Concept of ‘jihad’ misunderstood
The Quran refers to jihad in 24 verses, most of which emphasise the spiritual and non-violent manifestations of jihad, such as being steadfast in faith and sacrifice in its cause, migration from Mecca to Madinah, and peaceful propagation of the faith.
Prof Mohammad Hashim Kamali, NST
THE concept of jihad fisabilillah (striving in the path of God) as contained in the Quran and Hadith has often been distorted and misused by the perpetrators of military violence and terrorism, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Matters are made worse by the fact that the word has gained commercial appeal in Europe and the United States. Writers seeking to make their publications commercially successful have been using “jihad” in their titles, and security firms are scaremongering people to increase sales of their wares. It is important, therefore, to explain what jihad stands for through a careful reading of the Quran and Hadith.
Jihad is derived from the root word jahada, which means to strive or to exert effort. Its translation in the Western media as “holy war” would, in Arabic, be equivalent to al-harb al-muqaddasah, which is unfamiliar to Arabic speakers.
Jihad consists of the effort one makes to do something good and to prevent or oppose evil. The effort may be directed towards oneself or the outside world. The struggle to control and refine one’s ego, to conquer ignorance, to discipline one’s base desires, and to excel in the work undertaken to the best of one’s ability is the jihad of the self (jihad al-nafs).
In a similar vein, the Sufi contemplation in combating the distractions of the soul is called mujehadah. To combat poverty and disease, to build houses for the poor, and to fight corruption and abuse would all qualify as jihad that serves a social purpose of great benefit.
We are cast into a world in which there is disequilibrium, externally and within ourselves, to which jihad serves as a corrective. For ordinary Muslims, praying five times a day all their lives, or fasting from dawn to dusk during Ramadan are certainly not possible without great effort, or jihad.
It is now common to hear Muslim intellectuals speak of jihad in business, jihad in the acquisition of knowledge, and jihad against social ills afflicting the youth, drug abuse and AIDS.
Understood in its comprehensive sense, jihad is an inherent aspect of the human condition in facing the imperfections of this world. Prophet Muhammad has said “the mujehid is one who wages a struggle against himself”.
In a Hadith, al-Bukhari and Muslim have recorded a young man asking Prophet Muhammad: “Should I join the jihad?” that was apparently in progress at the time. In response, the Prophet asked him a question: “Do you have parents?” and when the man said “Yes”, the Prophet told him, “Then strive by serving them”.
The Quran refers to jihad in 24 verses, most of which emphasise the spiritual and non-violent manifestations of jihad, such as being steadfast in faith and sacrifice in its cause, migration from Mecca to Madinah, and peaceful propagation of the faith.
Jihad as armed struggle against the aggressor occurs only in the Medinan verses of the Quran. During the first 13 years of his campaign in Mecca, the Prophet was not permitted to use force, even in self-defence.
Islam was propagated only through peaceful methods.
The idolaters of Mecca, through persecution, forced a number of the Prophet’s companions to migrate, initially to Abyssinia, and later to Madinah. stepped up their hostility and attacked the Muslims, some 270km away, in the battles of Badr (624 CE) and Uhud (625 CE), with superior forces and inflicted heavy casualties on them. Only then was the permission granted to: “Fight in the way of God those who fight you, but begin not hostilities. Verily God loves not the aggressors” (Q 2:190).
The leading schools of Islamic law have held that jihad is legitimate in defence only against aggression. They also maintain that jihad must be declared by the legitimate leader. Hence no group, party or organisation has the authority to take up arms in the name of jihad without authorisation by the lawful authorities. For there will otherwise be disorder and anarchy.
This is the purport of the hadith which provides that: “A Muslim ruler is the shield [of his people]. A war can only be waged under him and people should seek his shelter [in war].”
The Shaykhs of al-Azhar, Mahmud Shaltut (d.1985) and Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi (d.2010), and the former Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh ‘Ali Gomaa, have all shown in their writings that the Quran only allows war for self defence.
The Jeddah-based Islamic Fiqh Academy affiliated to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in its sixteenth 16th session (5-10 January Jan 5 to 10, 2002) vehemently condemned all manifestation of terrorism and its attributions to Islam: Terrorism terrorism is an outrageous attack carried out either by individuals, groups or states against the human being. It includes all forms of intimidation, harm, threats, killing without a just cause, all forms of armed robbery, banditry, every act of violence or threat intended to fulfil a criminal scheme individually or collectively, terrify and horrify people by hurting them or by exposing their lives, liberty, and security to danger — all are resolutely forbidden in Islam.
Unlike the Romans, who subscribed to the notion that silent enim legis enter arma (laws are silent during wars), Islamic law regulated war and proscribed acts of oppression and injustice before the onset of war, during it, and after the war ends.
Action may be taken only against armed combatants. Civilians and persons who are not involved nor trained to be engaged in combat may not be targeted. Killing and harming women and children are prohibited. Animals, crops and trees are to be spared unless it be for sustaining life, which clearly means that in Islam laws are not silent during war.
Mohammad Hashim Kamali is CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) Malaysia
