India Muslims Correct Jihad Misconceptions
"Everything is a jihad — pursuit of education, earning a living and fighting your egos,” historian S Irfan Habib said in a lecture organized by the Islamic Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought, Times of India reported on Saturday, January 4.
“But, now, it is the most misunderstood concept of Islam," he added.
Habib, a historian of science and political history who holds the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad chair at Delhi's National University of Educational Planning and Administration, questioned the stereotypes of Islam and Muslims worldwide.
"Believers have started taking religion so seriously that it has become an obsession," said Habib.
Authoring several books on history of science quoted from the Qur’an, the 60-year-old historian said the Noble Qur’an primarily promotes independent thinking.
"Ijtihad — independent thinking and reasoning — was given priority, but over the years radicals have conveniently buried this term and pushed for collective thinking, which continues to be the way of life for many who follow the religion," said Habib.
"It is sad that many Muslims in the country don't know Arabic and hence the real meaning of the texts eludes them. The Quran must be translated into local languages, that way the scriptures won't be an enclave of the select few," he added.
The Muslim historian encouraged non-Muslims to contact their Muslim friends to get the true and proper meaning of Jihad.
"The problem is people are too scared to question. That should not be the case. By not questioning negativity shrouds Islam," Habib said.
"So ingrained is the fear of the word that my lecture in Chennai almost got cancelled after some people raised concerns over jihad being the topic," he added.
There are some 140 million Muslims in Hindu-majority India and they have long complained of being discriminated against in all walks of life.
Jihad is often stereotyped by Western media as meaning “holy war”.
But Muslim scholars have repeatedly affirmed that the word Jihad, which is mentioned in the Noble Qur'an, means "struggle" to do good and to remove injustice, oppression and evil from society.
Karen Armstrong, the prominent and prolific British writer on all three monotheistic religions, has criticized stereotyping the Arabic word "jihad" as merely meaning holy war.
Source: On Islam
