Both the Quran and the hadith have attached great importance to jihad. What is jihad? It mean struggle, to struggle one's utmost. It must be appreciated at the outset that this word is used for non-violent struggle as opposed to violent struggle. One clear proof of this is the verse of the Quran (25:52), which says: Perform jihad with this (i.e. the word of the Quran) most strenuously.

The Quran is not a sword or a gun. It is a book of ideology. In such a case performing jihad with the Quran would mean an ideological struggle to conquer peoples' hearts and minds through Islam's superior philosophy.

In the light of this verse of Quran, jihad in actual fact is another name for peaceful activism or non-violent activism. Where there is another term used in the Quran for war and that is qital. When the Quran refers to violent activism, it uses the term qital and not jihad.

So, we can say that jihad in Islam means to peacefully struggle for a noble cause. It is a non-violent activism in the full sense and not a violent activism.