The True Jihad
The True Jihad
~ 10 ~
THE TRUE JIHAD
“Read! In the name of your Lord...”
(The Quran, 96:1)
The Quran exhorts believers to “strive for the cause
of Allah as it behoves you to strive for it.” (22:78)
This earnest struggle is expressed in Arabic by the
word ‘
jihad
’ which is derived from the root ‘
juhd
’,
which means to strive, to struggle, that is, to exert
oneself to the utmost to achieve one’s goal.
Thus the original meaning of
jihad
in Arabic is
striving very hard’. Since the early Muslims had to
strive hard during wars with aggressors, these wars
came, in an extended sense, to be called jihad.
However, the actual word for such a war in Arabic
is
qital
, not
jihad
.
War with an aggressor is a chance occurrence,
taking place as warranted by particular situations,
while
jihad
is a continuous action which is at the
core of the believer’s life day in and day out. It is an
ongoing process. This constant
jihad
means strict
adherence to the will of God in all aspects of one’s
