In the West, Ramadan is usually called a holy month (while in Arabic is called kareem — magnanimous), but the concept of Ramadan’s holiness has different meanings in Islam.
Certainly, holiness expresses sanctity, peace, and reverence. But it is also the month of Jihad in Islam.
No doubt, Ramadan is a blessed time for Muslim families. They pray and fast diligently. Every night at sunset they gather around the table in a spirit akin to that Thanksgiving dinner, but extended for 29 or 30 days depending on the moon cycle.
However, based on a prophetic hadith (a saying of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam), many Muslims also believe that dying during Ramadan grants them direct entry into paradise, without reckoning. Above all, the Quran bestows on a martyr entry unto the eternal presence of Allah.
This may explain why terrorist attacks can escalate in Ramadan.
For example, Islamic State (IS) terrorist attacks perpetrated in Iraq began on the fourth day of Ramadan (April 28 this year); IS called them the “Battle of Ramadan.” IS terrorists escalated their attacks against Shiite sacred sites, from Samarra (125 miles north of the capital, Baghdad) to Karbala (60 miles south and home of the holiest Shiite shrine). IS Salafi fighters—staunch Sunni fanatics—consider Shiite Muslims infidels. Many Iraqis were killed. Coalition forces responded with air raids to curb the IS insurgency.
In 2017, IS called for increased attacks during Ramadan, referring to it as “the holy month of jihad.” Within the first three weeks of Ramadan, 300 attacks were perpetrated in at least 12 countries around the globe.
Why is Ramadan associated with Jihad and not just spiritual peace? The legacy was started when Muhammad waged his first and most crucial battle, the Battle of Badr, on the seventeenth day of Ramadan (which fell this year on May 10) in 624 A.D. Muhammad led 313 soldiers out of his town, Medina, to intercept a Damascus-bound caravan. It was allegedly loaded with the possessions of Muslims that Meccan pagans had confiscated after the Prophet’s Hijra (immigration to Medina in 622 A.D).
The Meccans mobilized an army of 1000 men to confront the Muhammad’s armed force. But according to the Quran, with the help of an army of angels, Allah granted Muhammad victory against the odds.
Across the world, Muslims commemorate Muhammad’s victory every Ramadan. They invoke that event to give hope to a desperate Islamic nation that the golden days of Islam may return.
To this end, the Saudi publication “Arab News” commemorated the anniversary of the Badr battle by singling out other military victories during Ramadan over the centuries: “Some of the greatest victories in Islam [in addition to Badr] occurred during Ramadan such as the conquest of Makkah (8 Hijri) [maybe the biggest event in the life of Muhammad, in 630 A. D., falling this year on May 13, 2020], the conquest of Rhodes (53 Hijri [675 A.D]), the successful landing of Muslims on the coast of Spain (91 Hijri [711 A.D]), the victory by Tarik Ibn Zayed against the King of Spain (92 Hijri [712 A.D]), the victory of Salahuddin against invading crusaders (584 Hijri [1187 A.D.]), and Mamluk’s victory versus invading Tatars in the battle of Ain Jiloot (650 Hijri [1260 A.D.]).”
Without doubt, to be fair, in the Quran, jihad is a term with two meanings, spiritual and military.
During the Meccan period (610–622 A.D), the emphasis was on the spiritual dimension of jihad, i.e. perseverance in the face of persecution. The Quran also speaks of a Jihad of dawa (the promulgation of Islam) and defending the faith against the pagan Meccans. This implies an apologetic endeavor (not violent) against those who reject the Islamic message.
But in the beginning of the Medinan period (622–632 A.D), Muhammad received Quranic revelations allowing Muslims to fight against their Meccan persecutors. The term for fighting is qital in Arabic, a word that refers to the killing of one’s enemies.
After Allah granted Muhammad permission to use the sword, he led 26 battles. Also, Muhammad planned many military expeditions that conquered the most remote parts of Arabia before he died in 632 A.D. Muhammad’s companions, the caliphs, and Muslim sultans carried Jihad’s banner to the furthest corners of the Old World: to the gates of Vienna, the borders of France, and the Indian subcontinent.
Official Jihad, that is, one ordained by recognized Islamic governing authorities, ended with the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. But the lure of Jihad still attracts widespread support in Muslim-majority countries. In the psyche of many Muslim religious zealots, the teaching and example of Muhammad, the warrior, occasionally inspires unofficial Jihadi actions. Many common Muslims reject these modern actions of military Jihad, and may deem them inauthentic, mere acts of terror that falsely appropriate the name Jihad.
Yet the separation of Mosque and State remains highly contested in Islam among scholars and the people at large. Those who want a non-political Islam find it difficult to produce arguments that resonate with many devout Muslims. Those who support the full integration of Islam, the religion, and political leadership can more easily make their arguments in ways that appeal to the religious Islamic imagination.
Indeed, some American Muslims are trying to disentangle Jihad’s spiritual aspect from its military one. They endeavor to make their Islam a personal faith. The key to reforming Islam in the West may be a frank discussion and examination of personal beliefs and an attempt to reconcile them with the classical dogmatic texts. It is an uphill battle that will take generations of Muslim reformers to win.
