So What Does Jihad Really Mean?

Whose definition of Jihad is the right one? Zayed M. Yasin, the Harvard"American Jihad" speechmaker, says he wants to rescue the word from the Muslim extremists who have hijacked his religion. Jihad, he insists, is “the determination to do right and justice even against your personal interests.” Here are some other definitions.

HUSTON SMITH
Author of The World's Religions

The key--and inflammatory--issue, though, is jihad. Literally the word means only"effort, exertion, or struggle," but it has taken on the meaning of a Holy War. No full-fledged religion has been able to manage without a doctrine something like this--complete pacifism remains for smallish sects such as the Mennonites and Quakers. Egregious aggression must be halted, and murder, rape, and pillage defended against. So far, alas, so good. What is not good is that jihad has been turned by outsiders into a rallying cry for hatred against Islam--mention the word and up come images of screaming mobs streaming through streets while brandishing swords and destroying everyone and everything in sight, all at the beck of some Ayatollah or bin Laden. The truth of the matter is that Islam's concept of a Holy War is virtually identical with the Just War concept in Christian canon law, right down to the notion that martyrs in both are assured of entering heaven. In both cases the war must be defensive or fought to right a manifest wrong. Chivalry must be observed and the least possible damaged inflicted to secure the end in question. And hostilities must cease when the objective is accomplished. Retaliation is disallowed.

So, to face the hard question, were the destructive acts of September 2001 jihad? If the perpetrators saw those acts as responses to, first, continuing Israeli settlement of the West Bank and, second, the boycott cordon around Iraq and daily unmanned bombing of its territory, both regarded as acts of aggression against the dar al-salam, the House of Islam--to repeat, if the perpetrators of the damage saw their acts as responses to what they see as aggression, they doubtless saw themselves as waging jihad. Otherwise not.

SOURCE: Huston Smith, Islam: A Concise Introduction (2001).

DANIEL PIPES
Director of the Middle East Forum and author of Militant Islam Reaches America (forthcoming)

Jihad has historically meant, almost always one thing-which is expanding the territories ruled by Muslims through armed warfare. That's what it's meant. Now I'm happy to see a development occur whereby it means something more spiritual. But we have to start by acknowledging that that's the real meaning of the word, the historic meaning of the word, the traditional meaning of the word, and we can't ignore it. And this young man is ignoring it.

SOURCE: Interview on ABC News Nightline (June 4, 2002)

MARK JUERGENSMEYER
Professor of Sociology and Director of Global and International Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Ayatollah Khomeini said he knew of no command"more binding to the Muslim than the command to sacrifice life and property to defend and bolster Islam." The ayatollah was correct that there are some Islamic tenets that condone struggle and the use of force. In addition to the Qur'an's prohibition against killing, there are Muslim principles that justify it. Violence is required for purposes of punishment, for example, and it is sometimes deemed necessary for defending the faith. In the"world of conflict" (dar al harb) outside the Muslim world, force is a means of cultural survival. In such a context, maintaining the purity of religious existence is thought to be a matter of jihad, a word that literally means"striving" and is often translated as"holy war." This concept has been used by Muslim warriors to rationalize the expansion of political control into non-Muslim regions. But Islamic law does not allow jihad to be used arbitrarily, for personal gain, or to justify forcible conversion to the faith; the only conversions regarded as valid are those that come about nonviolently, through rational suasion and a change of heart. Even so, Islam has a history of military engagement almost from its beginning.

SOURCE: Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God.

ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA

JIHAD (also written JEHAD, JAHAD, DJEHAD), an Arabic word of which the literal meaning is an effort or a contest. It is used to designate the religious duty inculcated in the Koran on the followers of Mahomet to wage war upon those who do not accept the doctrines of Islam. This duty is laid down in five suras— all of these suras belonging to the period after Mahomet had established his power. Conquered peoples who will neither embrace Islam nor pay a poll-tax (jizya) are to be put to the sword. (See further MAHOMMEDAN INSTITUTIONS.) By Mahommedan commentators the commands in the Koran are not interpreted as a general injunction on all Moslems constantly to make war on the infidels. It is generally supposed that the order for a general war can. only be given by the caliph (an office now claimed by the sultans of Turkey). Mahommedans who do not acknowledge the spiritual authority of the Ottoman sultan, such as the Persians and Moors, look to their own rulers for the proclamation of a jihad; there has been in fact no universal warfare by Moslems on unbelievers since the early days of Mahommedanism. Jihads are generally proclaimed by al] persons who claim to be mahdis, e.g. Mahommed Al7mad (the Sudanese mahdi) proclaimed a jihad in 1882. In the belief of Moslems every one of their number slain in a jihad is taker straight to paradise.

SOURCE:Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 Edition