The British Government and Jihad — Page v
Publisher’s Note n Government Angreiz i aur Jihad is an Urdu booklet written in 1900 by Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as , the Promised Messiah and the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam a ‘at. In this booklet, he refers to the Holy Qur’ a n and the a h a d i th (sayings) of the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa in order to explain the true nature of the Islamic concept of jihad. The author points to the peaceful nature of the Islamic faith and explains that Muslims resorted to defensive war early in their faith’s history only after suffering thirteen years of brutal oppression. Divine permission to retaliate was granted for the specific purpose of self-defense, to punish aggressors, and to uphold freedom of conscience. We are grateful to T ayyba Seema A h med and Dr. Lu t fur Ra h m a n for their earlier translations. The revised version was prepared by the Translation Team, headed by Munawar A h med Saeed, under the direction of Vak a lat-e-Ta s n i f London. Impor- tant contributions were made by A h med Muneeb Saeed, H an a nah Zaheer, ‘Abdul-Wah a b Mirz a , Fouz a n P a l, and Kar i mull a h Z i rv i. May Allah bless them all. A m i n. Mun i r-ud-D i n Shams Additional Vak i l-ut-Ta s n i f London, March, 2006