Ijtihad And Jihad
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OUR METHODOLOGY
Jihad & Ijtihad:
The Means of Resurgence Allah (s.w.t) said: “And it is not (proper) for the believers to go out to fight (Jihad) all together. Of every troop of them, a party only should go forth, that they (who are left behind) may get instructions in (Islamic) religion, and that they may warn their people when they return to them, so that they may beware (of evil).” [at-Tawbah: 122] By Harith Azzam i
Imam al-Qurtubi (May Allah bless his soul) said: “The verse instructs that Jihad is not obligatory on each individualii but is fard kifayah (public duty), because if everyone goes out to fight, the household will mislay; therefore a troop of them must leave for Jihad whilst a party of them must remain behind to study the religion and protect the women, so that when the fighters return home, the residents would teach them what they learned from the rules of the Sacred Law (Shari‘ah).” [al-Jami‘ li-Ahkam al-Qur’an, vol 8, p 293]
In this verse, Allah, glory be to Him, has classed people into two groups: mujahids and mujtahids, leaving very little good in the rest. Actually, the mujahid is a mujtahid and the mujtahid is a mujahid because the words ‘Jihad’ and ‘Ijtihad’ are linguistically derived either from the root ‘jahd’, which means ‘exhaustion and hardship’, or from the root ‘juhd’, which means ‘effort and power’. iii Sayyid Qutb (May Allah bless his soul) said: “The just understanding of this Deen only emanates from the battlefield and is not taken from a sitting scholar at a time when a movement is merited. Those who devote themselves today to books and writings so to deduce rules of jurisprudence that would ‘renew’ or ‘develop’ the Islamic Jurisprudence whilst they themselves are far from the movement that aims to liberate humanity from servitude to man and bring them back to the servitude to Allah alone by establishing the Shari‘ah of Allah solely and expelling the laws of the taghoots (falsely worshipped beings or things)…these people do not understand the nature of this Deen and, consequently, they do not know how to articulate the just understanding of this Deen.” [fa Zilal al-Qur’an, p 1735]
We should know that the objective of Jihad and Ijtihad is “to enslave human beings to Allah (s.w.t) alone, to take them out from the servitude to creatures,
to remove all the taghoots from earth and to clear out the world of corruption.” [Qutb, S. Hatha ad-Deen, p 15]
This Deen was well understood by the Salaf (Predecessors) of this Ummah, the best of its generations, who accordingly embodied it and made it an intricate element of their souls and character. As a result, they flooded the world with the knowledge and consciousness of the Message. Imam at-Tabari (May Allah bless him) said: “Sa‘d ibn Aba Waqqas sent Rib‘a ibn ‘Amir to Rustum, the commander of the Persian army, in al-Qadisiyyah in compliance with Rustum’s request. Rustum asked him, “What made you come here” He said: “Allah has chosen us and sent us to rescue whomever He wills from the servitude to Creation to the servitude of (the Creator) Allah, and from the narrowness of this world to its vastness, and from the tyranny of (corrupt) religions to the Justice of Islam. He sent us with His Deen to His slaves so that we may invite them to it. So whoever accepts this from us, we accept from him and back away and leave him and his land to rule over without us. But whoever refuses, we shall fight him forever until we meet Allah’s Promise!”
