A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihad' Part 28

The verses 4 and 5 of Sura XLVII, like all other verses on the subject, appertain to the wars of defence, and no one has ever quoted them for wars of aggression. These verses have already been quoted at page 85.

The abolition of the future slavery as enjoined in the 5th verse has been treated separately in Appendix B. The Arabs, like other barbarous nations round them, used either to kill the prisoners of war or to enslave them; but this injunction of the Koran abolished both of these barbarous practices. The prisoners henceforward were neither to be killed nor enslaved, but were to be set at liberty with or without ransom.

[Footnote 289: Ata, a learned legist of Mecca, who flourished at the end of the first century of the Hegira, and held a high rank there as a juris-consult, (_vide_ para. 112) held, that Jihad was only inc.u.mbent on the Companions of the Prophet, and was not binding on any one else after them. See para. 112, and _Tafsir Majma-ul-Bayan_ by Tabrasee under Sura II. 212.]

[Footnote 290: The _Hedaya_ or Guide; or, A Commentary on the Mussulman Laws, translated by Charles Hamilton; Vol. II, Book IX, Ch. I, page 140 London, MDCCXCI.]

[Footnote 291: The _Hedaya_ or Guide; or, A Commentary on the Mussulman Laws, translated by Charles Hamilton; Vol. II, Book IX, Ch. I, page 141.]

[Footnote 292: "Arab _Kattal_; meaning war in its _operation_, such as _fighting_, _slaying_," &c.]

[Footnote 293: The _Hedaya_, Vol. II, 141.]

[Footnote 294: Sura II, 187.]

[Footnote 295: The Hedaya, with its commentary called Kifaya, Vol. II, p. 708. Calcutta Medical Press, 1834.

As a general rule the Mohammadan authors do not refer to the verses of the Koran by their number. They generally quote the first sentence, or even a portion of it. The No. of verses are mine. I have followed Fluegel and Rodwell's numbers of verses in their editions and translations of the Koran.]

[Footnote 296: Kifaya as before.]

[Footnote 297: _Binayah_, a commentary of the _Hedaya_, by Ainee. Vol.

II, Part II, page 789.]

[Footnote 298: Part. III, page 219.]

[Footnote 299: _Tuhfatul Muhtaj fi Sharah-al-Minhaj_, Part IV, page 137.]

[Footnote 300: _Insan-ul-Oyoon_, Part II, pp. 289, 291. Chapter on "Campaign."]

[Footnote 301: Sura IX, 5 and 12. These verses have been discussed at pages 51-55.]

[Footnote 302: "The Jihad will last till the day of the Resurrection."

"I have been enjoined to fight the people until they confess there is no G.o.d but the G.o.d." For these traditions see the next para.]

[Footnote 303: _Vide_ Ainee's Commentary of the _Hedaya_, Vol. II, Part II, p. 790.]

[Footnote 304: _Vide_ Ainee's Commentary of the _Hedaya_, Vol. II, Part II, p. 798.]

[Footnote 305: _Vide_ Kazee Budrudeen Mahmood bin Ahmed Ainee's (who died in 855 A.H.) Commentary on the _Hedaya_ called _Binayah_, and generally known by the name of Ainee, Vol. II, pp. 789-90, "Book of Inst.i.tute."]

[Footnote 306: The Modern Egyptians, by Edward William Lane; Vol. I, p.

117, _note_: fifth edition, London, 1871.]

[Footnote 307: Muir's Life of Mahomet, Vol. IV, pp. 251-252.]

[Footnote 308: The Early Caliphate and Rise of Islam, being the Rede Lecture for 1881, delivered before the University of Cambridge by Sir William Muir, K.C.S.I., LL.D., page 5, London, 1881.]

[Footnote 309: The History and Conquests of the Saracens, by Edward. A.

Freeman, D.C.L., LL.D., pp. 41-42; London, 1877.]

[Footnote 310: Christianity and Islam; The Bible and the Koran; by the Rev. W.R.W. Stephens, London, 1877, pp. 98-99.]

[Footnote 311: _Vide_ paras. 17, 29, 126.]

[Footnote 312: Mohammed and Mohammedanism. Lectures delivered at the Royal Inst.i.tution of Great Britain in February and March 1874, by R.

Bosworth Smith, M.A., Second Edition, page 137; London, 1876.]

[Footnote 313: The Koran, by George Sale. The "_Chandos Cla.s.sics_." The Preliminary Discourse, Section II, pp. 37-38.]

[Footnote 314: London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1876, pp. 46-54.]

