Jihad and security in the age of waiting

Introduction

In recent decades, and coinciding with the Islamic revolution, the debate of waiting has been evolved. Expectation is no more a silent and stagnant element that had been deprived of any social action and external applications.
But it is considered an active element and a doctrine in planning the strategies and prospects ahead.
Enthusiasm to Messianism and Savior has been a worldwide debate among scholars and thinkers in the world, more than ever. Therefore, it is essential to explain the doctrine of millenarianism and the actual abilities and its outer absence from the boundary of mind to absenteeism and the secrets of belief to a civilization of productivity. In this regard, efforts have been fulfilled to consider on of the elements of power and security of Shiite thought in the framework of expectation dialogue. And as far as we can, we will reflect on this paper the exclusive and essential aspects of jihad in the absence era and we are going to prove the claim that "one of the important dimensions of security of Shiite community in the expectation era is jihad and striving to keep its culture alive in the community.''

National security and military element

Before entering the discussion, we'd better to clarify the concept of security, and determine the meaning to continue the discussion:
In the past, security has only a limited sense and it was the safety of roads and cities from the bandits, thieves and criminals, and because of the absence of governments and nations in its modern sense and due to local governments with their simple and intuitive structure, security has been one-dimensional.
But now with the change in new and complex structures of states and governments and the number and variety of components of safety and
More importantly, the conceptual development of security and wide issues of safety in Political, Management and Strategic Management Sciences lead to a need for a new debate on the concept and components of security more than ever.
There are various definitions of security that develops or tights the meaning circle and describes the concept of security in the national, transnational and international region. Sometimes security is against external threats and sometimes it is against the internal threats. The elements of security can be considered from several dimensions and perspectives. Some have divided the Homeland Security of communities into five categories: political, military, economic, social and environmental securities. Another scholar has limited the security to four categories: military, economic, environmental, political and cultural resources. And he has explained in details the effect of these dimensions on national security.
In the middle of this plurality and diversity and regarding the need to categorize and prioritize the elements in addressing them and focusing on funding and facilities and according to the variability of these elements in different countries, the domain of discussion has been wider. Despite the limitations we have to understand that essentially this term spread rapidly after World War II that apparently has a clear but thinkable concept.
National security, which is concerned in this paper, has long been used and it has separate concepts for security and nationality but the combination of national security is a new combination that has been created during Second World War. Before the Second World War, national security has an economic concept and security in its military concept reached its peak during World War II and eventually led to the domination of military views about national security.
The concept of Security in 1947 in the US national security law was dedicated to the organization of the government in military and intelligence activities, since the military decision making process was simple and had better products. but the US national security apparatus was founded in 1949 by president and played a role along with the complexity of the international environment and the need to integrate the knowledge of military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic and technological policy at the top of the United States. With the establishment and development of national security issues, the scope of these issues was discussed and extended to other countries.
And consequently the governments set the documents, paradigms and security regulations based on local conditions, their military status, threats and insecurities specific to each country.
In many countries an institutions was founded in the name of "National Security Council". Of course there are differences, distances and sometimes delays between developed countries and third world ones in this category. In the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the national security field is specified and defined under the National Security Council, which stated: "In order to safeguard national interests and territorial integrity and national sovereignty of the Islamic Revolution, the National Security Council has been established (Article 176). "In this law, the national security is not limited to defense and military dimensions but also it includes other aspects such as political security.
Over time, a new approach was developed in the field of national security. Traditional approach has a strategic nature and it was dependent to the hardware security operation and its time is limited to the collapse of Soviet Union after World War II until about 1989. Indeed, during the bipolar system and the development of Cold War, the literature and a general approach to national security has been in the military dimension. But in the new approach to national security, the military dimension has been eased and other aspects of security have been more important.
Including the civilian aspects - which are concerned by the strategists and policymakers of governments and countries – we can mention the economic vulnerabilities, the ecological constraints, ethnic and group fragmentation, social long tensions and inadequate mechanisms to deal with the social problems that all are considered a serious threat to the countries.
In the new approach to security, the national security has changed to transnational and global aspects whose explanation should be considered. And it is a major element in the decision makings. Several Component of Homeland Security - in the affirmative dimension- are the effect of family, values, religious affairs, observing the moral virtues, respecting the public property, paying attention to the fellows and relatives, forbidding what is evil and enjoining the good.
In this way, some people still have an extreme tough and position toward the military security and according to their intellectual range, they believe that the National security must be limited to military defense against external attacks.
And they emphasize to prepare a new list of enemies and restructure the forces. In contrast, some people deny the military security and they believe that the economic dimension replaced the military dimension in the issue of national security. They know the economic security the only vital dimension of security and they deny the most traditional dimension of security namely the military security. In the middle of the second group, there is also a more moderate tendency that doesn't deny the importance of the military dimension of security but it consider it on the police force and the economic power. After a brief mention of the history and diverse trends in the field of national security, there is a question that:
In today's world after World War II, the military dimension of security has gradually faded and Globalization of livelihoods, culture, economy and politics are mentioned as a serious possibility.
Is it necessary to talk about the military affairs and in the religious literature – jihad?
And whether it cannot be considered in the list of categories and commands that are no longer applicable today and their subject is so-called canceled? Even in the age industry and dazzling progress of information and technology and the scientific competition of countries with each other in these areas, speaking about the activities and organizations and spending huge budgets on the military affairs and promoting the culture of jihad and martyrdom have no meaning other than war.

