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Good morning.

Jihad – one of the most misunderstood words today. Literally, it means to strive and to struggle. In the spiritual sense it means to cleanse one’s heart of all the ills such as jealousy, hatred, anger and so on. Muhammad (peace be upon him) described jihad as being of two kinds; the first kind is the greater jihad which is the struggle within oneself to be a better person. The second kind is the lesser jihad which is to fight physically in order to defend life, property and land.

Some religious traditions have the concept of ‘holy war’. However it would be wrong to define jihad as such. Islam allows Muslims to fight an authentic jihad under a legitimate ruler in order to defend one’s life and property. However the Qur’an and Muhammad (peace be upon him) have laid down very strict rules for the use of proportionate force. Terrorism, kidnapping and hijacking do not fall in the category of jihad. Jihad is a noble act in which a person risks their own life for the protection of others.

Suicide bombing is rejected as un-Islamic by an overwhelming majority of Muslim theologians around the world. One of the five principles of Shari’ah (Islamic law) is the protection of life including one’s own.

Despite these strict prohibitions some Muslim groups have resorted to the use of suicide bombers not just in combat zones but also against innocent civilians. Muslim theologians have condemned suicide bombings in the strongest possible terms maintaining that both the killing of people and suicide bombings is clearly forbidden in Islam.

Dear God, we ask you to cleanse our world from the scourge of terrorism, amin.