Al-Hamdulillah, all praises be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. May salawat and salam be showered upon Rasulullah Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wasallam, his family and companions.

The conspiracies of the enemies of Islam in destroying the Muslims will continue to happen. All resources and efforts are deployed to fight the Muslims. Not a even moment that they halt. This is as what has been told by Allah Ta'ala in His verse,

وَلَا يَزَالُونَ يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ حَتَّى يَرُدُّوكُمْ عَنْ دِينِكُمْ إِنِ اسْتَطَاعُوا

"And they will continue to fight you until they turn you back from your religion if they are able." (QS. Al-Baqarah: 217)

Ibnu Katsir rahimahullah explain the meaning of the previous sentence, "And fitnah is greater (in sins) than killing," Namely: "Indeed they are casting fitnah to a Muslim in his religion thereby making him murtad inclining toward kufr after he has believed, and that is greater in the sight of Allah than killing." And then he mentioned: "And they will continue to fight you until they turn you back from your religion if they are able." Meaning: "And then they do worse and more heinous sins, they do not repent nor do they stop."

Sheikh Abdurrahman bin Nasir al-Sa'di said about the tafseer of the above verse, "And then Allah Ta'ala informs that they would continue to fight the believers. Their mission is not to seize the properties of the believers and kill them. Indeed ,their mission is to remove the believers from their religion and then become kafir after they have believed and they became the dwellers of the blazing hellfire. They will exert their capabilities for all that, doing whatever can be done, "and they want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it." "

He continued, "This trait applies commonly to every kuffar, they do not stop to fight groups outside of themselves to the point of reverting them away from their religion. Especially the People of the Book from among the Jews and Christians who have set up organizations, spread missionaries, stationed doctors, built schools to attract the ummah towards their religion, created various propaganda to instill doubt in them regarding their religion (Islam)."

If this is the case, then what if the spirit of jihad dims while the spirit of hostility the kafireen continues unabated?

Allah informs about another conspiracy of the kuffar, they continue to work hindering from the way of Allah and creating movements that are deviating from Islam. Allah Ta'ala says,

قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ مَنْ آمَنَ تَبْغُونَهَا عِوَجًا وَأَنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءُ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ

"Say, "O People of the Scripture, why do you avert from the way of Allah those who believe, seeking to make it [seem] deviant, while you are witnesses [to the truth]? And Allah is not unaware of what you do. O you who have believed, if you obey a party of those who were given the Scripture, they would turn you back, after your belief, [to being] unbelievers." (QS. Ali Imran: 99-100)

Due to that, the spirit shall not fade, it must continue to be guarded. If unable or the time is not right yet to perform the jihad directly in accordance with the requirement of the Shari'ah, then we must continue to maintain the spirit of jihad.

Various means are going to be taken by the enemies of Islam to destroy the religion of Allah. A variety of deceptions will be made to put out His light. One of them as mentioned in the Qur'an is by their mouths, for example through the funnels of the media. So something we must be aware of is that, the enemies of Islam will also make use of the media to attack Islam, including in journalistic activities. Therefore, the Ansarullah and Mujahideen should also be proficient in this field to ward off and confront their conspiracies.

Allah Ta'ala says,

يُرِيدُونَ أَنْ يُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَيَأْبَى اللَّهُ إِلَّا أَنْ يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ

"They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it." (QS. Al-Taubah: 32)

Another verse that amplifies this,

لَتُبْلَوُنَّ فِي أَمْوَالِكُمْ وَأَنْفُسِكُمْ وَلَتَسْمَعُنَّ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا أَذًى كَثِيرًا وَإِنْ تَصْبِرُوا وَتَتَّقُوا فَإِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ

"You will surely be tested in your possessions and in yourselves. And you will surely hear from those who were given the Scripture before you and from those who associate others with Allah much abuse. But if you are patient and fear Allah - indeed, that is of the matters [worthy] of determination." (QS. Ali Imran: 186)

If we observe, most of the media at the present age are controlled by the kuffar and their supporters from among the munafiqeen. So it is natural if we are witnessing today a majority of the mass media contain the hatred against Islam, are insulting the teachings of Islam, pushing the Muslims into the corner, equating jihad with terror, pinning negative titles to the activists of jihad, and the likes. And even sadder, the Muslim community is crammed and herded towards a bias conclusion about Islam, and they receive it crudely without doing any cross check. So indeed, struggling in this era tremendously need high patience and taqwa, "But if you are patient and fear Allah - indeed, that is of the matters [worthy] of determination."

The hatred of the Kuffar through the mass media is also indicated by the verse of Allah Ta'ala, "O you who have believed, do not take as intimates those other than yourselves, for they will not spare you [any] ruin. They wish you would have hardship. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater." (QS. Ali Imran: 118).

It should be that, if we are able, we must fight against the various conspiracies, and destroy them. But what to do, the ummah is in a weak condition. The Mujahideen only have a limited ability in this field of mass media. Patience continues to be increased, one of which is by keeping on maintaining the ruh (spirit) of conducting jihad through the media.

Tips on How to Maintain the Spirit of Jihad

Changing the mindset about the dunya and akhirah; making the akhirah as the actual life. The dunya is just accompanying it, it should not be the goal.

Rasulullah Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wasallam said about his sahabahs while digging trenches in the battle of Ahzab,

اللهم إن العيش عيش الآخره . فاغفر للأنصار والمهاجره

"Ya Allah, indeed the life is the life of the akhirah. So give forgiveness to the people of Ansar and Muhajireen." (HR. Al-Bukhari) Meaning: Ya Allah indeed the life that we seek and that is everlasting is the life of the akhirah.

Why must we straighten out this mindset? Because the worldly orientation would undermine the spirit of jihad. We need to remember, if we get the pleasure of the world or the misery, it is only about 60 -70 years, a few pass through it. However, if we wrongly calculate the life of the akhirah, then the losses is immense, 1 day in the akhriah is like 50 thousand years in the dunya. Wallahu Ta'ala A'lam.

[Original article in Indonesian: Badrul Tamam/voa-islam.com]