Think about how you were taught to define the two words “sin” and “jihad”. In my upbringing “sin” was a word I learned at a young age and “jihad” was only taught to me after September 11, 2001. It amazes me that simple words can so shape our lives, make us feel guilt, and even drive us to hate, harm and kill each other and ourselves in the name of a religion. What is even more disturbing though is that in many cases we do not even know the origin or true meanings of these words that so impact our feelings, thoughts and lives.
I have read the Bible, but I am by no stretch of the imagination a biblical scholar or write this to pretend to be. I have never read or studied the Quran or any of the other spiritual and holy writings that shape other religions.
Defining these two words had never even crossed my mind until I sat at my daughters graduation ceremony from Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire this past spring and watched as a young Muslim woman wearing hijab headscarf step up to the podium to give the commencement address at this very small Catholic college. You could hear and even feel the tremor of shock ripple through the audience as she moved forward to speak.
When she was done, she was not met with the polite applause as you normally give to some boring graduation speech, but a rousing ovation. In a few moments this young graduate touched the heats and minds of many of the attendees. Waqarun Rashid taught me that a single word “jihad” can be an inspiring term that she defined as “the personal struggle and growth we all face” or “the war cry of a martyr killing in the name of his or her God”. It is all about how we define or let others define simple words.
How Do You Define “Jihad”?
I was taught and convinced the day I watched the World Trade Towers collapse in New York that jihad was a word to describe the Islamic fight to rid the world of unbelievers of Islam and since I was not of the Islamic faith, I, my family and my country were at war with all of Islam. What I have since learned is that like everything else, it is a small mis-guided group of radicals looking for power that has defined this word for so many of us.
So I looked up the term “Jihad” and this is what I found on www.about.com:
The Quran does call for “jihad” as a military struggle on behalf of Islam. But the Quran also refers to jihad as an internal, individual, spiritual struggle toward self-improvement, moral cleansing and intellectual effort. It is said that Prophet Muhammad considered the armed-struggle version of holy war “the little jihad,” but considered the spiritual, individual version of holy war–the war within oneself–as “the great jihad.”
Not much different that what the Pope had Christians believing during the Holy Wars. That they had an obligation to God to go drive out Islam from the Holy Lands of the Middle East in order to maintain Christian control of the region and the people. The key is that just like the Bible, where we can interpret a passage to mean almost anything we want, the real meaning that the Quran teaches and most followers of Islam believe is that their jihad is an internal, individual, spiritual struggle toward self-improvement, moral cleansing and intellectual effort and not blowing yourself up in a crowded plaza full of innocent women and children in the name of Allah in order to become a martyr and go to heaven and collect your 77 virgins.
How Do You Define “Sin”?
This prompted me to think about other religious words that influence our lives. Being brought up Catholic the big one was always “sin”. I were born with “Original Sin” and needed to be Baptized. I committed sin everyday and needed to go to confession to have my sins be forgiven. I am not even sure that writing about sin in this post is not a sin. If you even thought about something that might be sinful, that would just make you feel bad about yourself “Catholic Guilt”.
So I first looked up sin online in the Catholic Encyclopedia and it was worse than I thought. They even have six different subject headers about sin and way to many words to paste into this post. Let’s just agree that if you are Catholic, sin is really bad as they have defined it. They question is who actually defined the term “sin”?
When I went to Wikopedia I was struck by the Etymology of the word sin and how it has evolved differently from its original meaning to how the different major religions define it today.
In Biblical Hebrew, the generic word for sin is het. It means to err, to miss the mark. It does not mean to do evil.
The Greek word hamartia (ἁμαρτία) is usually translated as sin in the New Testament. In Classical Greek, it means “to miss the mark” or “to miss the target“
We Give Meaning and Power To Words – They Do Not Give Them To Us!
I am not advocating that people should not follow the teachings of their chosen religion or spiritual connection to God. I am also not saying that the words “sin” or “jihad” are not without evil meanings and connotations that people have used in monstrous ways. What I am saying is that simple language “words” can be interrupted in so many ways and and do evolve over time and with time these meanings become misinterpreted and misused. We get caught up using words and giving them power that they do not have or deserve.
There is not a day that goes by that I or anyone else in this world does not “miss the mark” on something. We are all human and we “all sin”. I also believe that “experiencing life is an internal, individual, spiritual struggle toward self-improvement”, so we all are on a “personal jihad”. Neither of those are bad, it is all about living a good life and being happy and not about how we interpret the simple words we use every day.
