'Jihad'

The Arabic word jihad means 'to struggle' or 'to exert oneself'. Jihad, meaning struggling in the path of Islam, has a central role in Islam, so that it is sometimes refered to as the 'sixth pillar'. When stating this, it is important to emphasise to non-Muslims that the contemporary tendency to see jihad purely as a synonymous for war is misleading. It encompasses struggling to lead a good life within the teachings of Islam, struggling against one's own stirrings towards evil, struggling to perform good works and avoid bad ones.

It can also mean struggling to spread Islam, struggling for social justice, struggling against poverty, injustice or oppression, and the struggle to defend Islam and Muslims against attack. In that latter context it can encompass armed resistance and thus acquires its occasional sense of 'just war'. There is a tradition that the Prophet returned from the battlefield announced that they returned from the lesser jihad, al-jihad al-asghar, to the greater - al-jihad al-akbar. This is taken to indicate that the Prophet placed greater importance on the inner, spiritual struggle than on warfare.