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
 

V. Doctrine of Jihãd as Defensive WarForewordThere was a time, not so long ago, when theexponents of jihãd minced no words and pulled nopunches. They were brutally frank in spelling outwhat jihãd really meant.But times have changed, particularly after thecollapse of Christianity in the West and the rise ofmodern rationalism and humanism. Standards of moralPage 2
 
Untitledjudgment have increasingly tended to becomeuniversal, and no statement of faith can escapescrutiny simply because it is made in a book hailedas holy by some people. Defenders of jihãd have beenforced to develop an apologetics. They are nowtrying to protect by means of scholarship a doctrinewhich has so far been sustained by means of thesword.In the present study, Professor Suhas Majumdar hasbrick by brick. He has rescued the doctrine of jihãdfrom under the mass of pretentious verbiage, andmade it stand in its pristine purity. Let no one sayany more that jihãd does not mean what it has meantall along in the blood-soaked history of Islam, andwhat we are witnessing today in Kashmir.At the end of it all, however, I wonder whyscholarship should be needed for making people seewhat the ordinary common sense can see straightaway. There is plenty of evidence that the commonsense of the Pagans of Arabia had seen Islam forwhat it was worth when Muhammad proclaimed hisprophethood. For common sense is after all acombination of natural reason and natural moralconscience which all human beings share in greateror lesser measure.The story of why common sense had to keep quietwherever and whenever the prophetic creeds came toprevail (and among prophetic creeds I wouldcertainly place Christianity as closest in tie andkindred to Islam) is yet to be pieced together.There is no better place than India for piecingnatural moral conscience. On the contrary, yogicPage 3
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