THE TRUE JIHAD

~ 15 ~ to the sunnah of the Prophet, there is no aggressive or offensive war in Islam. Islam allows only a defensive war and that, too, only when there is no other option. The truth is that in life we have to face the problem of choosing between two courses: between the confrontational and the non-confrontational, between the peaceful and the violent. The study of the Prophet’s life tells us that the Prophet, in all matters, abandoned the violent or confrontational course in favour of the peaceful or nonconfrontational course. The whole life of the Prophet provides a successful, practical example of this principle. We give here some examples of this nature. 1. After being appointed as Prophet, the first question before him was which of the two abovementioned courses he should follow. As we know, the Prophet’s mission was to bring polytheism (shirk) to an end and establish monotheism in its place. The Kabah in Makkah had already been established as a centre of monotheism, but at the time of the Prophet 360 idols were already installed