Jihad is an Islamic term referring to the religious duty of
Muslims to maintain the religion. In Arabic, the word jihad is a
noun meaning "struggle" or "resisting". A person engaged in
jihad is called amujahid, the plural of which is mujahideen.
The word jihad appears frequently in the Quran, often in the
idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God (al-jihad
Muslims and scholars do not all agree on its definition. Many observers—both Muslim and non-Muslim—as well as the Dictionary of Islam, talk of jihad having two meanings:
an inner spiritual struggle (the "greater jihad"), and an outer physical struggle against the enemies of Islam (the "lesser jihad") which may take a violent or non-violent form. Jihad is often translated as "Holy War", although this term is controversial. Orientalist Bernard Lewis claims in the large majority of cases jihad has a military meaning, but others disagree. Javed Ahmad Ghamidi states that there is consensus among Islamic scholars that the concept of jihad will always include armed struggle against wrong doers. Ghamide also states there is no concept in Islam obliging Muslims to wage war for propagation or implementation of Islam after the time of Muhammad and his companions, and the only valid basis for jihad through arms is to end oppression when all other measures have failed.
It was generally supposed that the order for a general war could only be given by the Caliph (an office that was claimed by the Ottoman sultans), but Muslims who did not acknowledge the spiritual authority of the Caliphate (which has been vacant since 1923)—such as non-Sunnis and non-Ottoman Muslim states—always looked to their own rulers for the proclamation of a jihad. There has been in fact no universal warfare by Muslims on non-believers since the early caliphate. Some proclaimed Jihad by claiming themselves as mahdi, e.g. the Sudanese Mahommed Ahmad in 1882. In classic Islam, the military form of jihad was also regulated to protect civilians.
Jihad is an important religious duty for Muslims. A minority among the Sunni scholars sometimes refer to this duty as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official status. In Twelver Shi'a Islam, however, Jihad is one of the ten Practices of the Religion.
In Modern Standard Arabic, the term jihad is used for a struggle for causes, both religious and secular. The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic defines the term as "fight, battle; jihad, holy war (against the infidels, as a religious duty)". Nonetheless, it is usually used in the religious sense and its beginnings are traced back to the Quran and words and actions of Muhammad. In the Qur'an and in later Muslim usage, jihad is commonly followed by the expression fi sabil illah, "in the path of God." It is sometimes used without religious connotation, with a meaning similar to the English word "crusade" (as in "a crusade against drugs").
"TITTER YE NOT"
Why did the prophet
Mohammed go to kindergarten when he was 52 years old?
To pick up his wife.
Abdul goes to a local Burger
King and asks for 2 Whoppers,
the cashier says,
“Mohammed was not a blood
thirsty paedophile and Islam is a religion of peace.”
Seeing all those Muslims on Sky News sitting behind their
fortifications with the black flag of Jihad flying from the ramparts, waiting for the onslaught.
I swear I heard one of them say:
It's like the Allah, Mo.
SHAHADA JIHAD WOMAN
WHAT IS JIHAD
“The United States
finds itself with forces
of reaction. Do I have
to demonstrate this? The Taliban's annihilation of music and culture? and the enslavement of women?”
The word jihad (or variations based on its root—the letters J,H,D)
appear 164 times in the Quran according to one count. According to
Jonathon Berkey, jihad in the Quran was originally intended or the
nearby neighbours of the Muslims, but as time passed and more
enemies arose, the Quranic statements supporting jihad were
updated for the new adversaries. This encourages the use of jihad
The context of the Quran is elucidated by Hadith (the teachings,
deeds and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad). Of the 199
references to jihad in perhaps the most standard collection of hadith
—Bukhari—all assume that jihad means warfare.
Among reported saying of the Islamic prophet Muhammad involving
"The best jihad is the one in which your horse is slain and your blood is spilled".
The Messenger of Allah was asked about the best jihad. He said:
"The best jihad is the one in which your horse is slain and your blood is spilled" (also cited by Ibn Nuhaas and narrated by Ibn Habbaan).
