Check out this essay on religion, linguistics, and the concept of agape in Islam :
Mahabba differs from agape in one crucial respect: because serving and approaching the beloved is a form of ongoing personal struggle, mahabba is a form of jihad. A far cry from the violent and indiscriminate ‘small jihad’ preached by militants, mahabba is a form of el jihad el kebir, the greater jihad, or jihad against one’s own ego. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that in an age of lesser jihad mahabba has fallen out of practice and almost out of memory; so universally neglected that when Islam is accused of lacking a concept of divine brotherhood, few Muslims have the intellectual wherewithal to protest. But Adhaf Soueif is right: at the heart of all things is the germ of their overthrow. The struggle to serve God out of love, and one another out of love, is the jihad of human potential against the jihad of violent ideology; if resurrected, it has the power to change the world.
Read it all. It’s short but lovely.
love this essay! as you know…
The greatest battle anyone faces is the one within themselves.
Wow. Very cool. From what little I’ve been able to gather about the history of Islam, the Sufi branch of it seems very creative and thought-provoking, and its believers seem more like mystics than rule-bearing spiritual accountants. If we could all get back to agape as Christians and to mahabba as Muslims, we’d be better off than making our mission in life to demonize teh gay or to fritter away our time on the “small” jihad. Beautiful stuff.
Thank you for this article. Fantastic to see such a clear explanation of the difference between true Jihad, and the common western representation of it.
It isn’t the western interpretation of jihad that’s a problem, its the middle eastern interpretation of it.
This is splendid to see, thank you. I’m trying to raise my kid to be aware of and respectful of other kids’ religions and am confronting my own massive ignorance of Islam. Any recommendations for kids books that we can read together?
TinaH: Go to the source, try a good translation of the Quran.
[smacks forehead] Duh, of course. I remember seeing a kiddie Bible at my sister-in-law’s house – I’ll look for a children’s Quran.
Thanks.