Jihad: What You Need to Know About “Holy War” — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02Hi there.
2. 0:04Did you know that in Islam the sword
3. 0:06plays a very similar role
4. 0:09to the cross in Christianity
5. 0:11and that the blood the sword sheds is
6. 0:14almost identical to the blood that the
7. 0:16cross shed, the blood of Christ?
8. 0:19And that's what we're going to be
9. 0:20talking about today.
10. 0:22Okay, so what got me thinking about this
11. 0:24particular topic
12. 0:25is I'm involved in a project, a writing
13. 0:27project
14. 0:29that deals with jihad.
15. 0:31And so I pulled out all my old books
16. 0:34uh on jihad, Arabic manuals like this,
17. 0:38okay? This is uh Al-Jihad fi al-Islam,
18. 0:41Jihad in in Islam.
19. 0:44Uh
20. 0:46Ahkam al-Jihad.
21. 0:49Al-Jihad fi al-Islam, Jihad in in Islam.
22. 0:53Al-Tarbiyah al-Jihadiyah, the uh
23. 0:56the Jihadist upbringing.
24. 0:59Uh
25. 1:00And of course my favorite, Sahih
26. 1:02al-Bukhari. You've heard of him, right?
27. 1:04And uh this is the one volume that has
28. 1:07the book on Jihad.
29. 1:09So I've been going through all these
30. 1:11books and it was déjà vu because these
31. 1:14were the sorts of books I was reading
32. 1:15literally 20 years ago in 2005 and 6
33. 1:19when I was writing my book The Al-Qaeda
34. 1:20Reader.
35. 1:22This book right here, my first book.
36. 1:25Um and that book was as I've explained
37. 1:27before, I was translating uh tracts
38. 1:30written by Al-Qaeda
39. 1:32Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden
40. 1:34specifically.
41. 1:35And uh I had come across the Arabic
42. 1:37writings much like these books I just
43. 1:39showed you and I wanted to translate
44. 1:41them and I translated them, but then at
45. 1:42the same time I wanted to augment my own
46. 1:44knowledge to understand what these guys
47. 1:46were talking about because they were
48. 1:47talking about Jihad.
49. 1:49>> [snorts]
50. 1:50>> It is in that context that I got all
51. 1:51these books that I just showed you.
52. 1:53These were the
53. 1:54the you know, the primers, the main
54. 1:57Arabic books that so many of these guys
55. 1:58including Al-Qaeda were consulting. So,
56. 2:01I got them to see exactly what they're
57. 2:02talking about.
58. 2:04And I was consulting them again and
59. 2:06happily and luckily I mark up my books.
60. 2:10And it's always a joyous occasion for me
61. 2:12when I look up a book and it's marked
62. 2:14and it what I want to find is exactly
63. 2:16there.
64. 2:17In fact, that's what happens. I was
65. 2:18looking at one of these books
66. 2:20uh which I'll be talking about at
67. 2:22greater length. I'll show it to you. Um
68. 2:24Kitab al-Jihad, the Book of Jihad, the
69. 2:26oldest book dedicated to Jihad
70. 2:30written by Abdullah bin Mubarak and I'll
71. 2:32talk a little bit about him.
72. 2:34But as I was
73. 2:35thumbing through it, I came across a
74. 2:37section
75. 2:38where uh
76. 2:39I had it underlined. This is it.
77. 2:43Uh Kitab al-Jihad and I had it marked up
78. 2:46with I put asterisks for really
79. 2:48important things as something for me to
80. 2:51eventually write about and uh
81. 2:54focus on.
82. 2:56>> [snorts]
83. 2:56>> So, I'm doing that now and then I
84. 2:58realized I should tell you guys about
85. 2:59it, too, cuz it's really important. And
86. 3:01it is specifically what I just got done
87. 3:03telling you that
88. 3:04in Islam Jihad's not just holy war
89. 3:08violence
90. 3:10or whatever else, whatever other
91. 3:12negative attribution you might want to
92. 3:13put onto it from a non-Muslim point of
93. 3:16view.
