Submitted by Hamzah (United Arab Emirates), Dec 29, 2021 at 04:27
Zakir Naik, Mufti Menk, and Shabir Ally have already said that the literal meaning ISNT holy war, and from what I know, these are world renowned scholars. Here is their reasoning:
Jihad is a term used for struggle against the enemies of Islam, and most of the time, it is not a "war" that is necessarily taking place but rather a struggle against the people who pressurize Muslims.
A good example of this is that in China, a Muslim woman was stripped of her Hijab by an Israeli man who claimed it to be "freedom", 2 Muslim Chinese men came in defense of the girl and got the Israeli man in jail. This was still termed as "jihad" even though it wasn't a holy war, in fact, it wasn't a war at all!
conclusion: jihad doesnt NECESSARILY mean "holy war", it just means "struggle against the enemies of Islam".
Now you may ask: "then are you saying that al-Tabari war wrong?", well, partially as he only stated it to be "holy war" when it can be a large majority of things.
And the term "holy war" does come under jihad, I'm not denying that, but jihad can definitely have other meanings as well.
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