Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
220enforced by the state; they must be observed by the individuals regardless of the
sanc tion of authority. The jihād, in order to achieve raison d' etat, must, however,
be enforced by the state. In the technical language the five pillars – t he basic
art ic les of t he fait h – are regarded as individual duties (fard 'ayn), like prayer, or
fast ing, whic h eac h believer must individually perform and eac h is held liable t o
punishment if he failed to perform the duty. The jihād, on the other hand – unless
the Muslim community is subjected to a sudden attack and therefore all believers,
inc luding women and c hildren, are under the obligation to fight – is regarded by all
jurist s, wit h almost no exc ept ion, as a c ollec t ive obligat ion of t he whole Muslim
c o mmu n it y.^25 It is regarded as fard al -kifāya, binding on t he Muslims as a c ollec t ive
group, not individually. If t he dut y is fulfilled by a part of t he c ommunit y it c eases
to be obligatory on others; the whole community, however, falls into error if the
dut y is not performed at all.
T he imposit ion of t he jihād duty on the c ommunity rather than on the
individual is very signific ant and involved at least t wo import ant implic at ions. In the
first plac e, it meant t hat t he dut y need not nec essarily be fulfilled by all t he
believers. For the recruitment of all the believers as warriors was neither possible
nor advisable.^26 Some of the believers were needed to prepare food and weapons,
while t he c rippled, blind, and sic k would not qualify as fight ers.^27 Women and
c hildren were as a rule exc used from ac tual fighting, although many a woman
c ont ribut ed indirec t ly to the war effort.
In the sec ond plac e, the imposition of the obligation on the c ommunity rather
than on the individual made possible the employment of the jihād a s a c o mmu n it y
and, c onsequently, a state instrument; its control accordingly, is a state, not an
individual, responsibility. Thus the head of the state c an in a more effective way
serve the common interest of the community than if the matter is left entirely to
t he disc ret ion of t he individual believer. Compensat ion for t he fulfillment of suc h an
important public duty has been amply emphasized in both the authoritative sourc es
of the creed^28 and in formal utteranc es of public men.^29 All of t hem give lavish
promises of mart yrdom and et ernal life in paradise immed iat ely and wit hout t rial on
resurrec tion and judgment day for those who die in Allah's path. Suc h martyrs are
not washed but are buried where they fall on the battlefield, not in the usual type
of grave, after washing in a mosque. It is true that a promise of paradise is given to
(^25) Sa'īd ibn al-Musayyib said that the jihād duty is fard 'ayn. Aw zā'ī and Thawri, however,
advocated a defensive jihād (Shaybānī, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 125) and an extremely pacifist
sect, known as the Māziyāriyya, dropped both the jihād against polytheists and fasting from
the articles of faith. See ‘Abd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī, Mukhtasar Kitāb al-Farq Bayn al-Firaq,
s umma riz e d by a l-Ras'anī and edited by Hitti (Cairo, 1924), p. 163
(^26) Q. IX, 123: "The believers must not march forth all to war."
(^27) Q.: XXIV, 60: "There is no bla me on the blind ma n, nor on the la me , no r on the
sick...”
(^28) Q. III, 163: "Count not those w ho are killed in the path of Allah as dead; they are alive
w ith their Lord." A w o ma n complained to Muha mma d about the death of her son in the
battle of Badr, and then she asked^ w hether her son went to hell or paradise, Muhammad^
replied: "Your son is in the higher Paradise!" (Bukhārī, Vol. II, p. 202.) Another hadith
runs as follow s: "There are one hundred stages in Paradise that are provided by Allah for
those who fight in His path" (Bukhārī, II, p. 200). See also Ibn Hudhayl, Tuhfat al -Anfus
wa Shi’ār Sukkān al -Andalus, ed. Louis Mercier (Paris, 1936), chaps. 10 and 20.
(^29) See a speech given by Caliph Abū Bakr to Syrian expedition in Tabarī, Ta'rīkh, ed. de
Goeje (Leiden, 1890), Series I, Vol. IV, and p. 1850.