The idea of jihad essentially describes the quest or endeavor to reach one’s full potential, whether it is within one’s own spirituality, community service or becoming a more amicable and virtuous peer, family member or friend. The 21st century has found itself in an age where the antagonization of Islamic sects has become a norm due to the misunderstood conception of their religious mission. As a society, we have not paid enough attention to the repercussions that the ongoing ideological war on extremism has exercised on the general population. Jihad has infamously been translated into “holy war” by the conditioned Islamophobic communities of the world, creating a flawed outlook ideology which promotes the betterment of one’s own spiritual lifestyle.
When searching for the meaning of the keyword jihad on online resources, the first phrase that one comes upon is “a struggle or fight against the enemies of Islam,” which further substantiates this delusion. The War on Terror has sparked a fight against a minuscule percentage of the Muslim population of the world. Due to misrepresentation, ideological generalizations and misinterpreted beliefs, the automatic response towards the Islamic community has often constituted fear and oppression.
This description of jihad has been attempted to be redeemed by the large and diverse Muslim population around the world who promote values of service, spirituality, forgiveness and excelling at your work. However, despite this majority, it has failed to capture the attention of the powerful antagonists who insist that their version of the Arabic term is accurate.
Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari, a Bangladeshi-British physicist and philanthropist wrote the book A Long Jihad: My Quest for the Middle Way to pose an alternative reflection on the meaning of jihad. Dr. Bari is well known for rising in the ranks of various social and political bodies such as the Muslim Council of Britain as well as the East London Mosque. Bari, through the narration of his personal experiences and his contributions proposes the real essence of jihad and allows readers to question their outlook on the same. Dr. Bari’s social and political contributions as well as his work as a special needs teacher have allowed readers to introspect regarding the similarities of the human condition and their own jihad.
Dr. Bari’s book gives us a personal view of Islamic communities; a view that is not characteristic only to East London but throughout such communities around the world. The book conveys that they are a resilient people who value hard work and are searching for purpose and meaning through their own spiritual lens. Due to overarching misconceptions that a majority of society has about the Muslim population in various parts of the world, it becomes essential for accounts like Dr. Bari’s to come out and share seemingly normal but extraordinary life stories which highlight struggles and successes to prove to others that mankind cannot be categorized and stereotyped based on their ascribed status, but rather the fruits of their own work. Accounts like these are ones where readers discover the large number of similarities between the moral dispositions of other social groups and their own.
In the introduction of the book, Bari writes “This book aims to inspire the young and the old, men and women, from Muslim communities as well as people from other faith and non-faith backgrounds, to live a harmonious life by working in balanced ways for the common good.” I believe this essentially summarizes the essence of the text and the need of the hour, that need being increased dialogue and discussion regarding cultural harmony rather than contention. My takeaway from Dr. Bari’s work was the way in which he transformed his own experiences into a powerful message about building bridges between communities and social groups.
Bari does not simply emphasize on the benefits of coexistence and tolerance but rather, promotes the celebration of other cultures and religious customs. Another powerful tool used by Bari is the clever choice of “the middle way” in the title of his work where he explicitly refers to the Buddhist ideological path towards liberation. It requires personal accounts like these to look past the mental representations one has of different sects in society. These have been subconsciously instilled due to the hyper-reality that the media portrays on a daily basis, one which focuses on stark differences rather than the large number of characteristics we share: the will to help others and the desire to explore and appreciate other groups and faiths. Our flaw as a global community lies in the fact that we are ready to attribute complexity and multiplicity to our own identities but fail to do so when describing the out-groups in our lives.
In this age of information, it is common to assume that we are literate and globally aware due to the exceedingly small bits of knowledge that we have about numerous subjects of scholarship in the world around us. In a way, part of our own jihad is to acquire the humility to accept how limited this knowledge is and how much diversity, richness and tradition we are not privy to while buying into the facade that the media serves us. This requires seeing people as fellow undertakers of the same life and not as “the other.”
By reading Dr. Bari’s account, readers find themselves relating certain experiences, stereotypes and accounts to their own cultural norms, once again strengthening the long overdue message of cultural awareness and collaboration. This book is a must read for those who desire to partake in the “collective effort to fight against inequality, injustice and oppression in a civil way” (Bari, 2018, pg. 3) and would like to further reflect on the multiple ways in which amidst thousands of individual differences, our universal identity always prevails.
