Jihad and the Quran

Islam - Jihad in the Quran

JIHAD in the QURAN

The Quran:

According to traditional Muslim religious beliefs, the Quran is the written transcript of the word of God, as revealed through direct communication to the last of the pre-Islamic Arabian Prophets, Muhammad. The Prophet Muhammad never actually memorialized his oral "recitation" (qur'an or "Koran") of the words of Allah; they were reduced to written form only after his passing, much like the words of Jesus Christ were by his followers, six centuries earlier (Ajami 1999). Traditional interpreters have also distinguished intact sura from those that represent portions of several but all of the words are believed to be unchanged from the original words spoken by God to Muhammad.

The Koran consists of approximately 6,000 verses, organized into 114 individual "sections" (suras), further differentiated (Smith 1997) by whether they were revealed to Muhammad at Mecca (610-632) or Medina (622-632), and arranged in approximate descending order according to the relative length of each surah. Generally, the earlier sura from Mecca were shorter than those from Medina, so there chronological order is reversed in the Koran.

Jihad:

In the late 20th century, particularly after September 11, 2001, the Western world publicized a very narrow interpretation of one particular concept explained in much greater detail with very specific limits for its declaration than the singular, one- dimensional meaning in conjunction with which it is generally misunderstood in the West. In Arabic, jihad means "to struggle" and the Koran refers repeatedly to jihads in defense of Islam, including the use of military campaigns of violence. However, violent jihads must meet strict criteria to justify their use, in much the same way that Christians define "just" wars.

Jihad actually encompasses struggles ranging from the "Greater Jihad" of the inner spirit against natural human tendencies and inclinations toward evil and idolatry to offensive military operations specifically in defense of attacks on the free exercise of the Muslim religion. The Prophet provided the reminders of the relative importance of various types of jihad immediately on return from war, referring to warfare as minor in comparison to the greater jihad of the mind and inner spirit (Warraq 1998).

In-between those extremes, Jihad also comprises non-violent forms of struggle, such as battles waged by the word (Koran 25:52), both spoken and of the pen, as well as by providing indirect financial or other support of righteous campaigns. According to the Prophet Muhammad, the greatest jihad of all was to speak the word of truth to the face of a tyrant (Warraq 1998).

Jihad, War and Peace in the Koran:

In principle, the Koran emphasizes peaceful relations and righteous intentions among people and societies, recognizing the need for war only under justifiable circumstances of religious persecution, oppression, and in response to direct attack.

Specifically, the Koran (49:13) teaches that God intended for different human societies to respect each other peacefully, and that hatred between people is the work of Satan (5:91).

According to the Koran (6:65), early human societies ignored the difficult requirements of God and split into polytheistic religions whose tenets were easier to uphold (Lewis 2004), for which Allah allowed the different peoples to "taste" each other's might, simultaneously "delivering them from distress." Otherwise, unless justified by strict criteria, war amongst people is characterized in the Koran as "hateful" (2:216) and "fearful"; in fact, according to the Koran (24:55), deliverance from the state of perpetual fear to the safety of peaceful existence is a reward to those who live righteously.

In addition to prescribing strict criteria for sanctioning wars of violence, the Koran provides equally detailed criteria for the actual conduct of war, as well as for terminating it and dealing with its consequences afterwards. Muslim scholars believe that Muhammad never permitted wars of violence except strictly in self-defense, and that even then (4:77), the Prophet instructed Muslim to "restrain" themselves from retaliating for religious persecution in Mecca that lasted for years (Scheuer 2004). Initially instructed to "endure," "pardon" and "forgive" (2:109) Muslim were eventually forced from their homes, and their torture and persecution increased were they given permission to protect themselves with violent warfare.

Just as the Koran restricts the use of violent warfare as a last resort requiring peaceful responses first, it also cautions (2:190) against "transgressions" from the battle against justified enemies and from any persecution of noncombatants, civilians, females, the elderly, individuals engaged in religious worship, and even proscribes the purposeful destruction of crops and cattle (Warraq 1998). Furthermore, the Koran (2:194) requires that principles of "discrimination" and "proportionality" be observed in responding to acts of violent warfare, prohibiting responding in a worse or more harsh or destructive manner that is disproportionate to the type of violence, warfare, or harm inflicted upon Muslim.

In general, the Koran restricts the use of violent warfare to the responses to very egregious and prolonged direct persecution against Muslim and otherwise, (2:251) as a response to evil of such profound magnitude (Smith 1997) as to threaten to corrupt the entire earth. Contrary to popularized Western beliefs among many about Islam, the Koran does not promote the use of warfare to convert believers in false faiths to acceptance of Allah. In fact, the Koran very specifically provides (2:256) that religious faith is not a matter of "compulsion," that separate societies are destined to remain different in their beliefs (11:118), and that it is essentially impossible to change another's beliefs by force or obligation if they are not motivated to do so by themselves (12:103).

Whereas the Koran authorizes warfare only under righteous circumstances, once permitted in self-defense (2:190), in the defense of those unable to defend themselves upon their plea for help (4:75), or as a response to attacks on the free exercise of religious faith (22:40), participation in jihad is obligatory (Fouad 1999). Nevertheless, despite participation in jihad being a moral obligation, doing so remains voluntary and the Koran distinguishes "urging" the faithful in this regard (4:64) from forced "conscription."

During the execution of just wars, the Koran requires the faithful to refrain from attacking or laying waste to a city before issuing an offer of peace (Scheuer 2004), and at the conclusion of war, the Koran (2:193) commands the faithful to stop fighting and resume the Greater Jihad of pursuing conduct and states of mind that are "good" and kind" (22:41). The Koran further instructs the faithful to honor their treaties (16:91).

In fact, the Koran so emphasizes the obligation to honor and respect treaties in general, as well as those arising in conjunction with the cessation of justified hostilities (8:72), that it even forbids rescuing the oppressed upon their pleas, if their oppressors enjoy the protections of a treaty with the Muslim people. Finally, in much the same way that the Koran prohibits warfare against non- combatants and civilians, it also prescribes principles for the humane treatment of vanquished enemy combatants and prisoners of war in the same spirit of God's own forgiveness (8:70), and instructing Muslim victors to "tighten the bonds" of the vanquished initially, but "set them free" thereafter (47:4).