Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
228The Jihād Against Scripturaries
The People of the Book or Scripturaries (Ahl al-Kitāb) are the Jews, Sabians, and
Christ ians who believed in Allah but ac c ording t o t he Muslim c reed, who dist ort ed
t heir Sc ript ures and fell int o Allah's disfavor. When Allah sent t he last of His
Prophets to c all them to the truth, they ac c epted belief in Allah but not in His
Prophet or t he Qur'ān. Hence, the Scripturaries, like the polytheists must be
punished; but sinc e t hey believe in Allah, t hey are only part ially liable t o
punishment. The jihād, accordingly, is invoked but not in the same degree of
effectiveness as against polytheists.
The polytheists have the limited choice between Islam or the jihād; the
Scripturaries can choose one of three propositions: Islam, the poll tax, or the jihād.
If they accept Islam, t hey are ent it led under t he law t o full c it izenship as ot her
believers; if t hey prefer t o remain Sc ript uraries at t he sac rific e of paying t he poll
tax, they suffer c ertain disabilities whic h reduc e them to sec ond-c lass c it izens; if
they fight they are to be treated in war on the same footing as polytheists.
The Ribāt
The ribāt is the safeguarding of the front iers of the dār al-Islām by st at ioning
forc es in the harbors and front ier-towns (thughūr) for defense purposes. T his
type of jihād, although based on a Qur’ānic injunc tion, developed at a t ime
when the Islamic state was on the defensive. The^ Qur'ānic rule, ma kin g no
dist inc t ion between defensive or offensive purposes, states: "Prepare ye against
them what forc e and c o mp a n ie s of horse ye c an, to ma ke the enemies of God,
and your enemies, and^ ot hers beside t h e m, in dread thereof."^41 But the jurists,^
espec ially the Mālikī jurist s of Spain and Nort h Afric a (whose front iers had
b e c o me c onstantly the targets of attack from European forc es), emphasized the
defensive purpose of the ribāt. In the hadīth, the defensive c haracter of the ribāt
is emphasized, probably bec ause these hadīths were c irc ulat ed at the time the
ribāt was fulfilling defensive purposes. Thus one hadīth runs as follows: "'Abd-
Allah ibn 'Uma r stated that the jihād is for combatting the unbelievers, and the
ribāt for safe-guarding the believers." In Spain the ribāt assumed in the eyes of
the Muslims mo re signific anc e than the jihād sinc e t heir front iers were c onstantly
under attack by Christ ia n forc es. It was for t his reason that Ibn Hudhayl,
writ ing his t reatise on the jihād in the twelfth c entury of the Christ ian era
(when Islamic rule in Spain had been reduced to the southern part ), devoted the
sec ond c hapter to ribāt and stressed the defense of^ Spain against the^
unbelievers, from land and sea, as the mo s t essential obligat ion upon the
believers. Hadīths, ascribed to the Prophet M u h a mma d , w it h references to
Andalus as the Western front ier of Is la m, are c it ed to stress the signific anc e of^
ribāt for the protection of Spain from European attack. The Prophet Muh a mma d is
also reported to have said that the ribāt is given preference over the jihād, and that
spending one night in a ribāt is worth more than a thousand in prayer.^42
(^41) Q.VIII, 6 2
(^42) Bukhārī, Kitāb al -Jāmi’ al-Sahīh, Ed. Krehl (Leiden, 1864), Vol. II p. 222; Shaybānī, al -
Siyar al-Kabīr, w ith Sarakhsi’s Commentary (Hyderabad, A.H. 1335), Vol. I, pp. 6, 7, 9, 31.