A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád'/Appendix A/9
[Sidenote: Mohammadan commentators, &c., quoted.]
9. All commentators, paraphrasts, and jurisconsults admit that the primary and original signification of the words "Jahad" and "Jihád" is power, ability, and toil, and that its use, as making wars or crusades, is conventional and figurative. Ibn Attiah says regarding verse 69, Chapter XXIX, that it is Meccan, and was revealed before the enjoining of the "Orfee" or conventional Jihád (vide Fat-hul bayan fi maquasidil Koran, Vol. II, page 517, by Siddik Hussan). Khateeb Koostlane, in his Irshadussari, a paraphrase of Bokhari, says that "Jihád is derived from Jahd, which means toil and labour, or from Johd, which means power. And in technical language it means fighting with infidels to assist Islam" (Vol. V, page 26). Mohammad Allauddin Al Haskafi (died 1088 A.H.), the author of Dur-ral-Mukhtár, a commentary on Tanviral Absár, by Sheikh Mohammad Al Tamartáshi (died 1004), says in the chapter on Jihád, that "in the classical language it is the infinitive noun of Jáhada fi Sabil-Allah, and in the language of the law it means inviting the infidels to the true faith and fighting with him who does not accept it." And Ibn Ábidin Shámi, in his annotation on the above work, says:
- "The infinitive noun of Jáhada means to do one's utmost, and that it is general, and includes any person who supports all that is reasonable and forbids what is wrong."