Meanwhile, Ramadan will remain the month of Jihad.
Hesham Shehab is a member of Islamic Reform Forum.
mortimer says
‘Magnanimous’ Ramadan? Or more accurately (perhaps) ‘EXPANSIVE’ Ramadan when the waistlines of Muslims and the borders of Islam expand.
The number and lethality of jihad attacks also ‘expands’ during Ramadan, the month of jihad, battles, martyrdom and victories.
While some modernist Muslims try to separate the mosque from the state (as Hesham Shehab points out above), Islam was designed as a religious polity or as a political religion. Either way, the eternal politics of Allah may not be separated from Islam without destroy the ‘DEEN’ of Islam.
Most Westerners (not knowing Arabic or its sister languages) do not understand the significance of the word ‘deen’, a word that is most accurately translated as ‘governance’. Islam ‘governs’ every aspect of life with or without a person’s consent.
Ramadan is not ‘magnanimous’ in any way to the kafir. Ramadan is a threat to the kafir and to his independence and to his freedom of conscience. Ramadan is a very xenophobic, hostile festival in which the kafir is highlighted as ‘the enemy’ and in which the duty to conquer the kafir is given special emphasis.
commonsense says
Excellent post, Mortimer.
commonsense says
Hesham Shehab is probably sincere, and if so he is rather brave, as he and his colleagues are vulnerable to physical attacks from other Muslims who find such reformist ambitions to be assertions of apostasy, the theologically mandated punishment for which is death. But it would have been useful for him to have provided us with at least some specifics about how such wished-for reform would actually occur; he provides no real details as to how to bring this to fruition.
One of his fellow would-be reformers is M. Zuhdi Jasser, who has previously stated that hadiths should be expunged as a component of canonical Islam. Yet on the the Islamic Reform Forum’s website, a hadith is cited to exemplify how Muslims should behave. Such contradictions and vagueness in details do not instill confidence in the prospect of any success in the IRF’s endeavor. Shehab, furthermore, concedes that his reformist ambitions will take generations of Muslims to accept. While his candor is appreciated, the fact is that we cannot wait that long. We have endured fourteen hundred years of rapine, death, and destruction. Enough is enough.
Mohammad Asghar says
Ramadan is a curse for the Muslims. During this month, the costs of all the essential commodities, especially those they use for breaking their fast, go up through the roof. This is more so in poor countries, such as Bangladesh and Pakistan. Poor Muslims become its real victims!
Wellington says
In addition to being vile, Islam is also ridiculous. The photo above helps demonstrate this. When you can’t even put yourself in a prayer position with dignity, but rather with your ass in the air, why should respect be extended to you? I certainly don’t extend it, though the reasons are many.
mortimer says
And moreover, esteemed Wellington, whenever Muslims break wind in that position (practically inevitable), they are instructed by the absurd Sharia law that their prayers are thereby invalidated, and that they must begin them again from the beginning.
To make this even more ridiculous and PATHETIC, most Egyptians (and many other Arabs) eat FAVA BEANS for breakfast. Judge for yourself the expected result with such food, such a physical attitude, and considering that gases that are lighter than their surroundings will naturally rise !
Muslims will confirm this sad situation to you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ful_medames
James Lincoln says
mortimer,
As if the “adhan” is not horrific enough, the stench will certainly get you.
Best not to be anywhere “downwind” from a mosque…
Mohammad Asghar says
Minneapolis has allowed Muslims to broadcast Azaan from their mosques during the month of Ramadan. The city of Toronto in Canada and some cities in Germany have also done the same. They did not consider the fact that this Azaan causes noise pollution, and that it disturbs the non-Muslims when they are supposed to sleeping. It is more harmful to the heart patients and seriously ill people.
I believe allowing Muslims to blare Azaan over loudspeakers is a violation of human rights of the non-Muslims. They need to go to court to stop this nuisance. Indian courts have banned use of loudspeakers for Azaan, but, unfortunately, local governments are refusing to comply with the court orders!
Mohammad Asghar says
Breaking wind is very offensive to Allah aka Muhammad. When a Muslim does this during his prayer, he has to stop praying and do ablution before resuming his prayer from the beginning. No body tells the Muslims why don’t they wash their specific body part through which the wind passes, instead of doing ablution? And how does washing hands and faces purify their persons?
mortimer says
Any kafir who ‘celebrates’ Ramadan (such as Pope Francis and his automatically-compliant minions) have clearly not understood the true meaning of Ramadan, which is to prepare Muslims to attack and subjugate kafirs. The message of Ramadan is that Muslims should ready themselves to endure hardness as a soldier ‘in the way of Allah’ … in the path of jihad … and also increase solidarity between Muslims.
Ramadan prepares Muslims for combat and warfare against non-Muslim ‘kafirs’. Why a reasonable person ‘celebrate’ our coming defeat by Muslims?
