JIHAD - understand it!

The on going War-Against-Terror by the US and its Allies in Afghanistan and Iraq and the troubled tribal areas of Pakistan by it well-fashioned army against the Al-Qaeda network has instinctively cultivated and further nurtured a great misconception and blemished one of the fundamentals of Islam – JIHAD. The Al-Qaeda fighters, termed as ‘Jihadis’ – the one who fights for the cause of Jihad, have deteriorated the very meaning of Jihad and convinced feeble minds in the west, and across the globe, in affirming the fallacy and delusion portrayed about Jihad and Islam.
JIHAD – commonly translated as the ‘Holy War’, however, recently it has become synonymous with a vision of marching band of religious fanatics with savage beards and fierce some eyes, brandishing swords and attacking infidels wherever encountered and pressing them under the sword of the sake of Islam. This awry and deceitful vision is the courtesy of those benefactors of ours who are engaged in an extremely unholy war to attain the mere joys of the worldly lure. Their fight and struggle is not for God but for their contentment and pleasure. They have manufactured regulations to deceive the innocent minds to take up guns and wrap explosive belts and justify their approach and confuse the understanding of Islam.
True Meaning of Jihad
Islam is neither a religion nor Muslims a nation since it nullifies the true essence of Jihad (which is known as ‘The best of all Prayers’). Islam is a revolutionary ideology and program which seeks to perfect the social order of the whole world and rebuild its conformity with its own tents and ideals. Muslim is a revolutionary party that is organized by Islam to carry into effect the revolutionary program. And, Jihad is a revolutionary struggle by Muslims to achieve this objective. The most nearest and correct meaning, in layman terms, would be “to exert one’s utmost endeavor to promoting a cause.” Islam established an ideology for the welfare of not just a common man, a community, a Nation but for the entire Mankind. Towards this end, to press all forces either speech, pen. Spending good, physical effort or, lastly, by the power of sword and a composite term for the use of all of these forces is JIHAD.
Conditions of Validity
Jihad is not merely a struggle, it is a struggle ‘in the way of God’, which is the essential condition that governs the validity of this struggle. Many have without a thought, sorted to the literal translation of the condition and have misled their mindset. However in Islam the expression undermines all such work done for the collective well-being of mankind and in which functionary has no vested interested other than to attain the pleasure of God. A person devoted to bring about a revolution in the system of life and establish a new system in conformity with the ideology of Islam, his / hers struggle should be free of any self-fish motives.
Current Scenario
The current scenario and misconception poses a great threat to the Muslims and if not rectified it shall eventually lead to a bigger hatred towards the Muslims. It has become the utmost responsibility and a paramount duty of all the Muslims to educate and spread the reality of Jihad not only to the far west but also, and most significantly among those feeble minded young enthusiastic Muslims - ready to lay their lives - trapped deep within a labyrinth of an unholy war manifested by those seeking only their equanimity. I hope my message reaches out to those far and wide and to those lost.

Pakistan engulfed in Terror War

The US led war-on-terror spilled over from Afghanistan into Pakistan as heavily armed US commandos ambushed a village near the Pak-Afghan border in elusive attempt to regain supremacy in the lost war and since then the drone attacks on Pakistan soil have become much consistent and even more dominating. The Bush administration appears prepared to lash out at its most cordial ally to war-on-terror, Pakistan, who it blames for the humiliating failure to crush Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. This current scenario is synonymous with the situation during the Vietnam War when after failure to contain the North Vietnam Army, US urged invasion of Cambodia.
Though the path leading to the end of the terror-war is no different than the Vietnam-War, the dear consequences of more US attacks on Pakistan soil can be far more catastrophic than being imaginable to any extent. Firstly, such attempts are counter-productive, on the contrary defy the very basis of cooperation between Pakistan and US and might further fuel the fire of hatred and violence Pakistani government is eagerly trying to diminish.
Secondly, these attacks would eventually result in widening the Anti-US war and merging it with Afghanistan’s resistance to western occupation. Also, Pakistan army might chip in for retaliation in view to preserve their national sovereignty and protect national pride.
Lastly, it might reignite the old irredentist movement to reunite Pashtun parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan into an independent state – Pakhtunistan, which will pose an even greater and more powerful threat to the US coalition forces.
The entire civilized human history, till date, has witnessed the catastrophes incurred by the use of force to gain dominance and reign supreme over the weak. There ought to be better thought out ways to tackle the insurgents residing in Pakistan and the war-on-terror and its eventuality be reevaluated before the world witnesses another setback to the great world power.