Where is our Jihad?

[Pujah.]

By Zayed Yasin

 

 

Zayed Yasin delivered this speech at Harvard University's commencement ceremony on June 6th. Its original title, "My American Jihad," sparked a protest from students angry that the speech did not condemn the terrorist attacks of September 11. The title was changed to "Of Faith and Citizenship: My American Jihad," but Mr. Yasin did not change the content of his speech.

 

I am one of you. But I am also one of “them.” What do I mean? When I am told that this is a world at war, a war between the great civilizations and religions of the earth, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. “What about me?” I ask. As a practicing Muslim and a registered voter in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, am I, through the combination of my faith and my citizenship, an inherent contradiction?

 

I think not. Both the Qu’ran and the Constitution teach ideals of peace, justice and compassion, ideals that command my love, and my belief. Each of these texts, one the heart of my religion, the other that of my country, demand a constant struggle to do what is right.

 

I choose the word “struggle” very deliberately, for its connotations of turmoil and tribulation, both internal and external. The word for struggle in Arabic, in the language of my faith, is jihad. It is a word that has been corrupted and misinterpreted, both by those who do and do not claim to be Muslims, and we saw last fall, to our great national and personal loss, the results of this corruption. Jihad, in its truest and purest form, the form to which all Muslims aspire, is the determination to do right, to do justice even against your own interests. It is an individual struggle for personal moral behavior. Especially today, it is a struggle that exists on many levels: self-purification and awareness, public service and social justice. On a global scale, it is a struggle involving people of all ages, colors, and creeds, for control of the Big Decisions: not only who controls what piece of land, but more importantly who gets medicine, who can eat.

 

So where is our jihad, where is our struggle as we move on from Harvard’s sheltering wall? Worthy adversaries are innumerable. We can turn our struggle to the war against oppression, poverty, disease…But before looking outward, we must first look inward. Before deciding what we are against, we must decide what we are for. The only way to define the inner moral force that drives our struggle is to learn through action—to get our hands dirty. To strive to see the world as it sees itself, testing the boundaries of what we think we know, and how we know it. To combine our academic search for truth with a sense of empathy for our fellow humanity—to seek Veritas in Humanitas.

 

On one level it’s simple: everyone wants the same things that we do. The true American Dream is a universal dream, and it is more than a set of materialistic aspirations. It is the power and opportunity to shape one’s own life: to house and feed a family with security and dignity, and to practice your faith in peace. This is our American Jihad.

 

As a Muslim, and as an American, I am commanded to stand up for the protection of life and liberty, to serve the poor and the weak, to celebrate the diversity of humankind. There is no contradiction. Not for me, and not for anyone, of any combination of faith, culture and nationality, who believes in a community of the human spirit.

 

Some of this is a mantra that has been spoken at myriad graduations. Worth repeating, perhaps, but nothing new. What is new was taught us by last fall’s tragedy and carnage. The status quo is shattered, and we have now been forced to engage more closely the troubles of this world. We are in a privileged position to shape a more just, peaceful, and honorable global society.

 

So I ask again: where is our jihad? Whether on our way to an investment bank in New York, or to Sierra Leone to work with orphans, Harvard graduates have a responsibility to leave their mark on the world. So let us struggle, and let us make our mark. And I hope and pray that our children, our grandchildren, and those who take our seats in the years to come, will have cause to be proud.

 

 

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Moving speach!!!

[Macalin]

Indadeeq.I was actually looking for that speech.

i saw the dude on 60 minutes about three or four weeks ago and he seemed very smart.

actually some fellow students at harvard petitioned and i was suprised at the number of signatures they got(200k+).

and i thought he was not allowed to speak at the graduation...but anywhoo thanx coz i was lazy looking for it while i really needed to read..the dude is good.allah bless him.

Ps..i think things are changing in america today.

At UNC-chapelhill all incoming freshmen are required to read the book "approcahing the quran".i must say this is really good.

in a peculiar way the events of sept.11 has actually done some good for islam..well..i maybe wrong but the number of americans interested today in islam is at its highest!

thanx again Indhadeeq..and the rest read the speech!

[Oocyte]

Indhadeeq,

It is nice speech. There was a long debate about his speech on CNN where some Americans thought its inappropriate for him to talk/mention about Jihad at graduation ceremony.

[bilan]

the speech itself was ok, but i think he misused the word jihad,he described it as it is struggle against one's own intrest or what they call "jihadul nafs". while every time that the word jihad mantioned in the quran it was about war. i think muslims now try to satisfy non muslims that they are even ready to change everything so that so called civilized nations would not get mad at us :eek: .

[Samafal]

i agree with you bulo (afkeygga ka xadey)

[Macalin]

BUlo not entirely true sxb,

the word in itself means stuggle. now the dude was talking about the literal meaning of the word jihad.

we all know , you included all the other forms of jihad and the one zayed was talking about is one of them.

and plis rem don say things entirely just for the heck of it..

hes giving these jaahiils another side of islam which they don't seem to see!.and he did a good job and we should do the same..

ok sxb and once again do some research on the number of jihads.

peace

[Dhimbil]

agree with lakkad, Jihad in its original form meant struggle and that struggle could be translated differently by different pple, like struggle with innerself, oppression etc.