94. 3:17It's uh it's very much akin to what
95. 3:20happened on
96. 3:22uh Calvary,
97. 3:23honestly, okay? And um
98. 3:27but before we get into all that, because
99. 3:28I'm this is a serious charge, I want to
100. 3:31build it up. I want to give you all the
101. 3:32evidence.
102. 3:33Um and uh like I said, I'm writing this
103. 3:36and I'm not done writing, but I have all
104. 3:37the I've marshaled all my evidence cuz
105. 3:40it's I already had it marked up from of
106. 3:41old and I wanted to talk about it before
107. 3:44I forget cuz this is important, but I
108. 3:46will write it up and I will be putting
109. 3:48uh all the references. Which Hadith
110. 3:51collection I'm going to try to tell you
111. 3:52as much as I can here, but I will be
112. 3:54writing about it on um my Substack.
113. 3:57It'll probably come out sometime next
114. 3:58week.
115. 4:00Okay, but this is really important. I'll
116. 4:01explain to you why. We're going to get
117. 4:03into
118. 4:04the significance of all this.
119. 4:08But let's start off by
120. 4:11Let me just pull up some outlines here.
121. 4:16I'm blind, man. All right. So,
122. 4:20if you want to know about uh jihad or
123. 4:23anything Islamic,
124. 4:25what are you going to consult?
125. 4:27Not Ghostbusters. Sounded like who you
126. 4:29going to call. All right. Um we're close
127. 4:31to Halloween. No, you're going to
128. 4:32consult, of course, the written texts,
129. 4:34the scriptures of Islam. This would be
130. 4:35the Quran and the Hadith. That's what
131. 4:38you will consult for anything, right?
132. 4:40Islamic. You want to know about this,
133. 4:42that, or the other thing,
134. 4:43you're going to look at it. So, let me
135. 4:45read to you a few. First of all, we want
136. 4:47to talk about what what why jihad is so
137. 4:50important. Is it Is it just terrorists
138. 4:52that tell us it's important? Or is it in
139. 4:54their holy books? So, let's see. Here's
140. 4:57what I'm going to read you some some
141. 4:59verses. Here's one Quranic verse.
142. 5:01It says, "O you who have believed,
143. 5:03Muslims, shall I guide you to a
144. 5:05transaction that will save you from a
145. 5:07painful punishment?
146. 5:09Believe in Allah and his messenger and
147. 5:11wage jihad in the way of Allah,
148. 5:14fisabilillah." This is a very famous
149. 5:15phrase in Arabic, in the Quran, all
150. 5:18throughout Islam, uh in Islamic texts.
151. 5:20Fisabilillah in the path of Allah or in
152. 5:23the way of Allah means jihad.
153. 5:26But that particular verse says "jahidu,"
154. 5:29do jihad, wage jihad
155. 5:31in the path of Allah with your wealth
156. 5:33and your lives.
157. 5:35That is best for you. That is a
158. 5:36transaction.
159. 5:38If you If you only knew." Now, this is
160. 5:40Quran
161. 5:41Sura 61
162. 5:438 10 11.
163. 5:45Okay, it's pretty straightforward. I
164. 5:47mean, think about what you're what a
165. 5:48Muslim's being told. You who have
166. 5:49believed, Muslims,
167. 5:51can I guide you to a transaction that
168. 5:53will save you from a painful punishment?
169. 5:54What punishment are we talking about?
170. 5:56Well, we're talking about hell.
171. 5:58And most people don't realize this, but
172. 5:59hell
173. 6:00>> [laughter]
174. 6:01>> in Islam is just as if not worse than
175. 6:05you know, the most
176. 6:06graphic medieval Christian depiction.