What benefit is there for Jews, Christians, Hindus or atheists in ‘celebrating’ a festival that motivates and prepares Muslims to subjugate and/or destroy them? Would Jews ‘celebrate’ the Reichsparteitage des deutschen Volkes which are usually called ‘the Nuremberg Rallies’ ?
Jews would certainly not ‘celebrate’ with the Nazis on their festival of Nazi Party solidarity … and for the same reason as no Christian, Jew or atheist should ‘celebrate’.
The pope’s muddled thinking should be challenged by some clear-thinking, leading intellectuals in his church.
Ramadan is the OPPOSITE in every way to ‘ecumenism’ or to brotherly love. Ramadan is a celebration of Muslim supremacism and solidarity between jihadists.
Koran 48.29
“Muhammad is the messenger of Allah
Those with him are VIOLENT (ashiddaa’) against the unbelievers (kufaar),
Compassionate amongst themselves.”
Michael Copeland says
“Separation of religion and state is not an option…”
Dr. Jaafar Sheikh Idris, Sudan
https://www.jaafaridris.com/separation-of-church-and-state/
rubiconcrest says
Just about everything having to do with Islam is the evil side of the coin. Ramadan is no exception. Fasting to us means cleansing the body by abstaining from food and practicing discipline. In Islam it is stuffing yourself after dark and killing infidels. What a horrible thing to do for the ‘faith’. We should re-name the Islamic holy month using the realities discussed by the author, ‘The Ramadan Graveyard Shift.’ This will accurately describe the Jihad death toll and the meal time rotation that occurs for Muslims during their holy hell month.
Anjuli Pandavar says
My thanks and compliments to Hesham for so succinctly pulling together many of the myriad holds that Ramadan has over the psyche of the Muslim. I was not aware of all those key victories having been won in Ramadan, but then, while Ramadan is one of twelve or thirteen months in the year, they have had 1400 Ramadans. So the odds are high, I suppose.
We were taught that one up one dying in Ramadan was dying in a mosque in Ramadan, and one up on that was dying at prayer in a mosque in Ramadan. It wasn’t explained how the rewards accruing to the last two exceeded those of the first, which was already an immediate no-questions-asked entry to Jannah, right next to Allah.
I have not read your work before, so am not familiar with your writing style. But I think you may be suggesting, in a very polite way, that the Western Muslim “endeavor to make their Islam a personal faith,” is bound to get short shrift from Muslims in other parts of the world. If this is what you’re saying, then I agree. If I have misunderstood you, kindly clarify.
By the way, Sayyid Qutb addressed this very question, Islam as a personal faith, in his “The America I have seen.” I happen to agree with Qutb on this point.
I hope to read more of your writing.
Hesham Shehab says
I agree with you. You do understand me.
gravenimage says
Ramadan: Month of Jihad
………………….
Good piece from Hesham Shehab on the central role of Jihad in Ramadan.
I know that he is a former Jihadist himself, who has since bravely left Islam.
More:
Indeed, some American Muslims are trying to disentangle Jihad’s spiritual aspect from its military one. They endeavor to make their Islam a personal faith.
………………….
Alas, this is pretty rare. Even in the US, over half of Muslims openly say that they want to impose brutal Shari’ah law on us. The actual number is likely higher.
And the Muslim Reform Movement page says this:
“We seek to reclaim the progressive spirit with which Islam was born in the 7th century to fast forward it into the 21st century.”
The only problem is that there was nothing “progressive” about Islam even in the 7th century–Islam *started out* oppressing women and enslaving and slaughtering unbelievers and any free-thinking Muslims and working toward making the entire world submit to Islam, often as sword point. It has not ever changed.
I wish them well–but given this shaky basis, my hopes are sadly not high for their success.
Hesham Shehab says
I respect the Islamic Reform Movement, but I do not belong to them.
We have to reform the Muslim mind.
gravenimage says
Thank you for your reply, Mr Shehab.
Mohammad Asghar says
Reforming the Quran is necessary to reform the Muslim mind. Keeping it intact, Islam can never be reformed. The Essential Koran by Thomas Cleary should be promoted among the Muslims. It will not only keep their faith intact, it will also reform their minds over a period of time.
gravenimage says
Why would Muslims accept a Qur’an changed by Infidels or apostates? In Islam the Qur’an cannot be changed.
Woke Infidel says
How, pray tell, could any faithful Muslim agree to a “reform” of the Quran, which would imply the omission of, or a change in, a part of their holy scriptures? Such a proposal would surely be emphatically turned down, just as it would in Christianity if anyone attempted to alter the very “word of God.” It would seem that Islam has a peculiar, and very serious problem in that its holy words are also words condoning murder, rape, slavery, extortion, & etc….and while Islam sees the rape of infidels as fine & dandy, others see it only as violent forced fornication – or, adultery when performed by a married man. I confess that I have not read The Essential Koran, but if its point is that only some scripture is essential, while other is disposable, I can not understand how this could ever be acceptable.
OLD GUY says
Ramadan Islamic open season for violence blessed by Allah to do violence against any non follower of Islam. And the liberal media and political’s still insist that Islam is a religion of peace. WAKE UP bad things are coming from islamic domination.