What Islam's sources say about violence and jihad
Jihad and apostasy in classical Islamic law
Classical jurists treated offensive jihad to expand Muslim rule as a collective duty, divided the world into the abode of Islam and the abode of war, and prescribed death for adult male apostates.
The classical doctrine
The jurists of the eighth to twelfth centuries, for example in Ibn Rushd's Bidayat al-Mujtahid (12th century), set out the rules: whom to fight, the invitation to Islam first, the jizya option for People of the Book, the treatment of captives and spoils. Rudolph Peters' Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam translates the key texts.
Modern Muslim readings
In the twentieth century many scholars, among them Mahmud Shaltut of al-Azhar, argued that jihad in Islam is defensive only. Several Muslim-majority countries still have apostasy or blasphemy laws; many Muslim scholars today argue they have no Quranic basis.
لَآ إِكْرَاهَ فِى ٱلدِّينِ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ ٱلرُّشْدُ مِنَ ٱلْغَىِّ فَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِٱلطَّٰغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِنۢ بِٱللَّهِ فَقَدِ ٱسْتَمْسَكَ بِٱلْعُرْوَةِ ٱلْوُثْقَىٰ لَا ٱنفِصَامَ لَهَا وَٱللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ 256
256There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer, Knower.
Quran 2:256 (Pickthall) · context
Where scholars disagree
- Whether classical offensive jihad doctrine is binding today is disputed among Muslim scholars.
Sources
- Earliest source Ibn Rushd (Averroes, died 1198), Bidayat al-Mujtahid, chapter on jihad, translated in Rudolph Peters, Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam (1996).
- Rudolph Peters and Gert J. J. De Vries, "Apostasy in Islam", Die Welt des Islams 17 (1976-77).