It's nice when people want to learn
Jihad loosely translated does mean "Holy War"
But the deeper meaning which the prophet consistently mention(and which a fool like me even knows) is that Jihad is the defense of Islam from being destroyed.
The prophet has been qouted to have said after they ie the muslims returned from a battle(can't remember which battle)
"We have just returned from the small Jihad to the greater Jihad"
When asked what he meant, he said the greatest Jihad is against oneself. Because a muslim's own desires is the greatest threat to Islam. It is far easy to fight other people then it is to control one's own desires.
And the devil will try to use a person's desires to destroy Islam and it is from this that we must defend Islam from.
What I don't get is why so many muslims don't seem to know this.
I will not lie, it is true that the muslims went out to conquer other nations when they grew strong in number.
But there were always guidelines. Those were that when they reached a city or town they gave the people three choices.
First that they should accept Islam.
If not then submit to have a Islamic governor. (they would not be forced to change there religion and would not be persecuted)
And if they did not accept this either then and only then would they meet on the battlefield.
And during battle, muslims were not allowed to kill someone that was defenseless.
For those that agreed not to fight the muslims and allowed them to rule a few laws were implemented.
1. that the non-muslims were to pay a certain tax which was about 5% of a persons earnings(I'm not certain about the amount but it was far less then what taxes are today)
2. you were only allowed to trade with a muslim if you traded according to Islamic law(example muslims are not allowed to accept or give interest.)
This is all I can remember and I could be grossly inaccurate.
It is even said that some of the non-muslims found the new government better.
As I said before this is what I learnt about Islam, and you don't have to believe it if you don't want to.
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