Jihad in History and Law
Let us now consider the
nature of Jihad more fully as it appears in the
history and law of
Islam. Jihad in Arabic means "to strive for some
objective".
Thus, the common assumption, that Jihad is combat, is incorrect.
In
fact Jihad, in its technical meaning, has several branches, among
which
are the combative forms of Jihad.
Ibn Rushd, in his
Muqaddimaat, divides Jihad into four kinds:
"Jihad by the
heart; Jihad by the tongue; Jihad by the hand and Jihad by
the
sword."
[Muqaddimaat, Ibn Rushd (known in the Western
world as Averroes), p. 259]
He defines "Jihad by the
tongue" as "to commend good conduct and forbid the
wrong,
like the type of Jihad Allah I ordered us to fulfill against
the
hypocrites in His Words, "O Prophet! Strive hard against
the unbelievers and
the hypocrites". [9:73] So the Prophet
(saws) strove against the unbelievers
by sword and against the
hypocrites by tongue."
S. Ramadan Buti, a contemporary
Orthodox scholar from Syria in his seminal
work on the subject
Jihad in Islam writes, ".even before he conducted Jihad
by
sword against the unbelievers, there is no doubt the Prophet
(saws)
invited these unbelievers peacefully, lodged protests
against their beliefs
and strove to remove their misgivings about
Islam. When they refused any
other solution, but rather declared a
war against him and his message and
initiated the fight, there was
no alternative except to fight back."
[Jihad in Islam,
Muhammad Sa'id R. Al Buti, Dar al-Fikr, 1995]
One form of
Jihad, usually overlooked in today's pursuit of newsworthy
headlines,
is the Jihad of presenting the message of Islam--da`wah.
Thirteen
years of the Prophet's (saws) 23-year mission consisted
purely of this type
of Jihad. Contrary to popular belief, the word
Jihad and related forms of
its root word <jahada> are
mentioned in many Makkan verses in a
non-combative context.
Imam
Nawawi in his book al-Minhaj, when defining Jihad and its
different
categories, said, "one of the collective duties of
the community as a whole
(fard kifaya) is
to lodge a valid
protest, to solve problems of religion, to have knowledge
of
Divine Law, to command what is right and forbid wrong
conduct.
[al-Minhaaj, (the Method), al-Nawawi, p. 210]
The
explanation of Jihad in Imam al-Dardir's book Aqarab al-Masalik is
that
it is " propagating the knowledge of the Divine Law,
commending right and
forbidding wrong. He emphasized that it is
not permitted to skip this
category of Jihad and implement the
combative form, saying, "the first
[Islamic] duty is to call
people to enter the fold of Islam, even if they
had been preached
to by the Prophet (saws) beforehand."
[Al-sharh al-saghir,
Imam al-Dardir]
Imam Bahouti commences the chapter on
Jihad in his book Kashf al-Kinaa by
showing the injunctions of
collective religious duties (kifaya) that the
Muslim Nation must
achieve before embarking on combative Jihad, including
preaching
and education about the religion of Islam, dismissing all
the
uncertainties about this religion and making available all the
skills and
qualifications which people might need in their
religious, secular, physical
and financial interests because these
constitute the regulations of both
this life and the life to come.
Hence, da`wah-performing the activities of
propagating Islam and
its related fields of knowledge-is the cornerstone of
the
'building' of Jihad and its rules; and any attempt to build without
this
'stone' would damage the meaning and reality of Jihad.
[Kashf
al-kina'a, Mansour bin Yunes al-Bahhouti, p. 33]
In
al-Mughni, Ibn Qudama states
"declaring Jihad is the
responsibility of the Imam and is his independent
legal
judgment."
[Al-Mughni, Vol. 9, p. 184]
Al-Dardir
says,
"proclaiming Jihad comes through the Imam's assignment
of a leader"
[Al-sharh al-saghir by al-Dardir, Vol. 2, p.
274]
Abu Bakr Al-Jazaa'iri states that the pillars of Jihad
are:
"A pure intention and that it is performed behind a
Muslim Imam and beneath
his flag and with his permission. .it is
not permissible for them to fight
without an Imam."
Al-Dardir
says,
"Jihad becomes a duty when the enemy takes [Muslims] by
surprise"
[Al-sharh al-saghir by al-Dardir, Vol. 2, p.
274]
Ramadan al-Buti shows that fighting in this case is
an obligation of the
community as a whole. This is based on the
Prophet's saying "He who is
killed in defence of his
belongings, or in self-defence, or for his
religion, is a
martyr"
[Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi]
***
The
singular exception to the majority opinion was that of Imam Shafi`i,
who
contended the verses [9:5] and [9:29] support the condition of
jihad being a
continual war upon the non-Muslims until they repent
and accept Islam or
else pay jizya [referred to as polltax]."
However the majority of jurists
argued against this position,
citing the succeeding verses as evidence "and
if anyone of
the polytheists seeks your protection then grant him
protection..."
[9:6]. The other Imams argued from this that as long as they
are
submissive and willing to live peacefully among the believers our
divine
obligation is to treat them peacefully, despite their
denial of Islam.
The next verse [9:7], is instruction to keep
treaty obligations with
meticulous care, and not to break them
unless the unbelievers break them
first, reiterated in the
following verse [9:8], in which Allah orders us not
to make a
treaty with unbelieving enemies who break their oaths and
whose
intention is to overpower the Muslims. Had jihad's objective
been to fight
all unbelievers, then there would have been no need
for treaties and no
differentiation between polytheists who remain
loyal and faithful to their
word and those who are
treacherous.
Based on these arguments of the scholars, the
majority concluded that
physical fighting is not a permanent
condition against unbelievers, but only
when treaties are broken
or aggression has been made against Muslim
territory (dar
al-Islam) by unbelievers.
***
On the other hand,
the call to Islam, is a continuous jihad, per the hadith
"I
have been ordered to fight the people until they declare that there
is no
god but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger, establish
prayers, and pay
zakat. If they perform all that, their blood and
property are guaranteed
protection on my behalf except when
justified by Islamic laws. Then their
accounts will be done by
Allah." (Bukhari and Muslim).
Said Ramadan Buti in "Jihad
in Islam", explains this hadith in detail,
showing that
contrary to the minority opinion, fighting here does not refer
to
combat but to struggle, including within it da`wah,
preaching,
exhortation and establishment of the state apparatus
whereby Islamic
preaching is protected; not forcing anyone to
become Muslim at the point of
a sword. Many examples from the
Prophet's r life history show he never
forced conversion, nor did
his Successors. He explains that the linguistic
scholars of hadith
showed that the word <uqaatil> used by the Prophet (saws)
means
"fight", not <aqtul> "kill". Its Arabic
usage denotes defense against
an attacker or oppressor; not to
attack or assail.