Does Jihad mean a different thing in the Modern World?

The happenings of the modern world have created ambiguity in the minds of people about the true meaning of jihad and modern world consider it as terrorism. The meaning of the term jihad means struggle and striving to fight evil. By doing jihad the Muslims can promote the Islamic teachings in their life and can create a Muslim world around them. It is mentioned in the Quran to do jihad of any kind so that they can be a good Muslim. There are two kinds of jihad that are normally discussed by the Islamic scholars one is the internal jihad and the other is the external jihad. The internal jihad is done with oneself to stop oneself from evil doings and the external jihad is with others that are done by stop the evil of others who are doing something against Islam.

Jihad and modern world are not at peace with each other as the modern world hates the concept of jihad. The modern world hates the concept of jihad because they do not understand the concept well. They think jihad is violence but in real jihad is to oppose the evil violence. The Quran explains jihad as a struggle and terrorism is forbidden if we read Quran. There are translations of Quran available in every language as the Quran is in Arabic language. The people can learn Arabic so that they can read and understand the Quran in its original language.

One can learn Arabic language and read the Quran thoroughly and once one knows what is written in the Quran, the ambiguities between jihad and modern world can be made clear. One can learn Muslim culture and one can learn Islam and understand that jihad is a sacred thing that is as far away from the terrorism as possible. The Islamic teachings tell us that the internal jihad is the greatest jihad to fight with one’s own self to make you right and to keep yourself away from evil and wrong deeds. If this is the greatest level of jihad then which sane mind can consider it as terrorism? The Islam asks its followers to wage war inside yourself so that you do not wage war outside with others.

The teachings of Islam even forbid a Muslim country to wage war against a non Muslim country if that country is not disturbing Islam. The modern world thinks that Muslim academies teach its Muslim students to become terrorists. A true Muslim academy creates a true Muslim; if an academy is teaching its students to become terrorists then that the academy is not qualified to be called a Muslim academy because the teachings of such an academy are against the teachings of Islam. The Muslims learn Muslim language so that they can understand the teachings of Islam. The true jihad and modern world need to come at peace with each other as nonviolent coexistence among Muslim and non-Muslim community is possible. The people who are committing the crime of killing the innocent people are either not Muslim or they do not understand the teachings of Islam. Hence Islam needs not to be blamed about the violence.

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