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political islam 427minority—and that it can never attain immortality or infallibility.What might be right and good for one specific historical situationcould be disastrous in another, and what has been harmful andregressive in an earlier period might be fruitful and beneficial in alater one, which is best illustrated by the example of the Mu#tazila.96The act of fighting is, as 2:216 says, an obligation that is part ofthe human disposition, even though it is naturally disliked by everyone.This instinctive aversion to fight is imprinted (maktåb) intohuman nature, perhaps, similar to the monthly cycle of women aswe hear about it in the prophetical ÈadÊth, 97 or the survival instinctof human beings (who come to the fore regardless of how we feelabout it). The phrase ‘…and you dislike it’ means that fighting isunnatural; it means that humans must be fore against their will tofight (and use violence to kill their opponents). 98 Nonetheless, thephrase ‘it is prescribed to you’ implies a religious obligation thatevery human being has to fulfil, like the obligation to fast (‘fasting isprescribed to you…’, 2:183) or the obligation of answering ‘like withlike’ in response to murder (‘the law of equality is prescribed to youin case of murder…’, 2:178), and this in spite of the fact that humanbeings naturally show great aversion to such acts and would instinctivelyavoid them as much as they could.The universal nature of ‘fighting is prescribed to you’ contradictsthe view that fighting was only an obligation for the Prophet (ß) andhis companions. Since fighting is a natural disposition (inasmuch as96The reference here is to the school of the Mu#tazilites (or better: ahl al-tawÈÊdwa’l-#adl—people of divine unity and justice) who with their inquisitional zeal forreligious and intellectual orthodoxy (especially under the caliphs al-Ma"mån[197–218/813–833] and al-Mu#taßim [218–227/833–842]) had brought their viewsof divine justice, human reason, free will, and moral responsibility into disrepute inthe ninth century but which were revitalized in the nineteenth and twentieth centuriesand ‘benefited’ the advocates of a modern religious discourse, in particularMu Èam mad #Abduh (1265–1323/1849–1905), the famous reformer, Azharitescholar, and moral philosopher (author of the Ris§lat al-tawÈÊd).97MuÈammad Abå #Abdall§h al-Bukh§rÊ, al-J§mi# al-‘aÈÊÈ (Riyadh: D§ral-Sal§m, 1999), Kit§b al-Èay· (ÈadÊth no. 294).98‘O you who believe! You are forbidden to inherit women against their will[karh an ]. Nor should you treat them with harshness, that you may take away part ofthe dower you have given them, except where they have been guilty of open lewdness.On the contrary, live with them on a footing of kindness and equity. If you takea dislike to them [karihtumåhunna] it may be that you dislike [takrahå] a thing, and Godbrings about through it a great deal of good’ ( Al-Nis§" 4:19).