Jihad (Struggle, effort, endeavour) - Part 1

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('Jihad' - Struggle, effort, endeavour. [Muhammad Prophet For Our Time Glossary

pg. 217].)

 

 

Jihad - Part 1

 

(p.125) THE CHANGE OF QIBLAH [direction of prayer] had occurred at the end of a

period of uncertainty. Muhammad and the community had been restlessly " turning

this way and that, " searching for guidance in their confusion. Muhammad knew

that a prophet had to make a difference to the world. He could not simply

withdraw from the mainstream. He had to put God's revealed will into practice

and create a just, egalitarian society. But the hijrah [migration] had pushed

the Muslims into a peripheral and anomalous position. Even though Muhammad had

begun to implement his social reforms, he knew that he would make no lasting

impression on Arabia as long as he was confined to and isolated in Medina.

Mecca, the " mother of cities, " was crucial to the development of the peninsula.

Arabia needed the commercial genius of the Quraysh. Mecca was now the center of

the Muslim world. They yearned towards it in prayer several times a day, but it

was coming to seem like an absent, inaccessible lover. [1] (p.126) Muslims could

not even make the hajj, like other Arabs. Muhammad realized that Mecca was the

key to his mission. The hostility of the Quraysh had eradicated the ummah from

the tribal map and pushed it into a political limbo. Without Mecca, Islam was

doomed to marginality. Somehow Muhammad would have to make peace with his

people. But after the first shock of the hijrah, most of the Quraysh seemed to

have forgotten all about the Muslims. Before Muhammad could seek reconciliation

with Mecca, he had to make the Quraysh [his 'born' tribe] take notice of him.

 

He also had to secure his position in Medina. He knew that, as far as most of

the Medinese were concerned, he was still on trial. They had defied the might of

the Quraysh by taking the migrants in because they expected some material

advantage, and here too, Muhammad had to deliver. At the very least, he had to

ensure that the Emigrants did not become a drain upon the economy. But it was

difficult for them to earn a living. Most of them were merchants or bankers, but

there was very little opportunity for trade in Medina, where the wealthier Arab

and Jewish tribes had achieved a monopoly. The Emigrants had no experience of

farming, and in any case all the available land had already been taken. They

would become a burden to the Helpers, unless they found an independent source of

income, and there was one obvious way to achieve this.

 

Medina was well placed to attack the Meccan caravans on their way to and from

Syria, and shortly after Muhammad had arrived in Medina, he had started to send

bands of Emigrants on raiding expeditions. [2] (p.127) Their aim was not to shed

blood, but to secure an income by capturing camels, merchandise, and prisoners,

who could be held for ransom. Nobody would have been particularly shocked by

this development. The ghazu [acquisition raid, essential to the Bedouin economy]

was a normal expedient in times of hardship, though some of the Arabs would have

been surprised by the Muslims' temerity in taking on the mighty Quraysh,

especially as they were clearly inexperienced warriors. During the first two

years after the hijrah, Muhammad dispatched eight of these expeditions. He did

not usually go himself but commissioned people such as Hamzah and 'Ubaydah ibn

al-Harith, but it was difficult to get accurate information about the caravans'

itinerary, and none of these early raids was successful.

 

The Quraysh were not a warlike people. They had left the nomadic life behind

long ago and had lost both the habit and skill of the ghazu; the Qur'an shows

that some of the Emigrants found the very idea of fighting distasteful. [3] But

Muhammad was not discouraged. Even though the Emigrants desperately needed an

income, plunder was not his primary objective. The raiders may have come back

empty handed, but they had at least brought the Muslims to the attention of

Mecca. The Quraysh were rattled. They had to take precautions that had never

been necessary before. Merchants complained that they felt more vulnerable; they

had to make inconvenient detours and the flow of trade in and out of Mecca was

slightly disrupted. In September 623, Muhammad himself led a ghazu against a

large caravan led by Ummayah ibn Khalaf; the spoils looked so promising that a

record 200 Muslims volunteered for the expedition. (p.128) But yet again the

caravan eluded the raiders and there was no fighting.

 

Muhammad (Prophet For Our Time)

Chapter 4, 'Jihad', p. 125-128

Karen Armstrong

Harper Perennial - London, New York, Toronto and Sydney

ISBN-13 978-0-00-723248-2

ISBN-10 0-00-723248-9

 

Notes:

 

[1] Muhammad A. Bamyeh, 'The Social Origins of Islam: Mind, Economy, Discourse'

(Minneapolis, 1999), 198.

 

[2] W. Montgomery Watt, 'Muhammad at Medina' (Oxford, 1956), 2-5.

 

[3] Qur'an 2:216.