An Islamic concept meaning 'struggle' or 'striving,' encompassing both personal spiritual effort and, in some interpretations, armed struggle to defend or expand Islamic territory.
From Arabic 'jahada' meaning 'to strive' or 'to struggle,' with the root j-h-d conveying effort and exertion. Classical Islamic scholarship distinguished between 'greater jihad' (spiritual struggle) and 'lesser jihad' (physical struggle).
The word jihad appears in the Quran only 41 times, but 'striving' (the root meaning) appears over 200 times—showing that the concept was primarily about personal effort and spiritual development, not warfare!
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