When Muslims make an assertion about what they’re faith teaches, many of them expect us just to believe what they say. Usually, no references are provided from the Qur’an, Hadith, or Sira. If they are, they aren’t provided with jurisprudence (fiqh) by their scholars (Ulema - jurists). Often, they’ll quote a verse in the Qur’an (Surah) where Mohammed is advocating peace or mercy, without also telling us that Mohammed’s Meccan teachings are abrogated by his Medinan teachings.
This begs the question, where do we go to learn how Muslims themselves understand their religion? What does the highest authority of Sunni Islam (Al-Azhar University) teach about Islam? Where is their doctrine codified and organized?
Fortunately for we infidels, there is somewhere to look: the 'Umdat al-Salik (The Reliance of the Traveler), which has been helpfully translated into English. Al-Azhar certified that it “conforms to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community.” Unfortunately, it’s temporarily out-of-stock on Amazon (I wonder why?). Still, Amazon has a “search inside the book” feature that allows one to look at the table of contents. You can type “jihad” in the search button and see what comes up. Go ahead try it for yourself:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0915957728/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link
When I searched for the term “jihad”, it returned 62 pages inside the book, which I was able to read. Page 599 and following are especially interesting.