Horrendous actions committed by terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and Daesh/I.S.I.S. have unfortunately led to a large misconception about the Islamic concept of jihad. Instead of being associated with the virtues of patience, effort, and inner strength, Jihad is being associated with acts of violence against non-muslims; or a holy war.
The deeper meaning of jihad, however, is the opposite. The highest form of jihad is not a literal war of guns and violence, it is actually an internal struggle—a war against your desires.
For example, praying five times a day is an obligation for all Muslims. The 5 designated prayers are Fajr (before the sun rises), Dhuhr (noon), Asr (afternoon), Maghreb (sunset), and Isha (night-time). As you can imagine, waking up for Fajr is a struggle. That means you have to set your alarm to 6:00 am if the sun begins to rise around 7:00 a.m. When sunrise is at 6:00 am, that means you have to set your alarm even earlier - 5:00 am. For those of us who sleep late and tend to sleep in, getting ourselves out of bed that early in the morning to pray is a struggle. This struggle - the inner struggle between your desire to sleep and your duty as a Muslim to pray -is an example of jihad. In that moment, you have to put Allah (God) before your desire to sleep. It’s very easy to say but quite hard to do. If you do win the fight against your desire to sleep, however, you will have fulfilled your duty and reaped Allah’s pleasure and reward. Not only will you feel better by starting your day on the right foot, you will have become a stronger person by exhibiting self-control and discipline.
Aside from Fajr, catching the other prayers can be hard, too. Let’s pretend you are in a public place, such as a restaurant, and you forgot to pray Asr before leaving home. It will be Maghreb in an hour and you know you won’t be out of the restaurant before then. In such a scenario, your jihad lies in the struggle between not wanting to attract unwanted attention or curious glances and fulfilling your duty of prayer. It is definitely not easy to pray outside the comfort of your own home or a mosque, but doing so demonstrates your strength and commitment to obeying Allah. This internal struggle and decision-making that I have just described demonstrates the meaning of jihad.
Another example of jihad is practicing self-control when fasting. Fasting, like prayer, is also an obligation for Muslims. Muslims fast during the holy month of Ramadan, from sunrise to sunset. They cannot eat food or drink water during this duration of time. Fasting is not only about abstaining from food, however, it is also about abstaining from bad habits. These bad habits can vary from person-to-person. They include cursing, backbiting, gossiping, anger, yelling, watching profane music videos, or talking back to one’s parents. These seemingly little things can become acquired habits during the year to the point where we don’t think twice about them and the harm they can inflict upon ourselves and others. Muslims make it a point to reflect upon these actions during the month of Ramadan and set personal goals to stop engaging in such actions. So, for example, let’s say you like watching Jenna Marbles’ YouTube videos. For those of you who do not know who she is, she is a YouTube comedian who tends to curse—A LOT. She drops the F word in almost every sentence. So, for a fasting Muslim during the month of Ramadan, it can be a struggle for him/her to refrain from watching her videos, especially if he/she enjoys them. In this scenario, your internal struggle would be between watching her weekly video or refraining from doing so. It takes strength to stop yourself from watching her video because you know inside your heart that no matter how badly you want to watch it, it does not benefit you in attaining your personal goal of cutting down on your cursing. You know that watching her video will make it harder for you to stop cursing since it would increase your exposure to it and so, you decide not to watch her video -for the sake of your personal goal.
As you can see, jihad is not about picking up a sword or gun and killing people who do not believe in the same thing you do. Rather, it is about fighting against yourself and your own desires. It is choosing what is best for you (no matter how hard or undesirable it can be in a moment) over what you want. In this process, you gain self-control by choosing not to act impulsively or respond to the whims of your heart. You put your love for Allah (God) before yourself. This is the most difficult form of jihad because it requires constant reflection and decision-making. That is why Allah has blessed us with brains, however, so we can use them in our daily decisions and choose the right path - which is undoubtedly the harder one.
