Jihad, as physical warfare, features prominently in the earliest Islamic writings. This term is universally understood as war on behalf of Islam against all infidels, and the merits of engaging in such jihad are described plentifully in the most-respected Islamic religious works.
Western and Arabic dictionaries stress that Jihad means a holy war. Bernard Lewis finds that “the overwhelming majority of classical theologians, jurists and traditionalists…understood the obligation of Jihad in a military sense.” S.K. Malik, in his The Qur`anic Concept of War, points out that the Qur’anic injunctions cover the causes and the object of war; its nature and characteristics, its limits and extents, dimensions and restraints. The Qur’an even goes into strategy and tactical matters. Therefore, the elevation of Allah’s word cannot be achieved without Jihad.
It is declared that Muslims have recognized two kinds of Jihad: the small Jihad (al-Jihād al-Saghīr) and the greater Jihad (al-Jihād al-Akbar). This differentiation is mostly used by contemporary Muslim propagators as if Jihad is only spiritual, the devotion of the Muslim believer to Allah and his worship. But a subtle analysis of the Scriptures and most respected exegetes clearly reveal that al-Jihād al-Saghīr is the holy war of Islam against the infidels, and only when infidelity disappears from the world and Islam controls the entire world, the Muslims will turn to al-Jihād al-Akbar as the spiritual elevation of Allah.
Islamic jurisprudence has also distinguished four different ways in which the believer may fulfill Jihad obligations: a) by his heart (faith: combating evil and the temptation of sin and abiding by the true religion); b) by his tongue (preaching for Allah’s religion, bringing it to the attention of all human beings, and convincing to join Allah’s way); c) by his hands (good deeds: supporting the right and fighting the wrong); and d) by the sword (fighting the infidels, the enemies of Allah).
In practice, the first three are part of the Da’wah, the propagation to Islam, and should be considered as assisting the wars of Jihad against the infidels. This means that Da’wah has become the right-hand instrument, the chief organ for executing and promoting Jihad. The Islamic incitement by the religious leaders; the cry-out of Muslim leaders to be good Muslim by fixing new criteria how to achieve this goal – these are an integral part of the Jihad campaign to occupy the world.
As a doctrine, Jihad is aimed at establishing Allah’s rule on earth through military efforts against all non-Muslims – until either they embrace Islam (as a result of Da’wah), or agree to pay the tax poll (Jizyah), or they end up being killed on the battleground (as a result of Jihad war). This was applied by Muhammad, and constituted one of the main ideological bases of the caliphate dynasties. This is the reason why some Muslim scholars regard Jihad as the sixth pillar of Islam, like the Shī’ah. Muhammad Abd al-Salam Faraj call it “the neglected duty”,’ and important contemporary exegetes, like Abu al-A’la al-Mawdudi, Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb and have dealt with it very thoroughly.
Jihad against Polytheism (Shirq), Hypocrisy (Nifāq) and Apostasy (Irtidād)
The Muslim legal theory states that Islam cannot exist together with idolatry, asserted by almost all Islamic jurists, since the first article of the faith is the denial of associationism: la ilah illa-llah (there is no god but Allah). This is Shirq or Ishrāq, meaning association other gods and idols with Allah, which is the worst form of infidelity. The Mushrikûn are Kuffār and must be eliminated, since they commit the worst and gravest sin possible. The world would be reserved only for the Muslim believers (Wayakûn al-Dīn li-llāh), by the power of Jihad.
Muslims are under the obligation to slay the idolaters, until sedition and opposition come to an end, and the religion of Allah prevails and be the only legitimate (Sûrat al-Baqarah, 2:193; Sûrat al-Anfāl, 8:39; Sûrat al-Hajj, 22:39). This is a war against evil, and the infidels will be burned in the fire of hell: infidels will be
“fitted out with garments of flames. Boiling waters will be poured down over their heads, which will dissolve everything within their bellies and their skins…as often as they try to escape from its anguish, they will be put back into the fire and taste the torment of burning” (Sûrat al-Hajj, 22:19-22).
