The Lesser and the Greater Jihad

action and bring what is in the subconscious into the conscious mind. He needs to give a new direction to his feelings. He needs to struggle as a mujahid or engage in jihad to awaken his intellectual powers. Only after this can he utter such words to fill up the scale on the Day of Judgment. Human beings have various desires and mental states, such as greed, superiority complex, scorn, impatience, anger, revenge, etc. Often, people remain dominated by these negative states. In addition to this, they get deeply attached to certain things—for example, wealth, fame, their children, and so on. People oscillate between negative and positive emotions, hate and love. These emotions shape their thinking. Consciously or otherwise, they mould their lives according to these emotions. Given this, it is undoubtedly an act of jihad for someone to continuously make God the focus of their attention and not deviate from the straight path. The challenging task is called in the Hadith as jihad-e nafs, or jihad against oneself. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 23958)