Disclaimer: I do not claim to understand everything about jihad, I am not an Arabic or religious scholar, I am simply a Muslim, living in America, trying to learn more about my faith everyday. On: The ignorance in the misuse of the word “jihad” I’ve started noticing the misuse of the word jihad grow to a point that I’ve been feeling personally attacked, it’s become too disrespectful and too disgusting for me to bear, as a Muslim. The word jihad literally means “struggle” in Arabic. In Islam, it refers to struggling in order to become closer to God, (Allah), or, in other words, striving in the way of Allah. It’s a beautiful thing to be a jihadist, believe it or not, because it means that you are strong, and that you are able to sacrifice yourself and your desires for what you believe in, (in Islam, that is, for Allah). To be a jihadist means to introspect to a point where you are able to discover and work on the struggle within yourself, the struggle turning you away from your beliefs, and the struggle turning you away from Allah. So, what’s all this talk about ‘those violent jihadists’ or ‘this is where these terrorists began their jihad’? Isn’t being a jihadist really something we all want to strive for? Don’t we all want to be able to work on what’s turning us away from what we truly believe in, whatever that is? The part that freaks people out is the 2nd meaning of jihad in the Islam. People freak out because jihad can also refer to a sort of physical struggle, a fight in the name of Allah. (First, I want to emphasize that this is considered a secondary meaning to the other meaning I talked about in the previous paragraph) Anyway, the issue is, people forget that this “holy war” sort of thing isn’t, and can’t be aggressive, it can’t be offensive. It is NOT perpetual warfare. It can only be defensive. This is the only sort of fight permitted; in the Quran, Allah says: “Fight those in the way of God who fight you, but do not be aggressive, God does not like aggressors… If they (Fight you by the Holy Mosque) do, then slay them: such is the requital for unbelievers. But if they desist, god is forgiving and kind.” (Quran 2:190-193) Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself began a non-violent movement when his policy was to not fight back, no matter what the people of Quraish did. It’s gross that the media is telling people otherwise, it’s gross that now people only hear “terrorist” or “violence” when they hear the word jihad. I beg of you to remember this the next time you hear that word, and I challenge you to not only never misuse it, but to call people out when they do. I challenge you to learn more about jihad from an Islamic scholar before you judge that word in that future. It’s disrespectful and it’s oppressive to misuse this word. This is a super super short video that talks more about its relevance to prophet Muhammad, (PBUH) and it talks about it much more clearly and precisely than I can. Watch if you’re interested: https://youtube/watch?v=vxQyP_ztEGY Thank you for hearing me out.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 02:18:32 +0000
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