Jihad in Islamic Law

Jihad جهاد in Arabic literally means "struggle" coming from the Arabic verb جاهد jaahada meaning to "strive." Jihad fi sabil Allah جهاد في سبيل الله is thus literally "struggle/striving on the path of god." Historically, the use of the word jihad has been very wide semantically, with applications from war to spiritual discipline to reform and many, many things in between. Despite these wide and varied applications, though, the main meaning of jihad in Islamic law from the origins of the religion to the classic period to the present day continues to be armed struggle, either to expand the realm of Islamic political dominance or to defend Islamic lands from infidels, with the expansion of Islamic political dominance being part-and-parcel to a social and political system which advances the interest of the Muslim religion and induces the peoples conquered in this warfare to convert to Islam. This socio-political system, that of the dhimma, is intimately connected to the institution of "jihad at-talab" جهاد الطلب the "jihad of request" involving the three-option offer that an Islamic force must make before commencing hostilities against an infidel enemy: 1. Conversion to Islam. 2. Payment of the jizyah and subjection to Islamic political dominion and the strictures of the dhimma. 3. Fighting until death.