Jihad
The literal meaning of Jihad is striving. Who or what are Muslims striving against when they go out for Jihad? Are they striving against their egos and temptations? How does one suffer death or injury in that struggle?
| 4:74. Let those (believers) who sell the life of this world for the Hereafter fight in the Cause of Allâh, and whoso fights in the Cause of Allâh, and is killed or gets victory, We shall bestow on him a great reward. |
| 9:111 …They fight in Allâh’s Cause, so they kill (others) and are killed…. |
What is fighting in Allah’s cause?
| Bukhari 4.52.65 …”He who fights that Allah’s Word (i.e. Islam) should be superior, fights in Allah’s Cause.” … |
Having considered Moe’s recitation & sunnah, lets examine Sharia, the Islamic law which flows from those documents. My source is The Reliance of the Traveller and Tools of the Worshipper , described in its introduction as “a summary of the school of Imam Shafi’i “.
The meaning of Jihad is explained in Book O, Chapter 9, Paragraph 0
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Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada signifying warfare to establish the religion. And it is the lesser jihad. As for the greater jihad, it is spiritual warfare against the lower self (nafs), which is why the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said as he was returning from jihad. “We have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad.” |
The scriptural basis for that definition is listed as:
and such hadiths as the one related by Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: “I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and perform the prayer, and pay zakat. If they say it, they have saved their blood and possessions from me, except for the rights of Islam over them. And their final reckoning is with Allah”; and the hadith reported by Muslim, “To go forth in the morning or evening to fight in the path of Allah is better than the whole world and everything in it. |
Paragraph 1 of this chapter reveals an important fact about the obligation of Jihad.
| …there are two possible states in respect to non-Muslims.
The first is when they are in their own countries, in which case jihad (def: o9. The second state is when non-Muslims invade a Muslim country or near to one, in which case jihad is personally obligatory (def: c3.2) upon the inhabitants of that country, who must repel the non-Muslims with whatever they can). |
is a communal obligationA communal obligation meaning upon the Muslims each year. What must they do annually? Al-Misri informs us in the eighth paragraph of this chapter.
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@O9.8: The Objectives of Jihad The caliph (o25) makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians (N: provided he has first invited them to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya, def: o11.4) -which is the significance of their paying it, not the money itself-while remaining in their ancestral religions) (O: and the war continues) until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax (O: in accordance with the word of Allah Most High,…Koran 9:29 |
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@O9.9 The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim (O: because they are not a people with a Book, nor honored as such, and are not permitted to settle with paying the poll tax (jizya) ) (n: though according to the Hanafi school, peoples of all other religions, even idol worshippers, are permitted to live under the protection of the Islamic state if they either become Muslim or agree to pay the poll tax, the sole exceptions to which are apostates from Islam and idol worshippers who are Arabs, neither of whom has any choice but becoming Muslim (al-Hidaya sharh Bidaya al-mubtadi’ (y21), 6.48-49) ). |
Where did Al-Misri get such an idea?
Lets review what we have learned from our little inquiry into Sharia.
- Jihad means to war against non-Muslims [and is] warfare to establish the religion.
- Jihad has a scriptural basis in the recitation & tradition, particularly 9:29. & Bukhari 1.8.387
- Jihad is better than the whole world and everything in it.
- Offensive Jihad is a communal obligation to be performed every year.
- The Caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. [Annually].
- The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim.
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