58. People are urged to solicit all means which might bring them close to God and enable them to please Him.
59. The English imperative 'strive hard' does not do full justice to the
actual word used in the Qur'an: jahidu. The verbal form mujahadah signifies
and carries the nuance of doing something in defiance of, or in opposition to
someone. The true sense of the Qur'anic injunction 'strive hard' in the way
of Allah is that the Muslims ought to use all their strength and engage in vigorous
struggle against those forces which either forcefully prevent them from living
in obedience to God or force them to live in obedience to others than God. It
is this struggle which is likely to lead man to his true success and bring him
to a close relationship with God.
This verse directs the believer to engage in a ceaseless, multifrontal struggle.
On one side is the accursed Satan with his horde. Then comes the animal spirit
of man, with its defiant and refractory desires. Then there are many men who
have turned away from God, but with whom one is linked by social, cultural and
economic ties. Then there are false religious, cultural and social systems which
rest on rebellion against God and which force man to worship falsehood rather
than Truth. These rebellious forces use different means to achieve their end,
but those ends are always the same - to make men serve them rather than God.
But man's true progress and his attainment of close communion with God depends
entirely on his total obedience to God, on his serving God unreservedly in the
inner as well as in the external aspects of his life. He cannot achieve this
objective without engaging in simultaneous combat with all the forces which
are defiant and rebellious towards God, carrying on an unceasing struggle against
them and trampling down all obstructions to his advancement along God's path.