177. 6:10Okay, um I once wrote a very old article
178. 6:12called The Punishments of Hell
179. 6:14and maybe I should do a video about it,
180. 6:15but uh it's very elaborate. You know,
181. 6:18there's a snake that uh the bald snake
182. 6:21that eats you every day and regurgitates
183. 6:24you and eats you again. I mean, the most
184. 6:26horrific, frightening things and I think
185. 6:28angels come with humongous mallets and
186. 6:30pound you into pieces and then you grow
187. 6:32back and they pound you again.
188. 6:34Okay? And uh it's important to
189. 6:36understand
190. 6:38whether you're a religious person or
191. 6:39not, whether you're a Christian or a
192. 6:40Muslim or whatever, whether you're an
193. 6:42atheist that the people we're talking
194. 6:44about truly believe these things.
195. 6:46All right? You can pass judgment, you
196. 6:48can accept it.
197. 6:50I don't care.
198. 6:51I have my own beliefs, but my point is
199. 6:53you need to understand that this is a
200. 6:54serious thing. This is something that
201. 6:56compelled people. Okay? The idea of hell
202. 7:00was a real thing for Europeans who
203. 7:02Christians, of course.
204. 7:03Um
205. 7:05and so getting out of hell or evading
206. 7:07hell was always a very important thing.
207. 7:12All right.
208. 7:13So, there you go. That's just one Quran
209. 7:15verse and we're going to see many more
210. 7:17and many more graphic and surprising
211. 7:19Hadith and other Quran verses.
212. 7:22Now, the importance of Jihad
213. 7:25la is really can be
214. 7:28underscored by the following, excuse me,
215. 7:30Hadith. But Hadith you don't know is
216. 7:35it's the it's So, we have the Quran, the
217. 7:37word of Allah
218. 7:39revealed to Muhammad. Then we have the
219. 7:41Hadith. The Hadith are all these
220. 7:43Hadith means conversation or incident in
221. 7:46Arabic. And it's all these accounts of
222. 7:48so-and-so heard Muhammad say this or
223. 7:50Muhammad did this or two of the Sahaba,
224. 7:53the companions, were talking about this
225. 7:55and they all get and there's
226. 7:57tens, if not hundreds of thousands of
227. 7:59Hadith.
228. 8:01But they're also ranked.
229. 8:03Uh Sahih would mean like this is it.
230. 8:04This is canonical. This is part of the
231. 8:06Sunni tradition.
232. 8:08And then there's weak Hadith. Weak means
233. 8:10okay, it's da'if, which is
234. 8:12This is a really interesting topic. So,
235. 8:14when people tell you, "Oh, it's a da'if
236. 8:15or a weak Hadith." What does that mean?
237. 8:18You know what it really means
238. 8:19practically? It means it's up to the
239. 8:21Muslim.
240. 8:22If I'm a Muslim and you tell me it's a
241. 8:24weak Hadith, but I like what it's
242. 8:26saying, yeah, it's it's real for me.
243. 8:29Because we didn't say it's counterfeit.
244. 8:30They don't say it's counterfeit. They
245. 8:32say it's weak.
246. 8:33But if I I if I don't like it, then I'll
247. 8:35say, "Yeah, yeah, I want nothing to do
248. 8:37with this. It's weak." That's how it
249. 8:39works, right?
250. 8:41And so, keep that in mind. But what I'm
251. 8:42going to be sharing with you is almost
252. 8:45is overwhelmingly either sahih or
253. 8:47well-respected
254. 8:48and definitely not weak. Okay?
255. 8:51So, here's a Hadith from Muhammad.
256. 8:54Lining up for battle in the path of
257. 8:57Allah, remember sabilillah, jihad,
258. 8:59lining up for battle in the path of
259. 9:01Allah is worthier and more praiseworthy
260. 9:04than 60 years of worship.
261. 9:07You got that?
262. 9:0960 years of worship in this context
263. 9:11means Muslim prayers.
264. 9:13So, if you do the math,
265. 9:15five times one, five times 365, right?