Ibn Nuhaas also cited a hadith from Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, where Muhammad states that the highest kind of jihad, is "The person who is killed whilst spilling the last of his blood" (Ahmed 4/144). It has also been reported that Muhammad considered performing hajj to be the best jihad for Muslim women.
"From an early date Muslim law laid down" jihad in the military sense as "one of the principal obligations" of both "the head of the Muslim state", who declared the jihad, and the Muslim community. Within classical Islamic jurisprudence – the development of which is to be dated into the first few centuries after the prophet's death – jihad is the only form of warfare permissible under Islamic law, and may consist in wars against unbelievers, apostates, rebels, highway robbers and dissenters renouncing the authority of Islam. The primary aim of jihad as warfare is not the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam by force, but rather the expansion and defence of the Islamic state. In theory, jihad was to continue until "all mankind either embraced Islam or submitted to the authority of the Muslim state." There could be truces before this was achieved, but no permanent peace. One who died 'on the path of God' was a martyr, (Shahid), whose sins were remitted and who was secured "immediate entry to paradise.
"Classical manuals of Islamic jurisprudence often contain a section called Book of Jihad, with rules governing the conduct of war covered at great length. Such rules include treatment of non belligerents, women, children (also cultivated or residential areas) Such rules offered some protection for civilians. Although some Islamic scholars have differed on the implementation of Jihad, there is consensus amongst them that the concept of jihad will always include armed struggle against persecution and oppression. The first documentation of the law of Jihad was written by 'Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani.
With the Islamic revival, a new "Fundamentalist" movement arose, with some different interpretations of Islam, often with an increased emphasis on jihad. The Wahhabi movement which spread across the Arabian peninsula starting in the 18th century, emphasized jihad as armed struggle. Wars against Western colonial forces were often declared jihad:
the Sanusi religious order proclaimed it against Italians in Libya in 1912, and the "Mahdi" in the Sudan declared jihad against the British and the Egyptians in 1881.
In the twentieth century, one of the first Islamist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood emphasized physical struggle and martyrdom in its credo:
"God is our objective; the Quran is our constitution; the Prophet is our leader; struggle (jihad) is our way; and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations. "The group called for jihad against the new Jewish state of Israel in the 1940s, and its Palestinian branch, Hamas, called for jihad against Israel when the First Intifada started. In 2012, its General Guide (leader) in Egypt, Mohammed Badie also declared jihad "to save Jerusalem from the usurpers and to liberate Palestine from the claws of occupation ... a personal duty for all Muslims." Muslims "must participate in jihad by donating money or sacrificing their life ...
"Many other figures prominent in Global jihad started in the Muslim Brotherhood -- Abdullah Azzam, bin-Laden's mentor, started in the Muslim Brotherhood of Jordan; Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin-Laden's deputy, joined the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood at the age of 14; and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who planned the 9/11 attack, claims to have joined the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood at age 16. The Brotherhood supports statements such as those of Yusuf al-Qaradawi—a prominent cleric with a long association with the Brotherhood—that "it is dangerous and wrong to misunderstand jihad, to shed inviolate blood in its name, to violate property and lives and to taint Muslims and Islam with violence and terrorism, ..." But when asked by an interviewer, "On the subject of resistance and jihad—do you consider Bin Laden to be a terrorist or a jihad fighter?", it's Supreme Guide replied, "Without a shadow of a doubt—a jihad fighter."
IS THIS MAN THE MOST HATED MAN
IN THE UK?
THE NEXT GENERATION SHARIA JIHAD
ROCK THE CASBAH - THE CLASH
Contemporary fundamentalists are often influenced by jurist Ibn Taymiyya's, and journalist Sayyid Qutb's, ideas on jihad. Ibn Taymiyya hallmark themes included the permissibility of
overthrowing a ruler who is classified as anunbeliever due to a
failure to adhere to Islamic law the absolute division of the world
into dar al-kufr and daral-Islam, the labeling of anyone not
adhering to one's particular interpretation of Islam as an
#unbeliever and the call for blanket warfare against non-Muslims
particularly Jews and Christians.
