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Militant Islam Monitor > Weblog > Erotic and Muslim Fundamentalism -embracing death in quest of an "eternal orgy in the afterlife"

Erotic and Muslim Fundamentalism -embracing death in quest of an "eternal orgy in the afterlife"

February 17, 2005

Luctor Et Emergo

http://www.theovangogh.nl/

MIM:Homepage of Theo van Gogh's website De Gezonde Roker - The Healthy Smoker which is being kept as it was before his murder by a radical Islamist

Also see: Lust for Life : Theo van Gogh - Film maker and chain smoking Casanova

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/311

De Gestopte Roker - The Stopped Smoker the website started by the friends of Theo van Gogh after he was shot and nearly decapitated by an Islamo facist http://www.degestopteroker.nl/

MIM: The two pictures above graphically illustrate the difference between the Western society and radical Islam.This article, entitled "Erotic and Muslim Fundamentalism" appeared on De Gestopt Roker -'The Stopped Smoker' website which was set up by the friends of Theo van Gogh after his murder as a continuation of his own 'Healthy Smoker'- De Gezonde Roker website. Daniel Teeboom offers an insightful and lucid explanation of the correlation between sexual repression and Islamo facism. He answers the question as to why, in Islam, everything which is forbidden in life is permitted to Muslims after death . Supression of human desire and emotion is in essence the denial of one's humanity. Suicide bombers not only forfeit their own humanity, but take a perverse pleasure in diabolically shredding people's flesh in order to take part in what Teeboom terms "an eternal orgy in the afterlife".

Submitted by Daniel Teeboom

to The Stopped Smoker website

Translated by Beila Rabinowitz director MIM

Dec.15, 2004

Erotic and Muslim Fundamentalism

Why is everything permitted in the Islamic heaven which is forbidden on earth?

An acquaintance of mine once wrote a science fiction story. He thought about a world, in the far distant future , where no women existed. All of the babies who were born ,were boys; due to a genetic sickness. In any case it appeared to me as a terrifying story and that was his intention. I had to think of that story when I saw pictures of a Muslim fundamentalist demonstration in Iraq . The men were dressed as men in Iraq are usually dressed somewhat dusty. There were girls and women present, put you couldn't see that. There was nothing human about them which could be seen. No head, no arms, legs or torso, only grey figures. The were covered with sheets from head to toe.

Frusturation

Muslim fundamentalists live in a womenless public world and seeing as that fundamentalists are also human, I can well imagine why martyrdom would seem attractive. When men think that they have to interact with women by throwing a big sheet over them, the result can only be on frusturation. One of the hallmarks of Western society is that we are no longer afraid of sex. It sells well and we enjoy looking at it. I suspect that the frusturation in the Islamic world has much more to do with sex then is thought. I see a martyr who blows himself up in expectation of 72 virgins as a filling up of emptiness. Whoever blows themselves up in a bus can experience an eternal orgy in the afterlife. According to Islamist pornography.

Suicide cult as porno

For one or another bizarre reason is the picture of paradise in Islam is very hedonistic and totally opposite then on earth. A sort of free bordel where all (male) desires, Wine, Women,and Song, are permitted. The Islamic ideal is fixated on sex, the martyrdom cult is the Islamic equivalent of pornography and instant gratification.

A strange situation. Why should that which is considered to be bad on earth be permitted in heaven? By the Jews and Christians the heavens are not filled by everything which god has forbidden.on the contrary. No heaven with sex slaves and pork, but a paradise where spiritual satisfaction is promised. Our Jewish Christian culture has as it were, tamed sexuality, but not as strongly as literal Islam.

We love death

The entire fundamentalist system is based on rejection (for the west) and desire (for the afterlife). That is why is is so easy to spur fundamentalist Muslims to perpetrate attacks,while at the same time they would love nothing more then a chance to study in the United States. They are taught to hate the things they really love. Eroticism, self realization, and success. ‘You love life, said an Al Qaeda spokesman,' We love death'. This is an inhuman and un natural result of intensive brainwashing. Everyone loves life (unless one is severely depressed). Via western television channels these men see pictures of stunning beauties . In their own societies women have to be hidden and covered. This suppression of feelings has to express itself by other means. I am not a psychologist but I see a certain link between priests who have to remain celibate and sexual abuse of children. So too, do I see a connection between the woman hating Islam and the gluttony with which Islamic martyrs commit mass murder. They are continually promised that in paradise they will get free access to the unveiled free relationships which were denied them in life.

The biggest problem is not the difference between rich and poor. There are countries in Eastern Europe where people are just as poor as those in Islamic countries. The problem is most likely not a lack of democracy: As long as the people are brainwashed from youth onward elections will not offer a solution. The problem in the Islamic world and the cause of fanaticism is primarily to be found in the suppression of that which is the most important aspects of one's existence. Women and eroticism in daily life .

---------------------------------------

MIM: Dr. Daniel Pipes also illustrated the connection between sexual repression in Islam and suicide bombings in a weblog entry .


Lamyaa Hashim, Supporting Burqas and Suicide Bombers
January 18, 2004

Lamyaa Hashim, Supporting Burqas and Suicide Bombers. A cartoon about by syndicated artist Sandy Huffaker offers a tongue-in-cheek "suggestion for Britney Spears" - namely that she convert to Islam. The cartoon's left panel, before her conversion, shows a woman in a bikini, legs and arms and hair flying as she sings. The right panel, after her conversion to Islam, shows an inert burqa-clad black lump.