…the infidels (Alladhī Kafarû) subsist like beasts, and hell will be their residence (Sûrat Muhammad, 47:12).
Surely the infidels (Kāfirûn) among the people of the book and the idolaters will abide in the fire of hell.
Jihad is a means of establishing the religion of Allah. Believers should kill the idolaters even if they are their nearest relatives. This is Muhammad’s way to eradicate blood and social ties to be replaced by religious ties of the Ummah:
O you, who believe, do not hold your father and brothers as friends if they hold disbelief dearer than faith; and those of you who do so are iniquitous (Sûrat al-Baqarah, 9:23).
You will not find those who believe in Allah and the Day of Resurrection, loving those who oppose Allah and his Messenger, even though they be their father, sons or brothers or their kin… (Sûrat al-Mujādilah, 58:22).
Yet, the old Arabian kinship ties did not die out, since they are deeply rooted in the Arabian traditions, and even survived in the community of believers with great vigor and gave rise to the science of genealogy.
Apostasy, Irtidād, refers to the forsaking or turning away from Islam by expressing infidelity, or by refusing to accept the articles of Islamic faith, even without joining Dār al-Harb, or rejection of Islam either by action or by word. Islam tolerates absolutely no secession from it, for there is no freedom of religion in Islam or rejection in conscience in the faith. Such an act is a grave sin and deserves death. This punishment has been also unanimously agreed upon by all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
How can Allah show the way to those who, having come to the faith, turned away, even though they had borne witness that the Messenger was true…for such the requital is the curse of Allah and the angels and of men (Sûrat al-‘Imrān, 3:86-7).
The same is with the hypocrites (Munāfiqûn). They are viewed as apostates, since they are clearly dissenters from the Ummah. Along with the idolaters (Kuffār), they will never be forgiven and will be punished by eternal hell-fire. Since hypocrisy is viewed as equivalent to blasphemy and treason, Jihad is to be waged against hypocrites. They are vehemently condemned in the Qur’an and Hadīth, because they proclaim that they are believers and arein fact with the devil. They are like the infidels. This is the reason why the believers are commanded to seize them whenever they are found and to do away with them. They will abide in the fire of hell forever.
Khadduri states that “in early Meccan revelations the emphasis was on persuasion (Da’wah), but in the Medinan revelations, Jihad is expressed in terms of strife and there is no doubt that in certain verses the conceptions of Jihad is synonymous with war and fighting.” As regard to Medinan period, the words are considered to have an entirely new meaning, a religious war of aggression against the infidels wherever they are.
Sanctioning Jihad and Its Rewards
The reward of Jihād fī-sabīlīllāh, by sacrificing in wealth and soul is the salvation of the believers and a direct way to paradise without any further reckoning of their doings in their worldly life and it wipes out all their sins. They are the best beings ever created, and deserve by their sacrifice to obtain all the pleasures of paradise. The supreme achievement of Jihad has been mentioned to include the spiritually and the material: the gardens of eternity in Eden with the close presence of Allah:
Believe in Allah and his messenger and fight (wa-Tujāhidun) in the cause of Allah, wealth and soul…he will forgive your sins and place you in paradise…paradise of Eden (Sûrat al-Saff, 61:11-13).
Allah has promised men and women who believe gardens with streams of running waters, where they will abide forever…and the blessings of Allah above all (Sûrat al-Taubah, 9:72).
…he will not allow the deeds of those who are killed in the way of Allah to go waste. He will show them the way…and will admit them into gardens…the semblance of paradise promised pious and devout…and rivers of milk…and rivers of wine…streams of purified honey, and fruits of every kind and forgiveness of Allah (Sûrat Muhammad, 47:4-6, 15).
Who fought and were killed (Qatalû wa-Qutilû) I shall blot out their sins and admit them into gardens with rippling streams, a recompense from almighty Allah (Sûrat al-‘Imrān, 3:195).
The best proof and reward to encourage the believers to fight the infidels with Allah’s way, to join and act in Jihad war, to become Mujāhidīn, Muhammad promised them the black-eyed virgins in paradise, as the total reward, being Shûhadā’:
In the Gardens of Paradise… And with them will be chaste females, restraining their glances, with wide and beautiful eyes (Sûrat al-Sāffāt, 37:40-4).
