Jihad (redirected from Ijthad)

jihad: see Islam.

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jihad

In Islam, the central doctrine that calls on believers to combat the enemies of their religion. According to the Qur'an and the Hadith, jihad is a duty that may be fulfilled in four ways: by the heart, the tongue, the hand, or the sword. The first way (known in Sufism as the “greater jihad”) involves struggling against evil desires. The ways of the tongue and hand call for verbal defense and right actions. The jihad of the sword involves waging war against enemies of Islam. Believers contend that those who die in combat become martyrs and are guaranteed a place in paradise. In the 20th and 21st centuries the concept of jihad has sometimes been used as an ideological weapon in the effort to combat Western influences and secular governments and to establish an ideal Islamic society.

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jihad, jehad

1. Islam a holy war against infidels undertaken by Muslims in defence of the Islamic faith

2. Islam the personal struggle of the individual believer against evil and persecution

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Jihad 

(Arabic, “holy war,” literally, “struggle” or “persevere”), one of the precepts of Islam, supported by the Koran (for example, sura 9, verse 29), according to which all Muslims able to do battle must carry out holy wars against unbelievers. The teachings developed by scholars of Muslim law state that the entire world is divided into a “land of Islam” (or “region of faith”) and a “war territory” (countries inhabited by non-Muslims, or unbelievers). The idea of jihad was widely used by the ruling strata of Muslim feudal society to inflame fanaticism and to unify Muslims under the banner of religion. The call to jihad was often used against “external enemies” as well.

At times, under conditions of combat against colonialists, calls to jihad served the interest of defensive war and the simultaneous defense of religion, as, for example, in the Sudan during the Mahdist uprising at the end of the 19th century.

Jihad is also called ghazawat (Arabic, literally a “raid,” “campaign,” or “attack”).

In recent times in Muslim countries the jihad has been a call to war in defense of the fatherland.

REFERENCES

Petrushevskii, I. P. Islam vlrane v VII-XV vekakh. Leningrad, 1966. Pages 80-83.
Encyclopédic de ïlslam, vol. 2. Leiden-Paris, 1965. Pages 551-53.