From the shadows, I shine;
Jihad.
I will stand.
I will fight.
I will die.
Jihad...
Now, for you non-Muslim readers, please DO NOT freak out. haha... I'm sure you will misunderstand the term Jihad.
I am not calling for a Holy War. I am not a terrorist and nor do I support terrorist groups. But still, I call for Jihad.
Now, what do you all think when you hear the work Jihad being shouted out? You open the news and you see this Arab guy shouting 'JIHAD!!!!', well, actually he'll most likely be shouting 'Allahu Akhbar!!' but the idea is the same.
Jihad. That word, sad to say strikes fear in every heart of non-muslims, every heart that doesn't know the real meaning of it. You start to imagine guns being fired, rockets raining from above, bombs going off, etc when you hear the word Jihad.
Jihad in it's essential, means to struggle.
Look back at your own life, remove the idea of Islam and Muslim from the word Jihad, and you will find that YOUR own life is filled with it.
You struggled riding a bicycle for the first time. You struggled playing a Grade 6 piano piece or basketball. You struggled through countless exams. You struggled through breakups, friendships, and sibling rivalry. You struggled coming to terms with your faith.
You STRUGGLED. You did Jihad...
Yes, that is the essence of Jihad. To struggle. But to a Muslim, to ANY person with a strong sense of faith, you struggle not for yourself, but ultimately, the most rewarding struggle you will ever come face to face with, is the struggle for GOD!
If you study for exams and you do it for God, you have performed true Jihad.
If you struggle to read one page of the Quran or the Bible and you do it for God, you have performed true Jihad.
Everything that you do, which you do for God, you perform Jihad.
You struggled for God!.That's the important meaning of Jihad. It ain't the bombings, it ain't the gun fire, but to struggle. That's the innocence, and beauty of Jihad. That is why, during the Egyptian up-rising, or whatever protest muslims start, they shout Allahu Akhbar! Who can tell me what Allahu Akhbar means? It means 'Allah is the Greatest / or Allah is Great' it's an exclamation of faith. If I shout this during a demonstration, I am saying, I believe in Allah. I am here today for Allah. I struggle under the hot sun, risking the possibility of injury and imprisonment for Allah. I am saying, I am here, for Jihad!'
The final and ultimate thing you can do for God, is give your life for Him. You can choose to die for Him or in a less radical-sounding option, devote your life to Him.
In medicine, inshaAllah, I can devote my career to Him. Every life I save, every struggle I go through, every death I meet, I will try, and try, and try to remember, that I am in this for Allah.
In personal life, inshaAllah, every smile I have, every tear I cry, every emotion humanly possible to be felt, every deed I do, every regret I have, I will try, and try, and try to remember, that I am living for Allah.
This is my Jihad. This is my purpose.
I may not hold a M16, or fire a rocket, or even hear a missile strike its target, but I will do my Jihad for my brothers and sisters.
I will take a vow when I graduate. A vow to preserve life regardless of religion, race or nationality. If it is in the plans of Allah for me, I will honour this vow in Palestine. That is my Jihad, inshaAllah
If I will not serve in Palestine, then I will do my duty towards Palestine from wherever I am.
Why should I be bothered about Palestine? It is MILES away from where I sit.
It is because of religion? Yes
Is it because of community? Yes
I cannot deny, that my support for Palestine is due to Islam. Before I embraced Islam, I either did not care about the Palestine-Israel issue or see it as an Islamic propaganda against non-Muslims. Why couldn't they just share the land? Why couldn't the just assimilate into neighbouring countries?
Media is a funny thing. It shows you what it wants you to believe, not what is the truth. Media is based on the opinion of the people reporting the news. I have heard countless news of Palestinian attacks on Israel; how the Palestinians are trying to kick the Jews out of their land, etc. And sad to say, I believed all I heard. Never taking into account that maybe, just maybe what I'm watching is a one-sided story.
It took me years and embracing Islam to understand, that what I've been watching on the news all these time was complete prejudice.
To talk and discuss, to write about my opinion and the opinions of many concerning this issue will result in a long post. So I'll leave this to another day when inspiration strikes me to write again.
My Jihad is cemented. I will help Palestine in anyway I can, even if it is just a doa everyday.
Why am I so adamant on this Jihad of mine? Because my eyes are open.
As a Muslim, I cannot stand by and watch my brothers and sisters brutally killed and forcibly removed from their homes.
As a woman, I cannot tolerate women being abused and brutally raped by Israeli soldiers who drag them from their homes, raping them in front of their children and husbands, being paraded about town without a shred of clothing for any decency.
As a future wife, inshaAllah, I cannot bear to see husbands of my sisters die defending their land, their right, their heritage and do nothing to help
As a future mother, inshaAllah, I cannot remain indifferent as innocent children, some still in their infancy, die and suffer at the hands of men who call themselves defenders of the Jews.
As a human being, the core of my origin, the form I was made into from dirt by Allah, as a PERSON blessed with a soul, a heart, and the ability to THINK, I cannot and WILL NOT stand aside as genocide is happening.
The world condemned Hitler and the Nazi's for their crime against the Jews.
The world condemned the segregation of 'Black Africans' by the 'White Africans' during the Apartheid
The world condemned Stalin for what he did to millions of Ukrainians
The world condemned Kim Jong-il for oppressing his own fellow country-men
But somehow, the world kept silent about the genocide going on in Palestine. YOU and I kept silent.
The blood of innocent men, women and children, killed in cold-blood, massacred, butchered, and the tears and sufferings of innocent people (human beings like you and I) are on OUR hands.
You and I may not have pulled the trigger of the M16, or launched a F-16 rocket, but the blood, the death, the destruction is on us. We have allowed this to go on far too long. We have fueled this war without knowing it by supporting brands which supply money to Israel.
In our silence, how many deaths have we caused? How many families have we destroyed? And how many lives will we have to account for when we meet our Creator?
Under all these causes, I have cemented my Jihad.
I will no longer keep silent and do nothing while genocide takes place. I am a Muslim, and I will go do Jihad.
I am a human being, and I must do Jihad for Palestine.
You can say it is not your fight because you are a Christian, because you are Hindu, because you are Buddist.
You can say it is not your fight because you are not Palestinian, because you are not Arab
Fine! Alright! These are your excuses. These are your reasons.
But then ask yourself, does your faith, whatever it may be, condone the killing of another human being? Do you complain when your house burns down, or if you are hungry, and someone who is not of your nationality or your race helps you? NO!
No religion on earth says yes to out-right murder. No religion on earth say yes to rape, massacre, and the killing of children. No one in their right mind can kill another human being much less an innocent, harmless child, or a pregnant woman in cold blood.
You do not care who gives you help when help in required.
So why, WHY should religion, nationality and race be a reason to turn a blind eye towards Palestine?
Ask yourself, look into the mirror, look at the person next to you, are we not all human beings?
You and I and the rest of the world are human beings. So, as humans, aren't crimes against humanity our business? Isn't THAT a good enough reason to stand up and fight?
If you do not uphold justice against crime against humanity, then you might as well not be called human. You might as well not be human.
In conclusion, yes, I will do my Jihad because I am a Muslim. But I MUST do my Jihad because I am a human being.
I end this post with a short documentary:
This is what you and I have been supporting all these while.
Imagine if they were your family instead. Imagine the children were your children, your siblings. Imagine that person injured or dead were your parents, your husband/boyfriend or yourself.
Take an initiative to understand this issue. You can wait for my post on this issue, but that will take time, or you could just open the internet, facebook. It's EVERYWHERE. Instead of watching WongFu production, or Ryan Higa on youtube... try typing Palestine documentary.
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