war against them was unthinkable, and none was ever undertaken. On the other hand, they sometimes fought along with the Muslims against the unbelievers. Therefore the injunction to carry on a jihād against both unbelievers and hypocrites could not mean the waging of war against them. It was a jihād carried on by means of the Holy Qur’ān as expressly stated in 25:52, a striving hard to win them over to Islām. In fact, on other occasions as well, it is a mistake to think that jihād means only fighting; the word is almost always used in the general sense of striving hard, including fighting where the context so requires. “ Those who believe and those who fled (their homes) and strove hard in the way of Allāh”(2:218; 8: 74), is a description which applies as much to the fighters as to those who carry on the struggle against unbelief and evil in other ways. And the sābirīn ( those who are steadfast or patient), and the mujāhidīn (those who struggle hard ), are again spoken of together in a Madīnah revelation as they are in a Makkah revelation: “ Do you think you will enter the Garden while Allāh has not yet known those from among you who strive hard (nor) known the steadfast?” (3 :142).

Jihād in Ḥadīth

Even in the Ḥadīth literature the word jihād is not used exclusively for fighting. For example, ḥajj is called a jihād: “The Holy Prophet said, The ḥajj is the most excellent of all jihāds “(Bu. 25:4). Of all the collection of Ḥadīth, Bukhārī is the most explicit on this point. In I’tiṣām bi-l-Kitāb wal-Sunnah, the fourth chapter is thus headed: “The saying of the Holy Prophet, A party of my community shall not cease to be triumphant being upholders of Truth,” to which are added the words, “And these are the men of learning (ahl al-‘ilm)” (Bu. 97:10).1 Thus Bukhārī’s view is that the triumphant party of the Holy Prophet’s community does not consist of fighters, but of the men of learning who disseminate the truth and are engaged in the propagation of Islām. Again, in his Book of Jihād Bukhārī has several chapters speaking of simple invitation to Islām. For instance, the heading of 56:99 is: “May the Muslim guide the followers of the Book to a right course, or may he teach them the Book.” The heading of 56:100: “To pray for the guidance of the polytheists so as to develop relations of friendship with them”; that of 56:102: “The invitation