Mirriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines jihad as “a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty; also: a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline.” The infographic below shows the progression of the concept of jihad in the Qur’an.
Hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam, is an annual pilgrimage to Mecca. It is a mandatory requirement for adult Muslims to make the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime if they are physically and financially able to make the journey.
The pilgrimage occurs from the eighth to the twelfth day of the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah. This year Hajj will be held from Friday, September 9 through Wednesday, September 14, 2016. If a Muslim visits Mecca at any other time of year, the ritual is called “umrah” or the lesser pilgrimage, but umrah does not remove the requirement of Hajj.
The Hajj is one of the largest gatherings of people in the world with more than two million Muslims from over 183 countries making Hajj each year. The pilgrims follow a route that Muhammad once walked, but they believe they are ultimately tracing the footsteps of Abraham and Ishmael.
Pilgrims walk 14.4 km (8.95 miles) to the plain of Arafat, passing Muzdalifah a few miles east of Mecca where it is believe Muhammad delivered his last sermon. There they spend the day praying and reading the Qur’an. Afterwards they walk 9 km (5 miles) back to Muzdalifah where they spend the night.
The next day they collect small pebbles and carry them to Mina where they throw the pebbles at three white pillars. This day’s ritual is called the Stoning of the Devil at Jamaraat. There have been deadly stampedes during this part of the journey. Despite improvements in the route by the Saudi Arabian government in recent years, last year 2,236 pilgrims were killed in a crowd crush. Because of this incident Iran has announced that it will not send pilgrims to Saudi Arabia this year. Last year Iran reported that 464 Iranians were killed in the crowd crush.
Traditionally following the stoning of the devil, pilgrims sacrifice an animal to symbolize the ram Abraham sacrificed instead of his son, however more recently pilgrims are required to purchase a “sacrifice voucher” to have the sacrifice performed for them.
Pilgrims return to Mecca and go to the Grand Mosque where the circle the Ka’aba counter-clockwise seven times. The Ka’aba is a cube shaped building in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca that Muslims believe was built by Abraham and his son Ishmael. The Black Stone is in the eastern cornerstone of the building. Muslims believe Muhammad himself set the Black Stone in its current location five years before he began to receive his revelations. The Grand Mosque has three floors that each have a capacity of 750,000 people, however because of the volume of people circling the Ka’aba can take hours.
Other Hajj rituals include running back and forth between the hills of Al-Safa and Al-Marwah and drinking from the Zamzam Well. The Grand Mosque now encompasses the route so it is traversed by air-conditioned tunnels with special sections for walkers, runner and disabled pilgrims.
Although not required after the end of Hajj, many pilgrims will extend their trip and travel to Medina visiting the Mosque of the Prophet and location of the tomb of Muhammad.
Prayer Point:
Christianity is the only religion where God loves men and women so much that He reaches down to redeem man, rather than man trying to perform works or rituals to reach God. Pray that Muslims will have a revelation of His love.
Photo By Al Jazeera English (Al-Haram mosque) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
Jihad, the muscle of political Islam, takes various forms including jihad through migration. Muhammad set the perfect example of jihad through migration when he migrated from Mecca to the city of Yathrib (now known as Medina) in 622 AD. This migration is known as the hijra.
Muhammad moved with the intention of setting up a new base of operations in Medina. He did not assimilate into the host city, but rather eventually took it over. Likewise the goal of Islamists migrating into Western nations is not to peacefully assimilate into the host nation, but rather it is jihad by non-violent means by gradually taking over the host nation.
Dr. Sam Solomon and E Al Maqdisi wrote in their book, Modern Day Trojan Horse: The Islamic Doctrine of Immigration that “Muhammad’s Hijra…is considered to be notably the most important Islamic event and is exemplified by the fact that the Islamic calendar starts with that event.” Hijra changed the status of Muhammad’s followers and the religion, transforming the followers from a small weak group to a powerful political entity. Hijra spread Muhammad’s teachings outside of Mecca and transformed the religion in a socio-religious and socio-political system.
Hijra became an example by Muhammad and as such must be imitated by Muslims as a religious obligation for the advancement of Islam. Libyan dictator from 1969 to 2011, Moammar Khadafi said, “We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe—without swords, without guns, without conquest—will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.”
According to the BBC, more than a million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe in 2015. The majority of those applying for asylum in the EU were from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Germany had the highest number of new asylum applications with more than 476,000 in 2015. Hungary was second with 177,130 asylum applications. The EU along with non-EU members, Norway and Switzerland had 1,321,560 asylum claims.
According to Douglas Murray of the Gatestone Institute, most of the migrants coming into Europe in the last year are not refugees fleeing from war zones. Frans Timmermans, European Commission VP, said, “More than half of the people now coming to Europe come from countries where you can assume they have no reason whatsoever to ask for refugee status…more than half, 60 percent.” The vast majority of the people coming into Europe are young males.
