Miscreants appear to have crept up soundly into any scripture, doctrine, philosophy and Religion across the globe. And seriously speaking, this is one reason I do not take much interest in these doctrines or scriptures – for instance the original works are long lost, and all that you get nowadays are either edited works, misinterpretations and biased versions of what ‘it’ actually was. This has been one reason that the Works of Lord Buddha are no more to be found in ‘raw’ forms, as they were not written down ET verbatim when he preached, but were finally put on paper after 400 years of his death. Naturally there were contradictions and conflicts and Buddhism lost its true valor long back.
Another Religion that is grossly misinterpretated and edited to suit one’s own needs as required is the Islam Religion. Even staunch and hardcore Muslim extremists cannot deny the fact that the ‘jihad-is‘ are a nuisance to the entire society – rather the world at large. Unfortunately enough, often they themselves do not know what exactly Jihad is:
According to Maulana Sadruddin Islahi, a revered ideologue of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, jihad fi Sabilillah (striving in the way of Allah) literally means to strive every nerve for the achievement of an object, to exhaust all of one’s energies for the attainment of an ideal. Therefore, to strive in the way of Allah; for obedience of the divine injunctions and for bearing witness of the truth is jihad. Islam, according to Maulana Islahi, has laid down the following three principal forms of jihad, which can be adopted according to the exigencies of the circumstances: Internal jihad; jihad through knowledge and invitation; jihad through war.Internal jihad, according to him, enjoins war against such evils as may crop up within Muslim society. Such evils should be nipped in the bud because they pose a big threat to Islam. In fact they are a serious danger for Islam and the Holy Prophet has warned against them. To strive for the truth, therefore, is nothing but jihad in the view of the Jamaat leader.
While it enlightens so many of us, it is heartening and refreshingly pleasant to know that Islam does not favor violence unnecessarily.
In the end, we sincerely hope that Islam can co-exist in peace with other civilizations.