Fitna
Encyclopedia
Fitna (فتنة) is an Arabic
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

 word with connotations of secession, upheaval and chaos. It is widely used in Arabic daily language as an adjective refers to "causing problems between people" or attempt to create chaotic situation that tests one's faith. Although, the translation of this word often become a disambiguation among non-arabic speaker. The word fitna also have several similarities with tribulation
Tribulation
The Great Tribulation refers to tumultuous events that are described during the "signs of the times", first mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet discourse...

 in Christianity belief.

The term originally referred to the refining of metal
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...

 to remove dross
Dross
Dross is a mass of solid impurities floating on a molten metal. It appears usually on the melting of low-melting-point metals or alloys such as tin, lead, zinc or aluminium, or by oxidation of the metal. It can also consist of impurities such as paint leftovers...

 but became common in apocalyptic writings and is often used to refer to the First Islamic civil war, in 656–661 AD, a prolonged struggle for the caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...

 after the 656 assassination of the caliph Uthman ibn Affan. The Second Fitna, or Second Islamic civil war
Second Fitna
The Second Fitna, or Second Islamic Civil War, was a period of general political and military disorder that afflicted the Islamic empire during the early Umayyad dynasty, following the death of the first Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I...

, is usually identified as the 683–685 AD conflict among the Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...

s for control of the caliphate. The third one refers to the taifas in the end of the Caliph of Córdoba's rule. The meaning of the term is illustrated in the apocalyptic literature by people under extreme moral and psychological stress to compromise an element of their faith in return for worldly gain, and sometimes in return for their lives. They are made to choose, often not knowing exactly what is good and what is evil.

Comparison of translation in Qur'an

The word fitna also translated variously among famous Qur'an translator to english. The verse 39 of surah
Sura
A sura is a division of the Qur'an, often referred to as a chapter. The term chapter is sometimes avoided, as the suras are of unequal length; the shortest sura has only three ayat while the longest contains 286 ayat...

 8 in Holy Qur'an وَقَـٰتِلُوهُمۡ حَتَّىٰ لَا تَكُونَ فِتۡنَةٌ۬ وَيَڪُونَ ٱلدِّينُ ڪُلُّهُ ۥ لِلَّهِ‌ۚ فَإِنِ ٱنتَهَوۡاْ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِمَا يَعۡمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ۬ (٣٩ contain the word fitna and translated as "persecution
Persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...

"
(M.M. Pickthall), "tumult
Tumult
Tumult can refer to:* violent and noisy commotion or disturbance of a crowd.* a general outbreak or disorder, riot.* mental or emotional disturbance.Other:*Tumult Records, an independent record label based in San Francisco....

"
(Yusuf Ali), "temptation
Temptation
A temptation is an act that looks appealing to an individual. It is usually used to describe acts with negative connotations and as such, tends to lead a person to regret such actions, for various reasons: legal, social, psychological , health, economic, etc...

"
(Abul Daryabi).

Fitnah in Quran and Nakhla Raid

The first verse of the Quran which mentions Fitna was revealed in the Nakhla Raid
Nakhla raid
The Nakhla Raid was the seventh Caravan Raid and the first successful raid against the Meccans. Abdullah ibn Jahsh was the Commander .It took place in Rajab 2 A.H., i.e. January 624 A.H...

, when Muslims captured some polytheists in the forbidden month and forced to kill them because of disrespectful behavior, it states:
(QS. 8:39) "And fight them until persecution (fitna) is no more, and religion is all for Allah. But if they cease, then lo! Allah is Seer of what they do. (Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall
Marmaduke Pickthall
Marmaduke Pickthall was a Western Islamic scholar, noted as an English translator of the Qur'an into English. A convert from Christianity, Pickthall was a novelist, esteemed by D. H. Lawrence, H. G. Wells, and E. M. Forster, as well as a journalist, headmaster, and political and religious leader...

 translation)

The Fitnah of Dajjal

The fitnah of the Dajjal according to the Hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....

 will be the greatest fitnah ever convincing in the world. It said Dajjal will come to the earth and become the king, savior, and messiah for those who are blinded by the world's dirtiness and not begging protection to God. Dajjal would bring to them hell and heaven, in which, the hell looks like heaven for them, and the heaven are looks like hell. According to Muslim scholar, this meant that in the end of the world, sins would be as pleasure as heaven, and walking in the true path of God would be like in hell.

Islam believe that Dajjal would come to the earth as a fake Messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...

 preceding Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 as the true messiah of all humanity.

Islam preaches their believer to always fear of Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...

 and not following Dajjal's way. Narrated that Dajjal would come to the earth to spread lie, slander, hatred, lack of intelligence, laziness and other bad deeds in order to convince the world to the way of Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

 and bring all human beings as much as he could to the hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

.

Many source of Islamic scholars belief that the follower of Dajjal
Dajjal
al-Masih ad-Dajjal , is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology. He is to appear pretending to be Masih at a time in the future, before Yawm al-Qiyamah , directly comparable to the figures of the Antichrist and Armilus in Christian and Jewish eschatology, respectively.-Name: is a common Arabic word ...

 already spreading their preachings and preparing the arrival of their Messiah to the world.

Views of Western Scholars

According to Orientalist
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...

 Gilles Kepel
Gilles Kepel
Gilles Kepel is a French political scientist, specialist of the Islam and contemporary Arab world. He is Professor at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris and member of the Institut Universitaire de France....

, "fitna is sometimes translated as sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...

, that is to say the fact that the Muslim community is fragmented is because it has lost its sense of proportion and of reality - of maslaha
Maslaha
Maslaha is a concept in traditional Islamic Law. It is invoked to prohibit or permit something on the basis of whether or not it serves the public's benefit or welfare. The concept is related to that of Istislah...

(public interest); to its detriment this has delivered it to the demons of extremism. Jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

 returning like a boomerang weakens the community from within. The fitna has been the ulema
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...

s' obsession of fear for as long as Islam has existed."

Western scholars believe that this internal fear of fitna in Islamic countries, is the key factor against an introduction and easy maintenance of free pluralism democratically elected rule. Islamic law describe that irresponsible freedom and uncontrolled democracy are the tools used by Dajjal
Dajjal
al-Masih ad-Dajjal , is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology. He is to appear pretending to be Masih at a time in the future, before Yawm al-Qiyamah , directly comparable to the figures of the Antichrist and Armilus in Christian and Jewish eschatology, respectively.-Name: is a common Arabic word ...

 to convincing his fitna to bring chaos in the end of the world. Something which is contrary to the united spirit of the Caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...

 and the ummah
Ummah
Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...

.

External links

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