Jihad — Rawzat

The Root Meaning — Striving and Exertion

The Arabic root j-h-d means: to exert effort, to strive, to make oneself undergo difficulty in pursuit of a goal. It has no inherent military connotation — the word applies equally to someone struggling to memorize the Quran, to a mother laboring to raise righteous children, to a scholar exerting himself to understand difficult ‘ilm, and to a soldier defending his community.

The Quran uses forms of this root 41 times in various contexts. In many of these usages, the context is specifically spiritual or social — not military:

“And strive for Allah with the striving due to Him.” (22:78) — general striving for Allah

“And those who strive for Us — We will surely guide them to Our ways.” (29:69) — the promise that spiritual striving leads to guidance

“O Prophet, strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them.” (9:73) — the context here includes the “striving against hypocrites” which classical scholars explain as verbal/intellectual engagement, not violence

“So do not obey the disbelievers, and strive against them with it [the Quran] a great striving.” (25:52) — “with it” refers to the Quran; this is jihad through the text

The Seven Pillars of Da’a’im al-Islam

In the Ismaili-Fatimid legal tradition codified by Qadi al-Nu’man in Da’a’im al-Islam, the seven pillars of the Islamic system are: Walayah, Taharah (purification), Salah (prayer), Zakat (alms), Sawm (fasting), Hajj (pilgrimage), and Jihad. Jihad appears as the seventh pillar — and in the Da’a’im, the treatment of jihad is comprehensive: it includes both the armed defense of the community when genuinely attacked and the continuous inner struggle.

The placement of jihad as a pillar — alongside prayer and fasting — establishes that it is not an optional extra or a violent exception but a core dimension of Islamic practice. The question is what kind of jihad is primary.

The Four Types of Jihad

Classical Islamic scholarship identified four recognized types of jihad:

1. Jihad al-Nafs — Struggle Against the Self

The struggle to overcome the ego’s desires, the nafs’s inclinations toward what is harmful, the internal resistances that pull the soul away from divine guidance. This is:

The Prophet (SAW)‘s own statement: “We have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad.” (When asked what the greater jihad was:) “The jihad of a person against their nafs.” (narrated by Bayhaqi and others)
The Quran on the nafs: “And the nafs that commands to evil — indeed, the nafs is a persistent commander of evil, except for what my Lord has mercy upon.” (12:53) — Yusuf’s own description after his experience with Zulaykha
The continuous nature: unlike qital which has defined conditions for beginning and ending, jihad al-nafs is permanent — the nafs never surrenders entirely in this life

2. Jihad al-Shaytan — Struggle Against Evil Whispers

The struggle against the waswas (whispering) of Shaytan — the distracting thoughts, the temptations, the doubts — through dhikr, study of ‘ilm, and seeking refuge with Allah. Surah al-Nas (114) is specifically about seeking protection from this form of jihad’s adversary. See also: Surah Al Muawwidhatain

3. Jihad al-Munafiqin — Struggle Against Hypocrisy

The verbal, intellectual, and ethical struggle against falseness, corruption, and hypocrisy — whether in oneself or in the community. This is the jihad with the Quran: “Strive against them with it [the Quran] a great striving.” (25:52) The primary weapon is truth-speaking, education, and the living example of authentic faith.

4. Jihad al-Qital — Armed Struggle in Defined Circumstances

The use of force in defense of the Muslim community when specifically attacked, when peaceful resolution has failed, under proper authority, with defined rules of conduct. The Quran establishes strict conditions:

“Permission has been given to those who are being fought [to fight], because they were wronged — and indeed, Allah is competent to give them victory.” (22:39) — jihad qital is permitted (not commanded universally) in response to being wronged/attacked.

“Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress limits — indeed Allah does not love those who transgress limits.” (2:190) — the condition “those who fight you” limits qital to response to actual aggression; “do not transgress limits” imposes rules of conduct.