 

bulo sis, we don't have to "satisfy" anybody as muslims but we have to show different picture than what the media is showing, which is muslims are all about war, war, war! and you know that's not true, so if somebody took the oppurnity to educate white america, we should appluad them not condemn.

 

indho, thanks for the article.

 

peace

[bilan]

yacquub thanks, now lakkad, can you tell me one verse of the qur'an where jihad was mantioned as struggle as mr sayed yassin used it.when i read the speech i did not even see what connects the word jihad to what what he was talking about, the jihad is anything that you do for the sake of Allah, whether it is praying helping your parents,or most important jihad fighting with kufar, etc so tell me what kind of jihad are harvard graduates doing?.all kinds of jihad applies only to muslims. ilmatic, no matter what we as muslims do they will never agree with us, Allah told us this before, they will never agree with us untill we follow their religion. i agree with you islam is not about war, and we need to let our message out, but what did he do about that, he neither mentioned how islam treats women(the most misunderstood part) nor he talked about what islam stands for. his speech has nothing to do with islam.

[Macalin]

Bulo..sis/bro!

The dude said where is our jihad?

he specifically mentioned poor africans and the problems they are facing.

now if am not wrong the brother talked about how jihad means struggle and he refrenced it to the young harvard grads what they gonna do with themselves once they enter the world.

how they gonna do there own "jihad" and help others..his main aim of course is to show the "real" meanning of jihad, which of course has been misunderstood and honestly misused by a few characters in the fanatic islamic world.

his main aim is indeed to show the different jihads.now had he talked about the real jihad(boom bara boom type)then beleive me you will have had different reactions.

i saw the brother on 60 minutes and that was his explaination..that the real jihad has indeed been hijacked therein misused!..you dig that fella!..now has he coverd all the jihads , no of course not coz he specifically chose this form of jihad to bring forth the real meaning of jihad..struggle..i.e help the poor folks in the poorer nations going thru struggle..the question is Bulo where is your jihad?

I give you the last word!

[Oblivion]

The first and foremost form of Jihad is self-control so Mr. Zayed is very right in his use of Jihad. The Jews and christains hate this word "JIHAD", because if the Muslim Nation puts its house in order..there wont be any more humilation of Palestinians on CNN.

[Oblivion]

Now I bet most of us are losing the self-control jihad, slowly getting assmilated into unholy practices , let alone talk about other forms of jihad.

[QUANTUM LEAP]

Great speech....but interpretations defer and many schools of thought would say Jihad has many forms too. I would agree with what he said but he was mainly talking about how its misinterpreted by many Moslems and non moslems. Killing innocent people cant be a jihad wherever it maybe but at the same time one must fight for what is right and rightous. I think the west has got the wrong end of the stick interms of the words interpretation as it is mostly associated with terror.

[Rahima]

Asalaamu Calaykum Wr Wb,

 

Indhadeeq, jazaakum Allahu Khayran sister . I personally thought it was a great speech.

 

Bulo: Sister I understand your view but at the same time we must realise that the way the brother posed his speech was a great wisdom in itself. In the Quran Allah says:

 

“Invite all to the way of Allah with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways which are best”

 

So you see sister, for the brother to of have defined the word Jihad in a way different to that as defined by the Western media and the enemies of Allah day in day out was a way of inviting the people to look into the true Islam with great wisdom and beautiful preaching. Had the brother fell right into the trap of the media and stated that it is the responsibility of all Muslims to go and fight in physical jihad, the people would of have run away from the religion. A Muslims should never allow themselves to be the reason for people to run from Islam. You might say but it’s the truth and yes I agree with you, the jihad of the Quran is as you mentioned, but to leave out information at a particular moment isn’t necessarily lying. You’re just being wise.

 

The blessed prophet was once preaching to a group of non-believers, and present at the gathering were some Muslims. One of the Muslim men kept on asking the prophet a question (im not sure what it was exactly, but the question had it been answered would of have made the non-Muslims run from the religion rather than accept it. Run because they were not at a stage to understand the concept, not because Islam has that must be hidden). The prophet kept ignoring the sahabi until the disbelievers left and then answered him. I think there is a great lesson for us all from this.

 

Wa alaykum salaam

[Thinkerman]

That was a good contribution Ind the brother sounds very Knowledgable. I agree with the essence of his speech i.e. where is our Jihad, i would also like to agree with Yaquub and Bulo in that i feel that west countries would luv for muslim n muslim countries to only recognize with this Jihad (nafsi), and use an exaMPLE of literal jihad i.e. Kashmir, Palestine etc etc as places where, as their put it islamists (????) groups commit acts of terror. so this is why i think we should always be careful because it is true they (Kufar)will never be satisfied with as until we are like them.

[Sophist]

Salamu alaikum,

 

Firstly, may I say this kind of speach would never be delivered at Oxbridge Colleges- not because of the lack of able students but indeed the political stetting of these two instituions;; and "we" say WE are liberal?.

 

I Think Zayed is very smart. He played the game wisely, he utilsed the word in its original linguistic meaning- Struggle in Arabic. That I called Xiila Islamia. Though I don't know him personaly; this chap he seems to have a profound understanding of the society he lives in (one may say it is the benefit of Ivy league Education!!!) and that is something majority of the Muslims in the west seem to be oblivious to.

 

Huraay to the speach; xiila Islaamiya in its best form

 

Sophist