Arabic:
“struggle” or “effort”
Also spelled:
jehad
Related Topics:
holy war

jihad, in Islam, a meritorious struggle or effort. The exact meaning of the term jihād depends on context; it has often been erroneously translated in the West as “holy war.” Jihad, particularly in the religious and ethical realm, primarily refers to the human struggle to promote what is right and to prevent what is wrong.

In the Qurʾān, jihād is a term with multiple meanings. During the Meccan period (c. 610–622 ce), when the Prophet Muhammad received revelations of the Qurʾān at Mecca, the emphasis was on the internal dimension of jihad, termed ṣabr, which refers to the practice of “patient forbearance” by Muslims in the face of life’s vicissitudes and toward those who wish them harm. The Qurʾān also speaks of carrying out jihad by means of the Qurʾān against the pagan Meccans during the Meccan period (25:52), implying a verbal and discursive struggle against those who reject the message of Islam. In the Medinan period (622–632), during which Muhammad received Qurʾānic revelations at Medina, a new dimension of jihad emerged: fighting in self-defense against the aggression of the Meccan persecutors, termed qitāl. In the later literature—comprising Hadith, the record of the sayings and actions of the Prophet; mystical commentaries on the Qurʾān; and more general mystical and edifying writings—these two main dimensions of jihad, ṣabr and qitāl, were renamed jihād al-nafs (the internal, spiritual struggle against the lower self) and jihād al-sayf (the physical combat with the sword), respectively. They were also respectively called al-jihād al-akbar (the greater jihad) and al-jihād al-aṣghar (the lesser jihad).

In these kinds of extra-Qurʾānic literature, the different ways of promoting what is good and preventing what is wrong are included under the broad rubric of al-jihād fī sabīl Allāh, “striving in the path of God.” A well-known Hadith therefore refers to four primary ways in which jihad can be carried out: by the heart, the tongue, the hand (physical action short of armed combat), and the sword.

Abu Darweesh Mosque
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In their articulation of international law, classical Muslim jurists were primarily concerned with issues of state security and military defense of Islamic realms, and, accordingly, they focused primarily on jihad as a military duty, which became the predominant meaning in legal and official literature. It should be noted that the Qurʾān (2:190) explicitly forbids the initiation of war and permits fighting only against actual aggressors (60:7–8; 4:90). Submitting to political realism, however, many premodern Muslim jurists went on to permit wars of expansion in order to extend Muslim rule over non-Muslim realms. Some even came to regard the refusal of non-Muslims to accept Islam as an act of aggression in itself, which could invite military retaliation on the part of the Muslim ruler. The jurists gave special consideration to those who professed belief in a divine revelationChristians and Jews in particular, who are described as “People of the Book” in the Qurʾān and are therefore regarded as communities to be protected by the Muslim ruler. They could either embrace Islam or at least submit themselves to Islamic rule and pay a special tax (jizyah). If both options were rejected, they were to be fought, unless there were treaties between such communities and Muslim authorities. Over time, other religious groups, including Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists, also came to be considered “protected communities” and were given rights similar to those of Christians and Jews. The military jihad could be proclaimed only by the legitimate leader of the Muslim polity, usually the caliph. Furthermore, the jurists forbade attacks on civilians and destruction of property, citing statements by the Prophet Muhammad.

Throughout Islamic history, wars against non-Muslims, even when motivated by political and secular concerns, were termed jihads to grant them religious legitimacy. This was a trend that started during the Umayyad period (661–750 ce). In modern times this was also true of the 18th and 19th centuries in Muslim Africa south of the Sahara, where religio-political conquests were seen as jihads, most notably the jihad of Usman dan Fodio, which established the Sokoto caliphate (1804) in what is now northern Nigeria. The Afghan wars of the late 20th and early 21st centuries (see Afghan War; Afghanistan War) were also viewed by many participants as jihads, first against the Soviet Union and Afghanistan’s Marxist government and later against the United States. During and since that time, Islamist extremists have used the rubric of jihad to justify violent attacks against Muslims whom they accuse of apostasy. In contrast to such extremists, a number of modern and contemporary Muslim thinkers insist on a holistic reading of the Qurʾān, assigning great importance to the Qurʾān’s restriction of military activity to self-defense in response to external aggression. This reading further leads them to discount many classical rulings on warfare by premodern Muslim jurists as historically contingent and inapplicable in the modern period.

Asma Afsaruddin
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Also called:
Islamdom

Islamic world, the complex of societies and cultures in which Muslims and their faith have been prevalent and socially dominant.

Adherence to Islam is a global phenomenon: Muslims predominate in some 30 to 40 countries, from the Atlantic eastward to the Pacific and along a belt that stretches across northern Africa into Central Asia and south to the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. Arabs account for fewer than one-fifth of all Muslims, more than half of whom live east of Karachi, Pakistan. Despite the absence of large-scale Islamic political entities, the Islamic faith continues to expand, by some estimates faster than any other major religion.

