The issue of different interpretations exists everywhere in the religious discipline.
This is not simply a matter of the Quran, rather it is a matter which pertains to all
religious books.
In the Gita, Krishna urges Arjun in these words: ‘O Arjun, go ahead and fight!’ In
these scriptures too, there is an injunction to engage in battle. When you study
different religions, you will realize that they do speak about war. You will also
realize that every religion is basically a religion of love, compassion and peace.
However, as an exception, every religion allows for war for the purpose of defense.
While Gandhi interpreted the words ‘O Arjun, go ahead and fight’ to mean a
peaceful ‘internal struggle’, the same Interfaith Dialogue in Islam text was interpreted
by Bal Gangadhar Tilak to mean a violent and concerted action to end injustice.
Religion is not a mathematical discipline; it is a subject of humanities, which is open to interpretation. For example, political science has more than ten interpretations of the
term ‘sovereign’ and ‘sovereignty’. Any subject that is based on mathematics is less
likely to have conflicting interpretations, but this is not the same in disciplines of
humanities. For example, lawyers contest the same case from two different
perspectives based on the same constitution.
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