Jihad in the Quran
The followers of Islam are commanded to support the Prophet, at the level of sacrifice, in dawah work, or inviting people to God. The phrase ‘jihad in the path of God’ means the Prophet’s dawah mission and not war.
The word ‘jihad’ or its derivatives have been used in the same sense as in the Arabic lexicon, engaging in great efforts for some purpose. The word ‘jihad’ appears four times in the Quran, and every time it is used in the sense of effort and struggle, and not directly as a synonym for war.
In this regard, the translation of the first relevant Quranic verse is as follows:
Say, “If your fathers and your sons and your brothers and your spouses and your tribe, and the worldly goods which you have acquired, and the commerce which you fear will decline, and the homes you love are dearer to you than God and His Messenger and the struggle for His cause, then wait until God fulfils His decree. God does not guide the disobedient people.” (9:24)
In this verse, followers of Islam are commanded to support the Prophet, at the level of sacrifice, in the Islamic mission of dawah, or inviting people to God. They must do this even if their interests are affected if they suffer commercial loss and undergo physical hardship. They must be with the Prophet in every situation in this dawah mission. In this verse, the phrase ‘jihad in the path of God’ has been used about the Prophet’s dawah mission and not war.
The word jihad appears in the Quran for the second time in this way:
“…so do not yield to those who deny the truth, but strive with the utmost strenuousness through this [Quran, to convey its message to them].” (25:52)
In this verse, the term jihad refers to the jihad of dawah because there can be no other meaning of engaging in jihad through the Quran.
The term jihad appears for the third time in the Quran in the following verse:
“If you have left your homes to strive for My cause and out of a desire to seek My goodwill.” (60:1)
This verse was revealed a short time before the victory over Makkah.
The Prophet’s journey from Madinah to Makkah in 630 CE was not for war. It was a peaceful march, engaged in obtaining the peaceful results of the Hudaybiyyah peace treaty. The treaty was signed between Prophet Muhammad and the Quraysh of Makkah in the year 628 CE. Along with fourteen hundred companions, the Prophet was journeying to Makkah from Madinah to perform the Umrah or the minor pilgrimage. However, when they reached a place called Hudaybiyyah, ten miles from Makkah, the leaders of the Quraysh stopped the Prophet from going forward. To resolve the deadlock, the Prophet entered into negotiations with the Quraysh and unilaterally accepted their conditions. It resulted in a ten-year no-war pact known as the Hudaybiyyah Treaty. Two years after the treaty, when the Prophet and his companions were peacefully marching towards Makkah, a Muslim remarked, “This day is the day of the war”, but the Prophet replied: “This day is the day of mercy.” (Maghazi al-Waqidi, Vol. 2, p. 821-822)
In the fourth verse, the word jihad appears in this way:
“Strive for the cause of God as it behoves you to strive for it.” (22:78)
In this verse, jihad means the jihad of dawah, as is clear from the context in which it appears.
From the verse cited above, we can understand that the word ‘jihad’ in each of the four times appears in the Quran in the sense of effort and struggle, not directly as a synonym for war.
