Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Qur'an: and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah. then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement supreme. (Quran 9:111)

We offer our whole selves and our possessions to Allah, and Allah gives us Salvation. This is the true doctrine of redemption: and we are taught that this is the doctrine not only of the Quran but of the earlier Revelations, -the original Law of Moses and the original Gospel of Jesus. Any other view of redemption is rejected by Islam, especially that of corrupted Christianity, which thinks that some other person suffered for our sins and we are redeemed by his blood. It is our self-surrender that counts, not other people's merits. Our complete self-surrender may include fighting for the cause, both spiritual and physical. As regards actual fighting with the sword there has been some difference in theological theories at different times. In the New Testament St. Paul, in commending the worthy fruits of Faith, mentions Gideon. Barak, and other warriors of the Old Testament as his ideals, "Who through faith subdued kingdoms... waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens..." (Hebrews, 11:32-34).

There is a lot of misunderstanding about Jihad. The meaning of word Jihad is struggle as the final sentence of the famous Hungarian writer Madach in his work Tragedy of Man says: “Man you have to struggle (in life) but put your full trust”. Nobody can define it more perfectly like that. So, Jihad doesn’t mean Holy War!!! The most important categories of Jihad are peaceful. If one fulfils his duty, makes some excellent job, supplies his family, raises the profile and respect of his religion in his society or a woman if she gives birth is regarded Jihad. The last category of Jihad can legitimate the use of arms only if it secures the lives and properties of citizens. However, Jihad can be defensive and never offensive. According to Shariya law Jihad cannot be implemented as offensive war. It is like the immune system of any living organ. It kills the microbes which enter but the immune system cannot cause epidemic disease. This item is absolutely used incorrectly by some sheiks today. We can see in the quoted aya of Quran above that Jihad is prescribed even for the other believers as it was a clear command in the previous Holy Books as well. So, with this statement Quran uses the terminology “believer” for those who follow one of these Holy Books. Even that item is not explained like that by Jihad sheikhs!
Jihad cannot be considered as mean to settle one’s small-minded senses or conflicts. Nobody can degrade the Jihad to the level of “National case” and nobody can call for “National Jihad.”
As a summery we can state that an offense against other societies and causing damages in their lives and properties cannot be considered Jihad even if the attackers were Muslims. However, it is Jihad when people implement armed defense against the offender even if the defenders were following other religion than Islam…

However, Jihad of Soul (Jihad al-Nafs) worth more than any other kind of Jihad when we gain victory over our own Ego.