Among all these crimes, however, the most disgusting is killing, destroying, dominating in God's name, calling it the will of God, whatever the name by which he is invoked, or saying that God ruled so through a book. It was civil laws and religious dogmas that have set us apart from the ethical values ​​of dignity by misinterpreting concepts and words. An example is the so-called Jihad or "holy war", which has done so much damage to all society and to its religion, Islam.

Jihad is a concept of the Tasawwuf, of Islamic mysticism, called "Sufism," and it means "effort": the effort internally made on the path towards God. Jihad or holy war is the internal war that the human being leads to address his egoism. It is written that one day the Prophet (may salvation and peace be with him) said: "We are returning from a small war and we are heading towards the great war." Then someone asked, "What is that great war?" to which he responded, "It is about the great war each one must undertake against its own selfishness." Thus, as Shaikh Khaled points out: "The great holy war is not destined to extend the faith of Islam under a tyrant's rule. The great Jihad (Al jihad al-akbar) is the jihad of souls that goes back to the origins of man."

When the human being became aware of all he had received from God - the intelligence and knowledge leading him to deduce his own responsibility, and his ignorance encountering the universe with which he feels united -, it was when he concluded that he had the power to choose his destiny -to choose between good and evil. This is the Islamic issue of Jihad where it is recognized that the great holy war is nothing more than the struggle of every human being against himself, against his/her ego. That's why Sufism says: "You have to work life with your hands, but never let it penetrate your heart, because your hands can be washed, but your heart cannot."

But, what is the Tasawwuf? When any Sufi teacher is asked about what the Tasawwuf is, he usually responds in the following manner: "What goes around in your head, give it up; what you have in hand, offer it; what's going to happen to you, do not skip it."

These beautiful words show that Islam is a religion yearning to unite the man and woman's spirituality with their humanity through the donation and surrendering to others. Islam, from its core, does not condemn any religion; on the contrary, he has Abraham as father, who is the father of the Jewish and Christian people, and takes Jesus as the second greatest prophet. This is what is read in the Muslim tradition: "Jesus was the divine that spoke about the divine, the divine soul revealed to our word."

The mystical path of Islam is the path of brotherhood, that is overshadowed by the extremism of a group of people. This misinterpretation cannot lead to condemning Muslims who live or try to live the true path. The words of Muhammad (salvation and peace be with him), go directly to  men and women’s interior calling them to live with others in mutual knowledge and freedom. Shaykh Khaled Bentounés, a Sufi master, puts it in this way: "Religious dogmas have deprived human kind of all references to his inner spirituality; Religion has become an ideology, an instrument of the throng's manipulation." Religion cannot and should not become an ideology or a doctrine because these two lead to murder and enslavement.

Through Jihad, Islamic mysticism calls to a renewed action that keeps as its central issue the challenging of the ego - never to do so to the creatures; never through any aggressive acts against society. Jihad teaches us that by winning day by day in this war, life is deepened in intensity, because: "Whoever acts generously makes to himself an immense good, by increasing his own joy of living".

 Islam does not condemn women, on the contrary it enhances them by considering them the feminine part of God since in their wombs they carry the gift of creating. Imposing dress on women has been a misunderstanding of the Prophet's words (salvation and peace be upon him), who said, "God does look neither at your appearance nor to your deeds, but He looks in your hearts." Islam is built on the peace of the heart, so that a believer should not separate his faith from his acts, because each act implies a duty and responsibility to the other.

Islam does not condemn any religion, on the contrary, it exalts the great prophets sent to them and calls them Rasûl. It is believed that each prophet is sent to add a new expression and thus provides a new message. The Prophet (may peace and salvation be with him) said: "No one is superior to the other; you are all the same, like the spines of the same comb." It is a mistake to judge Islam based on the acts of a terrorist group of persons who try to impose their ideas, that are not of the Prophet, and who call themselves jihadists, damaging the beautiful meaning of this word.

 Jihad is a spiritual war lived in two ways: through the inner struggle against one's selfishness; through the struggle experienced as a society in order to eliminate poverty and economic crises. These meanings are far from death and weapons with what it is related today. A Jihadist is one who fights in his interior and serves humanity from his social act, eliminating day by day from his interior all yearning for wealth and power that lead men and women to subdue or harm their fellow companions. The only weapon to that, is love; only with love must a person fight to overthrow the lie that is hidden in any manipulated justice.

Real justice must be based on and safeguard the dignity of every human being but protect neither laws nor dogmas, because nothing is more valuable than the dignity that consecrates a human being's life. "Help any oppressed or oppressing brother", - to which his companions responded: "We understand well that we have to help the oppressed. But, how can you help the oppressor?" Then he answered them: "Stopping his hand, preventing him from doing evil."

 Jihad invites each human being to welcome others, to value them, to take care of them by letting go of one’s own selfishness. It is an open door to freedom that leads to take care of others in all our acts, regardless of whether or not we know them; regardless that their beliefs and ideologies agree or not with ours.

We should not forget that what is known today as Jihad is a distortion of its real meaning, a misinterpretation that leads to extremism both those who incur in it, and those who discriminate the other for belonging to a religion of which it does not have a clear knowledge.

(Excerpts and arrangement by Jpic-jp.org. To read the whole article go to https://sedosmission.org/article/la-yihad-la-verdadera-guerra-santa/)