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Nicolai Sennels: Psychology: greater jihad…
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Psychology: greater jihad is preparing for the lesser jihad — holy war
By: Nicolai Sennels, Psychologist
Greater jihad is an inner struggle aiming at removing
psychological habits and biological instincts that keep Muslims from
following the Islamic teachings. The problem is that the pinnacle of
these teachings is the lesser jihad, killing or subjugating non-Muslims.
Greater jihad is just another word for self-radicalisation.
In some Islamic traditions, scholars talk about two kinds of jihad:
greater jihad and lesser jihad. Greater jihad denotes an inner
psychological struggle of submitting to Muhammed’s example and the
teachings of Allah. Lesser jihad is what is commonly known as Islamic
holy war — the attempt to spread Islam by submitting non-Muslims and
non-Islamic areas to Sharia through preferably violent, but also
non-violent, means.
Lesser jihad
It would be a grave mistake to think that just because the term jihad
is used in two different ways, violent jihad is a misinterpretation of
Islam. It is not. Using violence to physically impose Sharia on the
world is a duty of all Muslims, stated many places in the Islamic
scriptures.
And just because the inner psychological jihad is called the
“greater”, it does not mean that it is better than the “lesser” — the
outer and violent jihad. On the contrary. The hadiths, the Islamic
scriptures describing the life and sayings of Muhammed, clearly define
killing and being killed fighting non-Muslims as “the highest jihad” —
and therefore also higher than the inner jihad. One example (Ibn Nuhaas, Book of Jihad, Translated by Nuur Yamani, p. 177):
“Aman asked Rasulullaah: ‘and what is Jihad?’ He replied: ‘You fight
against the disbelievers when you meet them (on the battlefield).’ He
asked again: ‘What kind of Jihad is the highest?’ He replied: ‘The
person who is killed whilst spilling the last of his blood.’”
Greater jihad
Both the Quran and Muhammed — if he ever existed
— mentions several times how important it is for Muslims to be willing
to give up everything, even their lives, in order to wage jihad for
Allah. The Quran goes so far as to label those who are not willing to
give up their family and everything they own for the sake of jihad as
disobedient (meaning apostasy, for which the Sharia orders the death
penalty): “If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your
relatives, wealth which you have obtained, commerce wherein you fear
decline, and dwellings with which you are pleased are more beloved to
you than Allah; and His Messenger; and jihad in His cause, then wait
until Allah executes His command. And Allah does not guide the defiantly
disobedient people.” (9:24).
Greater jihad is thus an inner psychological process of removing
emotional obstacles, such as the survival instinct and the natural
biological attachment to offspring; spouses; and a safe and comfortable
dwelling – making the believer ready and willing to submit and give up
every personal desire and attachment to spread Islam.
The greater jihad, the mental replacement of personal desires with an
absolute loyalty towards Allah and his prophet and laws, is aided by
what could be called the cultural psychological spine of Islamic
culture: the recitation of the Islamic scriptures (some even learn the
whole Quran by heart), expressions of loyalty through prayer five times a
day by repeating the salah (“O Allah, how perfect You are and praise be
to You. Blessed is Your name, and exalted is Your majesty. There is no
god but You.”), and the well-known and severe religious and social
control that ensure the rule of Sharia in Muslim societies.
Brainwashing oneself
The traditional cocktail of repetition and the use of threats and
violence (often called “honor violence”) within Islamic societies is
exactly the same psychological tactic used in classical brainwashing of,
for example, prisoners in totalitarian political regimes. Fear,
violence and deprivation of personal freedom break down the individual
and make him or her receptive to the message and orders that are
repeated almost endlessly.
The expression “slave of Allah” is — not surprisingly — commonly used
among practising Muslims as a positive way of describing the completion
of the greater jihad: one’s own submission and the giving up of normal
human desires for the benefit of Islam.
Seen from a psychological perspective, the greater jihad is nothing
but self-radicalisation — an inner holy war of brainwashing oneself that
is deeply ingrained in Islamic tradition — to go against human nature,
which includes basic survival instincts and the natural aversion — also
among animals — to the killing of members of one’s own species.
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