Rustum asked: “And what is the Promise of Allah” He replied: “Paradise for those who die fighting those who refuse (the invitation to Islam) and victory to those who remain alive.” [Akhbar ar-Rusul wa alMulak, vol 1, p 2271]
A long time passed since then and the Ummah has deteriorated and forgot this covenant with Allah. It seems like history has repeated itself and the Deen has returned to its original days of strangeness just as the Prophet (s.a.w) informed, “Islam began as a strange thing, and it will return to the strangeness from whence it began. So glad tiding to the Strangers.” [Muslim] The decline of this great civilisation is the strangeness of Islam. Therefore it requires a renewal after stagnation, a Renewal by means of Jihad and Ijtihad. Only by such means will a comprehensive outlook towards life’s intellectual, social and moral aspects be achieved. It has been long overdue for the contemporary Muslim societies to revive the concepts of Jihad and Ijtihad, according to the Salaf’s interpretation, after they have been suspended. The Muslims must understand that Jihad and Ijtihad are linked to the individual’s capability and capacity and should not necessarily be dependent on the Muslim Imams, as was assumed during the past centuries of decadence. The prominence of the two concepts lies in the fact that Jihad represents power in its fullest sense while Ijtihad represents knowledge in its fullest sense. Accordingly, it should be clear to any reasonable person that the network relationship between power and knowledge is the true manifestation of authority in the complete meaning of the term. i Imam Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Qurtubi (d. 1273) was a famous and pious Andalusian scholar. He is best known as an interpreter of the Qura’n and a Malikite jurist.
It should be clear to any reasonable person that the network relationship between power and knowledge is the true manifestation of authority in the complete meaning of the term
ii The basic ruling regarding Jihad is that it is a public obligation, wherein if a sufficient number of Muslims carry it out then they would deserve the reward and save the rest of the Ummah from sin. However, Jihad, in certain circumstances, may become an individual obligation, e.g. when an insufficient number of Muslims carry it out; if the enemy attacks a Muslim land and when the Imam (ruler) of the Muslims calls to Jihad as in the Hadith: “Jihad and a longing for it remains incumbent. Whenever you are called upon to do so (by the Imam), you should respond.” [Bukhari and Muslim] iii Sayyid Qutb is the revivalist of contemporary Muslim thought and a distinguished leader of the Islamic Movement. He has authored a large impressive commentary on the Qur’an entitled, “fi Zilal al-Qur’an” (In the Shade of the Qur’an). He was sentenced to death by the taghoot Gamal Abdul Nasser and died a martyr (inshaa’Allah) in 1966. DA'UL NI
ISSUE 1, VOLUME 9 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2002
7
Jihad & Ijtihad:
The Means of Resurgence Allah (s.w.t) said: “And it is not (proper) for the believers to go out to fight (Jihad) all together. Of every troop of them, a party only should go forth, that they (who are left behind) may get instructions in (Islamic) religion, and that they may warn their people when they return to them, so that they may beware (of evil).” [at-Tawbah: 122] By Harith Azzam i
Imam al-Qurtubi (May Allah bless his soul) said: “The verse instructs that Jihad is not obligatory on each individualii but is fard kifayah (public duty), because if everyone goes out to fight, the household will mislay; therefore a troop of them must leave for Jihad whilst a party of them must remain behind to study the religion and protect the women, so that when the fighters return home, the residents would teach them what they learned from the rules of the Sacred Law (Shari‘ah).” [al-Jami‘ li-Ahkam al-Qur’an, vol 8, p 293]
In this verse, Allah, glory be to Him, has classed people into two groups: mujahids and mujtahids, leaving very little good in the rest. Actually, the mujahid is a mujtahid and the mujtahid is a mujahid because the words ‘Jihad’ and ‘Ijtihad’ are linguistically derived either from the root ‘jahd’, which means ‘exhaustion and hardship’, or from the root ‘juhd’, which means ‘effort and power’. iii Sayyid Qutb (May Allah bless his soul) said: “The just understanding of this Deen only emanates from the battlefield and is not taken from a sitting scholar at a time when a movement is merited. Those who devote themselves today to books and writings so to deduce rules of jurisprudence that would ‘renew’ or ‘develop’ the Islamic Jurisprudence whilst they themselves are far from the movement that aims to liberate humanity from servitude to man and bring them back to the servitude to Allah alone by establishing the Shari‘ah of Allah solely and expelling the laws of the taghoots (falsely worshipped beings or things)…these people do not understand the nature of this Deen and, consequently, they do not know how to articulate the just understanding of this Deen.” [fa Zilal al-Qur’an, p 1735]