Ibn Taymiyya recognized "the possibility of a jihad against
`heretical`and `deviant` Muslims within dar al-Islam. He identified
as heretical and deviant Muslims anyone who propagated
innovations (bida') contrary to the Quran and Sunna ...
legitimated jihad against anyone who refused to abide by Islamic
law or revolted against the true Muslim authorities." He used a
very "broad definition" of what constituted aggression or rebellion
against Muslims, which would make jihad "not only permissible
but necessary." Ibn Taymiyya also paid careful and lengthy
attention to the questions of martyrdom and the benefits of
'It is in jihad that one can live and die in ultimate
happiness, both in this world and in the hereafter. Abandoning it
means losing entirely or partially both kinds of happiness.
Also influential was Egyptian Muhammad abd-al-Salam Faraj, who wrote the pamphlet Al-Farida al-gha'iba (Jihad, the Neglected Duty).
While Qutab felt that jihad was a proclamation of "liberation for humanity", Farag stressed that jihad would enable Muslims to rule the world and to re-establish the caliphate. He emphasized the importance of fighting the "near enemy"—Muslim rulers he believed to be apostates, such as the president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, whom his group assassinated—rather than the traditional enemy, Israel. Faraj believed that if Muslims followed their duty and waged jihad, ultimately supernatural divine intervention would provide the victory:
This means that a Muslim has first of all the duty to execute the command to fight with his own hands. Once he has done so God will then intervene and change the laws of nature. In this way victory will be achieved through the hands of the believers by means of God's intervention.
Faraj included deceiving the enemy, lying to him, attacking by night (even if it leads to accidentally killing innocents), and felling and burning trees of the infidel, as Islamically legitimate methods of fighting. Although Faraj was executed in 1982 for his part in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, his pamphlet and ideas were highly influential, at least among Egyptian Islamist extremist groups. (In 1993, for example, 1106 persons were killed or wounded in terror attacks in Egypt. More police (120) than terrorists (111) were killed that year and "several senior police officials and their bodyguards
were shot dead in daylight ambushes.") Ayman al-Zawahiri, later the #2 person in Al-Qaeda, was Faraj's friend and followed his strategy of targeting the "near enemy" for many years.
In the 1980s the Muslim Brotherhood cleric Abdullah Azzam, sometimes called "the father of the modern global jihad", opened the possibility of successfully waging jihad against unbelievers in the here and now. Azzam issued a fatwa calling for jihad against the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan, declaring it an individual obligation for all able bodied Muslims because it was a defensive jihad to repel invaders. Azzam also argued for a broader interpretation of who it was permissible to kill in jihad, an interpretation that some think he may have influenced some of his students, including Osama bin Laden.
Many Muslims know about the hadith in which the Prophet ordered his companions not to kill any women or children, etc., but very few know that there are exceptions to this case ... In summary, Muslims do not have to stop an attack on mushrikeen, if non-fighting women and children are present.
A poll by Gallup showed that a "significant majority" of Muslim Indonesians define the term to mean "sacrificing one's life for the sake of Islam/God/ a just cause" or "fighting against the opponents of Islam". In Lebanon, Kuwait, Jordan, and Morocco, the majority used the term to mean "duty toward God", a "divine duty", or a "worship of God".
The United States Department of Justice has used its own definitions of jihad in indictments of individuals involved in terrorist activities:
"As used in this First Superseding Indictment, 'Jihad' is the Arabic word meaning 'holy war'. In this context, jihad refers to the use of violence, including paramilitary action against persons, governments deemed to be enemies of the fundamentalist version of Islam."
"As used in this Superseding Indictment, 'violent jihad' or 'jihad'
include planning, preparing for, and engaging in, acts of physical
violence, including murder, maiming, kidnapping, and hostage-
taking." in the indictment against several individuals including
"Fighting and warfare might sometimes be necessary, but it was only
a minor part of the whole jihad or struggle," according to Karen
"Jihad is a propagandistic device which, as need be, resorts to armed
struggle– two ingredients common to many ideological movements,"
according to Maxime Rodinson.
