jihad

The phrase internal Jihad or the Great Jihad refers to the efforts of a believer to live thier muslim faith as well as possible.

• want to live thier life in a way that pleases God
• muslims  make a great effort to live as Allah instructed them to: following the rules of faith/being devoted to Allah/helping others

This is a stuggle as God sets high standards and believers have to fight with thier own selfish desires.

5 pillars os Islam is a form of Jihad since a Muslim gets closer to God by performing them

Other ways include: Learning the Quran by heart  /  Overcoming such things like anger, greed etc  /  giving up smoking  /  cleaning the floor in the Mosque  /  Taking part in Muslim community activites  /  Forgiving someone who has hurt them

When Muslims and thier faith or terroritory is under attack, Islam permits the believer to wage military war to protect them.

However Islamic (Sharia) laws set very strict rules for the conduct of such war. In recent years, the common meaning of Jihad has been Holy War. Or a military struggle to benefit Islam

What can justify Jihad?

Number of reasons but the Quran is clear that self-defence is always the underlying cause.

Other permissable reasons for Military Jihad include:

• Self Defence / Strengthening Islam / Protecting the freedom of Muslims to practice thier faith / Protecting Muslims against opression (could include overthrowing a tyrannical ruler) / Punishing an enemy who breaks an oath

A Military Jihad has to obey very strict rules in order to be legitimate

• The opponent must always have started the fighting
• It must not be fought gain terroritory
• It must be launched by a religious leader
• It must be fought to bring about good- something that Allah will approve of
• Every other way of sloving the problem must be tried before resorting to war
• Innocent people should not be killed or hurt
• Women must not be *****
• Enemies must be treated with justice
• Property must not be damaged

Literal meaning: A struggle or effort (means much more than Holy War)

3 Different kinds of struggles:

• A believers internal struggle to live out the Muslim faith as well as possible
• The struggle to build a good Muslim society
• Holy War: the struggle to defend Islam, with force if neccessary