266. 9:20I know I'm not using the lunar calendar.
267. 9:22I'm using
268. 9:23But if you do that, 365 times cuz
269. 9:26Muslims pray five times,
270. 9:28multiplied by 60 years, comes out to
271. 9:31something like 110,000 times
272. 9:34that a Muslim falls down on their face
273. 9:35facing Mecca praying.
274. 9:37Okay? And comes out to 1,800 days of
275. 9:40fasting.
276. 9:42So, Muhammad said that battle one time
277. 9:44battling in the path of Allah is
278. 9:46worthier than that, 110,000
279. 9:49prostration prayers,
280. 9:51and 1,800 days of fasting.
281. 9:53So, you would think jihad is a pretty
282. 9:55impressive thing. But wait, there's
283. 9:58more.
284. 9:59Because even that math doesn't work.
285. 10:01Because in another Hadith, Muhammad says
286. 10:04that he likened jihad to quote, "Praying
287. 10:08ceaselessly Praying ceaselessly and
288. 10:11fasting ceaselessly.
289. 10:14So now one anecdote or one act of Jihad
290. 10:17is I don't know let's say a person lives
291. 10:19to be 70 80 years old so for 70 80 years
292. 10:22they do nothing but pray and fast.
293. 10:26Pretty impressive this Jihad business
294. 10:27no?
295. 10:29And then in another Hadith he said quote
296. 10:32I cannot find anything as meritorious as
297. 10:35Jihad.
298. 10:37All right so Jihad has a very prominent
299. 10:39place in Islam.
300. 10:42I'm telling you now the facts I'm not
301. 10:44very much interested in the lies and the
302. 10:46apologias which I've dealt with you've
303. 10:48heard okay and and they're silly and
304. 10:50stupid. I'm just telling you this is
305. 10:52Islam okay?
306. 10:53And
307. 10:54and and the only real apologia is that
308. 10:57okay maybe not all Muslims believe this
309. 10:59but it is Islam just like
310. 11:01you have tons of Christians who
311. 11:02obviously don't believe in Christianity
312. 11:04but they say we're Christians.
313. 11:06Okay so that is a real phenomenon that
314. 11:08happens. You have people who associate
315. 11:10themselves with a religion and yeah they
316. 11:12don't accept what the religion teaches.
317. 11:14Okay that's a real thing. But what I'm
318. 11:16telling you is what the religion
319. 11:17teaches. Okay? And there are some people
320. 11:20who actually will follow it just like
321. 11:22there are very very few Christians who
322. 11:23will also follow Christianity.
323. 11:26All right? So this is Islam and this is
324. 11:28Jihad and this is the importance of
325. 11:30Jihad.
326. 11:32Now in Islamic jurisprudence and in
327. 11:35Islamic law
328. 11:37you've heard probably of the five
329. 11:38pillars of Islam maybe?
330. 11:42Which would be so these are the
331. 11:44fundamentals. This is what every Muslim
332. 11:46has to engage in.
333. 11:50And they are
334. 11:52the Shahada just simply saying
335. 11:56La ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah
336. 11:58there is no god but Allah and Muhammad
337. 12:00is the messenger of Allah.
338. 12:02Which sounds innocuous innocuous enough
339. 12:04but what you're saying is basically the
340. 12:06first part for monotheist sounds
341. 12:08innocuous enough. Allah can be
342. 12:10translated as God so there is no god but
343. 12:12God. Fine.
344. 12:14But, when you add the latter part, well,
345. 12:17you know, and Muhammad is the messenger
346. 12:18of Allah, what you've just accepted is
347. 12:21that the Quran and the Hadith, that is
348. 12:23the that is how what is revealed in them
349. 12:27is how I should live.
350. 12:28So, you become a Muslim.
