Jihad
Jihad is an Arabic word that means "exerting", "striving", or "struggling", particularly with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it encompasses almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God's guidance, such as an internal struggle against evil in oneself, efforts to build a good Muslim community, and struggle to defend Islam. Literally meaning 'struggle', the term is most frequently associated with warfare.
Jihad is classified into inner jihad, which involves a struggle against one's own passions and impulses, and outer jihad, which is further subdivided into jihad of the pen/tongue and jihad of the sword. Much of Muslim opinion considers inner jihad to have primacy over outer jihad. The analysis of a large survey from 2002 reveals considerable nuance in the conceptions of jihad held by Muslims around the world, ranging from righteous living and promoting peace to fighting against the opponents of Islam.
The word jihad appears frequently in the Qur'an referring to both religious and spiritual struggle and to war and physical struggle, often in the idiomatic expression "striving in the path of God ", conveying a sense of self-exertion. In the hadiths, jihad refers predominantly to warfare. Greater jihad refers to spiritual and moral struggle, and has traditionally been emphasized in Sufi and Ahmadiyya circles. The sense of jihad as armed resistance was first used in the context of persecution faced by Muslims when Muhammad was at Mecca, when the community had two choices: further emigration or war. The Qur'an justifies war in self-defense or in response to aggression towards other Muslims, however the sword verses have historically been interpreted to abrogate other verses and justify offensive war against unbelievers, forcibly converting polytheistic pagans during the early Muslim conquests. A set of rules pertaining to jihad were developed, including prohibitions on harming those who are not engaged in combat, on killing animals such as horses, and on unnecessary destruction of enemy property.
In the twentieth century, the notion of jihad lost its jurisprudential relevance and instead gave rise to ideological and political discourse. While modernist Islamic scholars have emphasized the defensive and non-military aspects of jihad, some Islamists have advanced aggressive interpretations that go beyond the classical texts. The term has gained additional attention in recent decades through its use by various insurgent Islamic extremist, militant Islamist, and terrorist individuals and organizations. Today, the word jihad is often used without religious connotations, like the English crusade.
Etymology and literary origins
The term jihad is derived from the Arabic root jahada, meaning "to exert strength and effort, to use all means in order to accomplish a task". In its expanded sense, it can be fighting the enemies of Islam, as well as adhering to religious teachings, enjoining good and forbidding evil. The peaceful sense of "efforts towards the moral uplift of society or towards the spread of Islam" can be known as "jihad of the tongue" or "jihad of the pen", as opposed to "jihad of the sword". It is used as a term in fiqh mostly in the latter sense, while in Sufism mostly in the sense of fighting the nafs al-ammara, which is the psychological state of succumbing to one's own desires. Spiritual and moral jihad is generally emphasized in pious and mystical circles.The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic defines the term as "fight, battle; jihad, holy war ". However, given the range of meanings, it is incorrect to equate it simply with "holy war". The notion of jihad has its origins in the Islamic idea that the whole humankind will embrace Islam. In the Qur'an and in later Muslim usage, jihad is commonly followed by the expression fi sabil illah, "in the path of God." Muhammad Abdel-Haleem stated that it indicates "the way of truth and justice, including all the teachings it gives on the justifications and the conditions for the conduct of war and peace."
In Modern Standard Arabic, the term jihad is used for a struggle for causes, both religious and secular. It is sometimes used without religious connotation, with a meaning similar to the English word "crusade". Jihad is used commonly in Arabic countries, in the neutral sense of "a struggle for a noble cause", as a unisex name given to children. Nonetheless, jihad is usually used in the religious sense and its beginnings trace to the Qur'an and the words and actions of Muhammad.
