Sola Jihad: Salvation by Jihad Alone

In the history of religion, no question is more fundamental than this: how can man be saved? Christianity and Islam, both claiming universal truth, offer radically different answers.

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther and the Protestant reformers shook the Western world by recovering a biblical truth: sola fide, faith alone. Against the Catholic Church’s sacramental system, with its treasury of merits, indulgences, and penances, Luther declared that justification comes not through human works but through faith in Jesus Christ. A sinner is justified by trusting in Christ’s finished work on the cross. Assurance of salvation comes not from tallying good deeds but from clinging to God’s promise.

Islam answers the same question in the opposite way. It offers no “faith alone.” It offers no assurance through God’s grace. Instead, it drowns its followers in an ocean of commandments, prohibitions, and rituals that regulate every aspect of life, from how you eat and dress to how you use the bathroom. And yet, even with complete obedience, the Qur’an insists that Allah guides and forgives whom he wills, and damns whom he wills. The Muslim is left in despair, never knowing if his prayer or fasting is accepted. The balance of deeds on Judgment Day is always uncertain.

Except in one case.