It's perhaps not the most hilarious or subtle cartoon you've encountered, but it does make a point. Well, one reader, a certain Lamyaa Hashim, had an original response to the cartoon, one which she addressed directly to its author:

Hello Sandy,
While you may or may not have meant your Britney Spears cartoon (before and after conversion to Islam cartoon) to be an insult to Islam or maybe to Britney - I, as a Muslima who observes Islamic dress by choice, liked the cartoon. You did call it a message to her - and I think that the message was a correct one - for our Islamic dress gives us respect and dignity. In Islam, the woman is not on display for merchandising - she is a thinking and valuable part of the human race who should not lower and disgrace herself by putting her worth into enhanced sexual features and movements as eye candy for those who have no interest in her worth as a human being nor her soul. So, thank you for that cartoon. It really brightened my day!
Lamyaa Hashim

And who, one might wonder, is this Lamyaa Hashim who would burqa America's beauties? The answer, provided by Joe Kaufman in a May 2003 article at FrontPageMag.com, is an unsettling one:

Lamyaa Hashim, or Um Ahmad as she often goes by, is a well known Islamic poet. Her poetry, including one poem which seems to be about a suicide bomber (‘My Beloved Left for Palestine'), can be seen on such radical sites as palestine4ever.net. The site belongs to the medical director for the Palestine Children's Welfare Fund, Rosemary Davis (Shadya Hantouli), and features a picture gallery of past suicide bombers. Hashim gave permission to put her poetry on the site.
You can also access more of Hashim's poetry on her personal website, ‘Struggle in Palestine,' which contains on its homepage a picture of someone burning an effigy that says on his (the effigy's) chest, "WAR IS HELL, BUSH IS SATAN." In addition, there is a link on her site to an organization associated with the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a link to a site praising Abdullah Azzam, the founder of the organization that became Al Qaida.
Lamyaa Hashim is also important, because she ran a Deerfield Beach, Florida charity called the Health Resource Center for Palestine (HRCP), which as of late has closed down.

Law enforcement closed down the Florida-based HRCP in April 2002, as I have already noted on this weblog, because of its ties to Hamas.

The moral of this tale? That the distance between endorsing burqas and endorsing suicide bombers is closer than one might wish. (January 18, 2004) http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/187

------------------

Excerpt from 'Martyrdom'

http://www.rotten.com/library/religion/martyrdom/

"...According to the fundamentalist view, martyrdom is the highest privilege of Islam, with its attendant rewards. Charismatic fundamentalist leaders have long recruited soldiers who would fight to the death on the promise of heaven. The view of heaven promulgated in this context is a much more carnal and appealing concept than the Christian harp-playing eternal chastity-fest, including mystical sex toys and an eternity of Allah-sanctioned carnal bliss.

The earliest incarnations of Islamic martyrdom as a weapon for effecting political change came in the form of the Assassin cults of the 11th century, which were mystical offshoots of mainstream Islam. Assassin leaders used hashish and brainwashing techniques to condition their disciples to follow any order given by their spiritual leaders, no matter how insane or suicidal. The Assassins demanded and received the sanction of many Islamic leaders by virtue of these lethal footsoldiers, who were practiced in the arts of deception and assimilation. They could blend in with virtually any culture, even to the point of being formally excused from the usual dietary and moral requirements applied to normal Muslims.

The techniques and theological trickery of these original Assassins is still in use today, most notably by international terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and Hambali, who goad their followers into death with promises of eternal frat parties. The organization and underlying concepts that fuel Suicide Bombers working for groups like al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah are directly descended from the Assassin cults.

Many people comment derisively about the jet-setting playboy lifestyles of terrorist superstars like Ramzi Yousef, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the 9/11 hijackers, but when viewed in the context of the Assassin cults, these behaviors are completely understandable. In the interests of infiltration, the Assassins allowed virtually any behavior by its advanced operatives. And with the promise of instant salvation at the moment of martyrdom, well, let's just say the motivation to live a pure and chaste life drops off considerably.

But the most serious flaw in the concept of martyrdom is that it makes you a patsy for unscrupulous and insincere religious leaders who just want to get you to do something really moronic which will somehow advance their agendas. The ancient Assassins were definitely victims of this syndrome; modern-day terrorists are also highly susceptible to this problem, although it's sometimes tricky figuring out whether a guy like bin Laden is sincere or not.

"I have some Florida real estate that you might be interested in. You pay me now, and I promise I will give you the land in the world to come." You see the problem here. If you're convinced that you will be rewarded after death for doing something suicidal in life, you're just begging to be taken advantage of.

The Better Business Bureau has not been able to verify conditions after death. So if you're buying into a line of goods that involves only posthumous rewards, just remember that there will be no opportunity for refunds or exchanges. Not even if you keep your receipts.

---------------------------------------------

MIM: Note that 'in the interests of hiding their Jihadi agenda' many terrorists lead "jet setting -playboy lifestyles" prior to martyrdom. This is a tactic sanctioned in Islam and is one of the hallmarks of Tafkir Al Hijrah . An IDF missile helped Sheik Yassin find his virgins.

