Fiqh al Jihad Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradhawi

new, coherent, well-rooted yet contemporary view of Islamic jihad, one which
shares a wide common space with contemporary culture in relation to war
and peace. What is new in this view is not the details, for its parts are
scattered and buried deep inside books, but rather the whole picture, making
this work a meeting point and a point of consensus, wherein all - or most -
parties can find something familiar that facilitates their acceptance of what is
unfamiliar. This ability to build consensus is a traditional characteristic of the
great scholars. Thus the author does not exaggerate when describing the dire
need among jurists, lawyers, Islamists, historians, Orientalists, diplomats,
politicians, military men, and the educated masses for such a study.
The Essence of Jihad and its Forms
No Islamic concept has been the target of a continuous flow of attacks, and has
brought a constant flow of attacks to Islam and Muslims, as much as that of
jihad. It has fallen into the two extremes of exaggeration and laxity. The latter is
promoted by a group that wants to abolish jihad from the life of the Ummah,
spreading the spirit of submission and surrender, under the guise of various calls
such as tolerance and peace, described by the author as “agents of colonialism
whose hostility to jihad is such that it has gone as far as creating groups which
fabricated an Islam without jihad, and devoted themselves to promoting it, such
as Baha'is and Qadianis… At the other extreme, there is another group that
makes of the concept of jihad a raging war it wages against the whole world,
taking the natural state of things in relation to non-Muslims to be that of war,
and regarding all people as enemies of Muslims, as long as they are not Muslim”.
This latter group may agree with those Orientalists who define jihad, as in the
encyclopaedia of Islam as “spreading Islam by the sword, an individual duty upon
all Muslims, such that it is almost a sixth pillar of Islam” (Encyclopaedia of Islam,
Arabic Translation, p. 2778).
The author tackles this extremism on both sides,
through the linguistic analysis of the word jihad,
which essentially means exerting oneself, making
The word jihad is much wider than
just fighting
an effort, and through its occurrence in the Qur'an and Sunnah and its use by
Muslim jurists. He concludes that there is a clear distinction between jihad and
qital (fighting), as the command to engage in jihad was revealed in Makkah
where there was no fighting, but rather jihad of da’wah (preaching) through the
Qur'an, ( And strive against them with the utmost endeavour with it (the
Qur'an)) (Al-Furqan 25:52) (p. 50-52). The word is also used in the Qur'an and
Sunnah with various meanings, including exerting oneself in resisting the enemy,
resisting the devil, resisting one’s desires, etc. Thus the word jihad is much wider
than just fighting, for jihad, as the author quotes from Ibn Taymiyya, “can be
with the heart, by calling to Islam, by countering invalid arguments, by advising
or facilitating what is beneficial to Muslims, or by one’s body, that is fighting”.
The author further seeks support from a fourteenth century scholar, the eminent
Ibn al-Qayyim, student of Ibn Taymiyya, in order to clarify the vast scope of
jihad, which makes every Muslim a mujahid - but not a muqatil (fighter) by
necessity. Ibn al-Qayyim concluded from his study of the process of Islamic
da’wah that there are 13 levels of jihad: first, jihad al-nafs (jihad of the self)
which comprises 4 levels, exerting oneself to learn the guidance, to act upon it,
to call to it, and to persevere on those actions; second, jihad against shaytan,
which includes 2 levels, struggling against the doubts in one’s faith which Satan