What's Jihad? | Dr. Shabir Ally

There is a lot of public confusion about the concept of jihad in Islam. Is it holy war? Terrorism? Dr. Shabir Ally says jihad is a verbal noun from the Arabic verb, jahada, which means to struggle or make an effort. So it could mean to make an effort to bring about betterment in society, or it could be the effort that it takes to purify one's own soul. In the Quran, it is typically used with an addition, jihad fi sabeel illah, which means struggling in the way of God. Jihad may take a military form, and this is what many non-Muslims are most familiar with: if an injustice is being done and there is a need to correct that injustice and deal with the aggressor, a dedicated army may need to engage in jihad to right those wrongs. Dr. Shabir points out that the concept of defending the oppressed and bringing about justice exists in world religions and even beyond as one of the ways in which people might bring about a better world.

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[clarakrieger]

Fortunately I wasn't as receptive for Islamophobia that I looked at Muslims in a scared, bad way. I thought there are extremists like in any religion. But I didn't get that I, through indoctrination, was prevented to acknkwledge the beauty of this faith! Many years I missed out on that and couldn't give the well deserved admiration and respecr to Muslims and Islam and I'm very sorry about that! What a beautiful, wise, universal faith!
The true meaning of Jihad is such a good example.
I'd never thought I'd find the description of a meaning I was lookin for, because it's a vital part if my life, in a word they told me means 'terrorism'!
I always look for what religions share, because I believe there is only one Truth, one God, but he has many names and is expressed in many different words from many different perspectives. And I'm happy to find Islam expresses what I feel and often look for in such a beautiful way!
How religion is lived in thw west, often feels fake and empty to me.
Muslim people I see really live their faith with so much love and devotion!
There us so much unconditional trust and surrender to Allah I very often witness You having, that a lot of peoole here would be too scared to be able to have!
You guys inspire me!
And You will always have me on Your side to combat Islamophobia, which, unfortunately is an agenda.
I'm sorry it is! It's the last thing You deserve! It doesn't do You right!
But it's impossible for it to win on the long run anyways, because in the end Truth and love will always win and prevail!
Allah has a plan!
Much ❤ to everyone reading this and keep up the good work!

[raktimavabose]

What an interesting answer, may we all strive for good deeds

[mikechristian-vnle]

It's not that boys are bad, or girls good, girls are sweet and "nice, " but boys are DIFFERENT, made of "snips and snails and puppy dog tails, " and not of bad, evil or disgusting things

[carllere]

That explains why Suni and Shia Muslims get along so well

[Od.]

Sophia and dr. Shabir, you make a difference ❤

[peterhwang]

Dr. Ally, you evidently know parts of the Bible I have never heard of. Where in the New Testament are Christians commanded to take up physical violence in a military operation to attack aggressors? I only know of the verse that tells us that our battle is not against flesh and blood. Ephesians 6:12

[mazharnajeeb]

Dr Shabir's apologetic and defensive approach will not gain him acceptance. The root word Jahada does not equate to Jihad which is a shariah term with a specific meaning which is military only. Jihad was revealed in Medina while the strive (jahada) with the Quran verse was revealed earlier in Mecca when Jihad was not even known as a term as it had not been revealed yet.
The Quranic verses revealed on Jihad in Medina are only related to military. While defensive Jihad is one component, however, Jihad, as Dr Shabir skirted around is, a noble war to make the word of Allah be raised ie for Islam to prevail on the earth, ie an offensive war.
A study of classical sources of Fiqh debunks the modernist approach to dilute Jihad, considered the 6th pillar of Islam, to be a broad array of struggles with the military one being just one of them, and that too claimed to be a defensive one, which they have to justify with other religions.
The West has practiced genocide through it's colonial invasions from North America's extermination of its natives to the genocide they are facilitating in Gaza for the last 4 months. The Muslim record on Jihad as a selfless war to save humanity and bring peace justice and prosperity to the people of the world is clearly documented with the high standards and rules by which it was conducted. We never killed non combatants, women and children, mistreated prisoners, demolished places of worship, destroyed infrastructure, farms and orchards, everything the West has done and is facilitaing in Gaza now and Palestine for 75 years. So Muslims have nothing to be apologetic for with this skirting approach, but the West has, we just need to grow some courage and spell it out. So no need for us to help the genocidal terrorist West in diluting and redefining Jihad which, along with the rest of the deen, they wish to extinguish, as stated in the Qur'an."They wish ti extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths..."