Special Playboy Magazine Issue ... "Palboy"

MIM: Dutch version of article above

Waarom mag in de islamitische hemel alles wat op aarde verboden is?


15 december 2004

Daniël Teeboom

Een kennis van mij schreef ooit een science fictionverhaal. Hij had een wereld bedacht – ver in de toekomst – waar geen vrouwen meer bestonden. Alle baby's die geboren werden, waren jongetjes; de oorzaak was een of andere genetische ziekte. Het leek mij in ieder geval een angstaanjagende gedachte en dat was ook zijn bedoeling.
Ik moest aan dat verhaal denken toen ik beelden zag van een demonstratie in Irak van moslimfundamentalisten. De mannen waren gekleed zoals mannen in Irak meestal gekleed zijn, ietwat stoffig. Er waren ook vrouwen en meisjes aanwezig, maar dat kon je niet zien. Er was eigenlijk niets menselijks aan ze te zien. Geen hoofd, geen armen, benen of torso, alleen grijze gestalten. Ze waren van top tot teen bedekt met lakens.

Frustratie
Moslimfundamentalisten leven in een vrouwloze openbare wereld en aangezien fundamentalisten ook maar mensen zijn, kan ik me goed voorstellen waarom het martelaarschap hen zo aantrekkelijk lijkt. Wanneer mannen denken dat ze met vrouwen moeten omgaan door er een grote lap overheen te gooien, kan het resultaat alleen maar frustratie zijn.
Een kenmerk van onze westerse vrijheid is dat we niet meer bang zijn voor seks. Het verkoopt goed en we kijken er graag naar. Ik vermoed dat de frustratie van de islamitische wereld veel meer met seks te maken heeft dan wordt aangenomen. Ontneem mensen hun seksualiteit en er ontstaat een enorme leegte die gevuld moet worden. Ik zie de martelaar die zich opblaast in de verwachting dat hij 72 jonge meisjes mag ontmaagden als een soort invulling van die leegte. Wie zichzelf opblaast in een bus mag in het hiernamaals een eeuwige orgie beleven. Aldus de islamitische pornografie.

Zelfmoordcultus als porno
Om de een of andere bizarre reden is het beeld dat de islam van het paradijs heeft zeer hedonistisch en totaal tegenovergesteld aan de leefregels voor het bestaan in het ondermaanse. Het is feite een soort gratis bordeel waar alle verlangens van de (mannelijke) gelovigen – Wein, Weib und Gesang – toegestaan zijn. Het islamitische ideaal is gefixeerd op seks, de zelfmoordcultus de islamitische versie van pornografie en directe behoeftenbevrediging.
Een vreemde situatie. Waarom zou wat hier op aarde slecht is in de hemel wel mogen? Bij de joden en de christenen is de hemel niet gevuld met alles wat god verboden heeft, integendeel. Geen hemel met seksslavinnen of varkensvlees, maar een paradijs waarin een spirituele bevrediging wordt beloofd. Onze joods-christelijke cultuur heeft seksualiteit weliswaar aan banden gelegd, maar nooit zo sterk als in de letterlijke islam.

Wij houden van de dood
Het hele fundamentalistische systeem is gebaseerd op afgunst (op het Westen) en verlangen (naar het hiernamaals). Daarom zijn fundamentalistische moslims zo makkelijk op te hitsen tot het plegen van aanslagen, terwijl ze op hetzelfde moment niets liever willen dan studeren in de Verenigde Staten. Hen wordt geleerd om datgene te haten waar ze van houden: erotiek, zelfontplooiïng en succes.
'Jullie houden van het leven', zei een Al Qaida-woordvoerder, ‘wij houden van de dood'. Dit is het onmenselijke en tegennatuurlijke resultaat van een intensieve hersenspoeling. Iederéén houdt van het leven (behalve als je zwaar depressief bent).
Op hun tv's ontvangen deze mensen de westerse zenders, waar zij prachtige schoonheden kunnen zien. In hun eigen maatschappij moeten vrouwen bedekt en verstopt worden. Deze onderdrukking van gevoelens moet zich wel op een of andere manier uiten. Ik ben geen psycholoog, maar ik zie een zeker verband tussen katholieke priesters die celibatair moeten leven en het seksueel misbruiken van kinderen. Zo zie ik ook een verband tussen de vrouwvijandige islam en de gretigheid waarmee islamitische martelaren massamoord plegen. Hen is immers beloofd dat ze in het paradijs eindelijk toegang krijgen tot de ongesluierde, vrije omgangsvormen die hen in dit leven ontnomen zijn.

Het grootste probleem is niet de verschillen tussen arm en rijk. Er zijn landen in Oost-Europa waar de mensen net zo arm zijn als in de islamitische wereld. Het probleem is wellicht niet eens het gebrek aan democratie: zo lang de mensen van jongs af aan gehersenspoeld worden, kunnen ook verkiezingen geen uitkomst bieden. Het probleem in de islamitische wereld en de oorzaak van het fanatisme is hoofdzakelijk terug te vinden in de onderdrukking van het belangrijkste in het leven: vrouwen en de erotiek in het dagelijks leven

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http://www.apologeticsindex.org/s37.html

ZARQA, Jordan -- The Hotaris are preparing for a party to celebrate the killing of 21 Israelis this month by their son, a suicide bomber.