…a place of peace and security, in the midst of gardens and springs… we shall pair them with virgins with large black eyes (Sûrat al-Dukhkhān, 44:51-54).
Those who fear Allah and follow the straight path will surely be in gardens and in bliss, rejoicing at what Allah has given them…with virgins bright of eyes (Sûrat al-Tûr, 52:17-20).
There will be two gardens…with two springs of water flowing…every kind of fruits in pairs…in them maidens with averted glances…houries cloistered in pavilions… (Sûrat al-Rahmān, 55:47, 50, 52, 56, 70, 72)
…and virgins with big beautiful eyes, like pearls within their shell, as a recompense for all they had done (Sûrat al-Hadīd, 56:22-24).
…We created the houris and made them virgins, loving companions for those on the right hand… (Sûrat al-Hadīd, 56:37-40).
As for the righteous, they shall surely triumph… gardens and vineyards, and high-bosomed virgins for companions (Sûrat al-Nabā, 78:31-34).
There are also young boys in Paradise, to serve the Shûhadā’ and all their needs”
And there will go round boy-servants of theirs, to serve them as if they were preserved pearls (Sûrat al-Tûr, 52:24).
They will be served by immortal young boys (Sûrat al-Hadīd, 56:17).
And round about them will serve boys of everlasting youth. If you see them, you would think them scattered pearls (Sûrat al-Dahr, 76:19).
The Muslims should not fear any loss, for those who had been killed in the way of Allah, are not dead. They are living with Allah. This is the most important issue to understand for Western policymakers and public opinion; the homicide bombers do not see themselves as dead. They are transported into a parallel and a perfect world, living with Allah, seeing and feeling everything on earth. The Mujāhidīn not only rejoice at the bliss they have themselves attained. Their families and the dear ones they left behind are in their thoughts. It is part of their glory that they have saved them from fear, sorrow, humiliation and grief, even before they come to share in the glories of paradise. The last important note is that they are the symbol, the torch that leads the way, the model for imitation for all the others who will follow their act of Jihad.
Do not think that those who are killed in the way of Allah are dead, for indeed they are alive (Ahyā’), even though you are not aware (Sûrat al-Baqarah, 2:154).
Never think that those who are killed (Qutilu) in the way of Allah are dead. They are alive (Ahyā’) with Allah…rejoicing at what Allah has given them of his grace, and happy for those who are trying to overtake them. (Sûrat al-‘Imrān, 3:169).
If you are killed in the cause of Allah or you die, the forgiveness and mercy of Allah are better than all that you amass. And if you die or are killed, even so, it is to Allah that you will return (Sûrat al-‘Imrān, 157-8).
There they will not know any death, apart from the first death, and will be kept safe from the torment of hell (Sûrat al-Dukhkhān, 44:56).
It is Jihad that divides the world into two irreconcilable groups: the Dār al-Islām region, subject to Islamic law, and Dār al-Harb region, destined to come under Islamic rule and jurisdiction, as a universal mission. Jihad is the link between the two, the Islamic permanent state of war instrument: Every community has its form of monasticism, and the monasticism of the Islamic community is jihad in the way of Allah.
Jihad in the Hadīth
The Hadīth collections, the second important source of the Sharī’ah after the Qur’an, devote considerable material to Jihad. Bernard Lewis put it loud and clear, in the Hadīth, Jihad is used to mean armed military action against the infidels, and most Islamic theologians and jurists understood and practiced this obligation to be in a military sense. Bukhari’s nine volume collection is the most respected of all collections of Hadīth, and it has been unanimously agreed that his work is the most authentic in Hadīth literature. In almost one-third of his fourth volume, Bukhari focuses on Jihad as physical holy war against the infidels. It is a genre known in the Hadīth to be “the merits of the holy war” (Fadā’il al-Jihād), which serve a diversity of political, social, and ideological goals.
