Jihad

Jihad is an Islamic philosophical concept. The word translates to "struggle" or "fight." Islamic scholars disagree about the modern meaning of jihad. Some claim that it refers to a Muslim’s inner struggle against sin and temptation. Others claim that jihad refers to a holy war to convert or kill nonbelievers.

History of Islam and Jihad

Jihad finds its roots in the Quran (also spelled Koran or Qur'an), the Islamic holy book. According to Muslims, the Quran details the life and undertakings of the prophet Muhammad and his followers. Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. in Mecca, a city located in modern-day Saudi Arabia. He was orphaned at an early age and married a wealthy merchant woman. Muhammad’s life was relatively uneventful until he was forty years old, when he received his first revelation from God, or Allah, in a cave outside Mecca.

Muhammad refused to speak of his revelation to anyone except his immediate family for many years. Once he did so, Muhammad’s words contained such beauty and power that none who heard them questioned their divine origin. Although Muhammad never learned to read or write, these revelations were collected and written down by his followers. Over time, they would compose the Quran.

The early Muslims were a militant people. Led by Muhammad, they conquered Mecca, Medina, and much of the surrounding region. Conquest became an important means of spreading Islam. Some of these conquests came to be called jihad.

Peaceful Jihad

The majority of modern Muslims believe that the concept of jihad has evolved beyond violence and is no longer a reference to holy war. According to peaceful interpretations of the term, the word jihad means "struggle." In most circumstances, this refers to the internal struggle to be a good person. Muslims acknowledge the constant struggle to do good works, to help others, to obey the tenets of their religion, and to preach Islam to nonbelievers in the world. While they acknowledge that this struggle may occasionally refer to physical violence, proponents of this interpretation assert that violence is only appropriate in defense of self or others. Even then, defensive violence must obey a host of restrictions. Surrenders must be accepted; prisoners must be treated well; and women, children, or the elderly are never to be harmed.

These assertions are supported by verses from the Quran. For example, the Quran states, in support of defensive fighting: "And fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, and be not aggressive; surely Allah loves not the aggressors." In another section, the Quran breaks the concept of jihad into greater jihad and lesser jihad. Greater jihad is made up of jihad of the heart, defined as the struggle to attain faith; jihad of the tongue, defined as the struggle to preach the word of God; and jihad of the hand, defined as the struggle to do good works for the glory of God. Lesser jihad is solely composed of jihad of the sword, which is defined as the struggle to defend the Muslim people against aggressors and oppressors. From this, proponents of a peaceful interpretation of jihad infer that violence is the least important part of jihad.

Violent Jihad

Some Muslims believe that jihad is primarily a call to holy war against nonbelievers, sinners, heretics, and apostates. They refer to many of the violent verses in the Quran as well as the history surrounding the prophet Muhammad and his militaristic legacy.

Early Muslims were heavily persecuted by their neighbors. For several years of their history, they were forced to engage in defensive warfare in order to continue to exist at all. Some modern Muslims believe they are called to follow this example, defending their faith against any threat. They believe that martyrs, or those who die for their faith, will be forgiven of all their sins and rewarded in the next life.

However, after the early Muslims had grown powerful, they began to conquer neighboring cities. Most of the inhabitants were given the choice between converting to Islam or execution. Because Christians and Jews worshipped the same God as Muslims, they were allowed to continue openly practicing their faith. This practice was called offensive jihad and continued throughout the Middle Ages. It was used to expand the territory controlled by the united Muslim kingdom, known as the caliphate, and was used to spread sharia, the strict Islamic legal code, into new lands. Some ancient Muslim scholars argued that it was the duty of every Muslim to wage offensive jihad to help strengthen the caliphate, and that any Muslim ruler who did not organize an offensive jihad at least once a year was angering Allah.

Bibliography

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