Muhajerun vs Mujahedeen

Submitted by sara (United States), Jun 9, 2012 at 17:14

Thanks DNM, it is a bit confusing to me that the word Mu-haj-erun is used interchangeably with Mu-jah-edeen but what you say makes sense. Is there a word Mu-ja-herun?

As I see it now, Muhajerun is a direct translation of the Hebrew Mehagrim (from the root HGR). So HGR in Hebrew corresponds to HJR in Arabic. Interesting, and I wonder if there are other related root words that could be compared.

I suppose it makes sense for even radical Islamists to call themselves migrants or emigres (of Allah as you note), and of course I realize that Mujahid means one who will do Jihad, I just did not understand the R part of the root rather than the D and now I do.

It is still interesting that Hagar/Hagarism was the name used for the mother of Ishmael and supposed origin of the Arabs when everyone who has been reading the bible in Hebrew all this time would have recognized the meaning of the word, if that has always been its meaning (of course Ben Yehuda could have fiddled with it). Perhaps its a chicken/egg question.

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