The Struggle for the Soul of Islam


An intense struggle is playing out within the Muslim world, between Islamic fundamentalists and moderates, who do not share the extremists' agenda.

Osama bin Laden’s terroristic jihad against the West is one reading of Islam, but it is not the eternal essence of Islam.

The word jihad means “effort,” or “struggle.”

In its lesser sense, it refers to holy war to defend the faith against armed attack by enemies of Islam.

But throughout most of the Muslim world, “the greater jihad” is commonly understood to be the struggle against one’s own base nature and character flaws, which stand as a barrier between the individual soul and God.

This spiritual understanding of Islam lies at the heart of Sufism, or mystical Islam, and of traditional Islam itself.

After a major battle, defending the small community of Islam against powerful enemies who sought to destroy it, the Prophet said: "We have returned from the lesser holy war (jihad) to the greater holy war." When asked what he meant by the greater war, the Prophet replied, "Struggle against the ego (nafs)."

~ Hadith (traditional sayings of the Prophet Muhammad)

“Islam is like a forest.  When seen from a distance, it appears to be a single entity, but when approached more closely, the diversity of its individual trees becomes obvious.  Fundamentalism is just one of many Islamic 'trees,' and not Islam itself.”

                                ~ Abdurrahman Wahid, leading Islamic theologian and Indonesia's first democratically-elected president

“A strong culture permits diversity; a strong culture permits freedom of thought, deviation from the framework. When the Abbasid Period [750-1258 AD] was at its height, it became a culture of self-confidence. When there is confidence like this, you permit space and freedom. Lack of self-confidence leads to the lowest cultural point, from all aspects – human rights, women’s rights. In the Arab empire, there was more freedom than in the Arab world today.”

~ Salman Masalha, Israeli Arab intellectual and poet
 
 
Libforall Foundation helps to strengthen and give voice to local champions of liberty and tolerance in their struggle with fanatic extremists, throughout the Muslim world.