Jihad
This article is about the religious concept. Jihad is also a hardcore punk band fronted by Sean Muttaqi, previously of Vegan Reich.
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2 Authority 3 Terrorism 4 Jihad and Combat against non-Muslims 5 Jihad in interpreting religious law 6 See Also 7 External Links |
Jihad is an Arabic word which comes from the Arabic root word 'jahada'; which means "exerting utmost effort". The word is usually mistranslated into English as "holy war", but a better translation would be "struggle" or "striving". The word has two connotations in Islam:
Definitions
According to the Qur'an,
- Permission (to fight) is given to those upon whom war is made because they are oppressed ... those who have been expelled from their homes without a just cause except that they say: Our Lord is Allah. (22:39-40)
Defensive Jihad, or armed struggle against foreign occupation or oppression is considered Jihad by most Muslims. In colonial times, the Muslim population often rose against the colonial authorities under the banner of Jihad (e.g. Daghestan and Chechens against Tsarist Russia, Indian Mutiny against Britain, Algerians against France, etc.). In this sense, Jihad is no different from the right of armed resistance against occupation that is sanctioned under UN and International Law.
Offensive Jihad, or conquering non-Muslim lands and bringing them under Muslim rule was historically called Jihad too, although the need for it today is disputed among Muslims. Some say that it was practiced only to preserve Islam from destruction, and that the concept is now obsolete because freedom of religious practice is present in most of the world. It is important to note that although this conquest did indeed happen, there were no forced conversions to Islam as a result.
Jihad is sometimes referred to as "The sixth pillar of Islam" in honour of its religious status and in reference to the Five Pillars of Islam, although there is no Quranic verses stating such, nor any hadiths.
Authority
Muslims hold that an outer jihad can only be declared by a lawful and legal authority who is himself a Muslim.
The majority of Muslims recognize that a de facto ruler is the authority to declare Jihad, in consultation with his advisers. Islamic law also states that such a Jihad may only be carried out against those who are themselves actively oppressing Muslims, or encroaching on lands of Islam.
There is much debate over both requirements. Islamic parties in democracies, for instance, accept the lawful legal authority of the state, and rules of war that define noncombatant status. This in turn will limit what activities can fit under jihad, but only for those who accept those definitions.
Fringe movements within Islam (such as Al Qaeda or Hamas) have declared Jihad themselves, thus attempting to bypass the de facto authorities. They also disagree with mainstream Muslims on the definition of oppression.
Some observers have compared Jihad to Just war in Christian thought.
Many modern Arab acts of terrorism have been considered an expression of jihad. Two Islamist groups call themselves "Islamic Jihad": Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. These groups are considered mainstream by millions of supporters within the Islamic world, who see a strong religious justification for a military understanding of the term jihad.
For militant groups within the Islamic cultural sphere, a person who commits suicide as a part of struggle against oppression is considered a shahid - holy martyr - and is held to have earned a place in heaven. Many Muslims disagree with this view, however, saying that even in such circumstances, suicide remains a sin.
Many Muslim Arab clerics encourage suicide bombing and Jihad against the West, mainly against the USA and Israel.[1] Most of these clerics are either sponsored by the Arab governments, or head extremist groups (such as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin of Hamas).
Many Islamic legal rulings view any killings of a civilian nature (whether through combat or any other such militant activity) as unjust, immoral and against the ethics of Islam. However this opinion suggests certain occasions when strategic "suicide bombings" may be permissible on the basis of whether they have been sanctioned as permissible by the local field commander, but this is only during a time of military action and only with regards to military targets.
There is no single position on this issue that all Muslims accept.
"Jihad has been decreed to repel aggression and to remove obstructions impeding the propagation of Islam in non-Islamic countries." As Lt. Col. M. M. Qureshi points out in his Landmarks of Jihad, "only a war which has an ultimate religious purpose can be termed as jihad." (Shayk Muhammad Abu Zahra, Egyptian member of the Academy of Islamic Research).
There is nothing historically unique about this position, although such clear (and popular) advocacy of forced conversion and proselytization is not permissible according to the laws of Islam.
See also the "Reputation and evaluation" section of Crusade for a discussion of how the terms "Crusade" and "Jihad" are perceived differently in the West and the Islamic world.
Many analysts hold that the severe economic and governmental differences between the Islamic world and the rest of the world contribute to fueling this notion of jihad.
The term Jihad, in its understanding as an inner struggle, is sometimes used to describe the process that an Muslim jurist uses in making decisions on Islamic law; it can be used as a metaphor for intellectual striving. This usage occurs when a jurist is attempting to reach a just ruling (or fatwa) in the Islamic law - that is ijtihad.
A driving idea behind this is that inner and outer jihad are related; each individual must apply inner jihad to conclude what is intolerable for him personally before the social process of deciding to resist can even begin. If it does, the process of declaring and ending outer jihad are themselves the subject of fatwas.
Terrorism
Jihad and Combat against non-Muslims
Jihad in interpreting religious law
See Also
External Links