Jihad, as near as I can make it, is essentially two sets of doctrines, one relating to war and the other relating to daily life. On the practical level, most of us do not get up in the morning and go start a war, regardless of our opportunities, so it is the concept of jihad in daily life which is culturally dominant.
        If I follow what I've read correctly, and my reading has been shallow rather than deep, then Islam construes life as a struggle, and the name for this struggle is jihad.
        A basic resource that I looked at was the article on jihad in the 2005 Edition of Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia, an article contributed