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Tablet Thirteen
JAHAD
<1>"Jahad"
is one of the most misunderstood words in
Islam.
Jahad comes from
Jahd,
which means struggle to achieve something. Therefore, jihad means
"struggle." <2>It is said in the writings of
Prophet Muhammad
that the greatest struggle (jahad)
is the struggle of the human within.
<3>So
jahad
means going from imperfection to perfection. It resembles the word "sadhana"
in Sanskrit which means "struggle" ("sadhana" also refers to
meditation).
<4>Jahad
also means external struggle in order to establish the truth over
wrongdoings -- the
Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth
(Daharma). That
is why
Prophet Muhammad
used this word for the Holy Wars with the Arab tribes in order to
destroy their pagan beliefs and establish his monastic teaching in
that land.
<5>This external
jihad
was necessary at that time because of all the opposition by those
people whose main source of income was threatened by the
Islamic ideology. Mecca, the holy city, was a center of
worship for many different beliefs. In that city countless images
and statues were created so that each believer could feel at home
when they came there. The very basic tenet of
Muhammad's
teaching that "there is no God
but
Allah" meant the rest of
the
gods in Mecca were no
gods.
<6>However, the businessmen of Mecca told
Muhammad that
he could preach his religion if he did not oppose the images in
Mecca. This would enable the merchants from all around the world to
come and worship their images in Mecca (and spend their money).
<7>But he did not accept their proposal, and the light of
enmity began between those rich businessmen and
Prophet Muhammad.
<8>This became so strong that
Prophet Muhammad
had to leave Mecca and go to Medina. Later on the fight between
Mecca and Medina kindled, and the concept of
jahad was revealed to
Muhammad as
"Holy Wars" (the same as war in the Bhagavad-Gita). <9>However,
its true meaning is internal and external struggle.
<10>In the course of time
jahad lost its more
important meaning as internal struggle and was used only to mean the
duty of each
Moslem to take up a
weapon and fight the enemy that had attacked
Moslems or to be used to destroy disbelievers. Many leaders in
Islam
lost the truth that external struggle is an impossibility without
internal struggle.
<11>So,
jahad
means internal and external struggle to perfection (to internally
and externally become perfect). This is the same as
Christ taught the Pharisees, that they should clean the inside
and the outside of the cup if they want to have a clean cup.
Again we can see that with misunderstanding beautiful
concepts such as this,
great disasters take place. <12>It is not religions that are
the source of suffering, but the way they have been interpreted by
humanity.
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