Neighbors hang pictures on their trees of Saeed Hotari holding seven sticks of dynamite. They spray-paint graffiti reading "21 and counting" on their stone walls. And they arrange flowers in the shapes of a heart and a bomb to display on their front doors.
"I am very happy and proud of what my son did and, frankly, am a bit jealous," says Hassan Hotari, 54, father of the young man who carried out the attack June 1 outside a disco in Tel Aviv. It was Israel's worst suicide bombing in nearly four years. "I wish I had done (the bombing). My son has fulfilled the Prophet's (Mohammed's) wishes. He has become a hero! Tell me, what more could a father ask?"

In more than a dozen interviews with former and current members of the militant group Hamas and with Israeli security officials who track them, USA TODAY was given a rare look into the secretive and terrifying world of suicide bombers and the culture that creates them.

Lured by promises of financial stability for their families, eternal martyrdom and unlimited sex in the afterlife, dozens of militant Palestinians like Hotari aspire to blow themselves up, Israeli and Palestinian officials say. Their goal: to kill or injure as many Jews as possible in the hope that Israel will withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank. Israel captured the land in 1967.
(...)

Since 1993, nearly 190 people have been killed and thousands injured in 28 suicide bombings in Israel.
(...)

"When I walk outside, young (Palestinian) children come up to me and say, 'Conduct another bombing to make us happy, sheik,' " says Sheik Hasan Yosef, 45, the senior Hamas leader in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "I cannot disappoint them. They won't have to wait long."

At any time, Israeli officials believe, Hamas has from five to 20 men, ages 18 to 23, awaiting orders to carry out suicide attacks. The group also claims to have "tens of thousands" of youths ready to follow in their footsteps. "We like to grow them," Yosef says. "From kindergarten through college."

In Hamas-run kindergartens, signs on the walls read: "The children of the kindergarten are the shaheeds (holy martyrs) of tomorrow." The classroom signs at Al-Najah University in the West Bank and at Gaza's Islamic University say, "Israel has nuclear bombs, we have human bombs."

At an Islamic school in Gaza City run by Hamas, 11-year-old Palestinian student Ahmed's small frame and boyish smile are deceiving. They mask a determination to kill at any cost. "I will make my body a bomb that will blast the flesh of Zionists, the sons of pigs and monkeys," Ahmed says. "I will tear their bodies into little pieces and cause them more pain than they will ever know."

"Allahu Akbar," his classmates shout in response: "God is great."

"May the virgins give you pleasure," his teacher yells, referring to one of the rewards awaiting martyrs in paradise. Even the principal smiles and nods his approval.

"You don't start educating a shaheed at age 22," says Roni Shaked, a terrorism expert and former officer in Israel's Shin Bet secret service. "You start at kindergarten so by the time he's 22, he's looking for an opportunity to sacrifice his life."

Some suicide bombers, like Hotari, come to their deadly missions by a slightly different route. They turn themselves into human bombs because they are frustrated by the economic and political duress Palestinians experience in Jordan and throughout the region.

Hamas says its recruiters, most of whom Israeli officials describe as charismatic religious leaders, look for two qualities in a potential bomber: an intense interest in Islam and a clean criminal record so as not to raise the suspicions of Israel's secret service.

Saeed Hotari, who was 22, fit both of those criteria. He was "a devout Muslim who used to pray, observed fasting and performed all his religious obligations to the letter and spirit," his father says. One of nine children, he left Zarqa, outside the Jordanian capital of Amman, for the West Bank city of Qalqilya in 1999 to seek a better life.

In Qalqilya, he and two other Palestinian youths went to a mosque where Sheik Jamel Tawil, a Hamas leader, persuaded them to attend a Hamas-run class on Islamic study. All would eventually be suicide bombers and would carry out their attacks within days of each other.
(...)

After several weeks of schooling, the youths often volunteer to be suicide bombers, Yosef says. "If someone confiscated your land, demolished your home, built settlements to prevent you from coming back, killed your children and blocked you from going to work, wouldn't you want to fight for your country?" Yosef asks.

In return for "martyrdom," Hamas tells the youths that their families will be financially compensated, their pictures will be posted in schools and mosques, and they will earn a special place in heaven.

They also are promised something more risqué: unlimited sex with 72 virgins in heaven. The Koran, the sacred book of Islam, describes the women as "beautiful like rubies, with complexions like diamonds and pearls." In one of the passages of the Koran, it is said the martyrs and virgins shall "delight themselves, lying on green cushions and beautiful carpets." Since the time of Mohammed, martyrs have always been considered those willing to die defending Islam.

For some young Muslims, that offer is too much to turn down.

"I know my life is poor compared to Europe or America, but I have something awaiting me that makes all my suffering worthwhile," says Bassam Khalifi, 16, a Hamas youth leader in Gaza's Bureij refugee camp. "Most boys can't stop thinking about the virgins."

But in the end, says Shaked, the Israeli terrorism expert, most of the bombers don't sign up for martyrdom for the promise of unlimited sex. "They join because of their absolute devotion to God and their desire to die with Jewish blood on their hands," he says. "It's not a heroic thing, it's a holy thing."

A would-be bomber is selected for his mission only days, sometimes hours, before it is to occur, Israeli officials say. As part of the preparation, the recruit is taken to a cemetery, where he is told to prepare for death by lying between gravesites for hours. He wears a white, hooded shroud normally used to cover bodies for burial, a former Hamas member says.

