Jihad: the Islamic doctrine of permanent war

This book is one of the basic doctrines of Islam, but the average Indian’s knowledge of it is both superficial and unsatisfactory. Hindus usually render the term as dharmayuddha, but this rendering is totally misleading. Dharmayuddha means `war fought according to rules laid down in the Dharmashastras’ such as not attacking a person who does not have a weapon or has dropped it, not molesting an adversary who has surrendered, not pursuing a defeated enemy who has run away, not attacking the non-combatants in the enemy camp, not harming the women and holy people and places in the enemy’s territory, etc. Hindus have never known the concept of a religious or holy war, a concept which is characteristic of the monotheistic creeds. Therefore, to the common Hindu, in particular to those who are ignorant of the history of the many religious wars waged by monotheistic creeds of Asia and Europe, jihad is a lofty conception.;Jihad has five clear components, and a complete understanding of the subject requires a discussion of each one of them. Thus jihad stands (1) Forcible expansion of Islam; (2) Destruction of infidels; (3) Establishment of jizyah on the subdued infidel population; (4) Plunder in the form of properties wrested from infidels; and (5) Plunder in the form of enslaved female and child population acquired from the vanquished infidels. Hindus should clearly understand that the doctrine of jihad is absolutely fatal to their life and property, not to speak of the honour of their womenfolk. If the Hindu does not make a serious and determined effort towards persuading his Muslim brethren to renounce the doctrine of jihOd, if he does not devote his heart and soul to devise adequate means of achieving that end, in a word, if he does not shed his deep-seated indifference to things Islamic, then he is most certainly proceeding towards self-destruction and that too in a not very distant future. Suhas Majumdar(1937-1995) used to teach mathematics in a Calcutta College. He was born in an obscure village in the Mymensingh district of East Bengal, now Bangla Desh. He wrote quite a few books in Bengali on the subject of re-incarnation of the 7th century Islam on the soil of present-day India. He felt he was particularly fitted to write on the subject of jihad as his early days passed under the shadow of the Noakhali slaughter. The subject had been in his mind for the last fifty years but it was after reading the section Kitab Al-Jihad Wa’i Siyar of Sahih Muslim, that the idea of writing a book on it occured to his mind.;