Jihad, Jehad
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{jih - hahd'}
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Editor's Note: This presentation is about the true subject of Jihad.
There is a relatively new organization which named itself
"Islamic Jihad" which is very different. That organization is
a small militant extremist group that has a distorted understanding
of jihad. They focus on a few words in the Koran that tell Muslims to
hate and fight enemies of "the book", believing that that
reference is about the Koran. However, the context of that text in
the Koran makes it clear that the Book referred to is the Torah,
or Taurah, or Pentateuch, the first five Books of the Bible. If that
group truly understood the Koran, they would see that Muslims, Jews
and Christians all fully believe in those Five Books, and are therefore
not enemies at all. However, they have been taught differently.
General Information
In Islam, the duty of each Muslim to spread his or her religious
beliefs is termed jihad. Although the word is widely understood to
mean a "holy war" against nonbelievers, jihad may also be fulfilled
by a personal battle against evil inclinations, the righting of
wrongs, and the supporting of what is good.
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Jihad
General Information
Many polemical descriptions of Islam have focused critically on the
Islamic concept of jihad. Jihad, considered the sixth pillar of Islam
by some Muslims, has been understood to mean holy war in these
descriptions. However, the word in Arabic means "to struggle"
or "to exhaust one's effort," in order to please God. Within
the faith of Islam, this effort can be individual or collective,
and it can apply to leading a virtuous life; helping other Muslims
through charity, education, or other means; preaching Islam; and
fighting to defend Muslims.
Western media of the 20th century continue to focus on the militant
interpretations of the concept of jihad, whereas most Muslims do not.
Jihad
General Information
The Dictionary of Islam defines jihad as
"a religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission
of Muhammad. It is an incumbent religious duty, established in
the Qur'an and in the Traditions as a divine institution,
enjoined specially for the purpose of advancing Islam and of
repelling evil from Muslims."
Note
From the above, it seems clear that there are at least two rather
different understandings of the term. It would seem that the
majority of Muslims, who are peaceful, accept the personal and
very peaceful interpretation, while militant Muslims seem to
understand the violent interpretation.
In recent decades, a relatively small number of very militant
Muslim terrorist groups have used newspapers, radio, television,
and other media to promote their view. This seems to have affected
growing numbers of Muslims into having more and more violent
views toward non-Muslims, particularly Jews and Americans.
It is probably true that the vast majority of Muslims do not (yet)
agree with this terrorist usage of their religion, and are
troubled as much as non-Muslims by the regular calls for
"Islamic Jihad", a Holy War, against Westerners, particularly
Americans. Such call are made by (still) very small militant and terrorist
groups, but they are very vocal and the news media have tended to
publicize their activities. As a result of this publicity, they have been
able to gain many more followers for their terrorist activities, and also
inspire more fear than such small groups could probably cause
on their own.
Again, out of the 1,000,000,000 Muslims in the world, only a few thousand
are actively involved in the terrorist activities. That means that the
remaining 999,950,000 Muslims are peace-loving as their religion
actually teaches them. In a similar way, the vast majority of Christians
are Peace-loving, as Jesus Taught, but a very few aberrant people
who call themselves Christians show up in TV news, and might give the
impression that all Christians are violent, which is certainly
not true. Quiet, peaceful people seldom make news. Vocal, violent
people do. That's a characteristic of a "free press"
which free societies choose to have.
Those terrorist groups are certainly extremely dangerous, and
must be controlled or eliminated, but they shouldn't necessarily
tarnish the overall reputation of either Islam or Christianity.
Also, see:
Islam, Muhammad
Koran, Qur'an
Pillars of Faith
Abraham
Testament of Abraham
Allah
Hadiths
Revelation - Hadiths from Book 1 of al-Bukhari
Belief - Hadiths from Book 2 of al-Bukhari
Knowledge - Hadiths from Book 3 of al-Bukhari
Times of the Prayers - Hadiths from Book 10 of al-Bukhari
Shortening the Prayers (At-Taqseer) - Hadiths from Book 20 of al-Bukhari
Pilgrimmage (Hajj) - Hadiths from Book 26 of al-Bukhari
Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihad) - Hadiths of Book 52 of al-Bukhari
ONENESS, UNIQUENESS OF ALLAH (TAWHEED) - Hadiths of Book 93 of al-Bukhari
Hanafiyyah School Theology (Sunni)
Malikiyyah School Theology (Sunni)
Shafi'iyyah School Theology (Sunni)
Hanbaliyyah School Theology (Sunni)
Maturidiyyah Theology (Sunni)
Ash'ariyyah Theology (Sunni)
Mutazilah Theology
Ja'fari Theology (Shia)
Nusayriyyah Theology (Shia)
Zaydiyyah Theology (Shia)
Kharijiyyah
Imams (Shia)
Druze
Qarmatiyyah (Shia)
Ahmadiyyah
Ishmael, Ismail
Early Islamic History Outline
Hegira
Averroes
Avicenna
Machpela
Kaaba, Black Stone
Ramadan
Sunnites, Sunni
Shiites, Shia
Mecca
Medina
Sahih, al-Bukhari
Sufism
Wahhabism
Abu Bakr
Abbasids
Ayyubids
Umayyads
Fatima
Fatimids (Shia)
Ismailis (Shia)
Mamelukes
Saladin
Seljuks
Aisha
Ali
Lilith
Islamic Calendar
Interactive Muslim Calendar
The individual articles presented here were generally first published
in the early 1980s. This subject presentation was first placed
on the Internet in May 1997.
This page - -
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This subject presentation was last updated on - -
Copyright Information
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