The recruit is then taken to a safe house. A video is made in which he states his consent to become a suicide bomber and his devotion to Islam. It will be played for the public after his death. A still photograph is taken that will be reproduced and displayed through the West Bank and Gaza to honor him after death.

Because secrecy is paramount, Hamas leaders will not allow the recruit to say goodbye to his family or tell them his plans.
(...)

Once at the target site, the recruit is told to remain calm, blend in as much as possible and, when surrounded by Israelis, press a switch to explode the bomb, Hamas members say.
(...)

On June 1, it was Hotari's turn. Israeli officials, quoting eyewitnesses, say two Hamas operatives drove him to the Dolphin Disco in Tel Aviv, a popular club often packed with Russian immigrant teenagers. They said Hotari slipped unnoticed into line and positioned himself among several girls, including a 14-year-old who had survived Marmash's attack in Netanya.

Then, while flirting with one of the girls, Hotari triggered the explosives. The blast was so intense that it tore limbs from the victims' bodies, scattered their flesh up to six blocks away and vaporized Hotari and the girl next to him.

It killed 21 people, in addition to Hotari, and injured nearly 100.

Now, nearly 30 days later, his parents are preparing to mark the anniversary of his death, as devout Muslims often do.

"My prayer is that Saeed's brothers, friends and fellow Palestinians will sacrifice their lives, too," Hotari's father says. "There is no better way to show God you love him."
Devotion, desire drive youths to 'martyrdom' : Palestinians in pursuit of paradise turn their own bodies into weaponsOff-site Link, USA Today, June 26, 2001 Back To Top

--------------------

Understanding Jihad: Definition and Methadology

http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/schleifer2.php

This sense of jihad as armed struggle for the sake of God also incorporates within the range of its meaning the concept of shahid - the Believer who dies fighting in the way of God. Commonly translated as "martyr", the word carries with it the original sense of witness - the shahid has testified (shahada) to his faith upon the battlefield; God, Who is, in His attributes, the source of all

Witnessing (Ash-,Shahid - The Witness), and His Angels bear witness to the shahid's extraordinary spiritual rewards; the shahid is promised he will witness God."36"
The Believers are assured in the Qur'an that the shahid is among those to whom Allah has shown special favour; that those who are slain in the way of God live on in His care, and His Pardon and Mercy are far better for the shahid than all of the spiritual and material blessings to be acquired in this life.
The prerequisites and spiritual rewards of both jihad and martyrdom are elaborated upon in hadith. The shahid is he whose intention is pure - he fights and dies solely in Allah's way, not for pride or worldly profit. The shahid is the best among the Believers; he will not be touched by the fire. A day and a night engaged in jihad is better for the Believer than a month of lasting and prayer, for jihad (as a mode of exceptional worship) is more excellent than obligatory prayer. "37"
The shahid is spared both the punishment and the trial of the grave; he is the first to enter paradise where he is stationed closest to God. His good deeds continue to increase until the Day of Judgement. So honored is the shaltid in Paradise that he alone of all men wishes to return to this world and be killed ten times more for the sake of the ecstatic Divine Illumination the Beatific Vision that is his to witness - or, at another level, of comprehension, for a mankind that in its generality has rarely experienced or considered ecstasy except in its most directly physical mode - for the seventy-two dark-eyes maidens who will be his wives. "38"
In the limits to holy war mentioned earlier that were set either by God in the Qur-'an or His Prophet in hadith are to be found the many elements such as the requirement of a declaration of war and offer of terms, the prohibition of mutilation, avoidable destruction of civilian property and the killing of non-combatants or the slaying of enemy fighters who embrace Islam on the field of battle - that would be combined with conditions derived from the Qur'an and hadith that permit fighting, into a juridical doctrine of the jihad.
The formulation of this juridical doctrine would be the task of the 'ularna in the earliest generations that followed the Prophet and his Companions, as part of their overall task to elaborate the shari `a - the comprehensive, eternal, divinely revealed Law, that (as we noted earlier) determines in Islam man's duties to God and to fellow man.
The sense of combat, of warfare, also adheres to the multiplicity of meaning within jihad in its more-than-occasional and generally non-violent forms of struggle. This combative identity is particularly so in that dimension of jihad that is most distant from physical, armed struggle, which is most continuous and which is in effect a contemplative mode: jihad as spiritual warfare.
Thus the classic lexicons classify mujahada (fighting with the enemy) as an expression of both armed struggle against the unbelievers and waging war against the carnal Soul. "39"It is understood as such by the Companions who report the Prophet saying:
The mujahid is one who tries to struggle against his self (carnal soul)."40"

The relaionship between these two dimensions of jihad is defined by the
famous hadith which directly alludes to the movement from the outward and occasional to the inward and continuous when the Prophet, returning from a military expedition, declares:"We have come back from the lesser jihadto the greater jiahad."

