by Seher Chowdhry

Created on: May 15, 2006   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

Jihad means 'struggle', and there are actually two types of Jihad:
- Jihad with yourself
- Jihad in war

Jihad with yourself is the hardest form. You are trying to improve yourself and become a better person, but it's not as easy as it sounds. Have you ever tried to give up a bad habit like smoking? Not easy at all. That is why it's called Jihad; you're struggling to give up your bad habits and become a better person.

But doing so also involves improving the way you think about other people, for example, if you're always being critical or negative about the way someone is dressed or the way they act, speak, or anything like that, these are bad habits. So Jihad with yourself is giving your personality a makeover.

Now Jihad in war is the concept that is quite misunderstood. You see when Prophet Muhammad first starting preaching his message, (that God is One and we should worship Him alone), people didn't take to kindly to it. They mocked him because they didn't want to give up worshipping their idols. They couldn't bring themselves to worship something they couldn't see, but the Prophet continued to preach and Islam grew. By this point there were some who saw this as a threat so they planned to kill the Prophet and end Islam for good. So the Prophet had to take his followers away because they were being persecuted immensly just for believing in the Prophet. Not once did him or his followers retaliate against their persecuters. Anyway they fled to a place called Medina and there they stayed peacefully. However this still wasn't enough for their enemies so they declared war on Prophet Muhammad and the Muslims. There was nothing else they could do, and that was when God instructed them to fight back and defend their beliefs. They did fight and they won. This is known as Jihad, and this is the time to use it. You don't go looking for trouble in the name of religion like that.

Prophet Muhammad taught us to promote and live in peace, not war, and certainly not act the way these terrorists act.

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