Jihad

Jihad is an Arabic word meaning "exerting", "striving", or "struggling" that encompasses various efforts to make personal and social life conform with God's guidance, including an internal struggle against evil, efforts to build a good Muslim community, and struggle to defend Islam. It is classified into inner ("greater") jihad, involving a struggle against one's own passions and impulses, and outer ("lesser") jihad, which is further subdivided into jihad of the pen/tongue (debate or persuasion) and jihad of the sword (warfare). The term appears frequently in the Quran, referring to both religious and spiritual struggle and to war and physical struggle. In the Hadiths, jihad refers predominantly to warfare, but in Sufi and Ahmadiyya circles, it traditionally emphasizes spiritual and moral struggle. The sense of jihad as armed resistance was first used in the context of persecution faced by Muslims, and the rules pertaining to jihad were developed, including prohibitions on harming non-combatants and unnecessary destruction of enemy property.learn more on wikipedia