The greater jihad is greater because it is more difficult, for according to hadith, " Your most hostile enemy is your nafs, enclosed between your two sides, "41"and because as a continuous struggle it encompasses and affects the efficacy (which is always determined by intention and sincerity, a quality of the perfected soul) of the lesser jihad. Ibn Qaiyim a1-Djawziya, the noted 13th centurt theologian, observed:

The jihad against the enemies of Allah with one's life is only a part ofthe struggle which a true sevant of Allah carries on against his own self [nafsl for the sake of the Lord. This striving against the evil tendencies which have dominated his mind and heart is more important than fighting against the
enemies in the outside world. It is in fact the basis on which the struggle in the path of Allah can be successfully launched. "42"
Just as the goal of the lesser jihad is to purify the social order of disbelief so the immediate odjective of the greater jihad is to purify the spiritual heart, by struggle against those turbulent aspects of the soul which the 13th century mystic Najm ad-Din Razi defines as passion and anger. Not by annihilating what is present in the soul for a purpose, but by disciplining and transforming these attributes into a state of equilibrium, to be exercised only in accordance with the Divine LaW."43"

The method or "weapon" of the greater jihad is dhikr - simultaneously understood as the Remembrance of God and the Invocation of His Name. Qushayri, author of one of the classical manuals of tasazememf describes the dhikr as a sword with which the mujahid - who has set out on the spiritual encountered difficulties - threatens his enemies, for God, Qushayri notes (in a paraphrase of a number of ayat from the Q,ur'an), "will protect him remembers Him constantly in the moment of affliction and danger."44"
The same theme is echoed in the Ihya ulum al-Din by al-Ghazali, who frequently compares dhikr to jihad and provides an extensive commentary on the Prophet's saying that whoever dies waging the greater jihad will share the rank of shahid with the martyrs of the lesser jihad. Both, according to alGhazali, have sealed their belief, severing all ties except to Allah by dying at the moment of sacred combat, and it is this blessed sealing state that assures them Paradise."45"
Jalal al?Din Rumi and numerous other writers compare the first shahada, la ilaha illa'Llah which is also one of the formulas of dhikr most frequently recommended by the Prophet ? to a sword, for it is this invocation which "slays the idol", denying worldliness by denying any other object worthy of worship, and in its most profound sense denying the ultimate reality of anything apart from God. "46"
The great jihad is the first step on the Way to the intuitive knowledge of God; a Way that is based upon the promise made by God and reported by the Prophet:
My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have imposed upon him, and my servant continues to draw near to Me with freely given works so that I shall love him. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks.
My earth hath not room for Me, neither hath my Heaven, but the Heart of My believing servant hath room for Me. "47"
When the sword of dhikr has disciplined the rebellious nafs and cleansed the spiritual heart at the center of the soul, then the heart will mirror the Divine aspect that resides within:
There is a polish for eveything that takest away rust; and the polish of the Heart is the invocation of Allah. "48"
Thus the greater jihad removes "all obstacles which veil the Truth, and make it inaccessible."49"
Between armed struggle and the greater jihad is an intermediate zone of behaviour contributing definition to the meaning of jihad.
To approach that zone requires first reconsidering the fundamental encounter in Islam, which is between man and his Creator ? the priority for consciousness of the meaning, duties and rewards of jihad, as in all other things Islamic, is personal or individual rather than collective. But the "rights" of the individual Believer in Islamic society are acquired by submitting to the obligatory practices and ethical norms contained in shari `a ? in other words, acquired by the individual by entering into a divinely governed community, where the performance of divinely ordained duties by men within that community create those "spaces", so to speak, which may be described as rights."50"
The struggle to create a social and spiritual enviroment that will allow the indivdual Believer to fulfill the practices of shari'a and conform to its ethical norms is still another dimension to jihad based upon the Qur'anic imperative, al-amru bil mar'uf wa'nahya anil munkar ("to enjoin the doing of what is right and to forbid the doing of what is wrong") and when the Qur'an most directly expresses this imperative for the individual, it does so by addressing the community:
You are indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for (the good of ) mankind: you enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and you belive in God."51"

This appeal from individual to collective consciousness is stressed and elaborated upon in hadith:
By Him in Whose hand I repose! You must enjoin right and forbid wrong or else God will certainly send down chastisement upon you; then you will call to Him , but He will not respond to you.
If people see a wrongdoer but do not stay his hand, it is most likely that God will encompass them all with all His punishment.
A community in the midst of which sins are being committed which could be, but are not corrected by it is most likely to be encompassed in it entirety by God's punishment."52"

