Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
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CHAPTER VI
TYPES OF JIHĀD
Muslim jurist s dist inguished bet ween the jihād against non-believers and the jihād
against believers who either renegaded from the faith or, professing dissenting
views, renounc ed the authority of the imā m or his lieutenants. While the jurists
agreed that war was just when waged against suc h people, they disagreed on its
c onduc t and termination. Al-Māwardī subdivided the jihād against believers int o
three categories: first, the jihād against apostasy, (al-ridda); second, the jihād
against dissension (al-baghī); and third, the jihād against secession (al-
mu hārībūn).^35 Other jurists added a category known as al-ribāt, or the
safeguarding of frontiers. There may be added still another type, the jihād against
the People of the Book or the Scripturaries.
The Jihād Against Polytheists
No compromise is permitted with those who fail to believe in God, they have
either to ac c ept Islam or fight. In several Qur'anic injunc tions, the Muslims are
under the obligation to "fight the polytheists wherever ye may find them;”^36 to
"fight those who are near to you of the polytheists, and let them find in you
sternness";^37 and "when you meet those who misbelieve, st rike off t heir heads unt il
you have massac red them. _. .''^38 In the hadīth the Prophet Muhammad is reported
to have declared: "I am ordered to fight polytheists until they say: 'there is no god
but Allah.' "All the jurists, perhaps without exc eption, assert that polytheism and
Islam cannot exist together; the polytheists, who enjoin other gods with Allah,
must c hoose between war or Islam. The definition of a polytheist, however, has not
been precisely given by any jurist. They exclude not only Scripturaries (who believe
in Allah though not in His Apostle) but also the Magians (Zoroast rains) whose belief
in Allah is obsc ure, but they had some sort of a book. Polytheism seems to have
been c onfined narrowly to paganism, with no implied c onc ept of a supreme deity.
In the Hijāz the principle was carried out to the letter, but in certain parts of
Arabia, like al-Yaman, Jews were permitted to reside. No one was permitted to
reside within Arabia, save those who either adopted Islam or remained
Sc ript uraries. Aft er Muhamma d's death, however, the Christians of Najrān, who
were given a pledge of security, were required by the Caliph 'Umar to leave for
settlement in the Fertile Crescent. Later, the rule was relaxed and at the present
Sc ript uraries are forbidden from residing only in Makka.^39 Outside the Arabian
peninsula polytheists were rarely to be found, except perhaps Zoroastrians in Persia
and pagan elements in the distant provinc es of the borders of Islam in Asia and
Afric a.
(^35) Māw ardī, Kitāb al-Ahkām al-Sultāniyya, ed. Enger (Bonn, 1853), p. 89
(^36) Q. IX, 5.
(^37) Q. IX, 124.
(^38) Q. XLVII.4
(^39) The Hanbalī jurist lbn Qudāma permits Scripturaries to pass through the Hijāz including
Makka, provided they do not intend to reside (Ibn Qudāma , al -Mughnī, ed. Rashid Rida
[Cairo, A.H. 1367], Vol. VIII, p. 530-31). Present practice forbids Scripturaries from entering
Makka alone, allow ing non-Muslims to travel elsewhere and even to reside in Jidda.