The answer to this question needs paying attention to two important points:

First: it is true that we are entering an unprecedented era of the impossibility of forecasting and planning based on futurism.
But this fact should not stop stagnation and paralysis of the policy and the major policies.
In the new era of tension and intelligence that has shocked humans and they are not quick and timeliness for decision-making and managing the complex and varied events and phenomena, those nations and governments will be successful that have achieved an active understanding of a new world wide relations and can analyze issues with a new viewpoints. They don’t pay attention to predictive issues but more they observe the understanding of complexities and polygonal phenomena and problems; namely instead of an inactive and stable doctrine they are more interested in diverse programs according to threats and an emphasis on rapid decisions for their forces.
Second: a general look at the contemporary history and its incidents guide us to realize the importance of the military security more than ever and the following evidences are expressed just as an example:
1. US country and its military - security dimensions: America is the largest militant in the new world and no tyranny can opposite its bellicosity and its self-fond authorities.
The adage of "power corrupts" is true about them, because they claim superpower and they have hallucinated that they are dominant on the enemy's country. Of course one of the most promising theories and perspectives of the failure and collapse of the United States has been caused by this characteristic of bellicosity. On one hand the huge amount of war budget and military spending of America is over 600 billion dollars, and on the other hand the high number of American troops are from different countries like Bosnia, Germany, Macedonia, Panama, Japan, Albania, Mongolia, Rhonda and recently more than a hundred thousand troops in Iraq or the high number of troops in Afghanistan. And the recent actions of the United States, especially after the September 11 attacks is notable as If Americans are allowed any aggression on the cover of terrorist or naughty to any country that they feel threatened. The last aggression of US and their allies is their attack to Iraq seemingly to eliminate the nuclear weapons and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government.
According to official statistics - despite hundreds of billions spending and thousands of Americans’ killed soldiers, more than 650,000 Iraqi have been killed that were from different religions and this war has created several million homeless and orphan directly or indirectly.
And besides all this, this war has made a safe refuge for terrorists and for sectarian and religious militants whose shame will not be cleaned for so many years. The latest example of the US military program called "superiority action" which has a complete military identity and the program of United States in 2010 is providing a global framework for future wars. And it takes place with the purpose of air–intelligence superiority, global attack, accurate and consistent targeting and immediate support in the battle.
2. Zionist regime: an obvious indication of security-military threats in our era that exists for the Muslim world in general and in particular for the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Israel in the early days to the present has led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Muslim, and he constantly says anti-Muslim rhetoric talks.
This regime is threatening the territorial and geographical world of Muslims and it has dirty thoughts of occupying from the Nile to the Euphrates at the head of his strategic objectives and religious goals of, the direct military involvement with Lebanese and Syrian military and most importantly with the Palestinians that have no weapon and hope for the help of Islamic world.
Part of their everyday actions to and the number of Palestinian martyrs and the crimes and evils of Zionist regime is an integral and permanent part of the news media in the past few years.
The Zionist regime has a serious and substantial conflict with The Islamic Republic of Iran and it has a scenario of a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, and definitely they are our enemy.
3. Nuclear experiments during the Cold War and even today between India and Pakistan and the efforts of other countries to acquire nuclear weapons
4. The military coup and overthrow of governments, including Pakistan and Indonesia
These examples and dozens of other examples all show correctly and clearly the importance of military dimension of national security that cannot be excused. Especially about Iran in our era and after the revolution of Iran, it is necessary to say that: the revolution of Iran and its goals, ideals and its own literature is a major obstacle to the US imperialists and their goals and the West Liberal. This factor is used by them to hit this country and its Islamic system in any way. These impacts have obviously targeted the system's weaknesses. So the military weaknesses and security forces are one of the dimensions that In case of failure or delay in that dimension will undoubtedly targeted by the enemy invasion that can shake the foundation of system and the national security. Of course the comprehensive development of Islamic system requires a comprehensive holistic approach that has achieved with the graces of God and cooperation of our nation.
However, the strength and capability in order to increase the national sovereignty and the enemy tried other options takes.

