Jihad (English pronunciation: /dʒɪ ˈhɑːd/; Arabic: ﺩﺎﻬﺟ ǧihād [dʒiˈhæːd]), an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning struggle. The word jihad appears in 23 Quranic verses.[1] Within the context of the classical Islam, particularly the Shiahs beliefs, it refers to struggle against those who do not believe in the Abrahamic God (Allah).[2] However, the word has even wider implications. Jihad means to struggle in the way of Allah. Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression striving in the way of God (al-jihad fi sabil Allah).[3][4][5] A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is mujahideen. Jihad is an important religious duty for Muslims. A minority among the Sunni scholars sometimes refer to this duty as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official status.[6] In Twelver Shia Islam, however, Jihad is one of the 10 Practices of the Religion. Ahmadi Muslims consider only defensive jihad to be permissible while rejecting offensive jihad. There are two commonly accepted meanings of jihad: an inner spiritual struggle and an outer physical struggle.[3] The greater jihad is the inner struggle by a believer to fulfill his religious duties.[3][7] This non-violent meaning is stressed by both Muslim [8] and non-Muslim[9] authors. However, there is consensus amongst Islamic scholars that the concept of jihad will always include armed struggle against persecution and oppression.[10] The lesser jihad is the physical struggle against the enemies of Islam.[3] This physical struggle can take a violent form or a non- violent form. The proponents of the violent form translate jihad as holy war,[11][12] although some Islamic studies scholars disagree. [13] The Dictionary of Islam[3] and British-American orientalist Bernard Lewis both argue jihad has a military meaning in the large majority of cases.[14] Some scholars maintain non-violent ways to struggle against the enemies of Islam. An example of this is written debate, often characterized as jihad of the pen.[15] According to the BBC, a third meaning of jihad is the struggle to build a good society.[7] 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.[16] Origins Main article: List of expeditions of Muhammad The beginnings of Jihad are traced back to the words and actions of Muhammad and the Quran.[17] This encourages the use of Jihad against non-Muslims.[18] The Quran, however, never uses the term Jihad for fighting and combat in the name of Allah; qital is used to mean “fighting.” Jihad in the Quran was originally intended for the nearby neighbors of the Muslims, but as time passed and more enemies arose, the Quranic statements supporting Jihad were updated for the new adversaries. [18] The first documentation of the law of Jihad was written by Abd al-Rahman al-Awzai and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al- Shaybani . The document grew out of debates that had surfaced ever since Muhammads death.[17] Usage of the term In Modern Standard Arabic, jihad is one of the correct terms for a struggle for any cause, violent or not, religious or secular (though ﺡﺎﻔﻛ kifāḥ is also used).[citation needed] For instance, Mahatma Gandhis satyagraha struggle for Indian independence is called a jihad in Modern Standard Arabic (as well as many other dialects of Arabic); the terminology is also applied to the fight for womens liberation.[19] The term jihad has accrued both violent and non-violent meanings. It can simply mean striving to live a moral and virtuous life, spreading and defending Islam as well as fighting injustice and oppression, among other things.[20] The relative importance of these two forms of jihad is a matter of controversy. A poll by Gallup showed that a significant majority of Muslim Indonesians define the term to mean sacrificing ones life for the sake of Islam/God/a just cause or fighting against the opponents of Islam. In Lebanon, Kuwait, Jordan, and Morocco, the majority used the term to mean duty toward God, a divine duty, or a worship of God, with no militaristic connotations. Other responses referenced, in descending order of prevalence: A commitment to hard work and achieving ones goals in life Struggling to achieve a noble cause Promoting peace, harmony or cooperation, and assisting others Living the principles of Islam[21] Distinction of greater and lesser jihad In his work, The History of Baghdad, Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, an 11th-century Islamic scholar, referenced a statement by the companion of Muhammad Jabir ibn Abd-Allah . The reference stated that Jabir said, The Prophet... returned from one of his battles, and thereupon told us, You have arrived with an excellent arrival, you have come from the Lesser Jihad to the Greater Jihad—the striving of a servant (of Allah) against his desires (holy war).[unreliable source?][22][23] This reference gave rise to the distinguishing of two forms of jihad: greater and lesser. Some Islamic scholars dispute the authenticity of this reference and consider the meaning of jihad as a holy war to be more important.