The Quran exhorts believers to “strive for the cause of God as it behoves you to strive for it.” (22: 78) This intense struggle is expressed in Arabic by the word ‘jihad’, derived from the root ‘juhd’, meaning to strive, to struggle, that is, to exert oneself to the utmost to achieve one’s goal. According to Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, “This world has been designed to fulfil the purposes of the divine trial of a man.” Any situation that one faces is meant as a test for him. This spiritual struggle within a believer to become God-conscious and tread the right path constitutes the true spirit of jihad. It continues throughout the life of a believer. Since the early Muslims had to strive hard during wars with aggressors, these wars came to be called jihad in an extended sense. The Arabic word for such a war is qital, not jihad. In Islam, however, war is not the prerogative of the individual but an established government. From the Islamic perspective, war can be waged only by an established state, not non-state actors. There is no room for non-state warfare in Islam. Also, a war in Islam is for defensive purposes alone when the option of peace and negotiations has failed. The aim of Islam is the reform or Islamization of man. When a state of war and violence prevails, the normal atmosphere is vitiated. Such circumstances as would foster spiritual reformation and intellectual movements cannot be effectively created. It implies that peace is a prerequisite for the Islamic mission. All constructive activity—in education, business, industry, even worship—can flourish only where there is peace. True Jihad is the struggle to develop a positive personality in oneself that can be held deserving of eternal Paradise by God.