The extensive rules of war in Islamic jurisprudence — no killing of non-combatants, no destruction of crops, no killing of clergy and monks who are not fighting, no mutilation, treatment of prisoners, the offer of peace before battle — establish that qital is a last resort with strict ethical constraints.

The Greater Jihad in the Ismaili Framework

The Ismaili tradition’s emphasis on jihad al-nafs as the primary and most important jihad is grounded in the da’wah’s fundamental concern with inner transformation. The Dawat teaches that the zahir acts of religion — prayer, fasting, hajj — are the outer structure that corresponds to the inner struggle of the soul to align with the divine.

Walayah as the ground of jihad: The mumin who recognizes the Imam’s walayah has received the ‘ilm that makes the inner struggle possible. Without knowing what the nafs is struggling against — without the ta’wil that reveals the nature of the soul, the divine, and the distance between them — the struggle is without direction.

The nafs and its levels: The Quran describes three levels of the nafs:

al-Nafs al-ammara bi-l-su’ (the nafs commanding to evil, 12:53) — the ego in its most self-serving state
al-Nafs al-lawwama (the self-reproaching nafs, 75:2) — the awakening conscience that reproaches after transgression
al-Nafs al-mutma’inna (the soul at peace, 89:27) — “Return to your Lord, satisfied and pleasing [to Him]” — the soul that has been refined through struggle into peace

The journey from the first to the third is the trajectory of jihad al-nafs over a lifetime — or multiple lifetimes, in some understandings. See also: Nafs The Soul

The Ismaili teaching on inner jihad: The Dawat’s deep curriculum of ta’wil, of ‘ilm, of attending majalis — these are not intellectual exercises but instruments of jihad al-nafs. The ‘ilm that the majalis convey is the knowledge that enables the soul to see its own condition clearly, to recognize what is nafs and what is spirit, to choose in each moment the alignment with divine guidance rather than ego comfort.

Misunderstandings to Address

“Jihad means war”: This is the extreme reductionism that ignores 90% of the concept’s Islamic meaning. The Prophet’s own categorization placed armed struggle as the “lesser jihad” and inner struggle as the “greater.” Reducing jihad to qital is theologically inaccurate.

“Jihad against enemies”: The primary enemies in the Islamic spiritual framework are the nafs (ego), shaytan (evil whispering), and heedlessness (ghafla). These are closer and more persistent than any external enemy.

“Jihad is permanent warfare”: Qital jihad has strict conditions — it requires proper authority, genuine aggression by an enemy, and rules of conduct. The tradition (including the Prophet’s longest periods of no armed engagement) does not support continuous warfare as an Islamic ideal.

“Non-violent approach is un-Islamic”: The Prophet spent the first 13 years in Makkah in a context of persecution without any armed response — this is the Islamic model of responding to oppression through patience, verbal proclamation, and trust in divine protection when the conditions for defense are not present.

Ta’wil of Jihad

The zahir of jihad is the comprehensive effort — spiritual, verbal, financial, and in specific circumstances physical — to uphold the divine order in the world.

The batin of jihad is the soul’s continuous work of self-purification. Every prayer that the mumin performs against the resistance of the nafs that would prefer sleep or distraction is jihad. Every act of sadaqa against the resistance of the nafs that clings to wealth is jihad. Every moment of dhikr against the pull of ghafla (heedlessness) is jihad. Every choice of ‘ilm over entertainment is jihad.

The jihadis in this understanding are not the warriors but the ‘ulama — those who struggle to carry divine ‘ilm and transmit it. The Prophet (SAW) said: “The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr” — an inversion of the usual hierarchy that re-centers jihad on the pursuit of knowledge.

The mumin who attends a majlis, who learns the ta’wil, who follows the Imam’s walayah despite the pressures of conformity to the surrounding culture — this mumin is engaged in continuous jihad. Every act of genuine walayah in a world that doesn’t recognize it is a form of the greater jihad.

Jihad — The Comprehensive Struggle