Terror from the Jurisprudential Point of View

Terrorism is among the phenomena that has nowadays basically received the attention of political trends, media, and the researchers in the fields of politics, jurisprudence, and law. On the other hand, many of the distortions and unduly accusations made against Islam and the Muslims are related to this phenomenon. Thus, legal study of terrorism and its exploration from the viewpoint of jurisprudence seems necessary for providing an appropriate response to the onslaught of the enemies of Islam.This article, at first, addresses the semantics of the word terrorism in dictionaries of political sciences and re-examines the concepts synonym to it, such as: fatk (violent killing), ightiyāl (assassination), and irhāb (terror) in the earlier and modern literature and distinction of these concepts from each other as well as the words related to this discussion such as: baghy (injustice), muḥāriba (waging war), and jihād (holy war). In the section on legal study, while explaining the subject and the distinction of different kinds of terror, it examines different types of terror by the way of generic and specific proofs from the Qur’ānic verses and traditions. In the end, some of the propounded misconceptions are responded to and the jurists’ viewpoints about terror are touched upon.