Jihad

[Monkey-man]

 

[Arman]

A white texan muslim with full beard and southern accent... Now I've seen it all. He pronounced walikum salam/alhamdulillah flawlessly too.

Edited April 15, 2018 by Arman

[Truth Addict]

@Monkey-man

In Arabic, everything that requires an effort (or struggle) is Jihad, Jihad like mentioned in the video is derived from the word 'Jahada' (جهد) which ultimately means 'got tired after struggling', when you make a 'Johd', you put in effort. In Qur'an, Jihad is linked to Allah (the sake of Allah), and the Qur'an promotes every kind of endeavour to please Allah, whether it's fighting with one's self or with others.
Unfortunately, people easily misunderstand Jihad and its purpose which are really acquiring the satisfaction of Allah by sticking to his orders and letting go of 'the restricted' (Haram), no matter what.
So for example, judging other people and killing them, does that make Allah (the most Benevolent, the most Merciful) pleased with me? Of course not, it's pretty obvious.
Jihad is mandatory, whether it's with the self or with others or with environment.
The trick here is to read the Qur'an as a whole, and not just take only one verse and try to apply it to the whole world. Radical Muslims ignore verses like:
"And do not start the fight, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits". (obviously).
"Surely Allah does not love the unjust". (obviously).
"Surely Allah loves those who do good (even when treated badly)". (obviously).
And they would only remember this kind of verses:
"And kill them wherever you face them" (only during the battle, and of course not all the time, also obviously).
Many people would object and say: well, why promoting violence in the first place? And the answer is that you as a human being, you have to defend yourself and your existence against the harmful factors out there, otherwise you're dead, this is not religion, this is the human physiology whether we're conscious of it or not. The ego has to survive.
In other words, Jihad is not about offence, it's about protection, and survival (for the sake of Allah 'Truth').
Another point is, religion is not about studying or understanding the scriptures, it's about studying and understanding God. You can debate forever with an unconscious person about their scriptures, yet they will never be able to understand God, because of the dogma that has control over them. Scriptures are pointers to God (or more accurately motivators to find God), not God. But fundamentalists don't understand that.

Edited April 16, 2018 by Truth Addict