All you wanted to know about Jihad, but couldn't care less anyway.
Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 12:38 am
Jihad, sometimes spelled Jahad, Jehad of Djehad, (Arabic: جهاد ǧihād) is an Islamic term, from the Arabic root ǧhd ("to exert utmost effort, to strive, struggle"), which connotes a wide range of meanings: anything from an inward spiritual struggle to attain perfect faith to a political or military struggle to further the Islamic cause. Individuals involved in the political or military forms of jihad are often labeled with the neologism "jihadist".
The term "jihad" is often rendered in western languages and non-Islamic cultures as "holy war", but this "physical" struggle, which encompasses warfare, only makes up part of the broader meaning of the concept of jihad. The denotation is of a struggle, challenge, difficulty, or (frequently) opposed effort, made either in accomplishment or as resistance. A person who engages in any form of jihad can be called a mujahid (in plural: mujahadin), (Arabic: striver, struggler), a term even more often applied to groups who practice armed struggle in the name of Islam. He might engage in fighting as a military struggle for religious reasons, or for example, struggle to memorize the Qur'an.
From Wikipedia.
Take care,
Gordon.
The term "jihad" is often rendered in western languages and non-Islamic cultures as "holy war", but this "physical" struggle, which encompasses warfare, only makes up part of the broader meaning of the concept of jihad. The denotation is of a struggle, challenge, difficulty, or (frequently) opposed effort, made either in accomplishment or as resistance. A person who engages in any form of jihad can be called a mujahid (in plural: mujahadin), (Arabic: striver, struggler), a term even more often applied to groups who practice armed struggle in the name of Islam. He might engage in fighting as a military struggle for religious reasons, or for example, struggle to memorize the Qur'an.
From Wikipedia.
Take care,
Gordon.