Jihad al-Akbar is the lectures of Imam Khomeini in Najaf, which was published in 1991 by the institute for compilation and publication of Imam Khomeini's works.[1]
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| Author | Imam Khomeini |
|---|---|
| Country | Iran |
| Language | English |
| Genre | lecturs |
| Publisher | CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |
Publication date | 1991 |
Published in English | December 6, 2013 |
| Pages | 86 |
| ISBN | 978-1-49435-076-5 |
Etymology
Jihad in Islam means striving way of God.(al-jihad fi sabil Allah)[2]
In the Islamic view, jihad is two types:[3]
- External jihad ( physical jihad):
- Jihad (the help of God's religion) is with pen or tongue or sword.[3]
- Inner jihad ( spiritual or jihad al-nafs ):
- Jihad al-nafs is against all evil, anger, lust, insatiable imagination and any other bad morality in humans.[4]
Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam of Shiites, said: “The Muhammad dispatched a military unit to the battlefront for defense. Upon their (successful) return, he said to them "Blessed are the people who did the jihad al-Asghar" but yet jihad al-Akbar has remained.[5] Practices of the Religion[6] jihad al-nafs was called jihad al-Akbar and physical jihad was called jihad al-Asghar.[7][8]
Context
In this book, Imam Khomeini Orders to Persons and students and clerics who do Jihad al-nafs. "It is necessary that you purify yourself so that when you become a head of an institution or a community you purify them and in this way take a step to rectify and build a society".[9][10] Find a good teacher and participate in ethics classes."The possibility of evil propagation and unclean hands intervening and portraying the phenomenon of having an ethical programme of rectifying one-self as unimportant eventually corrupts the hawza".[10] In the thought of Imam Khomeini, human learns to Loss of worldly likings and self-giving to God. Imam says: People should not be proud of reaching a high position (scientific, material, political, etc).[8]