In contrast to the most apparent dimensions of jihad as the practice of armed struggle or the contemplative practice of spiritual struggle, the imperrative of al-amr bi'l-ma'ruf depoys jihad in an almost ambiguuous middle ground. This less defined dimensions of struggle occupies a domain_ the socio-political order of Islam itself_ in which divergence between the effective and the ideal became so apparent not long after the Prophet's death that there was a bitter, violent contention among the Muslims over the content of jihad in this context. The understanding that emerges is a factor in defining Sunni orthodoxy.
In the same social domain as al-amr bi'l-ma'ruf but without its potential for violent consequences, is the concept of vocation. This is suggested first by jihad's etymology, embracing painstaking and diligent labor as root on the one hand for the most demanding and restricted practice of legal scholarship: ijtihad, to form an independent opinion in shari'a law respecting a doubtful and difficult point by the method of analogy to the Qur'an and Sunna;"53" and on the other hand, to the broadest exertion of human energy and effort_ jahud_ working difficult or hard land."54"
The vocational sense of jihad is also suggested in the phrase with the Prophet turns away a man who volunteers for a military expedition, but whose paarents rely on him as their sole support: "fa-fihiima fa-jahid" ("exert yourself on their behalf")."55" The performance of work for the support of God's creatures dependent upon the Believer constitutes jihad. The traditionalists classify both this hadith and still another, that striving for perfecting in performing one's work is a form of worship, under the general heading of jihad, which is also expressed in the hadith: "God loves that when any one of you does a job, he does it perfectly."56"
Thus al-Ghazali, in his commentary on the former hadith, can argue that
those who follow the Q,ur'anic verse, "Every living creature's support comes from God," without comprehending its meaning in relation to the verse, "Man obtains nothing except by striving," place stress solely upon Allah's Beneficence and ignore His justice, thereby approximating to Unbelief."57"
The aim here, as in the immediate objective of the greater jihad, is for man to discipline the soul as he engages the world and thereby achieve equilibrium.
This understanding ofjihad as vocation is also derived from the Qur'anic concept of man's potential as khalifa (viceregent), God's deputy on earth by inheritance from Adam, with a spiritual capacity to mirror God's divine attributes or Names _in the sense that man's true idea of perfection in his work, or of beauty in his work, is a reflection of the Perfection and Beauty of God."58" The exercise of vocation in all of these senses is a jihad to sacralize one's own portion of the world.
As the practice of al-amr bi'l_ma'ruf occupies a middle ground_within what we will call the social jihad _ between armed struggle and spiritual struggle but suggests for all its ambiguity a movement towards outward, occasional action that is highly combative in tone and intent if not necessarily in deed, so jihad as vocation points from its position within the social jihad towards the contemplative techniques and concerns of the continuous, inward spiritual jihad.
Yet it is in this very domain that the Prophet acknowledges his own combative mission: "Every prophet has his vocation and my vocation is jihad."59" The earliest biographies of the Prophet, written but one generation removed, were called kitab al?maghazi, Book of Military Expeditions, and the enduring term, from the 8th century, for the Prophet's biography _ sira was adopted by scholars and jurists in its plural form _ siyar _ as a technical heading for the early collections of hadiths or fikr bearing on warfare. "60"
The image of combat penetrates all dimensions, from the most inward to the most outward: as mujahada, spiritual warfare against the turbulent soul; as jahada, the striving for perfection of one's soul by striving to perfect one's work; as al?amr bi'l ma'ruf, the discerning intellect as the sword of Islamic ethics: and as qital fi sabil?illah, fighting in the way of God, in a manner made known to the Believer by Revelation and the sunna of the Prophet.
These dimensions are somewhat approximated by the four different ways acknowledged by the jurists in which the Believer may fulfill the obligation to engage in jihad. by his heart, his tongue, his hands, and his sword."61"

In each dimension jihad opposes disequilibrium and the combativeness of the Muslim (by example of the Prophet) engaged in jihad transfigured into a state of repose by his certainty of divine determination and reward:
And those who fight for the cause of God, their works He will not suffer to miscarry. He will guide them and bring their hearts to peace and lead them into Paradise, which He has made know to them."62"

Thus Schuon, after Qushayri, suggests that "the practice of Islam at whatever level means to be at rest in effort," or, rephrased more pointedly, at peace in jihad. "63"

The two farther dimensions of jihad_the combative and the contemplative_ are more than complementary; each dimension contains within itself an aspect of the other. The mujahid of the armed struggle seeks the promise of the Beatific Vision in the Hereafter by fulfilling his duties to the Law (shari'a) brought by the Prophet; the mujahid of the spiritual struggle seeks knowledge of the Divine Presence in this life by following the Way (tariqa) of the Prophet. Both are purified through combat in the sense required by their respective dimensions; both have contemplative goals. The equilibrium suggested by this model of jihad conforms to the central doctrine of Islam_ at-tawhid_ the Unity or Oneness of God.

The forces that jihad opposes are the forces of disequilibrium, be they at the frontiers or beyond the boundaries of the Islam community, within the community in the form of tyranny, crime, vice, corruption (in the broadest sense), heresy, or rebellion, or within the soul. All of these combat zones, so to speak, are suggested in the canonic texts_ the Qur'an, haith, tafsir, and the four madhahib of orthodox Sunni Islam."64"
Since jihad is a reactive mode, it is disequilibrium and crisis that has determined the reference points wherein definitions of jihad were elaborated upon within traditional Islamic Consciousness.