The Muslim religion and the life of the Prophet Muhammad are treated specifically in the article Islam. The literature, music, dance, and visual arts of Muslim peoples are treated in the article Islamic arts. Islam is also discussed in articles on individual countries or on regions in which the religion is a factor, such as Egypt, Iran, Arabia, and North Africa. See articles on individual branches or sects and concepts—for example, Islam, Nation of; Sunni; Shiʿi; Hadith.

A very broad perspective is required to explain the history of today’s Islamic world. This approach must enlarge upon conventional political or dynastic divisions to draw a comprehensive picture of the stages by which successive Muslim communities, throughout Islam’s 14 centuries, encountered and incorporated new peoples so as to produce an international religion and civilization.

In general, events referred to in this article are dated according to the Gregorian calendar, and eras are designated bce (before the Common Era or Christian Era) and ce (Common Era or Christian Era), terms which are equivalent to bc (before Christ) and ad (Latin: anno Domini). In some cases the Muslim reckoning of the Islamic era is used, indicated by ah (Latin: anno Hegirae). The Islamic era begins with the date of Muhammad’s migration (Hijrah) to Medina, which corresponds to July 16, 622 ce, in the Gregorian calendar.

Omar Ali Saifuddin mosque, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.
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World Religions & Traditions

In what follows, the terms Islamic world and Islamdom are used interchangeably. The term Islamic describes aspects pertaining to Islam as a religion, while Muslim as an adjective describes aspects pertaining to Islam’s adherents. The term Islamicate refers to the social and cultural complex that is historically associated with Islam and the Muslims, including the function and participation of non-Islamic and non-Muslim individuals and groups within that complex.

Prehistory (c. 3000 bce–500 ce)

The prehistory of Islamdom is the history of central Afro-Eurasia from Hammurabi of Babylon to the Achaemenid Cyrus II in Persia to Alexander the Great to the Sāsānian emperor Anūshirvan to Muhammad in Arabia; or, in a Muslim view, from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses to Jesus to Muhammad. The potential for Muslim empire building was established with the rise of the earliest civilizations in western Asia. It was refined with the emergence and spread of what have been called the region’s Axial Age religions—Abrahamic, centred on the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, and Mazdean, focused on the Iranian deity Ahura Mazdā—and their later relative, Christianity. It was facilitated by the expansion of trade from eastern Asia to the Mediterranean and by the political changes thus effected. The Muslims were heirs to the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Hebrews, even the Greeks and Indians; the societies they created bridged time and space, from ancient to modern and from east to west.

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The rise of agrarian-based citied societies

In the 7th century ce a coalition of Arab groups, some sedentary and some migratory, inside and outside the Arabian Peninsula, seized political and fiscal control in western Asia, specifically of the lands between the Nile and Oxus (Amu Darya) rivers—territory formerly controlled by the Byzantines in the west and the Sāsānians in the east. The factors that surrounded and directed their accomplishment had begun to coalesce long before, with the emergence of agrarian-based citied societies in western Asia in the 4th millennium bce. The rise of complex agrarian-based societies, such as Sumer, out of a subsistence agricultural and pastoralist environment, involved the founding of cities, the extension of citied power over surrounding villages, and the interaction of both with pastoralists.

This type of social organization offered new possibilities. Agricultural production and intercity trading, particularly in luxury goods, increased. Some individuals were able to take advantage of the manual labour of others to amass enough wealth to patronize a wide range of arts and crafts; of these, a few were able to establish territorial monarchies and foster religious institutions with wider appeal. Gradually the familiar troika of court, temple, and market emerged. The new ruling groups cultivated skills for administering and integrating non-kin-related groups. They benefited from the increased use of writing and, in many cases, from the adoption of a single writing system, such as the cuneiform, for administrative use. New institutions, such as coinage, territorial deities, royal priesthoods, and standing armies, further enhanced their power.

In such town-and-country complexes the pace of change quickened enough so that a well-placed individual might see the effects of his actions in his own lifetime and be stimulated to self-criticism and moral reflection of an unprecedented sort. The religion of these new social entities reflected and supported the new social environments. Unlike the religions of small groups, the religions of complex societies focused on deities, such as Marduk, Isis, or Mithra, whose appeal was not limited to one small area or group and whose powers were much less fragmented. The relationship of earthly existence to the afterlife became more problematic, as evidenced by the elaborate death rites of pharaonic Egypt. Individual religious action began to compete with communal worship and ritual; sometimes it promised spiritual transformation and transcendence of a new sort, as illustrated in the pan-Mediterranean mystery religions. Yet large-scale organization had introduced social and economic injustices that rulers and religions could address but not resolve. To many, an absolute ruler uniting a plurality of ethnic, religious, and interest groups offered the best hope of justice.