نشریه قرآن، فقه و حقوق اسلامی
پیاپی 5 (پاییز و زمستان 1395)

Jihad is an important interpretive, jurisprudential, and historical issue in Islam which is known as kitab al-jihad in jurisprudential books and has many important branches. Within the wide range of this important issue, “preliminary jihad” is considered a very challenging issue in the time of occultation and has been discussed extensively; misunderstanding of which has led some groups to use it as an excuse to attack Islam and to introduce it as the religion of war. While, according to Islam, it is based neither on peace nor war, but it is a matter of difference among various cases. Nonetheless, there is a consensus among Islamic jurisprudents about the principle of legitimacy of preliminary jihad for which considerable traditional and rational evidences have been presented. The present research, after explaining the purposes of Islam for the establishment of preliminary Jihad, reviews the related verses of the Quran and states and criticizes the views of pros and cons of preliminary Jihad. It is worth mentioning that there are many other evidences like consensus, and religious requirement, as well as a considerable amount of traditional evidences in this regard, but the present research aims only to study the Quranic evidences on preliminary Jihad.

The division of jihad into two categories of “defensive jihad” and “preliminary jihad” as well as the condition of the presence of infallible Imam for obligation of preliminary jihad are well-known acts in the science of jurisprudence. Preliminary jihad should not be undertaken during the absence of infallible Imam. There are only a few Islamic jurisprudents who have not accepted the condition. The present text deals with the Quranic and traditional evidences which can be referred to in this regard, it specifically discusses the wide range of indications of the Quranic verses about preliminary jihad. The research concludes that the Quranic verses not only do not indicate the necessity and legitimacy of preliminary jihad, but also there are some verses that reject it.

The relation between “prohibition of use of force” rule in the modern international law and the rule of “jihad” in the international Islamic jurisprudence is a major controversial subject which has been restrengthened in the recent years with the emergence of phenomenon known as counter-terrorism. The turning point of disagreement is consistency or inconsistency of prohibitory rules and regulations of use of force as one of the most important modern international law with the rule of jihad as an inevitable tactic of international Islamic jurisprudence. The present article, studying and reviewing the Quranic teachings on jihad and making a comparison with the prohibition of use of force rule, tries to show the consistency of these two major rules. To draw the conclusion that the Quranic verses on jihad encourage violence and terrorism is against the fundamental humanitarian rules of Islamic teachings.

The idea of contradiction between verses on fighting with unbelievers and verses on making peace with them is a doubt cast on the Quranic verses. Based on this idea there is a contradiction between the verses that call Muslims to fight against unbelievers and verses that call Muslims to generally make peace or to make peace with unbelievers. The classification of the verses indicates that there is no contradiction between two categories of verses and that the idea of contradiction results from ignoring numerous factors including the conditions of revelation of verses, having an analytic view of and lack of a systematic view of the Quran or a series of related verses, disregarding the context of the verses, disregarding the purposes of divine legislation of rules like fighting, unfamiliarity with the soul of Islamic teachings, and misunderstanding the Arabic word “silm” (peace). If these propositions are considered when understanding the verses, no contradiction remains which indicates that actualization of fighting against unbelievers is based on fulfillment of its conditions both on the side of unbelievers - like proving their belligerent acts - and on the side of Muslims - like proving their preparation of faith and strengthening Islamic centers for fighting.

Martyrdom-seeking operation is a defensive tool used to protect one’s life, property, honor, religion, and land. Since there is no clear reason in the Book and Sunnah for obligation or lawfulness of defense in the case of being certain of one’s death, it may create some doubts about the legitimacy of such act. Therefore, the present research first, using the definition of the words jihad, defense, and martyrdom-seeking operation and taking use of the views of a number of jurisprudents, has considered martyrdom-seeking operation as an instance of defense. Next, it studies the verses which have been referred to as evidence for its legitimacy. Finally, it draws the conclusion that a number of generalities of the Quran indicate legitimacy of martyrdom-seeking operation whether through inclusiveness of the general rule of the verse or the concept of priority.

From among all the matters seized by takfiri groups, none of them is as important as jihad. Because, from one hand, takfiri movements, taking use of inverted readings of jihad, justify their attacks on Muslims, and on the other, anti-Islamic groups attribute the acts of takfiris to Islam and Muslims and provide the grounds for Islamphobia and war against Islam. During the last three centuries, the inverted readings of jihad had caused irretrievable damages to the world of Islam and shed many innocent people’s blood. The present research, taking a comparative look at jihad, first refers to the Quran's view of jihad and struggles among Muslims, and next refers to the different readings of this holy teaching which is formed mainly in the modern time.