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36)
Lane's Lexicon, IV, p.1610; SEL, s.v. "Shahid". See also Qur'an IV:69; 46:4-6; 3:161.
37) At-Tabriz,ed., Mishkal al-masabih, J.Robson, tran., 4 voles.(Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1963), Bk.
XVIXI,ch.I.
38) Mishkal, XVIII, Ch. I. For an Islamic perspective on the relationship between conjugal love and contemplation see Ibn'Arabi, T. Burckhardt and A.Culme_Syemour, translators, The Wisdom of the Prophets, Fusus al_Hikam (Glouocestershire, England: Beshara Publications, 1975),pp. 116_125.
39) Lan's Lexicon, II, p.473.
40)Tirmidhi cited in A.H. Siffiqi, "Jihad in Islam: a Comperhensive View",Criterion, Part I, III (November_December, 1968), p.28.
41)
Hadith cited by the 13th century mystic Najam ad_Din Razi in Mirsad al-'ibad and translated in "From the Heritage of Islamic Literature: "Jihad", Al Bayan (June,1976), p.15.
42)
Ibn Qaiyim, cited in Siddiqi, "Jihad in Islam",pp.28_29.
43) Razi, "Heritage",pp. 15_16. For full re-statement of the traditional view, also see Sheikh Abdul Wahad Yahya's discussion, published as Rene Guenon, Symbolism of the Cross, A.MacNab, tran. (London: Luzac& Co., 1975),pp.40_45.
44)Quran VII:56; VII:45; XIII:28: qushyri cited in Anne-marie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Caroline Press, 1975),p.167.
45)Al-Ghazali, "The book of Invocation", Ihya ulum al-Din, translated by Kojiro Nakamura as Ghazali on Prayer (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1975),p.167.
46) Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, pp.136-138; 168.
47) These are hadith qudusi_ the speech of God reported by the Prophet in manner of these "holy traditions". Al-Bukhari, Mishkal, IX, Ch. II. Both hadiths also appear in Martin Lings, what is Sufism? (London: George Allen & Unwin,1975), pp.59,49.
48) Al-Bayhaqi, Mishkal, IX, Ch.II.
49) Nasr, Islam and the Plight of Modern Man (London: Longmans, 1975),p.73. For futher Discussion of the method see Schuon, Understanding Islam,D.M. Matheson, trans, (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1963), Ch.4, and Nasr, Ideals, Ch.5.
50) F.Schuon, Understanding Islam, pp. 13-18; H.A.R> Gibb, "Islam", Concise Encyclopadia of World Religious.
51) Quran, III:110.
52) Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud, Mishkal, XVIII, Ch. XXII.
53) Lane's Lexicon, II, p.473.
54) Lane's Lexicon, II, p.474.
55) Al-Bukhari and Muslim, Mishkat, XVIII,Ch. I.
56) Al-Bayhaqi cited by Muhammed Umar chapra in "Objectives of the Islamic Economic Oreder", in Islam: Its Meaning and Message, K.Ahmed and S. Azzam, eds. (London: Islamic Council of Europe, 1975),p. 185.
57) Al-Ghazali, The Alchemy of Happiness, C. Field, trans. (Lahore: Sh. Muhammed Ashraf, 1964), p. 45.
58) Quran, II:29_35; Nasr, Ideala, PP. 18_19.
59) Which is also a portion of the haith: "My forune is under the shadow of my spear." Al-Bukhari cited in Elie Adib Salem, Political Theory and Institutions of the Khawarij ( Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1956), p. 82.
60) Khadduri, The Islamic Law of Nations, pp. 38-41;SEI, s.v; "Sira".
61) Hamidullah, Conduct, P.169.
62) Quran, XLVII: 4-6
63) Schuon, Understanding Islam, p/53.
64)The four Sunni schools of Jurisprudence; see SEL, s.v.: "fikh".

The Islamic Quarterly, London
Third Quarter 1983

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An Islamist website issued this invitation to Muslims in 2002. The use of the airport metaphor is especially chilling.

Free Ticket
NAME: Any Human is eligible for this offer, old, young, men, women, and child and even newborn. "Every soul will taste death" - Qura'n

NATIONALITY: The kingdom of soil (sand)."From it we created you, to it you shall return, and from it you will return once again". - Qura'n

LOCATION: The planet of earth, the Dunia, the (Dar Alfanaa'), the place which has an end soon.

DISTINATION: To the place of which has no end.

WEIGHT ALLOWED:
1. Seven Meters of white fabric. (Inexpensive fabric is recommended). To all Travelers, are you prepared?

2. All Goods such as good deeds, Salat Zakat, Fasting, Hajj, reciting the Qura'n, Thikr, etc.

WEIGHT NOT ALLOWED: No Assets will be allowed on board such as, gold, silver, money, your checkbook, American Express, and other belongings.

THE AIRPORT: The Departing location is unknown. "No soul shall know in which land will die" - Qura'n

TIME OF DEPARTURE: It is not specified. "…They shall not be delayed or be early an hour" - Qura'n

ARIVAL STATION: There will be more than a choice either to Paradise or to Hill fire (you may choose one).

THE CAPTAIN AND THE CREW:
The Captain: The Angel of Death.
The Crew: Either kind and friendly Angels or mean with no mercy.

RESERVATION: No need, your seat has been reserved.

INSTRUCTIONS: To all those Travelers to assure your safety please, prepare for your departure date. It is very serious trip where food and drinks will not be served on board. To all those Travelers clear your hearts from all sins and start to build up the good deeds. To all Female Travelers did you prepare your home and the children for that day? To all Male Travelers did you prepare your family for that day?

THE PURPOSE OF THE TRIP:

To stand in front of the Judge of all Judges, to stand in front of the king of all kings. That day "Each Soul for what she gained is responsible". - Qura'n

That day shall be no interest but self-interest, where Justice will be revealed. "On that day will men proceed in groups sorted out, to be shown the deeds that they had done. Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it! And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, see it". Alzalzala---Qura'n

Finally, we wish you a happy and a pleasant trip. May Allah accept us all to the highest distention level of Jannah, (Paradise) the level of Al-Firdous AMEEN.

FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION PLEASE, DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ALQURA'N AL-KAREEM AND AL-SUNNAH ALSHAREEFAH.
Post Date: 2002-10-02

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