Security and Jihad in the era of waiting

Jihad is one of the most important religious branches and it has been mentioned in many verses of the Holy Qur'an. The approach of one part of the verses in the Holy Quran is about jihad in Islam and it shows that at first fight jihad had been prohibited. Verses such as
"أُذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتَلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا وَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى نَصْرِهِمْ لَقَدِيرٌ"
In this holy verse jihad is related to situations where one is going to be murdered but the verses that were revealed after this verse refer to the necessity of priority in jihad and is in fact they are a legislation for primary jihad.
"كتب عَلَيْکُمُ الْقِتَالُ وَ هُوَ کُرْهٌ لَکُمْ"
In many verses the almighty God has mentioned the principle of jihad for God and they remind the great reward of fighters who fight in the way of Allah. These versed encourage the believers to fight for God, such as:
« وَ لاَ تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتاً بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ‌ »
Or the command of God that encourages believers to fight such as this verse:
« يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ حَرِّضِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَى الْقِتَالِ »
Or the high superiority of fighters who fight for God:
« فَضَّلَ اللَّهُ الْمُجَاهِدِينَ بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَ أَنْفُسِهِمْ عَلَى الْقَاعِدِينَ دَرَجَةً »
Or the verses that considers the highest degree for believers who fight for God: « الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَ هَاجَرُوا وَ جَاهَدُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَ أَنْفُسِهِمْ أَعْظَمُ دَرَجَةً عِنْدَ اللَّهِ »
And many other verses in the Quran are about jihad. Jihad is one of the certain Islamic tenets that there is no doubt in it and testifying in the way of Lord makes humans approach to God. Today one of the Islamic issues that has been denied by the enemies of Allah and is jihad which is an indisputable Islamic principle.
But the advertising and broadcast news agencies introduce jihad as one of the manifestations of terrorism and they are going to destroy the bright face of Islam in the world.
They introduce Islam as a religion of the sword that instead of respecting the freedom of opinion, expression and thought, it has forced many people to accept it.
In contrast, their states and governments can commit any oppression, violence and aggression and they are trying to justify their evil actions based on their upside down claims and flimsy foundations depending on their media empire.
And they are unaware of the fact that nations of the world every day know more facts of their ugly measures.
Ironically, the jihad as a religious requirement has always been a misunderstanding and suspicion by prejudice or ignorance of enemies and today it is necessary to remove the doubts from the Islamic rules. Of course thinkers and intellectuals like Motahary have tried a lot to remove these doubts and they help a lot to Islam.
This paper claims that jihad is not dependant to the presence of a holy Imam but it can be alive and active as an Islamic principle.
This claim is verifiable in both the theoretical and objective- historical dimensions that are briefly considered here:
First dimension: In order to prove the theory of jihad as an important element of Shiite thought, we will search the home and place of the "doctrine of Jihad" in the Shiite jurists and the idea of religious scholars.
In the religious books, one of the issues that has been raised in all historical periods and it has its own independent legal book is jihad that includes various issues such as different kinds of jihad and its species, undertaking the permission of Imam, the various provisions of enemies, all types of fight, the decree of children and women in war, peace communications and border guards and some of the popular topics like forbidding the evil and enjoining the good are included in religious books. Regardless of orders and margins of pre- and post-war and jihad, the article in question, is also describing the necessity of war and jihad in the era of expectation and the absence of Imam Mahdi peace on him. As we mentioned before, jihad had military definition and today despite modern developments and technologies it has still a military definition. We have two kinds of jihad: 1. Primary jihad 2. Defensive jihad