The main motif of Jihad in the Hadīth is death on the battleground in the way of Allah, which leads to paradise, and intends to cause a “sacred wedding” to black-eyed virgins (Huris al-‘Ayn) as heavenly reward for the believer upon his heroic death. From among 262 traditions that are mentioned in Ibn al-Mubarak’s book, 13 share a common motive, that of paradise virgins as heavenly reward for the Shuhadā’.
The Shahīd is one who is killed and achieved martyrdom in the battle in Jihad. This is very different from the Jewish and Christian notion of martyrs, as those who voluntarily endure torture and death rather than renounce their belief. According to Islamic exegetes, the Shahīd is granted seven gifts: a) he is forgiven at the first drop of his blood; b) he is dressed in the clothes of an Imām and sees his status in paradise; c) he is protected from the punishment of the grave; d) he will be safe from the great fear of the Day of Judgment; e) a crown of glory will be placed on his head; f) he will intercede on behalf of 70 members of his family; g) he will be married to 72 houris.
Those who have fallen in the battle (Shuhadā’ al-Ma’rakah) have special burial rites. They should not be washed and they are left with their blood-stained clothes as a proof of their status on the Day of Judgment. The spirits of the Shuhadā’ reside in the claws of green birds near Allah’s throne, and during the resurrection they will be returned to the earthly bodies of the Shuhadā’.
Bukhari brings a Hadith that there are one hundred stages in paradise for those who fight for in the way of Allah. Only those who participate in Jihad deserve paradise without any checks and reservations. Taking part in Jihad with body and soul is recommended as the utmost action for the Muslim believer. The Mujāhid’s best prize is paradise, a supreme reward:
Muhammad said: Nobody who dies and finds good from Allah would wish to come back to this world even if he were given the whole world and whatever is in it, except the Shahīd who, on seeing the superiority of Jihad, would like to come back to the world and get killed again.
Mohammad said: Nobody who enters paradise likes to go back to the world even if he got everything on the earth, except the Mujāhid who wishes to return to the world so that he may be martyred ten times because of the dignity he receives of his actions.
Muhammad said: No doubt I wish I could fight in the way of Allah and be a Shahīd and come to life again to be Shahīd and come to life once more.
Jihad is the best option for the believer. Whenever they are called upon, they must be ready to wage a Jihad war at any time. They must prepare to fight against the enemies of Islam with all their force and means. Whatever they spend in their commitment to Allah, will be paid back fully. Jihad is the monasticism of Islam and an act of pure devotion.
Apostasy is considered as much abhorred and loathed and is as deserving of annihilation as infidelity (Kufr). There is a saying related to Muhammad, that he said to kill he who changes his religion. Muslim jurists in all four schools of Jurisdiction have agreed that the apostate (Murtadd) was given three days to repent, and if he did not, he was to be killed by a Jihad war.
Muslims are also commanded to kill anyone who leaves Islam. Whoever leaves the Islamic religion must be killed. Their punishment is execution, or crucifixion, or cutting off of hands and feet from the opposite sides, or exile from the land. Muhammad also burned out eyes with hot irons, and deprived people of water until they died.
Narrated Ikrima: ‘The statement of Allah’s messenger: ‘whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him.’
Narrated Abu Musa: ‘A man embraced Islam and then reverted back to Judaism. Mu`azz said: ‘I will not sit down unless you kill him, as the verdict of Allah and his messenger.’
Narrated Ali: ‘I heard the Prophet saying… whenever you find the Murtaddûn, kill them, for there will be a reward on the Day of Resurrection.”
Narrated Anas bin Malik: ‘The Prophet ordered (the Murtaddûn) to have their hands and feet cut off. Then he ordered nails, which were heated and passed over their eyes, and they were left in the rocky land in Medina, till they died.’
These quotations from the Qur’an and Hadīth are only a small portion of the huge amount of references concerning the issue of Jihad and the motivation to fight the infidels with all sorts of violence and terrorism. Indeed, Jihad as a holy war against the infidels and as one of three arms to occupy the world and to subdue humanity, together with Da’wah and Hijrah, constitutes the Islamic grand strategy.