[BruceWSims]

May Allah guide me when I share that my own understanding is that the concept of "Jihad" as posited in the Quran has always meant a personal struggle or striving by the individual to address a short-coming in themselves. IIRC the "military application" is a relatively recent corruption of the term for geo-political agendas. For instance, the term "crusade" which was not used until 1213, and then to identify actions against the Cathars in Europe. The use of "jihad" has been commandeered by Modern Groups for its emotional appeal and the divisiveness it produces by dint of the "holier-than-thou" attitude it seems to engender. FWIW.

[Blackfoot]

As Salaam Alaakum, THIS Brother also gives great Quranic answers, much needed.

[tajjiintanzania]

I really want to know what verse of the New Testament made Dr. Shabir claim there is support for violence in it. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Love your enemies. Love your neighbor as yourself. God is love. Love one another. Be a peacemaker. Turn the other cheek if slapped. If you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Every careless word you say God will take into account. Blessing and cursing should not come from the same mouth. Pray for your enemies. How Christian are to conduct themselves is outlined well in the New Testament. The war we wage is spiritual and it requires prayer and the Word of God that is alive and active. The battle is the Lord's. -Blessings from Tajji in Tanzania

[lahleholivia]

The word Palestine comes from the Greek word phillista describing the Philistines who were a nomadic group from southern Europe. It has nothing to do with any land.

[bochica]

I was today years old, when I learned that I am a jehadi. I'm not a muslim though, just a guy struggling and trying to do good.
❤️😉👍

[newcovenantguy]

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭9‬
“Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
‭‭John‬ ‭18‬:‭36‬ ‭
“But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭52‬ ‭
“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭27‬ ‭
“At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.””
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭25‬-‭30‬ ‭

[rhonda]

*Analysis of the Hamas Charter*
(Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)
From address by FM Avigdor Liberman to the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism - Dec 2009
The Hamas charter is the document which sets out the movement's ideology as it was formulated and honed by its founders. It includes its radical Islamic world view (conceived by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt), which has basically not changed in the 18 years of its existence. With regard to Israel, the charter's stance is uncompromising. It views the "problem of Palestine" as a religious-political Muslim issue, and the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation as a conflict between Islam and the "infidel" Jews. "Palestine" is presented as sacred Islamic land and it is strictly forbidden to give up an inch of it because no one (including Arab-Muslim rulers) has the authority to do so. With regard to international relations, the charter manifests an extremist worldview which is as anti-Western as Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

That worldview brings in its wake the refusal to recognize the State of Israel's right to exist as an independent, sovereign nation, the waging of a ceaseless jihad (holy war) against it and total opposition to any agreement or arrangement that would recognize its right to exist. At the beginning of the charter there is a quotation attributed to Hassan Al-Bana, 4 that "Israel will arise and continue to exist until Islam wipes it out, as it wiped out what went before."

Overt, vicious anti-Semitism, with both Islamic and Christian-European origins, is used extensively throughout the document. The all-out holy war (jihad) against the Jewish people is legitimized by presenting the Jews in a negative light and demonizing them as wanting to take over not only the Middle East but also the rest of the world. One of the jihad's deadliest manifestations is suicide bombing terrorism, which was developed mainly by Hamas during the 1990s and has become its leading "strategy" in the ongoing violent Israeli-Palestinian confrontation.

The Jews are also presented as worthy of only humiliation and lives of misery. That is because, according to the charter, they angered Allah, rejected the Qur'an and killed the prophets (the relevant Qur'an verse from Surah Aal-‘Imran is quoted at the beginning of the charter). The document also includes anti-Semitic myths taken from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (mentioned in Article 32) regarding Jewish control of the media, the film industry and education (Articles 17 and 22). The myths are constantly repeated to represent the Jews as responsible for the French and Russian revolutions and for all world and local wars: "No war takes place anywhere without the Jews' being behind it" (Article 22). The charter demonizes the Jews and describes them as brutally behaving like Nazis toward women and children (Article 29).

