Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Bismillahir- Rahmanir-Rahim
1. Opening
Friends who are blessed by Allah, When they hear the word “jihād,” most modern people immediately imagine cannon blasts, flashing swords, or physical combat on the battlefield. They assume that jihād is only about taking up arms. Yet, noble Islam has arranged the levels of human struggle into three very systematic and sequential stages.We will never be able to leap to a higher level before completing its main foundation. The three levels are: The First Jihād [Main Foundation]: Conquering base desires and the ego so they submit to Allah’s rules. The Second Jihād [Social Dimension]: Calling, educating, and conveying the truth of Islam to others with strong Qur’anic argumentation. The Third Jihād [Physical Defense]: Physical struggle on the battlefield to defend religion and homeland from enemy aggression.
Psychologically and spiritually, social or physical struggle will become fragile and lose blessing if the one carrying it out has not finished with himself. How can someone establish justice outwardly, if inside his chest he is still a slave to anger, arrogance, and material greed? Therefore, daʿwah with knowledge and the Qur’an is positioned as a “great jihād_” [_jihād kabīr] because it demands inner consistency to keep spreading compassion and truth amid the challenges of the times
.Allah SWT affirms the greatness of jihād through the Qur’an in His words:
فَلَا تُطِعِ الْكَافِرِينَ وَجَاهِدْهُم بِهِ جِهَادًا كَبِيرًا
“So do not obey the disbelievers, and strive against them with it [the Qur’an] a great striving.”[QS. Al-Furqān: 52]
The level of jihād against ego and base desire is the root of all other forms of struggle. Rasulullah ﷺ underlined this upon returning from a physical battle in his hadith:
قَدِمْتُمْ خَيْرَ مَقْدَمٍ مِنَ الْجِهَادِ الأَصْغَرِ إِلَى الْجِهَادِ الأَكْبَرِ، جِهَادِ الْعَبْدِ هَوَاهُ
“You have returned in the best return, from the lesser jihād to the greater jihād_—the _jihād of a servant against his base desire.”[HR. Al-Bayhaqī]
2. Lessons and Message
Let us reflect on a true, heart-rending story from the field of social daʿwah. There was a righteous young man who set out enthusiastically to preach in a remote rural area. He wanted to save the moral fabric of the youth there. From the podium, he delivered captivating strings of words about the beauty of patience and the virtue of restraining anger, leaving many people amazed.Yet, upon returning home at night in exhaustion, the young man found his elderly mother had accidentally spilled drinking water on his daʿwah papers. Instantly, his emotions exploded. He snapped at his mother with harsh words until she fell silent, bowed her head, and tears rolled down her wrinkled cheeks in silence .In that second, the entire value of the young man’s sermon collapsed. How saddening to see the mother’s heart shattered, yet it becomes a profoundly high moral lesson for us: the young man hastily leapt to the “Second Jihād” [preaching to others], but he failed totally at the “First Jihād” [conquering his own ego and anger at home]
So we can remember the order of these three levels of jihād with an intelligent smile, let us use an analogy about “Black Belt Karate Application.”Imagine a man named Budi. Budi just enrolled in a karate school on day one, so he still wears a white belt. At the first training, Budi is lazy learning stances, refuses physical drills, and complains of fatigue [as if he loses at the first jihād against his own laziness].But, because Budi’s ego is sky-high, the next morning he immediately makes a big flyer on his social media: “Opening an International Private Karate Course with Master Budi!” He busily lectures people about punching techniques [as if forcing himself into the second level]. The funny part: before any students even register, that afternoon a burly, fierce-looking debt collector comes to Budi’s house. In panic, Budi instantly challenges him to a physical duel in the yard [as if leaping to the third level].Can you guess what happened next? With just a flick of the debt collector’s finger, Budi fell flat into a muddy ditch, crying over his fate! Astonishing and tickling, isn’t it? Many of us modern Muslims act amusingly like Budi. We are enthusiastic talking about physical jihād on social media, love criticizing how others do daʿwah, but our own inner selves are battered—defeated by laziness for Fajr prayer, conquered by smartphone lust, and fond of lashing out at family. Don’t dream of winning great battles outside if we are still soundly beaten just fighting the blanket at Fajr !
3. Conclusion & Closing
Friends, the profound moral message from this hierarchy of the three levels of jihād is an invitation to put our inner ranks of struggle in order: let us focus on the main foundation first. The struggle to convey Islam or defend the ummah will never have solid spiritual authority if our personal ego issues are not yet settled before Allah SWT.
Let us establish life discipline starting today. Conquer our ego on the prayer mat, tame our base desires in solitude, then spread the light of Qur’anic guidance to others with sincerity of character that cools the soul. By neatly ordering the priority scale of jihād like this, we will become servants who are resilient, mature in faith, and safe until we reach the final goal of Allah SWT’s pleasure.
May Allah SWT grant us the spiritual strength to win the jihād against ourselves before we call others to broader goodness
. والله أعلم بالصواب
الحمد لله رب العالمين
Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
Abu Sultan Al-Qadrie
