Jihad/ Holy war in Islam (Css 2020)
Introduction
Jihad” literally means striving, or doing one’s utmost. Within Islam, there are two basic theological understandings of the word: The “Greater Jihad” is the struggle against the lower self – the struggle to purify one’s heart, do well, avoid evil and make oneself a better person.
Modern day meanings of Jihad
Muslim scholar Mahmoud Ayoub states that “The goal of true jihad is to attain a harmony between Islam (submission), iman (faith), and ihsan (righteous living).” In modern times, Pakistani scholar and professor Fazlur Rahman Malik has used the term to describe the struggle to establish a “just moral-social order”.
According to the BBC, a third meaning of jihad is the struggle to build a good society. In a commentary of the hadith Sahih Muslim, entitled al-Minhaj, the medieval Islamic scholar Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi stated that “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”.
Muslim Public Opinion about Meaning of Jihad
A poll by Gallup showed that a “significant majority” of Muslim Indonesians define the term Jihad to mean “sacrificing one’s life for the sake of Islam / God / a just cause” or “fighting against the opponents of Islam”. In Lebanon, Kuwait, Jordan, and Morocco, the most frequent responses included references to “duty toward God”, a “divine duty”, or a “worship of God”, with no militaristic connotations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad-cite_note-144 Other responses referenced, in descending order of prevalence:
- “A commitment to hard work” and “achieving one’s goals in life”
- “Struggling to achieve a noble cause”
- “Promoting peace, harmony or cooperation, and assisting others”
- “Living the principles of Islam”
Types of Jihad
- Jihad of the heart (jihad bil qalb/nafs)is concerned with combatting the devil and in the attempt to escape his persuasion to evil. This type of Jihad was regardedcitation ne, ededas the greater jihad (al-jihad al-akbar).
- Jihad by the tongue (jihad bil lisan)(also Jihad by the word, jihad al-qalam) is concerned with speaking the truth and spreading the word of Islam with one’s tongue.
- Jihad by the hand (jihad bil yad)refers to choosing to do what is right and to combat injustice and what is wrong with action.
- Principles and Objectives of holy war (Qital) in Quran: The celebrated sirah writer Maulana Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri (1943-2006) derived following objectives of warfare in Islam, Allah has commanded in the Holy Qura deriveghting for Islam (Jihad) is obligatory for Muslims. The following objectives of fight against non-believers can be deduced from the verses of the Holy Qur’an.
- To fight against aggression and defend Islamic lands: Fight against those who fight with Muslims. Allah says:
To assist the oppressed especially in non-Muslim lands
Allah says:
- وَقَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ الَّذِينَ يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ وَلَا تَعْتَدُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُعْتَدِينَ
“And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you, and do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits”.
(al-Baqarah 2:190)
It is the duty to help those who are under the oppression of disbelievers
Allah says
وَمَا لَكُمْ لَا تُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ وَالْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالنِّسَاءِ وَالْوِلْدَانِ الَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا أَخْرِجْنَا مِنْ هَذِهِ الْقَرْيَةِ الظَّالِمِ أَهْلُهَا –
“Why should you not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed, men, women and children, whose cry is: “Our Lord! Rescue us from this own. Whose people are oppressor?” (an-Nisa 4:75)
To eradicate mischief (fitnah): The third major object of Jihad is to preserve peace, through eradication of mischief.
قَاتِلُوْ هُمْ حَتَّى لَا تَكُوْنَ فِتْنَةٌ وَيَكُوْنَ الدِّيْنُ لِلَّهِ
“Fight them on until there is no more mischief and the religion become Allah’s””.
(al-Baqarah 2:193)
To eliminate oppression and cruelty
War is the most fitted way to eliminate the incidence of oppression
وَأَعِدُوا لَهُمْ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ مِنْ قُوَّةٍ وَمِنْ رِبَاطِ الْخَيْلِ تُرْهِبُونَ بِهِ عَدُوَّ اللَّهِ وَعَدُوَّكُمْ وَآخَرِينَ مِنْ دُونِهِمْ لا تَعْلَمُونَهُمُ اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُهُمْ .
