Jihad as war in Quran and Sunnah

The 9/11 terror attacks in New York not only killed 3000 innocent and injured
thousands of people the have sowed seeds of hatred between the west and Muslims.
The wretched process of demonisation was unleashed on both sides having hey days!
On one side Islamophobia (the dread and hatred of Islam) and on the other hand anti
West rhetoric. In this clash of two extremisms many things have become confused
and misunderstood. Amongst the concepts that is the most misunderstood is jihad
described as ‘holy war’ or ‘terrorism’. In this article we shed light on the meaning of
Jihad from classical scholars and show important Jihad is for bettering the human
condition.

The most Quranic term for fighting is Qital. This occurs 44 times in different forms
e.g.:

1) “And fight in God’s way those who fight you and don’t transgress”
(190:Baqarah)

2) “And fight in God’s way and remember God is all hearing and all knowing”
(244:Baqarah)

A contemporary Muslim jurist Pir Muhammad Karam Shah comments on these verses
as follows:
“In these verses the oppressed Muslims are being given Divine permission to use
force against force. For fifteen years they had been bitterly persecuted and they
endured patiently and silently. In order to understand the Quranic command of Jihad
three things must be understood:
1) For what purpose
2) With whom
3) And what are the conditions for fighting
These eloquently and concisely answer these questions. About the purpose of jihad it
says, “In God’s way”. For upholding the truth and justice and not for looting,
economic and industrial competition, racial prejudice or other lowly instincts. The
believer does not fight for such degrading purpose.

With whom? It says “Those who fight you “ but with the condition: “you do not
transgress”. When passions are inflamed and the fire of revenge is raging do not be
unjust! Since “God does not befriend the transgressors”. Women, children, disable,
elderly, peasants, priests and labourers who are non-combatants should not be harmed
in anyway.
(Zia ul Quran vol 1:P132)
Abdullah Yusuf Ali comments as follows on these verses:

“War is permissible in self defence and under well defined limits. When under taken
it must be pushed with vigour, but not relentlessly, but only to reinforce peace and
freedom for divine worship”. Further on he says: “ Is lam is the religion of peace,
good will, mutual understanding and good faith. But it will not acquice in
wrongdoing, and its men will hold their lives cheap in defence of honour, justice and
religion, which they hold sacred. Their ideal is that of heroic virtue combined with
unselfish gentleness and tenderness, such as is exemplified in the life of the prophet.
They believe in courage, obedience, discipline, duty and constant striving by all
means in their power, physical, moral, intellectual and spiritual for the establishment
of truth and righteousness”.

Muhammad Asad a contemporary European commentator of the Quran understands

the following from these verses:

“These verses lay down unequivocally that only in self defence (in the widest sense of
the word) makes war permissible for the Muslims… “Permission to fight is given to
those against whom war is wrongfully waged” (22:39) lays down the fundamental
principle of self-defence as the only possible justification of war” (The message of the
Quran P51).

Further evidence for the defensive war comes from the prophet’s march to Tabuk in
the 9th year of hijrah. When the Romans failed to appear on the battlefield, the Prophet
did not go and attack. He returned home with his mighty army of 30,000 soldiers.

According to Murad Hoffman the concept of jihad since the times of the crusades and
the reconquering of Jerusalem by the Salah-ud-din has been primarily understood in
military terms. (In Islam youth 21, Morality and materialism issue 5). Now I would
like to present two great classical scholars and their views on Jihad. Nawawi (d.651)
and Ibn Hajar Al Asqalani (d852 AH) perhaps one of the greatest scholars that lived.

The objective of this survey is to see how the Muslim Jurists of the middle ages
understood jihad.

Imam Nawawi and Jihad

In his most famous collection of ahadith ‘Riyazussaliheen’ Imam Nawawi has a
whole book dedicated to Jihad.

It opens with six most powerful verses, praising the mujahideen urging to fight in
God’s way and the wonderful merits awarded to mujahid. He then cites 68 rigorously
authenticated ahadith.

He then cites and interesting hadith:

The prophet was asked which is the best deed? He said, “faith in God and his
messenger”. He was then asked, “then which?” He replied, “Fighting in God’s way
and again it was said “then which?” He said, “Properly preformed Hajj”.

He then mentions a hadith, which praise the soldiers defending the borders and living
in the forts.

Followed by a hadith praising the mujahideen for example, The Prophet said, “The
dusty feet of a mujahid fighter will not be touched by hell fire”.

The chapter continues with stories about disciples’ eagerness to fight and be prepared
and training for jihad and breeding and keeping horses for jihad.
A bedouin once asked the prophet a person fights for the booty, another one for
chivalry and the third one to show off. The prophet replied he who fights to raised
God’s word is the one who is in God’s way.

The penultimate hadith is:

The prophet said, “Never wish to fight the enemy if you do meet him then be patient”.
Agreed upon.

The final hadith reveals the nature of fighting, “War is trickery”.

Ibn Hajar Al Asqalani (d. 852 Ah)

In Fath hul Bari says, “Al Jihad literally means toiling, labouring, facing hardship and
difficulty and in Shariah it means: exerting and struggling against the infidels it is also
used for ‘mujahada tu shaitan’ struggling against the devil to reject his insinuations
and his lurings for lust”.

