I think a lot of times people, especially Americans misunderstand the meaning of jihad for multiple reasons. Americans remember 9/11 and immediately give jihad a negative notation. But i think un educated Americans when it comes to the religiong as a whole, Islam, they do not actually know anything about it, particularly when it comes to the jihad. When some one looks up jihad on google the first thing that pops up is "holy war" and that automatically contradict's it self really and gives it a negative meaning. The second thing you see is the word literally means "struggle". But if you dig deeper and research you also read about how muslims believe the jihad is "striving in the way of God." They believe that jihad is about find your way to make a difference in the world. The way they go about making a difference is a whole other thing.
Considered the sixth pillar of Islam, Jihad interprets to mean "sacred struggle" and has two interpretations. Jihad can be interpreted as a physical call to warfare to preserve and spread Islam. It can also be a personal call of inner struggle to live Islam as fully as possible. Western civilizations have misinterpreted the meaning because of Al Queda and terrorist attacks. People believe that Jihad is killing others just for Islam, when in reality, Muslims are trying to spread Islam or find their innerself. Even when one reads the Quran, he or she will find that the physical Jihad is only used in times of self defense.
I think a lot of times people, especially Americans misunderstand the meaning of jihad for multiple reasons. Americans remember 9/11 and immediately give jihad a negative notation. But i think un educated Americans when it comes to the religiong as a whole, Islam, they do not actually know anything about it, particularly when it comes to the jihad. When some one looks up jihad on google the first thing that pops up is "holy war" and that automatically contradict's it self really and gives it a negative meaning. The second thing you see is the word literally means "struggle". But if you dig deeper and research you also read about how muslims believe the jihad is "striving in the way of God." They believe that jihad is about find your way to make a difference in the world. The way they go about making a difference is a whole other thing.
ReplyDeleteConsidered the sixth pillar of Islam, Jihad interprets to mean "sacred struggle" and has two interpretations. Jihad can be interpreted as a physical call to warfare to preserve and spread Islam. It can also be a personal call of inner struggle to live Islam as fully as possible. Western civilizations have misinterpreted the meaning because of Al Queda and terrorist attacks. People believe that Jihad is killing others just for Islam, when in reality, Muslims are trying to spread Islam or find their innerself. Even when one reads the Quran, he or she will find that the physical Jihad is only used in times of self defense.
ReplyDelete