- As we pointed out earlier, in 1953 the Encyclopedia of Islam made no
attempt to describe jihad as an inner psychological struggle, stating boldly
that jihad was a religious obligation on Muslims in general to spread
Islam using warfare. (Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, London, 1953,
p.89). Moreover, in a fourteenth-century manual of sharia law, translated
at the end of the twentieth century into many languages because of the
renewed interest in sharia law among Muslims around the world, the
manual makes it clear that the principle meaning of jihad is “war against
non-Muslims [...] to establish the religion” of Islam. See Ahmad al-
Misri, (circa 1360) Reliance of the Traveller: a Classic Manual of
Islamʼs Sacred Law, trans. Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller, section o9.0.
This section of the manual does not begin with any discussion of “inner
struggle”. It states outright and explicitly: jihad is war. The translator is a
convert to Islam, who studied philosophy and Arabic at a number of
universities in the United States. ↵
dana p.
(Dana P.)
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