351. 12:30Okay? Um so, that's the Shahada. Keep in
352. 12:33mind, however, you don't have to
353. 12:35actually say this. So, most Muslims,
354. 12:39the overwhelming majority, if you're
355. 12:40born a Muslim,
356. 12:42I mean, if you're born to a Muslim
357. 12:44father, especially,
358. 12:46you're a Muslim. There's no right. You
359. 12:48don't have to say the Shahada. No one
360. 12:49expects you to say it. You are a Muslim.
361. 12:51That's it.
362. 12:53Okay? And that right there is a
363. 12:54reflection of the sort of tribal
364. 12:56undertones of Islam,
365. 12:58which I talk of often.
366. 13:00So, there's two kinds of jihads.
367. 13:01The historic primary real jihad was
368. 13:05offensive jihad,
369. 13:06which means going on the offensive. This
370. 13:09is how the Islamic world was formed.
371. 13:13Okay? So, uh Arabia was conquered. It
372. 13:16used to be polytheistic. It had Jews. It
373. 13:18had some Christians.
374. 13:20It was conquered and it became Muslim.
375. 13:22And then from there also is the jihad
376. 13:24that we're talking about spread out. And
377. 13:26all around it, the vast majority of the
378. 13:28religion was mostly Christianity in the
379. 13:30north and the west and Zoroastrianism in
380. 13:34Persia.
381. 13:35Okay? All that gets conquered.
382. 13:37Right? So, I
383. 13:39And this is a really interesting topic
384. 13:41when you because
385. 13:42fundamentally, this question right here
386. 13:44just shows how violent and aggressive
387. 13:46Islam is, right? Why why did Muslims go
388. 13:49to Morocco?
389. 13:51Right? Why did they go If if Islam is
390. 13:54about peace and defense, then why what
391. 13:57got you to Spain?
392. 13:58You know what they will tell you? This
393. 13:59is very interesting. They will tell you
394. 14:01because there were believers in those
395. 14:03countries and we had to go and defend
396. 14:04them and liberate them.
397. 14:06>> [laughter]
398. 14:06>> They call them the Hanif, which is uh
399. 14:09like prototypical Muslims
400. 14:11before Muhammad came and really
401. 14:13solidified and structured how Islam
402. 14:15should be. You had other Muslims, which
403. 14:17were the Christians before the
404. 14:18Christians ruined the gospel and rewrote
405. 14:22it and Jews also, okay? Everyone was a
406. 14:25was a Muslim. They were prototype
407. 14:26Muslims who believed just in one God.
408. 14:29And then the Christians, the Jews,
409. 14:31everyone ruined it and then Muhammad
410. 14:33came to just straighten it out and say,
411. 14:34"Okay,
412. 14:35here's what you got to do. This is what
413. 14:37Islam is This is what the true faith
414. 14:39is."
415. 14:40Right? But so so their excuse and I've
416. 14:42read many Arabic books about this. This
417. 14:44is how they get by it.
418. 14:46They say,
419. 14:48"Yeah, Muslims marched into Egypt and
420. 14:50into North Africa, Algeria, Tunisia,
421. 14:53Morocco, and Spain not because it was an
422. 14:56offensive warfare, but they were
423. 14:57actually because the people there were
424. 14:58Muslims and uh you know, they were
425. 15:00prototypical
426. 15:01Hanifs and we wanted to liberate them.
427. 15:03So, therefore, Islam is always about
428. 15:05defense. This is the apology that comes
429. 15:07up when people tell you, "No, no, Jihad
430. 15:09is just defense."
431. 15:10This is how they try to rationalize the
432. 15:12attacks that went on that were literally
433. 15:14obviously manifestly offensive Jihad,
434. 15:17the overwhelming majority.
435. 15:19At any rate, so you have two forms of
436. 15:21Jihad. One is this what I just
437. 15:22explained, offensive Jihad, which
438. 15:24there's a lot of lying about, but it is
439. 15:26offensive. Because if you look at the
440. 15:28manuals and the history, yeah, it's
441. 15:30offensive. It's not because
442. 15:32there's Muslims there. No, it's we're
443. 15:34spreading the law of Islam. We are
444. 15:36spreading Islamic teaching and law and
445. 15:38here we are, right?
