What is written in the Kuran regarding Jihad?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question, what is written in the Quran regarding Jihad? Answer there are a wide variety of interpretations and most of these interpretations are politically motivated where those who are power hungry use this, these sections in the Quran to incite people into violence for the sake of political conquest, however if you look at the historical context in which the Quran was written it becomes clear that there was a time when whatever reform prophet Muhammad wanted to do, he had to also use violence so unlike Jesus who primarily acted as a Brahmana and Saint Paul but he primarily acted as a Kshatriya in the history of Christianity Muhammad in one sense acted both like the Brahmin and the Kshatriya he was the revealer and explainer of spiritual knowledge, that is the Quran and he was also a political strategist and he was a military general and he was a ruler so now although Muhammad had both the Brahmanical and the Kshatriya side subsequent followers have primarily focused on his Kshatriya side on his side as a military conqueror and his Brahmanical side, although there is authority no doubt recognized for the Quran as they consider it as a revealed word of God but the Brahmanical side of tolerance and of consideration which are exhibited at times in the hadith that is the life story of Muhammad that has been neglected so what was the content or implication of Jihad the word Jihad means holy war and this kind of holy war was talked about in those times for the sake of establishing the religious principles that they wanted to practice for themselves, they wanted to have a safe environment for Muhammad and when he got the revelation of Quran he was persecuted, he was threatened and he barely escaped with his life to Medina and there he formed a group of supporters who made an army and they invaded neighbouring areas they would raid the caravans and that’s how they would subsist and then eventually they reconquered Mecca without a fight actually Meccan residents surrendered so at that time primarily the fight was for the sake of establishing the right to practice their own religion now within the Quran there are mentions of the inner Jihad and the outer Jihad and among the outer Jihad there is a holy war and unholy war so inner Jihad is the fight that we have within ourselves for the sake of living in harmony with the will of God, so we have to fight against our lower desires and that is the implication of Jihad which has largely been neglected so the inner war if fought effectively is a counter to the outer war most outer wars are fought because people are not able to control their lust, anger, greed and that’s why they want to control and possess and enjoy the things of this world and that’s why they fight externally but if people fight the inner war and win the inner war then they will conquer over lust, anger, greed and then they will not have this kind of passions that impel them to conflict and wars externally so that is the primary implication of Jihad the fighting inside so that one can follow the principles that take one closer to God secondly there is a holy war and unholy war the holy war refers to the war that is fought to protect one’s practice of religion that means that if some dictator comes along who is atheistic and who persecutes those who practice religion and who bans doing namaz and practicing Islam then Muslims have a right to rebel against such a dictator and do violence if it is necessary now the unholy war is the violence that is done against others just for the sake of personal aggrandizement now there are injunctions in the Quran like there shall be no force in religion which indicates that other religions should be allowed to practice while Muslims practice Islam but there are also the people who are politically over hungry and they find appropriate references from the Quran for the sake of Jihad and for the sake of holy war so now most of the terrorists who become machines of death who become suicide bombers they are born in the poor areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan and of course some are born in India also among the lesser enjoyed Muslims and they are allured by the promises there are this worldly and other worldly promises that they can get money and even if they die their family members will be supported for and actually as compared to living at home where they don’t get proper food to eat they go into the madrasas where at least their meals will be assured and where they they will have some kind of future that is better than the gloomy future that awaits at home many children as well as parents prefer that and that’s how these children young poor people become brainwashed and they develop a doctrine of hate and they are taught that anyone who is not a Muslim is an enemy of Islam is a threat to Islam and should be killed and they are also told that if you kill like this then you will attain Jannat where you will enjoy 73 virgins for all of eternity which is actually quite a monstrous misinterpretation of the essential principle that is given in the Quran but just by getting hopes for this and next world these people become terrorists now terrorism is by no means a holy war actually if you look at the Vedic literature when Kshatriyas fight a war a holy war, the two fighting Kshatriyas should be the war should be fought when the enemy is equipped and the enemy is alert now the terrorists attack when the enemy is not equal, the enemy is unequipped and the enemy is unalert they are not equal they are ordinary civilians against trained trained terrorists they are people with machine guns and bombs against people who are unarmed and there are people who have planned meticulously to bomb a particular place against people who are completely unaware that they are in an area that is being targeted by terrorists so this kind of warfare is definitely not holy war it is not Jihad, it is unholy extremely brutal it is a perversion of the original spirit of the holy war that is talked in the Quran so when we see other religions now we have to be we see them with a principle as well as a realistic vision from a principle point of view we understand what the Jihad actually stands for from a practical point of view we also know that there is a threat especially to those who culturally seem to be following a particular religion that many hardline Muslims consider to be antithetical to Islam so we have to be cautious in our own ways whatever we can do to protect ourselves but we should not in the name of being cautious become suspicious and ourselves reactionary fundamentalists in terms of looking negatively at everybody so the principle of Jihad in terms of the inner war is also there in the Vedic scriptures where it is said that the transcendentalists will fight against lust, anger, greed and the external holy war that is talked about in the Kurukshetra is actually clearly the contours are Duryodhana was a diabolical person who was ready to violate the dignity of a very honourable lady in public and punishing such a person after all efforts at peaceful resolution have been deliberately defeated and rejected contemptuously in that when there is no alternative to establish Dharma when the other side is clearly adharmic and is determined to stay adharmic then in those exceptional situations there can be warfare but in general the Vedic scriptures recognize that the primary focus is to establish Dharma by encouraging people with knowledge and culture by which they can fight the inner war and become righteous in exceptional situations an outer war may be required but that is very different from what is today taught to many of the influenceable young minds about what the