Abstract
Given the prominence that the term jihad has attained in western popular and academic literature it is important that we understand the Islamic pronouncements on this issue. The Qur’an uses the word jihad in a generic sense, denoting any form of struggle in the cause of God (29:69). We can talk of the spiritual jihad (to attain spiritual purity), the ethical-moral jihad (to attain moral excellence), a social jihad (to win the hearts and minds of others) and the rational jihad (exertion of mental faculties).