Jihad and the Path to Peace

Read the entire Digital Journal article here

New York – Religious or not, all people are Jihadis. We battle against that version of ourselves we least admire, and labor, indeed battle with all we can muster to be and become better, step by step, day by day.

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This universal quality, common to every person ever is what is known inIslam as Jihad. I can envision, and sometimes almost taste the self I long to be, compassionate, serving, forgiving, trusting, patient. At times I feel it, I’m there, if even for a moment.

Conversely, I know, like the back of my hand my most formidable of all my enemies, the shrewdest, keenest, most deceptive, and most relentless of all people constantly attacking that great me I want to be … me. That me is selfish, self-absorbed, prideful, distracted, thoughtless, impatient, ineducable; repeating for a lifetime the faults, and every shortcoming as often and as fast as I swear off them.

This struggle, this me versus me is Jihad. It is translated as “striving, applying oneself, struggling, persevering.” (article continues here)

 

 

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