A group of mujahidin on their way to battle stayed overnight at the lodge of some Islamic mystics, or Sufis. In the morning, one young Sufi disciple, awed by the warriors’ steeds and swords, went to his sheikh and told him that he was joining the mujahidin. Armed jihad was the easy route, his sheikh warned. Far harder was the struggle to maintain a lifetime of submission to Allah. “It is easy for me to have my neck cut once,” the elder explained. “It is hard for me to bow my head all the time, day after day.”
