The Unifying Idea
This axis separates ritual practices from political authority, and makes freedom a condition for both worship and jihad. Worship has no meaning under compulsion, and jihad begins with words, moving to violence only when all avenues are blocked.
The Theses Included in the Axis
- Worship is a divinely prescribed ritual outside political legislation, and authority may not coerce in it
- Religious and political freedom are a condition for worship and jihad
- Jihad begins with words and ends in violence when avenues are blocked
The Axis’s Support from the Atoms
- Ritual practices are outside political legislation
- Authority may not coerce in ritual practices
- Freedom is a condition of worship
- Freedom of peaceful expression
- Suppressing freedom legitimizes jihad
- The jihad of the word includes speaking the truth
- Violence is the final stage of jihad
How to Read It
This axis preserves worship as a free meaning and jihad as an ethical meaning. Therefore, the relation between them is read first through freedom, and then through defense when avenues are blocked.