We should know that the objective of Jihad and Ijtihad is “to enslave human beings to Allah (s.w.t) alone, to take them out from the servitude to creatures,
to remove all the taghoots from earth and to clear out the world of corruption.” [Qutb, S. Hatha ad-Deen, p 15]
This Deen was well understood by the Salaf (Predecessors) of this Ummah, the best of its generations, who accordingly embodied it and made it an intricate element of their souls and character. As a result, they flooded the world with the knowledge and consciousness of the Message. Imam at-Tabari (May Allah bless him) said: “Sa‘d ibn Aba Waqqas sent Rib‘a ibn ‘Amir to Rustum, the commander of the Persian army, in al-Qadisiyyah in compliance with Rustum’s request. Rustum asked him, “What made you come here” He said: “Allah has chosen us and sent us to rescue whomever He wills from the servitude to Creation to the servitude of (the Creator) Allah, and from the narrowness of this world to its vastness, and from the tyranny of (corrupt) religions to the Justice of Islam. He sent us with His Deen to His slaves so that we may invite them to it. So whoever accepts this from us, we accept from him and back away and leave him and his land to rule over without us. But whoever refuses, we shall fight him forever until we meet Allah’s Promise!”
Rustum asked: “And what is the Promise of Allah” He replied: “Paradise for those who die fighting those who refuse (the invitation to Islam) and victory to those who remain alive.” [Akhbar ar-Rusul wa alMulak, vol 1, p 2271]
A long time passed since then and the Ummah has deteriorated and forgot this covenant with Allah. It seems like history has repeated itself and the Deen has returned to its original days of strangeness just as the Prophet (s.a.w) informed, “Islam began as a strange thing, and it will return to the strangeness from whence it began. So glad tiding to the Strangers.” [Muslim] The decline of this great civilisation is the strangeness of Islam. Therefore it requires a renewal after stagnation, a Renewal by means of Jihad and Ijtihad. Only by such means will a comprehensive outlook towards life’s intellectual, social and moral aspects be achieved. It has been long overdue for the contemporary Muslim societies to revive the concepts of Jihad and Ijtihad, according to the Salaf’s interpretation, after they have been suspended. The Muslims must understand that Jihad and Ijtihad are linked to the individual’s capability and capacity and should not necessarily be dependent on the Muslim Imams, as was assumed during the past centuries of decadence. The prominence of the two concepts lies in the fact that Jihad represents power in its fullest sense while Ijtihad represents knowledge in its fullest sense. Accordingly, it should be clear to any reasonable person that the network relationship between power and knowledge is the true manifestation of authority in the complete meaning of the term. i Imam Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Qurtubi (d. 1273) was a famous and pious Andalusian scholar. He is best known as an interpreter of the Qura’n and a Malikite jurist.
It should be clear to any reasonable person that the network relationship between power and knowledge is the true manifestation of authority in the complete meaning of the term
ii The basic ruling regarding Jihad is that it is a public obligation, wherein if a sufficient number of Muslims carry it out then they would deserve the reward and save the rest of the Ummah from sin. However, Jihad, in certain circumstances, may become an individual obligation, e.g. when an insufficient number of Muslims carry it out; if the enemy attacks a Muslim land and when the Imam (ruler) of the Muslims calls to Jihad as in the Hadith: “Jihad and a longing for it remains incumbent. Whenever you are called upon to do so (by the Imam), you should respond.” [Bukhari and Muslim] iii Sayyid Qutb is the revivalist of contemporary Muslim thought and a distinguished leader of the Islamic Movement. He has authored a large impressive commentary on the Qur’an entitled, “fi Zilal al-Qur’an” (In the Shade of the Qur’an). He was sentenced to death by the taghoot Gamal Abdul Nasser and died a martyr (inshaa’Allah) in 1966. DA'UL NI
ISSUE 1, VOLUME 9 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2002
7
