Striving in the path of god jihad and martyrdom in islamic thoughtby asma afsaruddin oxford university press 2013 298 pages 12000. She observes that in the makkan and early madinan periods striving in the path of god was associated with countless everyday acts of submission and service to god and was only associated with physical combat in the later madinan period when jihad was conjoined with fighting qital. Striving in the path of god jihad and martyrdom in islamic thought asma afsaruddin new york oxford university press 2013 384 pages the term jihadis perhaps the most contentious arabic word to enter the eng lish language in recent decades in public discourse it has become shorthand for holy war and synonymous with violent muslim . Striving in the path of god jihad and martyrdom in islamic thought striving in the path of god in popular and academic literature jihad is predominantly assumed to refer exclusively to armed. Striving in the path of god jihad and martyrdom in islamic thought i striving for in and in the path of god ii fighting in the path of god iii the ethics of fighting refraining from fighting and peacemaking iv dying in the path of god v jihad and martyrdom compared in early and later h adith literature