Quran
Jihad is mentioned in four places in the Qur'an as a noun, while its derived verb is used in twenty-four places. Mujahid, the active participle meaning "jihadist", is mentioned in two verses. In some of these mentions, it is understood that the word jihad directly refers to war, and in others, jihad is used in the sense of "the effort to live in accordance with Allah's will". Qur'anic exhortations to jihad have been interpreted by Islamic scholars both in the combative and non-combative sense. Ahmed al-Dawoody wrote that there seventeen references to or derivatives of jihad occur altogether forty-one times in eleven Meccan texts and thirty Medinan ones, with 28 mentions related to religious belief or spiritual struggle and 13 mentions related to warfare or physical struggle.Hadith
There are also many hadiths about jihad, typically under the headings of kitab al-jihad or faza'il al-jihad in hadith collections or as the subject of independent works. Of the 199 hadith references to jihad in the Bukhari collection of hadith, all assume that jihad means warfare.Among reported sayings of Muhammad involving jihad are:
and
Ibn Nuhaas cited a hadith from Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, where Muhammad stated that the highest kind jihad is "The person who is killed whilst spilling the last of his blood". Muhammad also said, “I cannot find anything” as meritorious as jihad; he further likened jihad to “praying ceaselessly and fasting continuously”. Muhammad said that “if it were not a hardship for the Muslims, I would never idle behind from a raiding party going out to fight in the path of Allah.... I love to raid in the path of Allah and be killed, to raid again and be killed, and to raid again and be killed”. Muhammad also said that "Lining up for battle in the path of Allah is worthier than 60 years of worship". Muhammad claimed that any Muslim who refused to fight in jihad “will be tortured like no other sinful human” in hell with confirmation from Qur'an 8:15-16. In another hadith Muhammad said, “the sword wipes away all sins” and “being killed in the path of Allah washes away impurity”.
According to another hadith, supporting one's parents is an example of jihad. It has been reported that Muhammad considered performing hajj well to be the best jihad for Muslim women.
The hadith emphasize jihad as one of the means to Paradise. All sins would be forgiven for the one who dies in it. Participation in jihad had to be voluntary and intention must be pure, for jihad is only waged for the sake of God not for material wealth. On the contrary, jihad required man to put both his life and wealth at risk. Jihad is ranked as one of the highest good deeds; according to one hadith it is the third-best deed after prayer and being good to one's parents. One hadith exempts military jihad on men whose parents are alive, as serving one's parents is considered a superior jihad.
Greater and lesser ''jihad''
Tradition distinguishes the "greater jihad" from the "lesser jihad". Early Islamic thought considered non-violent interpretations of jihad, especially for those Muslims who could not partake in warfare in distant lands. Most classical writings use the term "jihad" in the military sense. The tradition differentiating between the "greater and lesser jihad" is not included in any of the authoritative compilations of Hadith. In consequence, some Islamists dismiss it as not authentic.The most commonly cited hadith for "greater jihad" is:
A number of fighters came to Muhammad and he said "You have come from the 'lesser jihad to the 'greater jihad." The fighters asked "what is the greater jihad?" Muhammad replied, "It is the struggle against one's passions."
This passage was cited in The History of Baghdad by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, an 11th-century Islamic scholar. This reference gave rise to the practice of distinguishing "greater" and "lesser" jihad. Islamic scholars such as Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani consider the hadith to have a weak chain of transmission.
The concept has had "enormous influence" in Islamic mysticism.
Ibn Hazm lists four kinds of jihad fi sabilillah :
- Jihad of the heart ' is concerned with combatting the devil and in the attempt to escape his persuasion to evil. This type of jihad was regarded as the greater jihad.
- Jihad by the tongue ' is concerned with speaking the truth and spreading the word of Islam with one's tongue.
- Jihad by the hand ' refers to choosing to do what is right and to combat injustice and what is wrong with action.
- Jihad by the sword ' refers to qital fi sabilillah, the most common usage by Salafi Muslims and offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The belief in the veracity of this hadith was a contributing factor in the efforts by successive caliphs to subsidize translations of "Greek, Hebrew and Syriac science and philosophy texts", and the saying continues to be heavily emphasised in certain Islamic traditions advocating intellectualism over violence, for example in Timbuktu, where it is central to one of two key lessons in the work Tuhfat al-Fudala by 16th-century Berber scholar Ahmed Baba. In general, however, fewer people today are aware of the hadith, which suffers from "a general lack of knowledge", according to Akbar Ahmed.
According to classical Islamic scholars like Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, jihad is against four types of enemies: the lower self, Satan, the unbelievers, and the hypocrites. The first two types of jihad are purely peaceful spiritual struggles. According to Ibn Qayyim, "Jihad against the lower self precedes jihad against external enemies." Confirming the central importance of the spiritual aspect of jihad, Ibn Taymiyyah wrote:
Engaging in the greater jihad does not preclude engaging in the lesser jihad. Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani recommended his followers to pursue both the greater and the lesser jihads.
At least one important contemporary Twelver Shia figure, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian Revolution and the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, wrote a treatise on the "Greater Jihad".
Robert W. Schaefer discussed jihad and gazavat in the context of the Caucasus: "Gazavat was the jihad of its day. Gazavat meant putting yourself on the right path as well as expelling the invader."