“And prepare against them what force you can and horses tied at the frontier, to frighten thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them, whom you do not know (but) Allah knows them”. (al-Anfaal 8:60)
To remove hindrance in the way of Islam
وَصَدٌ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَكُفْرٌ بِهِ وَالْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ وَإِخْرَاجُ أَهْلِهِ مِنْهُ أَكْبَرُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ وَالْفِتْنَةُ أَكْبَرُ مِنَ الْقَتْلِ
“But graver is it in the sight of Allah to prevent access to the path of Allah to deny Him, to prevent access to the sacred mosque, and drive out its members. Tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter”.(al-Baqarah 2:217)
Principles and terms & conditions of Jihad in Hadith
Maulana Safiyurrehman Mubarakpuri has described following principles of warefare In Islam. Allah’s Messenger (PBUH) issued honorable and strict rules about war and ordered his soldiers and leaders to follow them. They were forbidden from breaking those rules under any circumstances, Sulaimah bin Buraida narrates that whenever Allah’s Messenger PBUH) appointed a leader on an army or on a battalion, he used to recommend him to fear Allah, and to be good with all Muslims who were with him. Then the Prophet (PBUH) would instruct to him:
اغزوا باسم الله فى سبيل الله، قاتلوا من كفر بالله، اغزوا، فلا تغلوا ولا تغدروا ، ولا تقتلوا وليدا.
“Let your invasion be in the name of Allah and for His sake. Fight those who disbelieve in Allah. Invade but do not plunder nor conceal booty. Never deform the corpse of a dead person or kill an infant child.”
The Prophet (PBUH) asked people to facilitate but he forbade them to come down hard on others. “Pacify,” he said, “and do not punish.”
When it happened that he arrived at the battlefield by night, he would not invade the enemy till morning.
He utterly forbade burning (torturing people) in fire, killing children and women or
even beating them. He also forbade theft and robbery and declared that gains acquired through plundering were not less forbidden than the flesh of a corpse.
Corruption of tillage, killing of the animals and cutting down of trees were al forbidden unless they were badly needed and there was no other substitute. He said
لا تجهزن على جعيح، جريح، ولا تتبعن مديرا ، ولا تقتلن أسيرًا
“Do not kill a wounded person nor run after a fleeing one or kill a captive.”
He forbade from killing the envoys. He also strictly prohibited the killing of those who made covenants.
Just War and Holy War / Jihad | Qital
In the medieval Islamic world, there were philosophers who, unlike the jurists, were willing to foreground questions of justice and injustice in their discussions of warfare. They did this by adapting Islamic concepts into a Greek, mainly Platonic field of reference The most important of these philosophers was the great al-Farabi (d. 950). Al-Farabi considers a range of situations in which wars may be considered just or unjust. They are unjust if they serve a ruler’s narrow, selfish purposes or if they are devoted solely to conquest and bloodshed. Just wars may, of course, be defensive, but they may also, under some circumstances, be offensive what makes them just is their role in achieving the wellbeing of the “virtuous city,” that association which is needed in order to attain happiness. Here Farabi uses not only the Arabic word harb (war) but also, at occasions, the word jihad, though not quite in the technical sense assigned to it by Islamic legal doctrine. It seems likely, all the same, that al-Farabi was trying to find a philosophical place for the juridical doctrine of jihad
Within his teachings regarding the virtuous city and its ruler, the Islamic philosopher-king
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) begins his discussion of wars by saying that these “have always occurred in the world since God created it, naturally and unavoidably, because
Men’s desire for revenge and their need for self-defense. Ibn Khaldun then identifies four types of war. The first of these “usually occurs between neighboring tribes and competing families. The second is war caused by hostility, whereby savage nations living in thedesert attack their neighbors, solely with a view to seizing their property.