The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) raised serious concerns over not including verses about jihad in the proposed syllabi for public educational institutions. The CII chairman Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani said that that the Federal Education and Professional Training Ministry should include the verses about importance of jihad in curriculum.
The council also asked the four provinces to make the teaching of the Holy Quran as a compulsory subject from grade 1 to 12. The issues of verses about jihad and teaching of Quran was raised when the government presented a draft of proposed curriculum before the CII, which is constitutional body, to suggest measures for implementation of Islam in the country.
According to CII sources, the members of the religious body were not happy to leave an important topic like jihad out of teaching course being set for students.
”484 verses of jihad are mentioned in the Quran but they were deliberately not included in the syllabus so students could not be taught about it,” CII member Maulana Zahid Qasmi told media. ”I personally conveyed my reservation over the proposed draft,” he said.
Jihad simply means 'struggle' and really just refers to a peaceful striving against sin rather than a license for unrestricted killing.
At the individual level, jihad primarily refers to the inner struggle of being a person of virtue and submission to God in all aspects of life.
At the collective level, jihad can take various forms, such as:
1. Intellectual Jihad, which comprises of the struggle to convey the message of God to humankind and to combat social evils through knowledge, wisdom and dignified discourse.
2. Economic Jihad, which comprises of economic measures, and spending from one’s means to improve the living conditions of the poor and the downtrodden.
3. Physical Jihad that only involves self-defense.
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