[22] According to the Muslim Jurist Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, the quote in which Muhammad is reported to have said that greater Jihad is the inner struggle, is from an unreliable source: The best of jihad During the Arab Spring, many peaceful demonstrations in the Arab world faced violence and gunfire by their governments regime. The gunfire encouraged the protesters and led them to revolutions, based on their strong faith in what is called the best of jihad. The best of jihad was encouraged by their prophet, Muhammad, saying:[25][26] In a battlefield context, when jihad is used to denote warfare, Ibn Nuhaas cited the following hadith to explain the meaning of the best Jihad: In a similarly worded Hadith to the one above, Ibn Nuhaas cited a hadith from Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, where it states that the highest kind of Jihad, is The person who is killed whilst spilling the last of his blood.(Ahmed 4/144)[29] It has also been reported that Muhammad considered performing hajj to be the best jihad for Muslim women.[30] Spiritual struggle 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).[31] In modern times, Pakistani scholar and professor Fazlur Rahman Malik has used the term to describe the struggle to establish just moral- social order,[32] while President Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia has used it to describe the struggle for economic development in that country.[33] Warfare (Jihad bil Saif) Further information: Mujahideen, Jihadism, and Jihad fi sabil Allah Within classical Islamic jurisprudence—the development of which is to be dated into the first few centuries after the prophets death[34]—jihad is the only form of warfare permissible under Islamic law, and may consist in wars against unbelievers, apostates, rebels, highway robbers and dissenters renouncing the authority of Islam.[35] The primary aim of jihad as warfare is not the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam by force, but rather the expansion and defense of the Islamic state. [36][37] In later centuries, especially in the course of the colonization of large parts of the Muslim world, emphasis has been put on non-militant aspects of the jihad. Today, some Muslim authors only recognize wars with the aim of territorial defense as well as the defense of religious freedom as legitimate.[38] Whether the Quran sanctions defensive warfare only or commands an all out war against non-Muslims depends on the interpretation of the relevant passages.[39] This is because it does not explicitly state the aims of the war Muslims are obliged to wage; the passages concerning jihad rather aim at promoting fighters for the Islamic cause and do not discuss military ethics.[40] In the classical manuals of Islamic jurisprudence, the rules associated with armed warfare are covered at great length. Such rules include not killing women, children and non- combatants, as well as not damaging cultivated or residential areas.[41] More recently, modern Muslims have tried to re-interpret the Islamic sources, stressing that Jihad is essentially defensive warfare aimed at protecting Muslims and Islam.[37] Although some Islamic scholars have differed on the implementation of Jihad , there is consensus amongst them that the concept of jihad will always include armed struggle against persecution and oppression.[10] Debate Controversy has arisen over whether the usage of the term jihad without further explanation refers to military combat, and whether some have used confusion over the definition of the term to their advantage.[42] Middle East historian Bernard Lewis argues that the overwhelming majority of classical theologians, jurists, and traditionalists (specialists in the hadith) understood the obligation of jihad in a military sense.[43] Furthermore, Lewis maintains that for most of the recorded history of Islam, from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad onward, the word jihad was used in a primarily military sense.[44] Resistance against globalization See also: Jihad vs. McWorld Benjamin R. Barber used the term Jihad to point out the resistant movement against globalization (which he refers to as McWorld) as well as the modern- institutionalization of nation states. The forces of Jihad come from fundamentalist ethnic groups who want to protect their traditions, heritage and identity from modernization and universalized markets.[45] The resistance has led to fragmented, small-scale violent conflicts between cultures, peoples and tribes. Although Jihad strengthens the solidarity within the resisting group, it obeys to hierarchy and cannot tolerate foreign influence, which discourages democracy. Views of different Muslim gro
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 06:28:09 +0000
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