The Most Misunderstood word ‘Jihad’

The Most Misunderstood word ‘Jihad’ .. from http://smma59.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/the-most-misunderstood-word-jihad/

ISLAM MEANS PEACE. It is very unfortunate that we have reached a point where we need to clarify that jihad has nothing to do with terrorism.Being a muslim , I must say that the word “Jihad” has been misused and abused by the Dirty politicians. The more important meaning of jihad is the struggle to be good. I am muslim and I believe that jihad means struggle which should be used for the eradification for poverty, jihad should be against illiteracy and against corruption.

In islam, killing one person is considered killing many generations. So its wrong that jihad means killing innocent people. Its crystal clear that islam is a religion of peace. If any organisation, individual or group  killing innocents in the name of jihad is wrong.
There are some Muslims (hypocrites) who exploit and misuse this concept for their own political objectives. There are many non-Muslims who misunderstand it. There are some other non-Muslims who misinterpret it to discredit Islam and Muslims.
The word ‘Jihad’ is derived from the Arabic word jahd which means fatigue or from the word juhd which means effortor struggling or striving. It means show efforts in fighting against evil,bad,illitracy,terriorism.
In Holy book Quran the word Jihad repeadedly used for “jihad with the self (jihad bin nafs),” that is, making the maximum effort to keep control over negative feelings in one’s self,for instance, arrogance, jealousy, greed, revenge, anger, etc.
Jihad is not a violent concept nor a declaration of war against other religions but it is a word which says struggle to make peace and spread humanity in this world.