Concept of Jihad' Misunderstood: Al-Harb Al-Muqaddasah, Which Is Unfamiliar To Arabic Speakers

Concept of ‘jihad’ misunderstood
Published in: New Straits Times, Monday 14 July 2014

By Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali
THE concept of jihad fisabilillah (striving in the path of God) as contained in the
Quran and Hadith has often been distorted and misused by the perpetrators of
military violence and terrorism, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Matters are made worse by the fact that the word has gained commercial appeal in
Europe and the United States. Writers seeking to make their publications
commercially successful have been using “jihad” in their titles, and security firms are
scaremongering people to increase sales of their wares. It is important, therefore, to
explain what jihad stands for through a careful reading of the Quran and Hadith.
Jihad is derived from the root word jahada, which means to strive or to exert effort.
Its translation in the Western media as “holy war” would, in Arabic, be equivalent to
al-harb al-muqaddasah, which is unfamiliar to Arabic speakers.
Jihad consists of the effort one makes to do something good and to prevent or
oppose evil. The effort may be directed towards oneself or the outside world. The
struggle to control and refine one’s ego, to conquer ignorance, to discipline one’s
base desires, and to excel in the work undertaken to the best of one’s ability is the
jihad of the self (jihad al-nafs).
In a similar vein, the Sufi contemplation in combating the distractions of the soul is
called mujehadah. To combat poverty and disease, to build houses for the poor, and
to fight corruption and abuse would all qualify as jihad that serves a social purpose of
great benefit.
We are cast into a world in which there is disequilibrium, externally and within
ourselves, to which jihad serves as a corrective. For ordinary Muslims, praying five
times a day all their lives, or fasting from dawn to dusk during Ramadan are certainly
not possible without great effort, or jihad.
It is now common to hear Muslim intellectuals speak of jihad in business, jihad in the
acquisition of knowledge, and jihad against social ills afflicting the youth, drug abuse
and AIDS.
Understood in its comprehensive sense, jihad is an inherent aspect of the human

condition in facing the imperfections of this world. Prophet Muhammad has said “the
mujehid is one who wages a struggle against himself”.
In a Hadith, al-Bukhari and Muslim have recorded a young man asking Prophet
Muhammad: “Should I join the jihad?” that was apparently in progress at the time. In
response, the Prophet asked him a question: “Do you have parents?” and when the
man said “Yes”, the Prophet told him, “Then strive by serving them”.
The Quran refers to jihad in 24 verses, most of which emphasise the spiritual and
non-violent manifestations of jihad, such as being steadfast in faith and sacrifice in
its cause, migration from Mecca to Madinah, and peaceful propagation of the faith.
1
Jihad as armed struggle against the aggressor occurs only in the Medinan verses of
the Quran. During the first 13 years of his campaign in Mecca, the Prophet was not
permitted to use force, even in self-defence.
Islam was propagated only through peaceful methods.
The idolaters of Mecca, through persecution, forced a number of the Prophet’s

companions to migrate, initially to Abyssinia, and later to Madinah. stepped up their
hostility and attacked the Muslims, some 270km away, in the battles of Badr (624
CE) and Uhud (625 CE), with superior forces and inflicted heavy casualties on them.
Only then was the permission granted to: “Fight in the way of God those who fight
you, but begin not hostilities. Verily God loves not the aggressors” (Q 2:190).
The leading schools of Islamic law have held that jihad is legitimate in defence only
against aggression. They also maintain that jihad must be declared by the legitimate
leader. Hence no group, party or organisation has the authority to take up arms in
the name of jihad without authorisation by the lawful authorities. For there will
otherwise be disorder and anarchy.
This is the purport of the hadith which provides that: “A Muslim ruler is the shield [of
his people]. A war can only be waged under him and people should seek his shelter
[in war].”
The Shaykhs of al-Azhar, Mahmud Shaltut (d.1985) and Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi
(d.2010), and the former Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh ‘Ali Gomaa, have all shown in
their writings that the Quran only allows war for self defence.
The Jeddah-based Islamic Fiqh Academy affiliated to the Organisation of Islamic

Cooperation (OIC) in its sixteenth 16th session (5-10 January Jan 5 to 10, 2002)
vehemently condemned all manifestation of terrorism and its attributions to Islam:
Terrorism terrorism is an outrageous attack carried out either by individuals, groups
or states against the human being. It includes all forms of intimidation, harm, threats,
killing without a just cause, all forms of armed robbery, banditry, every act of violence
or threat intended to fulfil a criminal scheme individually or collectively, terrify and
horrify people by hurting them or by exposing their lives, liberty, and security to
danger — all are resolutely forbidden in Islam.
Unlike the Romans, who subscribed to the notion that silent enim legis enter arma
(laws are silent during wars), Islamic law regulated war and proscribed acts of
oppression and injustice before the onset of war, during it, and after the war ends.
Action may be taken only against armed combatants. Civilians and persons who are
not involved nor trained to be engaged in combat may not be targeted. Killing and
harming women and children are prohibited. Animals, crops and trees are to be
spared unless it be for sustaining life, which clearly means that in Islam laws are not
silent during war.
Mohammad Hashim Kamali is CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic

Studies (IAIS) Malaysia

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Concept of ‘jihad’ misunderstood

Published in: New Straits Times, Monday 14 July 2014

Understood in its comprehensive sense, jihad is an inherent aspect of the human

Islam was propagated only through peaceful methods.

The idolaters of Mecca, through persecution, forced a number of the Prophet’s

The Jeddah-based Islamic Fiqh Academy affiliated to the Organisation of Islamic

Mohammad Hashim Kamali is CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic

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