A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád'/Appendix A/3

[Sidenote: Post-classical or technical meaning of Jihád.]

3. It is only a post-classical and technical meaning of Jihád to use the word as signifying fighting against an enemy. Mr. Lane says, "Jahada came to be used by the Moslems to signify generally he fought, warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like." This signification is now given by those lexicologists who do not restrict themselves to the definition of classical terms or significations, like the author of Kámoos. Mr. Lane, the celebrated author of Maddool Kámoos an Arabic-English lexicologist, clearly shows that the definition of Jihád, as the act of waging war, is only of Moslem origin and is not classical. And I will show in sequence that the Moslem usage of Jihád, as signifying the waging of war, is a post-Koranic usage, and that in the Koran it is used classically and literally in its natural sense.