Academic Benjamin R. Barber used the term Jihad to point out the
resistant movement by fundamentalist ethnic groups who want to
protect their traditions, heritage and identity from globalization (which
he refers to as 'McWorld').
In the late 20th and early 21st century, many militant groups include
the term "jihad" in their names:
The International Islamic Front
for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders:
(Osama bin Laden's
organization in his 1998 fatwa), Laskar Jihad of Indonesia,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, Egyptian Islamic Jihad,
Yemeni Islamic Jihad.
Some conflicts fought as jihad since the 1980s include:
War (1980–88, considered a jihad by the Islamic Republic of
Iran), Kashmir conflict (Lashkar-e-Taiba, 1990–present), Somali
Civil War (1991–present), Bosnian war (Bosnian mujahideen,
1992–95), Afghan civil war (Taliban 1994–present), East
Turkestan irredentism (East Turkestan Islamic Movement, 1997–
present), Chechen war and Insurgency in the North Caucasus
(Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya, 1994–present), Nigerian Sharia conflict (Boko Haram 2001–present), Iraqi insurgency (Islamic State of Iraq, 2003–present), Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen (Abyan Governorate, 2010–present), Syrian civil war (Al-Nusra Front to Protect the Levant 2011–present)
Whether the Quran sanctions defensive warfare only or commands an all-out war against non-Muslims depends on the interpretation of the relevant passages. This is because it does not explicitly state the aims of the war Muslims are obliged to wage; the passages concerning jihad rather aim at promoting fighters for the Islamic cause and do not discuss military ethics.
Controversy has arisen over whether the usage of the term jihad without further explanation refers to military combat, and whether some have used confusion over the definition of the term to their advantage.
Middle East historian Bernard Lewis argues that "the overwhelming majority of classical theologians, jurists, and traditionalists (specialists in the hadith) understood the obligation of jihad in a military sense. "Furthermore, Lewis maintains that "jihad" in the Quran "has usually been understood as meaning 'to wage war'", and that for most of the recorded history of Islam, from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad onward, the word jihad was used in a primarily military sense.
Historian Douglas Streusand writes that "in hadith collections, jihad means armed action". In what is probably the most standard collection of hadith, Sahih al-Bukhari, "the 199 references to jihad all assume that jihad means warfare."
The Black Standard as used by
various Islamist organisations (since
the late 1990s) consists of a
The flag of the former Islamic
State of Iraq, later the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant.
Flag of Jama'at at-Tawhid
wa'l- Jihad, used in their beheading videos.
Shahada - Some variant designs depict the second phrase of
the shahada in the form of the historical seal of Muhammad.
The holding of the flag is often accompanied by a single raised
index finger. The symbolism behind this hand gesture alludes to
their fundamentalist interpretation of the tawhid —"the belief in
the oneness of God and a key component of the Muslim religion."
In August 2014, British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested
that anybody displaying the black standard in the United
Kingdom should be arrested. It has also been banned from a
public demonstration in the Netherlands in August 2014. The use
of the image or the ISIL / ISIS / IS flag (but not other versions of
the black standard) for non- educational purposes has been
forbidden in Germany by the Federal Ministry of the Interior since
September 2014. Neighbouring Austria proposed a ban in the
Beheading is a formerly widespread execution method that has gradually been banned throughout the world but remains used or advocated for by some adherents of Islamism and Islamic extremism. Beheading is a legal form of execution in Iran, Qatar and Yemen, but the punishment has been suspended in those countries. The majority of executions carried out by the Wahhabi government of Saudi Arabia are public beheadings, which usually cause mass gatherings but are not allowed to be photographed or filmed. Since 2002, however, jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have been
mass circulating beheading videos as a form of
terror and propaganda.
According to historian Timothy Furnish, some
Islamist groups, including Abu Musab al-
Zarqawi's Tawhid wal-Jihad (Unity and Jihad)
and Abu Abdallah al-Hasan bin Mahmud's Ansar
al-Sunna (Defenders of [Prophetic] Tradition),
use Qur'anic passages to justify beheading.