[Footnote 315: A Comprehensive Commentary on the Quran; comprising Sale's Translation and Preliminary Discourse, with additional Notes and Emendations, by the Revd. E.M. Wherry, M.A., page 220; London: Trubner & Co., 1882.]

[Footnote 316: An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scripture, by Thomas Hartwell Horne, Esq., M.A. Vol. II, page 524; London. 1828.]

[Footnote 317: Commentary on the Quran by the Revd. Wherry, page 358.]

[Footnote 318: Notes on Muhammadanism; being outlines of the Religious System of Islam, by the Revd. T.P. Hughes, M.R.A.S., C.M.S., Missionary to the Afghans, page 206; Second Edition, 1877.]

[Footnote 319: The Nineteenth Century; London, December 1877, page 832.]

[Footnote 320: This subject has been fully treated in my "The Proposed Political, Legal, and Social Reforms in Moslem States," pp. 22-25: Bombay Education Society Press, 1883.]

[Footnote 321: Sir W. Muir, with other European translators of the Koran, translates the word "they shall profess Islam" (The Life of Mahomet, Vol. IV, p. 39, _footnote_). It ought to be translated "they shall submit." There is a difference of opinion among the commentators and canonical legists in this word. Some translate the word _Yoslemoon_ "shall profess Islam," and others "shall submit." This difference in the interpretation of the same word is merely of a sectarian nature, each party wis.h.i.+ng to serve their own purpose. Those legists who held that the polytheists and idolaters may either be fought against or be submitted to the authority of Islam by being tributaries, took the word in its proper sense of submission. Those who held that "the people of the Book" ought only to be made tributaries, while all other idolaters and polytheists should be compelled either to perish or to embrace Islam, interpret the word technically to mean the religion of Islam. But as the verse is not a legal command, we condemn at once the casuistic sophistry of the legists.]

Appendix A

ON THE WORD "JIHAD" AS OCCURRING IN THE KORAN AND WRONGLY TRANSLATED "WARFARE."

[Sidenote: Jihad or Jihd does not mean war or crusade.]

1. The popular word _Jihad_ or _Jihd_, occurring in several pa.s.sages of the Koran, and generally construed by Christians and Moslems alike as meaning hostility or the waging of war against infidels, does not cla.s.sically or literally signify war, warfare, hostility or fighting, and is never used in such a sense in the Koran. The Arabic terms for warfare or fighting are _Harab_ and _Kital_.

[Sidenote: Cla.s.sical meaning of Jihad, &c.]

2. The words _Jahada_, and _Jahada_ signify that a person strove, laboured or toiled; exerted himself or his power, or efforts, or endeavours, or ability employed himself vigorously, diligently, studiously, sedulously, earnestly or with energy; was diligent or studious, took pains or extraordinary pains[322]; for example, the term _Jahada fil-amr_ signifies that a person did his utmost or used his utmost powers, or efforts, or endeavours, or ability in prosecuting an affair.[323] The infinitive noun _Jihadan_ also means difficulty or embarra.s.sment, distress, affliction, trouble, inconvenience, fatigue, or weariness.[324] Jauharce, a lexicologist of great repute, whose work is confined to cla.s.sical terms and their significations, says in his Sihah that _Jahada fi Sabeelillah_ or _Mojahadatan_ and _Jihadan_ and also _Ajtahada_ and _Tajahada_ mean expending power and effort. Fayoomee, author of _Misbahel Moneer_, which contains a very large collection of cla.s.sical words and phrases of frequent occurrence, also says that _Jahada fi Sabeelillah Jihadan_ and _Ajtahada fil Amr_ mean he expended his utmost efforts and power in seeking to attain an object.

[Sidenote: Post-cla.s.sical or technical meaning of Jihad.]

3. It is only a post-cla.s.sical and technical meaning of _Jihad_ to use the word as signifying fighting against an enemy. Mr. Lane says, "_Jahada_ came to be used by the Moslems to signify generally _he fought_, _warred_ or waged war against _unbelievers_ and _the like_."

This signification is now given by those lexicologists who do not restrict themselves to the definition of cla.s.sical terms or significations, like the author of Kamoos. Mr. Lane, the celebrated author of _Maddool Kamoos_ an Arabic-English lexicologist, clearly shows that the definition of _Jihad_, as the act of waging war, is only of Moslem origin and is not cla.s.sical. And I will show in sequence that the Moslem usage of _Jihad_, as signifying the waging of war, is a post-Koranic usage, and that in the Koran it is used cla.s.sically and literally in its natural sense.

[Sidenote: The Cla.s.sical tongue and Arabian poets.]