The charter views the jihad (holy war) as the way to take all of "Palestine" from the Jews and to destroy the State of Israel, and Hamas's terrorist attacks are seen as links in the jihad chain carried out during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Article 15 states that "the jihad to liberate ‘Palestine' is the personal duty" of every Muslim, an idea expounded by ‘Abdallah ‘Azzam.

The charter emphasizes the battle for Muslim hearts and minds or "the spread of Islamic consciousness" within three main spheres: the Palestinians, the Arab Muslims and the non-Arab Muslims (Article 15). The process of fostering and spreading that "Islamic consciousness" is defined as its most important mission. Clerics, educators, men of culture, those active in the media and information services and the generally educated public all have the responsibility to carry it out.

As part of the battle for hearts and minds, the charter places a special emphasis on education [i.e., indoctrination] in the spirit of radical Islam, based on the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood. Fundamental changes must be made, it states, in the educational system in the PA-administered territories: it must be "purified, " purged of "the influences of the ideological invasion brought by the Orientalists and missionaries" (Article 15), and the younger generation should be given a radical Islamic education based exclusively on the Qur'an and the Muslim tradition (the Sunnah). The means used for ideological recruitment, as detailed in the charter, are "books, articles, publications, sermons, flyers, folk songs, poetic language, songs, plays, etc." When imbued with "correct" Islamic belief and culture, they become an important means of raising morale and building the psychological fixation and emotional strength necessary for a continuing "liberation campaign" (Article 19).

The charter stresses the importance of Muslim solidarity according to the commands of the Qur'an and Sunnah, especially in view of the confrontation taking place between Palestinian society and the "terrorist Jewish enemy, " described as Nazi-like. One of the expressions of that solidarity is aid to the needy (one of whose main manifestations is the network of various "charitable societies" set up by Hamas, which integrate social activities and support of terrorism).

The charter makes a point of the ideological difference between Hamas, with its radical Islamic world view, and the secularly-oriented The Palestine Liberation Organization, but pays lip service to the need for Palestinian unity needed to face the Jewish enemy. It notes that an Islamic world view completely contradicts The Palestine Liberation Organization's secular orientation and the idea of a secular Palestinian state. Nevertheless, notes the charter, Hamas is prepared to aid and support every "nationalist trend" working "to liberate Palestine" and is not interested in creating schisms and disagreements (Article 27).

[johnmchugh]

The New Testament doesn’t promote any kind of violence, Jesus said if anyone slaps you to turn the other cheek! He calls his disciples to be as innocent as doves! He said he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword!
The only New Testament verse that people try to twist for a justification of violence is when Jesus told the disciples to sell their cloaks and buy a sword, this was to fulfil the prophecy that he will be numbered with the transgressors.
If we look at the like of Mohammad it’s easy to see that Jihad was used to force conversion, if we look at Islam end time prophecy we see that Jihad will again be used to convert with those not converting to be killed.
Thankfully alot of Muslims aren’t consistent in following their religion, but unfortunately most Christian’s are also not consistent in following Jesus Christ and accepting him as their lord and saviour, the only way to the father is through the sin.
Accept Jesus Christ while you still have time, he died to pay the price for your sins.

[peterhwang]

Why don't you let the Quran speak? Why don't you quote some verses with the term jihad in it?

[luisramrod]

These muslims make Islam seem so beautiful. But a closer look will say otherwise.

[charlesmuhmanson]

From Reliance of the Traveler - Jihad o9.0 – Jihad means to war against non-Muslim, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare to establish the religion. Page 599 – Reliance of the Traveler.

[kadenlopez]

Is Jihad justified in the raising of the teachings of the Quran?

[IbrahimMOIGUA-oceg]

ALLAHU AKBAR ALLAHU AKBAR ALLAHU AKBAR ALLAHU AKBAR ALLAHU AKBAR ALLAHU AKBAR ALLAHU AKBAR ALLAHU AKBAR ALLAHU AKBAR ❤PALESTINE 🇵🇸