Bukhari’s book of Al Jihad Was-sair (Book for fighting and marching) has 199
sections containing 308 ahadith extolling, praising and teaching about every aspect of
Jihad; The different categories of a mujahideen, the hours in paradise, wish to become
a martyr, the one who fights to raise the Divine name, the excellence of being a
martyr, paradise lies under the shade of the sword, Chivalry in the battlefield.
Women’s jihad: when and how to leave for jihad, dividing booty; the angels shade the
martyr; the mujahids wish to return to the world; encouragement to fight, the prophets
invitation to invite people to Islam, etc.

From these medieval jurists to scholars we see the formulation of classical doctrine of
Jihad as war. The evidence is from dozens of Quranic verses which are plain and
clear. The details provided in the ahadith literature further elaborate this doctrine of
jihad as war against injustice and evil. God says,

“And if God had not enabled people to defend themselves against one another,
corruption, chaos would certainly overwhelmed the earth: But God is limitless in his
bounty unto all the worlds ”.
(Baqarah:251)

In a similar verses in Surah Al Hajj God says,

“If God had not allowed people to defend themselves against one another the
monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques…would have been destroyed”.
(22:40)
Here the justification for war is the defence of religious freedom.

In order to fully understand the significance of the term ‘Jihad’ in Islam we must look
at some forms of Jihad. We have just examined the most popular meaning of Jihad as
war. No matter how important this is for peace and justice it is still termed as Al Jihad
al Asghar, the lesser jihad in the hadith. It is narrated that when the prophet was
returning from Tabuk to Madinah he said, “We have just returned from a lesser Jihad
to a greatest jihad”. He was asked, “What is this greatest Jihad O Messenger?” He
replied, “Disciplining oneself”. We will discuss the greater jihad later.

The Quran also talks a bout a ‘great jihad’ it says, “Don’t pay heed to the unbelievers
and strive against them using this (Quran) with jihadan Kabeera (a great struggle)”.
(Al Furqan: 52)

In another words use rational arguments to convince them of the truth of Islam; “Use
your intellect and wisdom to invite them to your Lord and argue with them in a
beautiful manner”
(An Nahl: 125)
So the Jihad bil Quran, jihad using the Quran. For thirteen years in Makkah this was
the Prophet’s only form of Jihad day in and day out! Challenging the ignorance. Imam
Razi comments on the verses, “And strenuously in inviting them “. Although some
take it to mean Qital, however this is a Makkan Surah and the permission to fight was
given in Madinah so it does not mean Qital”.

The following verse of surah Hajj is very significant as it gives the word jihad in a
much wider scope then Jihad as war. The Quran says,

“And strive in Allah’s way as you ought to strive”

(Al Hajj:78)
Razi (d. 604 AH) asks ‘what is this jihad (striving)?’ He gives six meanings:

1) Fighting infidels in God’s way sincerely

2) The later generations must struggle for religion like the earlier generations.
3) Not to fear the blamers
4) Do any work purely for God’s sake
5) To make every effort in the revival of religion and establishing it by all means
possible
6) Striving against the self and lowly desires and when the prophet returned from
Tabuk he said, “We have returned from a lesser jihad to a greater jihad”.

And it implies the carrying out of all Divine commandments for practising all
commands and avoiding the prohibitions is Jihad”.
(Tafsir Kabeer Vol 2, P332)
Righab Al Asfhani in his famous dictionary ‘Mufradat’ defines Jihad in its wider
sense, he says:
“Al Jihad and Al Mujahada means to exert ones utmost effort in defending oneself
against the enemy. And there are three types of Jihad:
1) Fighting the enemy
2) Fighting the shaitan
3) Fighting oneself
The prophet said fight the enemy”.

Prof. Syed Hossein Nasr eloquently expresses this general wide ranging meaning of
Jihad, he says:
“To understand the significance of Jihad in Islam and its civilisation, we must first of
all distinguish between a general, popular meaning of the term and the theological and
judicial sense of the word. In the first sense it is used to mean and effort considered
worthy, much like crusade in its general sense in English and not in particular
reference to the religious wars carried out by Western Christianity… In the same way
that in English one says that such and such organisation is carrying out a crusade to
eradicate poverty or disease, in Islamic language one can say that this or that group or
a government agency is carrying out a jihad, let us say, build houses for the poor”
(The heart of Islam: Harper Collins 2002)

Conclusion
From our survey of Quranic passages and ahadith we can discern four types of Jihad:

1) Al jihad al Asghar, the lesser Jihad this is the military warfare and the struggle
to establish justice in society by fighting oppression.
2) Al jihad al Khair, or jihad bil mal the good jihad which refers to struggle to
better the human condition through giving freely ones wealth, time, skills and
capabilities.
3) Al jihad al Kabeer or jihad bil Quran the great jihad. This is intellectual
activity inviting people to goodness using revelation, reason and scientific
arguments.
4) Al jihad Akbar, the great jihad. This is inner struggle against immorality and
shortcomings with the ultimate goal of self-purification. “The greatest jihad is
fighting ones animal side. It is the internal striving in the path of God to
overcome ones animal side. Man shares with animals certain characteristics
which if let loose, make him very dangerous beast”. (Al ghazzali)

Every one of these jihads has its place and time. Jihad is a noble concept of bettering
the human condition at personal, social and political level.