Struggle Within
“إِنَّ النَّبيَّ، صلَّى الله عليه وآله، بَعَثَ سَريّةً فَلَمَّا رجعوا قال: “مَرْحَباً بِقومٍ قَضَوا الجِهادَ آلأَصغَرَ وبَقِيَ عَلَيْهِمُ الجِهادَ الأَكْبَرَ.” فَقِيلَ يا رَسولَ اللهِ، ما الجِهادُ الأكبر؟ قال:”جِهادُ النَّفْس
Verily on seeing the returning armies from the battlefront, the Prophet (s) of God said,”blessed are those who have performed the minor jihad, and have yet to perform the major one.” When asked “what is the major jihad?” The Prophet replied, “the jihad of the self” (struggle against self)
Kafi – Vol 5 pg 12
Man is a marvel possessing two lives within one existence. One is the apparent life, associated with his body, and the other is the ‘inner life’, associated with the hidden, higher world, his soul in short, which belongs to realms of celestial world, and consists of several levels. Each of these levels has a specified host of guardians.
The host related with the divine and intellectual powers attracts him towards the heavenly spheres, and summons him towards acts of virtue and goodness. The other host of guardians is satanic, which attracts a man towards the realms of darkness and shame, and invites him to the acts of evil and destruction.
There is always a state of conflict and strife between these two forces and human existence serves as the battleground for these two forces. When the divine forces of good become successful, man emerges as a victorious and blessed being, attains the high station of angels, and is congregated under the category of the prophets, saints, and the pious.When the satanic forces of darkness dominate, man becomes a rebellious and vicious being, and is associated with the infidels and those who are cursed.
Thus, the struggle of the self is the jihad of greater importance. This jihad is superior to being killed in the way of God, since this condition implies overpowering one’s own powers and faculties, and placing them under God’s command, and cleansing our body of satanic elements and their forces. The following steps are necessary to attain victory in the greater jihad, ‘the struggle within’.
1) Contemplation
2) Will & resolution
3) Stipulation (Musharatah)
4) Guarding Against Evil (Muraqabah)
5) Self-Examination (Muhasabah)
6) Remembrance (Tadhakkur)
~Taken from the book “Forty Hadiths” by Imam Khomeini (R.A.)
Challenge Yourself
During this Muharram lets challenge ourselves to start our journey towards the major jihad, ‘the struggle within’, by trying to do the following on a regular basis:
• Contemplate on our duties toward God.
• Contemplate on the purpose of our creation.
• Contemplate on the purpose of all the bounties God has bestowed on us.
• Form a resolution to avoid committing sins.
• Form a resolution to perform all obligations (Wajibat).
• Constantly recall the resolutions made.
• Perform self-examination constantly.
• Seek protection from God against any temptation.
• Reflect over our actions and perform self-accounting
◦ did we commit more good deeds than bad?
◦ Can weincrease the good and avoid the bad? .
• Seek forgiveness for any wrong doing.
• Form a resolution to prevent ourselves from wrong doing.
• Be thankful to Allah (SWT) for perform the obligatory acts and avoiding sins.
Lets ask Allah (SWT) and the Ahlul Bayt (A.S.) to assist us throughout this struggle.
Read more here : http://www.aliportland.com/challenge-yourself
Thank you forreading .
Sayed Abazar Wahedi ( Mahdi ) .
Sayed Abazar Wahedi 