a fi Sabil-Allah_, and in the language of the
law it means inviting the infidels to the true faith and fighting with
him who does not accept it." And Ibn Abidin Shami, in his annotation on
the above work, says:

"The infinitive noun of _Jahada_ means to do one's utmost, and that
it is general, and includes any person who supports all that is
reasonable and forbids what is wrong."

[Sidenote: When the word Jihad was diverted from its original
signification to its figurative meaning of waging religious war?]

10. It is admitted by all lexicologists, commentators, and jurisconsults
that _Jihad_ in classical Arabic means to labour, strive earnestly, and
that the change of its meaning or the technical signification occurred
only in the post-classical period, _i.e._, long after the publication
of the Koran. It is obviously improper, therefore, to apply the
post-classical meaning of the word where it occurs in the Koran. This
fact is further admitted by all the Mohammadan commentators and English
translators of the Koran, who render the word in its original and
literal meaning in all the Meccan and in the early Medinite Suras or
Chapters of the Koran.[328]

It is only in a few of the latest chapters of the Koran published at
later dates at Medina, that they (the commentators and translators)
deviate from the original meaning, and prefer the subsequent unclassical
and technical signification of waging war or crusade.

[Sidenote: All verses of the Koran containing the word Jihad and its
derivation quoted and explained.]

11. I herein place in juxtaposition the several English translations of
the word "_Jihad_," together with its etymological derivation and
several grammatical forms, to show, in the first place, that Mr. George
Sale and the Rev. J.M. Rodwell and other European authors generally give
the literal, original, and classical meaning; and in the second place,
to show how they differ in giving various meanings, literal and
technical, in some passages to the same word in the same verses.

It will be observed from a perusal of the statement, that the Rev. Mr.
Rodwell, M.A., is more correct than the earliest English translator of
the Koran, Mr. George Sale, and the latest, Mr. W.H. Palmer. The latter
is the most unsatisfactory of all in this respect, as everywhere, except
in six places--XXIX, 7; V, 39, 59; IV, 97; and IX, 74, 89--he translates
_Jihad_ as meaning fighting--a circumstance which not unnat