Debate Jihad

controversy has arisen on whether usage of term jihad without further explanation refers military combat, , whether have used confusion on definition of term advantage.

according gallup survey, asked muslims in several countries jihad meant them, responses such sacrificing 1 s life sake of islam/god/a cause , fighting against opponents of islam common type in non-arab countries (pakistan, iran, turkey, , indonesia), being given majority of respondents in indonesia. in 4 arabic-speaking countries included in survey (lebanon, kuwait, jordan, , morocco), frequent responses included references duty toward god , divine duty , or worship of god , no militaristic connotations. gallup s richard burkholder concludes these results concept of jihad among muslims considerably more nuanced single sense in western commentators invariably invoke term.

middle east historian bernard lewis argues in quran jihad ... has been understood meaning wage war , of recorded history of islam, lifetime of prophet muhammad onward , jihad used in military sense, , overwhelming majority of classical theologians, jurists, , traditionalists (i.e. specialists in hadith) understood obligation of jihad in military sense.

historian douglas streusand writes in hadith collections, jihad means armed action . in standard collection of hadith, sahih al-bukhari, 199 references jihad assume jihad means warfare.

according david cook, author of understanding jihad

in reading muslim literature – both contemporary , classical – 1 can see evidence primacy of spiritual jihad negligible. today no muslim, writing in non-western language (such arabic, persian, urdu), ever make claims jihad nonviolent or has been superseded spiritual jihad. such claims made solely western scholars, study sufism and/or work in interfaith dialogue, , muslim apologists trying present islam in innocuous manner possible.

cook argued presentations along these lines ideological in tone , should discounted bias , deliberate ignorance of subject , no longer acceptable western scholars or muslim apologists writing in non-muslim languages make flat, unsupported statements concerning prevalence – either historical point of view or within contemporary islam – of spiritual jihad.