Response to the Neglected Duty

In Abd Al-Salam Faraj's pamphlet The Neglected Duty, he indirectly justifies his part in the murder of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. The duty that Faraj is referring to as neglected is that of the jihad, which, according to him, is the fight for God's cause. He says that the establishment of an Islamic state is mandatory for the Muslims and is made clear in the Koran. Furthermore, he claims that if the state cannot be established without war, then war is mandatory also.

He then explains the importance of the "allegiance to the Caliphate", which is the state of Islam. According to him, whoever dies without having pledged allegiance does not die as a true Muslim. The people who Farad says are in greater violation with the laws of the Koran is the ulama, being the leading Muslim scholars of the present day. Those are the people he is accusing of neglecting their duty of jihad. He accuses them to be in apostasy from Islam. He says that the laws of Unbelief, which were made by the infidels and subjected to the Muslims, have replaced the laws of the Muslims. He condemns the present day rulers, saying that they "carry nothing from Islam but their names." Also, by them being in apostasy, they are worse than the infidels, and their punishment will be greater than that of someone who has never claimed to be Muslim.

He shoots down the idea of establishing an Islamic state by peaceful means, saying that Islam does not triumph by converting the majority, but by conquering the majority. He also says that those who believe that the quest of knowledge is the main obligation of the jihad are wrong, and that fighting is more important. He believes that once the Muslims start fighting, God will intervene by means of natural phenomena to their advantage. According to Faraj, Muslims are free to choose the method of fighting to achieve

victory the easiest way possible, with the fewest Muslim casualties possible.

The pamphlet may be a well developed call to duty, but I can't see it as being persuasive to anyone that doesn't already have this mentality. He is clearly advocating violence in order to do what he thinks is God's will. It's almost as if he is making the Koran say what he wants it to. It states the same thing about fasting as it does fighting: both are prescribed for you. Yet he claims that fighting is the real duty and much more important.

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