What is jihad? We always hear it in the news, when there is some terrorist attack, but what does jihad really mean? In the Qur'an jihad is never defined as holy war, but a struggle or effort, there are three types of jihad mentioned in the Qur'an. First, is the
inward jihad, which is the daily struggle to live out Islam as best as possible, choosing right from wrong, and not losing faith in Islam. Muhammad regarded the inward struggle to be the greatest Jihad, although a few scholars say that it was taken out of context. Second is the
social jihad, which is the struggle of truth, justice, goodness, and charity in society to make it better. The last jihad is
combative jihad, it allows self-defense in the face of unprovoked aggression, if a country attacks an Islamic country, or if a country is oppressing the religion. The Qur'an describes war as a hated act, and one of the biggest sins is the taking of innocent lives, and doesn't allow fighting based on faith, ethnicity, or nationality.
Islam has strict rules before they let
combative jihad happen. War will be the last resort after all other options have failed. Then a legal authority is the only one that can declare war after having consulted all of the options. The reasons for going to war cannot be for rewards, like fighting to gain territory, but for noble motives. There are also rules they have to follow while in the battlefield. The non-combatants should not be targeted like women, children, and the elderly. Women should not be raped, and enemies should be treated with justice.
I believe that we can't let the small percentage of a population, in this instance radical Muslims, give the rest a bad name. Never generalize a statement, just because one person does it not everyone is going to do it. I've met many Muslims and they are nice and peaceful, not violent at all, and would wish for people to stop stereotyping them because of a few in their religion that do bad onto others.
I like how you described Islamic civilizations view on war. In my own post, I wrote about Islam being a nation of peace, about how a few bad seeds can make an entire country look bad, and about how we often point the finger of ignorance, forgetting that three point back toward us. Stereotyping occurs more often when people know very little to nothing about a topic, only proving themselves to be the ignorant ones. After doing my own post, I did a lot of research on the Islamic religion, traditions, laws, and ways of life. It is hard after gaining the proper awareness not to think of the Islamic civilization as one of peace, and truthfully harmless intentions. I really enjoyed reading your post, it just goes to show that knowledge is power, and with it there are greater hopes for our generation to experience future peace between nations.
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Your blog is very informative. In my own blog i compared the Quran to the Bible. Although i did quite a bit of research on the Islamic civilization I did not do much research on jihad. I did not know that there was more than one type of jihad. Your blog looks great;however, I would have added a link leading to the description of the different types of jihad. If you had added a link, the reader could have learned a little more about the different types. The blog is excellent and i enjoyed reading it. I agree with your view on Muslims. I have also met many Muslims who were extremely pleasant and peaceful. After September 11th, it is a struggle for Americans to not have harsh feeling towards them. There are evil people in every race and we cannot let certain events stray our opinion on every Muslim person.
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