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The
Purpose of Sufi Training
by Shah Sufi Moulana
Syed Maizebhandari
from Vol. 9, No. 4.
On
A Night Journey
by Aisha Rafae
from Vol. 9, No. 2.
Finding
Faith in
the Depths of Darkness
by Sheikh Salman Baruti
from Vol. 8, No. 3.
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Our
Current Issue!
This
Article Appeared
in Volume 9, Number 4
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Inner Jihad
Striving
Toward Harmony
by Dr. Shahid Athar
Sufis
and Muslims for centuries have engaged themselves and the world
in pursuit of inner jihad. This has been their way of getting
closer to their Creator, achieving inner peace and getting closer
to Gods creations. Unless we are at peace with ourselves,
we can not have peace with the Creator and vice versa.
The
word Jihad is from the
Arabic root word JHD that basically means striving or struggle.
The question is striving for what or a struggle for what? The
struggle is of two typesone inner and one outer. Both have
the same purpose which is to change the status quoa status
which is not in line with Gods will or not in line with
nature as such, a status which causes unrest and disturbance.
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Thus,
if there is an evil temptation for wrongdoing and we struggle
very hard to overcome that temptation, it is striving in the cause
of God and is considered one of the best forms of Jihad. Thus,
if there is a tyrant ruler who is oppressing people and one stands
up to that tyrant and says a word of truth against his rule it
is also one form of Jihad. In Sufi tradition, the self is the
enemy and conquering the self is overpowering the enemy and one
of the best forms of Jihad.
Unfortunately,
the West describes Jihad as a holy war, which is a wrong translation.
If you translate holy war back to Arabic, the translation would
be harb-e-maqadas or sacred war. Thus, holy war is not Jihad as
such. In fact, the word holy war came from the crusade when this
call was made to the crusaders by the then Pope Urbanba to unite
them to fight against infidels who were occupying
the birth place of Jesus (peace be upon Him). . .
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read the rest of this article,
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