The Aim of Striving

The Aim of Striving

The aim and purpose of striving in the true divine religion, as practiced by the prophets and successors, is to guide people to the truth and lead them to follow it. The prophets’ purpose is not to kill people, whoever they may be, for the prophets act according to what God wills. Had God wanted their destruction and death, He would not have created them in the first place. Rather, He created them so that they might worship Him and enter Paradise.

Striving is therefore not, in itself, an end or a goal in the true divine religion. Rather, it is a means of bringing the truth to people. Hence one finds that among the most important conditions of striving, without which striving is not valid, is to call people to the truth, exerting utmost effort, and to convey the truth to them with full and clear proclamation.

Accordingly, when you find someone saying to you, “This land of mine is open to you. Come, proclaim your call, move north and south, east and west, and call the people,” then the correct course is not to raise the sword in his face. Rather, you go to call people to the truth, and you raise the pen instead of the sword. God said: “If they incline to peace, then incline to it, and rely upon God. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.”^[139]

The Messenger Muhammad called Khosrau and Caesar to the truth and to the religion of God, and he did not begin by taking up the sword against them. Rather, they were the first to hasten to take up the sword against the Messenger Muhammad. It must also be understood that religion and creed cannot be spread by the sword, just as a creed cannot be destroyed by the sword. Thus the method of all the divine religions, including Islam, their seal, in calling people to God is dialogue and admonition. Indeed, the very existence of the heavenly books, the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran, is the best proof of this, for they are books that convey wisdom, dialogue, and a call to God, not swords dripping with blood.

Thus, the conclusion we, as believers, must understand is that the aim of striving is to open closed doors so as to reach people, convey the truth to them, and guide them. The aim of striving is not to kill people. Therefore, if we can reach people, convey the truth to them, and lead them to God’s straight path without fighting and bloodshed, then that is the path we must take, for at the very least it preserves the lives of the believers.

Every believing man and woman must prepare themselves to call others to the truth and the religion of God. Each must do all that lies within their power to learn, to teach, and to call others to the truth and the religion of God. Likewise, one must be prepared for [offensive] striving. The believer must carry the pen in one hand and the sword in the other.

The truth, I tell you, is that many are searching for the truth, and many will follow it, God willing, even in the West and in America itself. So we must reach out to rescue them from the pits Satan has dug for them. The people of the true divine religion seek to guide others, free them from Satan’s snares, save them from the Fire, and lead them to Paradise. They never set out wanting to kill people, nor do they choose fighting for its own sake. Rather, it is a condition forced upon them. If it can be averted while still serving the interests of the religion and spreading the teachings of God, then that course must be pursued, just as the Messenger of God did with the polytheists at al-Hudaybiyyah, and just as Moses did before him with Pharaoh and his people in Egypt. Therefore, what is raised globally under the title of “dialogue of civilizations” is something acceptable to us-if it is genuinely practiced. But we have another choice of expression: “the search for civilization,” so that the result is reaching the true divine civilization which unites people and gathers them upon the fear of God, Glorified and Exalted.