This influx has brought an increase of violent sexual assaults on women. Gatestone Institute’s Ingrid Carlqvist reports that Sweden now has one of the highest numbers of reported rapes, more than 55 no-go zones where police and ambulances get stoned and shari’a law is more important than Swedish law. In Austria, a 20-year-old asylum seeker from Iraq blamed a “sexual emergency” from having “excess sexual energy” for raping a 10-year-old boy at a public swimming pool in Vienna. Three Afghan asylum seekers brutally gang-raped a woman in a public restroom at a train station in Vienna. Migrants from Afghanistan and North Africa have overrun the area around the train station. In 2015 police were sent to the area an average of 17 times a day. According to data by the Austrian Interior Ministry nearly one of out three asylum seekers in Vienna committed crimes in 2015. Similar reports regarding young male asylum seekers can be found in other European countries.
Prayer Point:
There are displaced refugees with real, essential needs of security, shelter, water, food and medical care. However, there are others who have the wrong intent and do not desire to assimilate into their new nation, rather they cause great conflict.
Many Westerners assume the Qur’an is the Muslim counterpart to the Christian Bible, but if all a Muslim had was a Qur’an, they could not practice Islam.
One of the best illustrations to help Christians understand what the Qur’an is about is to imagine taking all the words of Jesus (the red letter verses in some versions of the Bible) out of context, randomly mix them up and arrange the passages in a book. The result would be similar to the Qur’an. The Qur’an lacks historical and biographical detail unlike the Bible, which contains the gospels with details of the life of Jesus.
Further, and significantly, the Qur’an was authored by one man, Muhammad, over the course of a single lifetime while over forty writers authored the Bible over a period of almost 1600 years. Despite being written by different authors, the Bible does not contradict itself and unlike Islam external tests are not necessary to practice Christianity.
The Hijra of Muhammad – the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to 
Medina in 622 AD marks a significant shift in the tone of the Qur’an. Muhammad arrived in Medina with approximately 150 followers, but by the end of Muhammad’s life the number of Islamic followers had increased to nearly 100,000. Once Muhammad had moved to Medina, the nature of his revelations changed dramatically. The early Qur’an written in Mecca is considered peaceful. “There’s no compulsion in religion” (Sura 2:256) and “Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion” (Sura 109:6). But when Muhammad migrated to Medina the message became much more militant. “I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then smite their necks and smite of them each finger. That is because they opposed Allah and His messenger” (Sura 8:12-13).
In Islam there is a doctrine of abrogation. This means that the 
later passages that Muhammad received in Medina take precedence over the Mecca passages. In a way the later revelation supersedes the previous one, however that does not mean the earlier verse is incorrect. Because the Qur’an is considered the actual words of Allah and Allah cannot be wrong, the early Mecca revelations cannot be wrong. So when a Muslim states that Islam is a religion of peace, he can also fully believe that it is okay to “smite” the necks of disbelievers.
PRAYER POINTS:
Pray that Muslims will be quickened to realize that the vast majority of their teachings do not come from the Qur’an itself – and pray they will explore the life of Muhammad and his words and deeds.
Islam is dualistic in nature, meaning Muslims believe in ideas that westerners would perceive as opposites. For instance, the passages written in the early days of Islam in Mecca, (the peaceful passages) are contradicted by the later passages written after Muhammad migrated to Medina when they became political and warlike. The Medina passages take precedent over the Mecca ones, but they are not negated because the Qur’an is considered the verbatim words of Allah. A Muslim can believe “you have your religion and I have mine,” but at the same time also believe you must submit to Islam or I can wage jihad against you.”
This dual nature of Islam is carried over in many aspects of Islamic teachings. As an example, we look at Islam’s treatment of women. In discussing (Day 7) the epidemic of rape perpetrated by immigrant Muslim men in western nations, it was stated that immigrant Muslim males have been raised since birth to think of women as inferior. However Muslims repeatedly tell westerners that the issue of women in Islam is misunderstood and distorted, and that women are equal in Islam.
One passage that is quoted in an attempt to show equality is Sura 4:124. It does indicate the “whoso doeth good works, whether of male or female, and he (or she) is a believer, such will enter paradise.” However Sura 4:34 says, “Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.”
The Hadith states, “The Prophet said, ‘Isn’t the witness of a woman equal to half that of a man?’ The women said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is because of the deficiency of a woman’s mind.’”
If a woman does good works such as obeying her husband she is capable (like a man) of going to paradise.
Although this is only a small example, it is possible to go through the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Sira and examine the passages regarding women. In order to understand the truth about women or anything in Islam, westerners must rely on all the texts (Qur’an, Sira and the Hadith) of Islam rather than the words of media experts or even Muslims themselves in order to draw their own conclusions. With modern translations and the ability to study the history of Islam, it is possible for westerners to know the true nature of Islam.
Prayer Points:
The Qur’an is written in classical Arabic. With today’s technology and scholarship there are multiple translations of all three of Islam’s texts available for study. Pray that Muslims themselves will begin to study the texts of Islam to see its true nature.
The vast majority (4 out of 5) of Muslims are not Arabs, and relatively few of the non-Arab Muslims understand Arabic. Yet, for practicing Muslims, Arabic is a language they use on a daily basis in their prayers. The Bible is available in Arabic and also their native language on the Internet. Ask God to draw them to the Word of God (the Bible) in their own language that they may learn about Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life – and receive salvation.
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