Jihad (جِهَاد)

Arabic: جِهَاد
Domain: Fiqh al-Da'wah, Islamic Ethics, Tazkiyah
Transliteration: jihād

Definition

Jihad (جِهَاد) literally means "striving" or "struggling" — from the Arabic root j-h-d (ج-ه-د), meaning to exert utmost effort. In the Islamic scholarly tradition, jihad denotes striving in the path of Allah (فِي سَبِيلِ الله), encompassing both an inward, spiritual dimension — the struggle against one's own base desires (جِهَاد النَّفْس, jihad al-nafs) — and an outward dimension of lawful struggle against oppression and in defense of the faith. Qaradawi repeatedly emphasizes that the broader, primary sense of jihad is the inner moral struggle to purify the self and obey Allah, which the Prophet (PBUH) called the "greater jihad" (الجِهَاد الأَكْبَر).

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