Jihad: What Everyone Needs to Know What Everyone Needs to Know ®

The word "jihad" is everywhere in the global media. It generally appears in the context of violence waged against the West by militants in or from Muslim-majority societies. This usage overwhelmingly colors popular discourse about Islam and Muslims and it has resulted in highly simplistic, distorted, and ahistorical understandings of the concept of jihad. For most Muslims, jihad refers to the continuous human struggle to promote and implement what is morally good and noble in all walks of life, as well as to resist and prevent what is morally wrong and unjust. This book addresses the great need for a discussion of jihad that explores its various dimensions without fear-mongering or sensationalism. Here it is examined from multiple perspectives: scriptural, theological, moral and ethical, legal and socio-political. Asma Afsaruddin looks at the key questions about jihad and provides concise yet thorough answers. Jihad: What Everyone Needs to Know® provides a historically-grounded, scholarly yet accessible treatment of the meanings of jihad from the formative period of Islam until the contemporary period.

Asma Afsaruddin is Professor of Islamic Studies and former chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is the author and editor of eight books, including her award-winning
Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought and Contemporary Issues in Islam.

Acknowledgment
Introduction
Chapter One: Jihad in the Quran and Commentary Literature
Chapter Two: Jihad in the Hadith Literature
Chapter Three: Jihad in the Legal Literature
Chapter Four: Jihad in Morally Edifying, Ethical, and Mystical Literature
Chapter Five: Jihad as Conceived by Modern Revolutionaries and Militants
Chapter Six: Jihad in the Thought of Modern and Contemporary Mainstream Scholars
Chapter Seven: Jihad as Non-Violent Struggle and Peacemaking
Chapter Eight: Jihad and Its Perceptions in the West
Bibliography
Glossary
Index