Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
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unbelievers and the enemies of the faith.^21 The believers are under the obligation
of sac rific ing t heir "wealt h and lives" (Q. LXII.II) in t he prosec ut ion of war.
The Jihād as Bellum Justum
War is c onsidered as just whether c ommenc ed and prosec uted in ac c ordanc e
with the necessary formalities required under a certain system of law, or waged for
justifiable reasons in ac c ordanc e with the tenets of the religion or the mores of a
c ert ain soc iet y. In Islam, as in anc ient Rome, both of these c onc epts were inc luded
in their doc trine of the bellum justum sinc e a just ifiable reason as well as t he
formalities for prosec uting the war were nec essary. In both Islam and anc ient
Rome, not only was war to be justum, but also to be pium, that is, in ac c ordanc e
wit h t he sanc t ion of religion and t he implied c ommands of gods.
The idea that wars, when institutionalized as part of the mores of soc iety, are
just may be traced back to antiquity. It was implied in the concept of vendetta as
an ac t of retaliation by one group against another...
Rec urring as a pattern in the development of the c onc ept of war from
ant iquit y, it assumed in Islam a spec ial posit ion in it s jural order bec ause law and
religion formed a unit y; t he law presc ribed t he way t o ac hieve religious (or divine)
purposes, and religion provided a sanction for the law.
In Muslim legal t heory, Islam and shirk (assoc iat ing ot her gods wit h Allah)
cannot exist together in this world; it is the duty of the imām a s w e ll as every
believer not only t o see t hat God's word shall be supreme, but also t hat no infidel
shall deny God or be ungrateful for His favors (ni'am).^22 T his world would ult imat ely
be reserved for believers;^23 as t o unbelievers, "t heir abode is hell, and evil is t he
dest inat ion.''^24 The jihād, in other words, is a sanc tion against polytheism and must
be suffered by all non-Muslims who rejec t Islam, or, in the c ase of the dhimmīs
(Scripturaries), refuse to pay the poll tax. The jihād, therefore, may be defined as
t he lit igat ion bet ween Islam and polyt heism; it is also a form of punishment t o be
inflic ted upon Islam's enemies and the renegades from the faith. Thus in Islam, as
in Western Christendom, the jihād is t he bellum justum.
In Islam, however, the jihād is no less employed for punishing polytheists than
for raison d’état. For inherent in the state's ac tion in waging a jihād is t he
establishment of Muslim sovereignty, since the supremacy of God’s word carries
nec essarily wit h it God's polit ic al aut horit y. T his seems t o be t he reason why the
jihād, import ant as it is, is not inc luded – except in the Khārijī legal t heory – a mo n g
t he five pillars of Islam. T he reason is t hat t he five pillars are not nec essarily t o be
(^21) Ibn Hazm distinguishes between the jihād by the tongue and the jihād by ra'y and tadbīr
(i.e., reason) and he maintains that the Prophet Muhammad showed preference for reason
over the sw ord. Ibn Hazm, Vol. IV, p. 135.
(^22) The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: "I am ordered to fight polytheists until
they say: 'there is no god but Allah.'" The validity of the rule of fighting polytheists is also
b a s e d o n a Q u r'ānic injunction, in w hich Allah said to His Apostle, as follows: "slay the
polytheists w herever you may find them" (Q. IX, 5). See also Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī, Kitāb Mu’īd
al·Ni'am wa Mubid al-Niqam, ed. David W. Myhrman (London, 1908), p. 27.
(^23) The idea that Islam w ould ultimately replace other religions (except perhaps the tolerated
religions) is not stated in the Qur'ān, but it is implied in the objective of the jihād and
expressed in the hadith. See note 11, above.
(^24) Q. IX, 74.