Understanding Muslim Jihad

Mary Habeck argues that it would be much more effective to focus on changing the Islamic world’s understanding of jihad, rather than insulting Muslim leaders. For example, a jihad that emphasizes education and dialogue is more effective than one that promotes violence against non-Muslims.

Jihad has always had multiple meanings, including an internal struggle toward righteousness, and a military effort to defend and expand Islam. Sadly, it has become synonymous with violence against non-believers.

What is Jihad?

In the context of Islam, jihad is an Arabic term for “struggle” or “effort.” It is most commonly translated into English as holy war. However, a closer reading of the Quran and early extra-Quranic sources, including tafsir, the exegesis or commentary on the Quran, collections of hadith, and legal works, reveals that jihad is a much more complex concept than has been widely perceived.

The medieval scholar Ibn an-Nahhas, for example, described eight reasons that might justify jihad: to fight oppression; to establish the supremacy of Islam over non-believers; to obtain slaves or wives; to humiliate non-believers into paying tribute; to punish unbelievers for spilling the blood of Muslims; and to liberate Muslim land.

The last of these, the pursuit of martyrdom, is the motivation behind many terrorist attacks. The resurgence of this radical interpretation of jihad suggests the need for a greater understanding of the religious justifications that lie at the root of such violent extremism.

Why do Muslims do Jihad?

The word jihad emerges in 41 of the 114 verses of the Qur’an that mention war. It revives in the Arab imagination a daily life that they had known in the pre-Islamic period, and is associated with the notion of war in a way that goes beyond the selfish interests of one tribe or clan to the broad interest of an Islamic community.

Medieval Islamic scholars developed a concept of jihad that was structured and rule-bound, based on the Qur’an and sunna traditions. They identified eight reasons why a Muslim could do jihad: a struggle against one’s own animalistic inclinations; the elimination of oppression and evil in the world; the establishment of Islam’s supremacy over other religions; the humiliation of non-believers into paying zakat, or taxes; revenge for spilled blood of Muslims; and securing occupied Muslim territory.

Contemporary radical Islamists rely on texts such as the ayat (commandments) of Ibn Taymiyyah and Sayyid Qutb, which define jihad as a military and political campaign that can lead to martyrdom and paradise. This helps explain why, despite the fact that suicide is a sin in Islam, some of these militants seek out death during jihad as a path to salvation and immortality.

How do Jihadists Motivate Others?

Understanding how and why Muslims employ violence in jihad against the United States is critical to addressing this threat. It is important to understand how different socio-political contexts influenced how scholars of Muslim history conceived the boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate violence.

For example, when medieval Islamic jurist Ibn Taymiyyah and Egyptian journalist Sayyid Qutb wrote about jihad, they did so in the context of a Muslim world facing both Mongol invasions and Crusader attacks. As a result, both writers were quite eloquent in their writings about the limits of jihad.

In terms of suicide terrorism, jihadists use recruiters to encourage potential martyrs to join their movement and kill themselves for God and Islam. Typically, these recruiters approach those who are seen as having committed egregious sins in the eyes of other Muslims or lived un-Islamic lifestyles and convince them that if they martyr themselves, their lives will be considered as “ithnaat” and they will earn paradise.

What are the Consequences of Jihad?

The word jihad, like the Arabic term harb (war), has been distorted in the West by Islamist extremists who claim that it is a mandate to wage war against all those who do not share their worldview, including Muslims. In fact, the Quran restricts military activities to self-defense in response to external aggression. The broader meaning of the term is a struggle to promote values associated with pure monotheism, and to advance and defend those values in society.

Michael Bonner sheds light on the complex debates about jihad that have emerged since the early days of Islamic history. He reveals that those who argue that Islam is inherently violent or peaceful are wrong, and that the word jihad can mean either violence or spiritual striving. His book will be of interest to scholars of Middle Eastern history, as well as non-Muslims concerned about the spread of radical Islamist ideologies in the world today. The doctrinal and political effort to transform the concept of jihad into a tool for war requires attention, as does the misappropriation of the word by Islamist extremists.

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