LESSONS ETERNAL AND EPHEMERAL — Differentiate Between Them

system of religious freedom be established. In order to achieve this end, God commanded the Prophet and his companions to remove this false system at any cost even if it required engaging in war. The Prophet and his companions accomplished this command of God and at a limited level, religious persecution was exterminated. All the verses related to qital that appear in the Quran are in relation to the accomplishment of this mandate. In the present age with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights guaranteeing religious freedom to all, the validity of qital is now defunct. Now, man has complete freedom with regards to religion, but people want to do battle for political benefit and power. In order to better understand this matter, consider a tradition attributed to Abdullah ibn Umar, a companion of the Prophet (Fathul Bari, 8/60). After the fourth Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, when political conflict ensued between Abdullah ibn Zubayr and the Umayyads, Abdullah ibn Umar, stayed away from the battle. People approached him and asked, 'Why are you are not taking part in this battle, although God has commanded in the Quran to fight them until there is no more fitna?' Abdullah ibn Umar replied, 'I have fought in battles until fitna was eliminated and the religion became God's. But you want to fight again so that it returns once more and religion becomes that of others besides God.' This incident is better known in history as the fitna of Abdullah ibn Zubayr. It is clear from this tradition of Abdullah ibn Umar that the fitna that is mentioned in the Quran relating to this command was religious persecution. He said that they had fought in battles to eradicate religious persecution. Now, man has complete freedom with regards to religion, but people want to do battle for political benefit and power and in this way bring back the fitna in the form of political perse​cution! The war against fitna was a war of limited duration, temporary in nature and meant to be engaged in only until its specific purpose had been served. In the Gandhian movement, although there were two terms that were used to identify the freedom struggles as explained above, everyone