disdain for polytheists and call upon the Muslims to kill them as the ‘holy’ month of Ramzan passes as evident in Surah Tawbah verse 5: “And when the inviolable months1 have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakāh, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allāh is Forgiving and Merciful.”
Struggle within oneself or against infidels?: Jihad and its many forms
While many people dedicated to combatting hatred against Hindus would have read many of Sita Ram Goel’s authoritative books on Hindu issues, Hindus in general would not have read Goel’s book “The Calcutta Quran Petition”. Notably, on the 29th of March 1985, Chandmal Chopra filed a writ petition in the Calcutta High Court seeking a ban on the Quran under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code contending that it “incites violence, disturbs public tranquillity, promotes, on the ground of religion, feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will between different religious communities, and insults other religions or religious beliefs of other religious communities of India.”
Goel in chapter 3 titled “Entire Quran is a manual of Jihad” cites Hadis collections and noted commentaries [Tafsir] on Quran to list four forms of Jihad—Jihad bil nafs, Jihad bil lasan, Jihad bil Qalam and Jihad bil Saif. Describing the first three forms of Jihad Goel writes:
- Jihad bil nafs: striving by the heart or conscience, that is, cursing the Kafirs silently or in private if conditions do not permit cursing them publicly by means of speech and writing etc.
- Jihad bil lasan: striving by the tongue or word of mouth, that is, preaching against the Kafirs publicly, pasting pejorative labels on them, and threatening them with the defeat and disgrace which await them in this world, and the doom hereafter.
- Jihad bil qalam: striving by the pen, that is, writing down on paper and other materials what one has harboured in one’s heart or harangued in one’s speeches or plans to say at the appropriate opportunity. The written material is used for the preservation of the Polemics as well as for its wider circulation.
Calling the Quran a “compendium on Jihad”, Sita Ram Geol also mentioned Jihad bil Saif‑striving by sword. Jihad bil Saif is essentially a war fought by Muslims against the Kafirs. Pointing out the dual interpretations of the Quranic verses, Goel that oppression against Muslims stands for opposition to Islam and thus Muslims are supposed to wage war against non-Muslims till there is no non-Muslim left to oppose Islam.
“The Quran commands the Faithful to keep on fighting “until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevails justice and faith in Allah” (2.193; 8.40). Here the language is deceptive as in all cases of double-speak. The words “tumult and oppression” stand for opposition to Islam, for whatever reason. So the Muslims are to continue waging wars so long as there are non-Muslims anywhere in the world. Of course, Muslims are free to sign treaties of peace with non-Muslims whenever such treaties serve their purpose. But they are also free to violate the treaties of peace whenever they find war more profitable than peace; they can always accuse the Unbelievers of planning treachery (8.56- 58),” Goel wrote.
According to the Islamic text, those Muslims who join in the “divine war” stand higher in the eyes of Allah than those who ignore or refrain from doing so, even if the latter are virtuous and follow other Islamic tenets.
While Islamists employing the “Al Taqqiya” [committing a sinful act or concealing one’s belief for a pious goal] often pass off Jihad as the struggle within to curb ego and become a good person etc and have propagated it so much that without much study and questioning even the non-Muslims the journalist who interviewed Kapil Mishra have largely accepted this ‘definition’. However, while these can be an aspect of Jihad, it is not confined to this alone.
In the 7th chapter of “The Calcutta Quran Petition” Goel stated that the doctrine of Jihad deals with the performance of the militarized Muslim Ummah till the land of Kafirs is conquered and Muslims assert their absolute control over it by employing slaughter and pillage. Besides highlighting the aspects of an “Islamic State” wherein the Islamic faith and its furtherance hold primacy, Goel wrote that tolerance of infidels and anyone “outside the fold of orthodox Islam is no better than compounding with sin. And the worst form of sin is polytheism [Kufr], the belief that the one true Allah has partners in the form of other deities.”
While in current times a significant section of Muslims in European countries with non-Muslim majority populations are exploiting democracy to end democracy there, in the “Islamic State”, a non-Muslim’s status is equivalent to that of a “slave”. “He lives under a contract (zimma) with the State: for the life and property that is grudgingly spared to him by the Commander of the Faithful. He must undergo political and social disabilities, and pay commutation money (jaziya),” Goel wrote.