446. 15:40And this is what's called in in in
447. 15:43Arabic itself, fard kifaya.
448. 15:46And that means it's a collective
449. 15:47obligation, which means it's a duty on
450. 15:50the entire ummah, the Islamic world.
451. 15:53On the entire ummah, meaning not
452. 15:55everyone has to do it. It means that as
453. 15:57long as some
454. 15:59Muslim men are engaged in Jihad, which
455. 16:02is holy war, then the rest are
456. 16:04exonerated. So, it's not This is one of
457. 16:07the reasons why it's not the it's not
458. 16:10it's not one of the five pillars.
459. 16:12So, the five pillars of Islam, prayer,
460. 16:14this is how this conversation started.
461. 16:16We were talking about the shahada as the
462. 16:17first pillar, then there's the prayer
463. 16:19and the fasting, and there's the
464. 16:21pilgrimage,
465. 16:22going to Mecca, and there's Zakat, which
466. 16:25is a
467. 16:26humorously translated in the West as
468. 16:28charity. Except it's discriminatory
469. 16:31charity because in Zakat in Islam is you
470. 16:33can't just give this money to
471. 16:35non-Muslims.
472. 16:37They can be homeless or miserable,
473. 16:38whatever. It's Zakat is just for
474. 16:39Muslims. Non-Muslims are by default
475. 16:41enemies. You can give them Zakat by way
476. 16:44of winning them over to the faith,
477. 16:46hoping that somehow they become Islamic
478. 16:48or favorable towards Islam by giving
479. 16:50them money, but just to give a
480. 16:52non-Muslim, and you know they're not
481. 16:53going to convert or anything, or it's
482. 16:55not helpful to Islam, money, that is not
483. 16:57Zakat.
484. 16:59Okay?
485. 17:00So, those are the five, and the reason
486. 17:03that offensive Jihad is not obviously
487. 17:06one of the five is because it can't be
488. 17:07done by everyone.
489. 17:08It requires a special person. That's why
490. 17:11that person who does the Jihad is
491. 17:14so
492. 17:15is so praised in Islam. As I just gave
493. 17:17you those few quotes, and I'm going to
494. 17:19give you so many more, such as Muhammad
495. 17:20saying engaging in Jihad is more
496. 17:23praiseworthy than 60 years of worship,
497. 17:26or basically saying that
498. 17:28just engaging in Jihad is like ceaseless
499. 17:31prayer and fasting.
500. 17:33That's why. Okay? But now it does become
501. 17:37a communal obligation for every Muslim
502. 17:42whenever it's perceived as a defensive
503. 17:44Jihad, which is what we were talking
504. 17:46about, which is what Muslims claim the
505. 17:49offensive Jihad was, right? The the
506. 17:52historic offensive Jihad.
507. 17:54They have they've had defensive Jihad.
508. 17:56So, for example, during the Crusader
509. 17:58era, they could and did call the Jihad
510. 18:01they engaged in against Crusaders in the
511. 18:02Holy Land defensive because at that
512. 18:05point that was their land as they saw
513. 18:07it, and they were defending it against
514. 18:09what they saw as invaders, right?
515. 18:11And that is an obligation on the entire
516. 18:14Muslim body. Now, again, it does not it
517. 18:16need not be physical. You don't have to
518. 18:18uh
519. 18:18Uh you're a child or a woman, or
520. 18:21emasculated man, you don't have to as a
521. 18:23Muslim involved in defensive jihad, uh
522. 18:27fight, but you have to support it one
523. 18:29way or the other.
524. 18:30>> History [music]
525. 18:32shows
526. 18:34screams from the grave.
527. 18:36>> [music]
528. 18:39>> Who's got the guts
529. 18:41to bring back
530. 18:45the crusade?