Sura 47-4 reads:
"So when you meet those who
disbelieve, then strike the necks until when you
have subdued then bind firmly the bond, then
either a favour afterwards or ransom until lays
down the war its burdens".
According to Furnish, the translation of kāfaru is fairly straight forward:
blaspheme/are irreligious", while the meaning of darb ar-riqab is less clear. Darb can be
translated as "striking or hitting" and ar-riqab can mean "necks, slaves, persons."
However, again according to Furnish, most scholars translate this sura:
meet the unbelievers, smite their necks."
Muhammad has been described as ordering beheadings. The Jewish tribe of the
Banu Qurayza is described in various hadith. 800- 900 men from this tribe were beheaded on the orders of Muhammad:
The Jews were made to come down, and Allah’s Messenger imprisoned them. Then the Prophet went out into the marketplace of Medina, and he had trenches dug in it. He sent for the Jewish men and had them beheaded in those trenches. They were brought out to him in batches. They numbered
800 to 900 boys and men. As they were being taken in small groups
to the Prophet, they said to one another, ‘What do you think will be
done to us?’ Someone said, 'Do you not understand. On each
occasion do you not see that the summoner never stops? He does
not discharge anyone. And that those who are taken away do not
come back. By God, it is death!' The affair continued until the
Messenger of Allah had finished.
—Al-Tabari, Vol. 8, p. 35
Saladin personally beheaded Raynald of Châtillon, a knight who
served in the Second Crusade after the Battle of Hattin. This was
because Raynald had engaged in perfidy, and broken a truce to
attack caravans of Muslims civilians, including one in which Saladin's
sister was returning from pilgrimage.
Modern instances of Islamist beheading date at least to the First
Chechen War (1994 –96), and to the beheading of Yevgeny
Rodionov, a Russian soldier who refused to convert to Islam, whose
subsequent beheading has led some within the Russian Orthodox
Church to venerate him as a martyr. The 2002 beheading of
American journalist Daniel Pearl by Al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed in Pakistan drew international attention, attention
enhanced by the intensity of hatred for Western culture and Jews
expressed by the murderers, and by the release of a beheading
Beheadings have emerged as a terror tactic in Iraq since 2003.
Civilians have borne the brunt of the beheadings, although U.S. and
Iraqi military personnel have also been targeted. After kidnapping the
victim, the kidnappers typically make some sort of demand of the
government of the hostage's nation and give a time limit for the
demand to be carried out, often 72 hours. Beheading is often threatened if the government fails to heed the wishes of the hostage takers. Frequently the crude beheadings are videotaped and made available on the Internet. One of the most publicized executions of an American was that of Nick Berg.
Beginning in 2014, a number of people from various countries were beheaded by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), a radical Sunni Islamist group operating in Iraq and parts of Syria.
In January 2015 a copy of an ISIL penal code surfaced describing the penalties it enforces in areas under it's control, including beheadings. Beheading videos have been frequently posted by ISIL members to social media. Several of the videoed beheadings were conducted by Mohammed Emwazi, who the media had referred to as "Jihadi John" before his identification.
The beheadings received wide coverage around the world and attracted international condemnation. Political scientist Max Abrahms posted that ISIL may be using well-publicized beheadings as a means of differentiating itself from Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), and identifying itself with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaeda member who beheaded Daniel Pearl. The publicised beheadings represent a small proportion of a larger total of people killed following capture by ISIL.
Sahih Muslim 20:4676 <Chapter 40 of Book 20 in Sahih Muslim:
JIHAD IS NOT COMPULSORY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE A GENUINE EXCUSE.
Sahih Bukhari 4:51:72 "Our Prophet told us about the message of our Lord:
'Whoever amongst us is killed will go to Paradise.' Umar asked the Prophet, 'Is it true that our men who are killed will go to Paradise and the Pagan's will go to the Hell fire?' The Prophet said, 'Yes.'"
God has purchased the souls and property of the believers in exchange for Paradise. They fight for the cause of God to destroy His enemies and to sacrifice themselves. This is a true promise which He has revealed in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran. No one is more true to His promise than God. Let this bargain be glad news for them. This is indeed the supreme triumph.