Saints: Godly Protectors

Can someone actually explain what jihad is?

John Jones3 said:Can someone actually explain what jihad is?

Just an internal struggle... with myself, I guess.👍

Hannah Diaz said:Just an internal struggle... with myself, I guess.👍

I have no idea how anyone gets from that point to the Wikipedia definition of jihad—or how non-Muslims view the term today. Fighting your own internal demons is the biggest battle a person can face—and honestly, winning it is pretty much impossible.

John Jones3 said:I have no idea how anyone gets from that point to the Wikipedia definition of jihad—or how non-Muslims view the term today. Fighting your own internal demons is the biggest battle a person can face—and honestly, winning it is pretty much impossible.

But then again, you also read this part:

Jihad
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Please check for inaccuracies and correct them as needed, citing your sources.

I guess true victory only comes through a spiritual mentor... someone who’s actually survived those states themselves.🙂

Hannah Diaz said:Just an internal struggle... with myself, I guess.👍

That isn't the full story. It’s also not what most people assume when they hear that phrase...

Literally speaking, it refers to putting in the effort to elevate the word of God and Islam. Jihad was ordained so that the commands of the Almighty could be carried out without interference, spreading His faith to all people.

Muslims are encouraged to engage in jihad, which can sometimes mean quite literally: stepping onto the battlefield and sacrificing one's life to uphold the faith.

So, fighting—whether through holy war, military preparation, or supporting fighters—in the name of Islam is simply one way that the desire to exalt the faith is expressed.

And that has been the most common method since the very beginning...

John Jones3 said:I have no idea how anyone gets from that point to the Wikipedia definition of jihad—or how non-Muslims view the term today. Fighting your own internal demons is the biggest battle a person can face—and honestly, winning it is pretty much impossible.

But there isn't anything wrong on Wikipedia... if you look at those religious textbooks and see the extremes they go to just to 'defend' the indefensible, things might start making more sense to you.

I really only know about Evliya Çelebi. I'm not quite sure how he ended up being called just Evliya, but I do know he was an travel writer. It seems to me that even his surname, Çelebi, translates to "gentleman," which makes his whole name roughly equivalent to "holy gentleman" when you look at it that way. In reality, though, his full name was Evliya ibn Dervish Mehmed Zilli.

Susan Price30 said:But there isn't anything wrong on Wikipedia... if you look at those religious textbooks and see the extremes they go to just to 'defend' the indefensible, things might start making more sense to you.

😁...That's an interesting take... I guess if I cherry-picked only the bits that suited my own agenda I'd end up saying the exact same thing... but like you said... we aren't really ☕

Look, you're entitled to your opinion... but it's just yours. I can agree or disagree, whatever, that's your call... but I think a little bit of basic respect during a conversation—you know, actual dialogue—would probably go a long way here.☕

dustyskipper3 said:I really only know about Evliya Çelebi. I'm not quite sure how he ended up being called just Evliya, but I do know he was an travel writer. It seems to me that even his surname, Çelebi, translates to "gentleman," which makes his whole name roughly equivalent to "holy gentleman" when you look at it that way. In reality, though, his full name was Evliya ibn Dervish Mehmed Zilli.

Evliya... translated... friend... there you go, dustyskipper3, just a simple translation.😉

Hannah Diaz said:Yeah, I guess maybe instead of saying "awareness," you could say "enlightenment"—like looking through the darkness toward the light... it feels a bit more religious than that, maybe? Or am I overthinking it?🤷

And honestly, being "indifferent" is basically just having a dead soul. People like that are basically "walking corpses."🙂

Look, there’s a massive difference between being enlightened and just shining a light on a problem. The problems themselves are already illuminated! People totally know they shouldn't be speeding through residential neighborhoods, yet they do it anyway and cause accidents. People know there are millions out there who don't have enough to eat and are starving through no fault of their own, yet we still see tons of food wasted. We hoard stuff we don't even need and pay pro athletes salaries that could literally feed every hungry person on the planet.

At the end of the day, people *know*. If everyone just decided right now not to hurt anyone else—nothing more than that—even if they didn't go out of their way to help anyone but themselves, we'd instantly have the peace the world is dying for. And if we all just committed to giving one genuine smile to one person every single day, the whole world would flip into a chaos of love instead of this chaos of everything else. People know the truth; the light has been shining for ages, so what are we doing with it?

Unlike just exposing a problem, true awareness is about building that bridge between the individual and the responsibility for their own actions in that light. Light by itself is just a seed that can grow into something bigger, but most of the time it doesn't sprout because we aren't creating the right environment for it to bloom.

Individually, we can't be held responsible for a hungry kid in Africa, but we *can* be responsible for our own actions that indirectly or directly fuel everything we claim to hate about the world. If we actually want peace and love, why are we constantly stirring up conflict? Why are we spreading dissatisfaction without any intention of changing? Most importantly, why do we keep fueling everything we want to root out just by staying silent when we communicate with others?

Just stay neutral given the current situation, and things will shift regardless of you. Be the kind of person who doesn't hurt anyone, and you'll be contributing to peace. Be someone who loves while refusing to cause harm, and you'll contribute to love. And if you can find ways to point out someone else's blindness in a way that they truly get it without feeling attacked, then you're truly being a decent Human Being.

I see how it is... you've got a lot of critiques flying around... maybe you're secretly a sports columnist or something 😁, just kidding 👍

Hmm. Chaos is chaos, I guess... the root of everything is just too much of one thing, and honestly, when people say "the light is cast," it reminds me of that old saying about "the die being cast"! 😉

What you mentioned about that guy could probably be boiled down to something shorter... just get a sense of the animal... realize you aren't that person... and there you go, that's the realization right there 🙂

Sometimes I picture a person as a lantern moving through the dark and the shadows... there’s light ahead, illuminating a bit of the path... but behind them is just darkness... stuff they briefly light up before the 'darkness'—which covers pretty much everything, really—takes over again

Later...

Here's wearyhawk83... and I put it in an image format for you...

It’s interesting how there are demonic forces out there acting as the direct opposite of divine ones.