Jack Snowdon: Elwin Ransom's Jihad

 "Men who suffer not, attain no perfection"

In most every religious tradition, the station of struggling is a significant one. Many near-perfect religious figures throughout history have reminded us that they we are permitted our shortcomings at one point or another. Lord Krishna, overcome with rage when wounded on a battlefield, went to break his vow of nonviolence and began to charge at the archer who had fired the arrow, having to be stopped and consoled by Arjuna, the mortal man who Krishna had come to impart divine guidance upon. Jesus agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion, and on the cross his faith wavered, asking God, "Why have you forsaken me?" Abu Bakr, who was a companion of Muhammad and the first caliph after his death, struggled with his sense of self-worth, and questioned whether he was really good enough, despite being considered by many (both today and among the early members of the faith) as the Muslim par excellence. Of course, when believers read of any of these internal struggles, it is not as slights to the ones who committed them, but rather as concessions that we, as humans, are similarly granted our shortcomings.

Jihad is commonly associated in the West with war and terrorism, but Muhammad famously said to his followers, after they had returned from a victorious war against the attacking Quraysh tribesmen, that they had returned from "the lesser jihad, and may now resume the greater." This is to say that while fighting is one, lesser form of jihad (or struggling), the greater struggle lies within ourselves, as we struggle to maintain upright character and moral goodness. While I'm quite sure that this is not what C.S. Lewis had in mind (though there are plenty of Christian parallels which likely were), we see this well in Ransom's struggle against the Un-man. Elwin Ransom long wonders how he can combat the Un-man's influence on The Queen, until he has a (Moses-esque) period of wondering why it might be him that was chosen to physically fight against the Un-man, before setting against him in unarmed combat the next day. The fight drags on and is incredibly physically taxing, and once he claims victory he chases after the Un-man, but loses track of him and the pursuit becomes drawn out as Ransom rides a fish across the oceans of Perelandra. It is at this time, when the lesser jihad, the lesser struggle has been completed (or is at the very least going well), and Ransom is faced with the greater jihad, the greater struggle. It is during his extended chase where he is stranded on the ocean that his faith wavers, and he questions God, and he questions justice and other universal ideas. Surely, this must be the more trying of the two struggles. Even when Ransom once again catches the Un-man, the greater struggle has not yet ended, as they do not begin fighting straight away, rather in the form of Weston the two expound on their clashing ideas, and the mental element remains at the fore, all the way until both of the men face what seems to be impending death together, where the lesser struggle returns and the Un-man is defeated conclusively in a physical struggle. 

In this sequence of events, we can see Ransom struggle. We can see him question himself and his abilities, as well as the world and universe around him, and greater still the nature of God. But after all of this, he emerges better for it, leaving behind a world which has succeeded in this field where, according to the Abrahamic mythos, ours fell short during its conception.