A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád'/Appendix A/10

[Sidenote: When the word Jihád was diverted from its original signification to its figurative meaning of waging religious war?]

10. It is admitted by all lexicologists, commentators, and jurisconsults that Jihád in classical Arabic means to labour, strive earnestly, and that the change of its meaning or the technical signification occurred only in the post-classical period, i.e., long after the publication of the Koran. It is obviously improper, therefore, to apply the post-classical meaning of the word where it occurs in the Koran. This fact is further admitted by all the Mohammadan commentators and English translators of the Koran, who render the word in its original and literal meaning in all the Meccan and in the early Medinite Suras or Chapters of the Koran.

It is only in a few of the latest chapters of the Koran published at later dates at Medina, that they (the commentators and translators) deviate from the original meaning, and prefer the subsequent unclassical and technical signification of waging war or crusade.