Primary Jihad

Much of the "Book of Jihad" is devoted to primary jihad that includes two groups of infidels and one group of Muslims: The first group is jihad against those infidels who have religion and have been invited to Islam such as Jews, Christians and Magus; and those infidels who don’t submit to Islam.
The second group is the infidels upon whom the primary jihad has been prescript. The other infidels - with the exception of the above mentioned cases- are those upon whom no provisions have been prescript and in the case of their non-acceptance of the invitation to Islam, they are condemned to death and Jihad.
But the primary jihad is apparently true about those Muslims who are rebellious.
Jihad against such Muslims may also be a defensive jihad. According to verse 9 of surah Hojorat, rebellions are those who don’t submit to justice Imam, both Muslims who fight against another group of Muslims and don’t accept the judgment of Imam and Muslims who fight directly against Imam.
Of course some religious scholars like Sheikh Tusi has mentioned the corrupter and fighter on earth in the book of Jihad.
And some other considers them as the duties of government.after considering the multiple types of primary jihad, there is an argument that almost all of these types of jihad are upon and subject to the permission of the Imam. So basically discussing it today in the age of absence shall not be applicable and cannot be considered as a Shiite security paradigms? The Response that can be regarded as a serious possibility is that the grand jurists with all their unique and unsparing efforts don’t have sufficient power to implement Islamic and jurisprudence laws In order to deduce the commandments of God.
And they have been deprived of a powerful religious government in their deductive path of divine decrees.
So naturally their decrees don't fit the needs of government but its greater part meet the individual needs of imitators.
Although the legal rules and judgments are continually mentioned in all historical periods about all issues but there has been at least in modern times and the establishment of religious we can talk about issues and conclusions based on the jurisprudence of JAVAHERI that supplies the needs of Shiite government in the era of expectation.
Some contemporary scholars and researchers have changed the fatwa on jihad that have denied the presence of the Imam as a condition and have delivered some evidences for their claim, such as the traditions of jihad that are provided to a just Imam who is against the cruel Imam; therefore, the just Imam is innocent. Another reason is that if we assume that jihad is legal if Imam is just and innocent, then clerical reasons monopoly on government, then the permission of jurisprudent is obligatory in the absence of Imam Mahdi peace on him.
At the end of this section, the Supreme Leader's fatwa is interesting in this context:
The permission of a comprehensive jurisprudent to primary jihad is deemed permissible.

Defensive jihad:

The second kind of jihad is a consensus among the Shia scholars. The sentence is proportionate to the nature of all creatures, as all creatures of nature that have spirit have also a defensive guard against foreign invasion; and this is one of the current traditions of nature. The owner of Javaher believes that defense is obligatory if the foundation of Islam is in danger or the infidels are trying to dominate Muslims. In such cases there is no need for the permission of Imam. More interestingly jihad is obligatory to Muslims in these situations. This decree means that if infidels and pagans attack one of the Islamic countries and its neighbor Muslim countries don’t help this country, then the far Muslim countries are obliged to help this country.
The first martyr says in another verdict: '' if the foundation of Islam is threatened and the king is cruel, Jihad is allowed to be selective.''
Imam Khomeini has a defensive decree that fits todays needs of Muslims and observing it will supply the security of Muslims more than before and that decree is this:'' "If the fear of Islamic countries or fields from political and economic domination lead to the political and economic imprisonment and it causes Insult to Islam and Muslims, they are allowed to defend with similar devices and they can use negative resistance such as not purchasing and using the equipment from infidels and these transactions are forbidden to any communication.''
There are also other religious orders about Jihad and its various kinds that provide the security of the Islamic and religious community of Muslims.
Certainly there is a comprehensive part in the book of Jihad that has a great virtue, and this virtue even exists in the era of absence. Another example is the obligation of Jihad and the permanent readiness of the Armed Forces to fight the enemies of Allah that will frighten them.
And its Quranic documentations are the slogans and ideals of Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
It is clear that Islamic laws can provide the security of Islamic community and in the era of absence and the expectation of Imam Mahdi (peace on him) these principles that are documented by the divine revelation and commandment should be observed by Muslim thinkers and scholars.
It will make the Shiite Muslim community safe and accessible to obtain the preparation for the presence of Hidden Imam.
The second dimension: at first glance, we may think that after the era of occultation of Imam Mahdi peace on him, Shiites have not done any jihadi movement and they have just paid attention to Jihad in the presence of Imam Mahdi peace on him.
But in the history there are many violations that challenge this claim. We can refer to the new dissertations of scholars in recent decades. One of the best examples is the fatwas of jihad against the enemies of Islam. Another example is the several attacks of Russia to Iran in the ruling of Fath Ali Shah. The imposed wars to Iran and failures of Iran made the king and prince to request the Scholars began to change the fate of war by their jihadi fatwas so Fath Ali Shah, sent the deputy to the scholars.
He stressed the need for fatwas of jihad against the enemies of Islam. In the positive response to his request, many authorities and scholars, such as Mirza Qom, Sheikh Ja'far Najafi and Mohammad Mojahed under the leadership of King issued a fatwa on the obligation of jihad against the Soviets.
The war occurred in the years 1228 and 1241 (AH) and the fatwas of the scholars stressed the need for more active jihad than previous wars. Legal Decisions, the issuance of these jihadi decrees and the presence of religious scholars at the scene of battle had a remarkable effect on the victory of Iranian army.
However, due to the weakness of command and military affairs, these gains did not continue, but it led to a new dimension of role of religious scholars in the leading of nation.
Regardless of the constitution and efforts of scholars for the establishment of constitutionalism, the Russian aggressions against Iran resumed during 1327 to 1329 years BC. Except side activities of scholars like Sheikh Abdullah Akhund Khorasani and sheikh Abdullah Mazandareni in sending telegrams to the Russian Empire and sending the complaint letters to the Government of France, England and Germany and also sending several telegrams to Iranian leaders, parliament, ministries and finally after the Russian ultimatum and other actions, this time religious scholars issued decrees on Jihad against Russian aggressions and clergy Akhund announced the determination of the motion toward Iran and he was decisive to guide this public and national Jihad. However, due to his death this plan did not work apparently but it manifests the jihadi efforts of deceased Akhund and the religious leaders such as Sheikh Abdullah Mazandareni, Mirza Mohammad Taqi, Sheikh al-Sharia ESFAHANI, Seyyed Hasan Isfahani and other scholars. World War I was also another chance for scholars and Shia Ayatollahs’ fatwa that obliged everyone to participate in the battle and fight against the enemies who wanted to dominate on the Islamic communities.
In this war Mohammad Tabatabai Yazdi, the son of Ayatollah Mohammad Kazem Tabatabai was martyred and another group of scholars such as SMT Khansari were exiled to India. Other scholars in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr stood against aggression and occupation of the British government.
Holy war against the Iraqi Baathist regime and the our men’s courageous efforts are another jihadi action and religious beliefs that have stopped the greed of the invading enemy domination on Islamic thought and thanks to the blood of martyrs and their epic since this sustainable security has been obtained based on this original principle of country that is jihad.

The disciplinary security and Jihad

In the narrations, many characteristics have been mentioned for the moment of his appearance that some of them are as follows:
He will destroy the oppressive reign and the enemies of Allah and he will take the holy Prophet and Imams’ revenge.
Many other traditions have described the characteristics of his flag and what has written on it.
They have also described his extensive and continuous wars until the consolidation of his government.
He will clean up the land of disbelief, polytheism and hypocrisy. They all show the same thing that the beginning of his emergence coincides with a unique global jihadi war.
And all the dimensions of the universe and all the people around the world will be divided into right and wrong wings.
And there is no way except the will of God which will be achieved by of war and bloodshed, and everyone who refuses to accept the truth will have no fate but death and destruction.
So the real waiting person is one who has prepared himself for the advent of the last saviour.
The first step of emergence is a long war in which many people will be killed or martyred.
The waiting person looks forward to see the last Imam, not just for the enjoyment of prosperity, peace and security in the era of global governance but he is ready to lose his life, property and children to establish the rule of Imam Peace on him.
Previously the waiting people had a desire to see that all the Supreme Truth and Unity prevail on earth.
Perhaps some of the traditions that have described the waiting people are understandable from this view point and here we present one tradition that implies the virtue of preparing for the advent according to the military equipment and tools:

Imam Sadiq peace on him has said:

''Everybody should provide a weapon for the advent of last Imam even a beam. When the almighty God see such a person who has the intention of helping the saviour of the world, I hope that God prolongs his life.''
As a result, each true waiting will have a more readiness for war and jihad.
And if the permanent readiness of a society for jihad is more and its religious beliefs are more deepen its security and prosperity will be more.
This dimension of jihadi readiness for waiting can be one of the constructive elements and the doctrine of millenarianism before the advent of last Imam, So each society that is more willing for the advent of savior will has more devoted people.