ETHICS IN ISLAM

(BHM 4053)
CHAPTER 5:
ISLAM, CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE

BY
DR NIK SAFIAH NIK ABDULLAH
 5.1 INTRODUCTION
❖ In the contemporary period, Islam is frequently depicted as predisposed to conflict
and violence.

❖ The intractable Middle East conflicts, the attacks on the United States in September
2001, and subsequent events during the first two decades of the twenty-first century
in which Muslim extremists have been implicated in acts of terror have served only
to reinforce this widespread perception.

❖ To discern the veracity of the accusation that in some special way Islam is inclined
toward deadly conflict, it is important to situate the discussion within concrete
socio-historical contexts.

❖ Moreover, in order to correctly understand the ethical norms of Islam represented

in the Muslim sacred scripture, the Qur’an, and in the exemplary conduct of the
Prophet Muhammad, it is necessary to analyse the historical milieu within such norms
were negotiated.

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 5.2 THE MAKKAH CONTEXT OF THE EARLY MUSLIMS

❖ When the prophet Muhammad brought the message of the Qur’an to the
Arabs in the early seventh century Common Era (CE), pre-Islamic Arabia was
steeped in oppressive social relations and caught up in a vicious cycle of
violence.
❖ Muhammad’s egalitarian message quickly began to threaten the Makkah elite.
❖ They opposed his teachings with great vehemence, to the point of brutally
torturing the whole family of Ammar ibn Yasir, one of Muhammad’s followers,
to death.
❖ He was thus forced to send some of his early followers to seek refuge in
Abyssinia, five years after he began his prophetic mission in 610 CE.
❖ Later, in 622, he avoided persecution in Mecca by taking refuge in the nearby
city of Yathrib (later renamed Medina) at the invitation of the people of that
city.
❖ Throughout the Makkah period, the early Muslims responded to the mental
anguishes, physical abuse, and persistent threats to their lives with passive
resistance. 3
 5.2 THE MAKKAH CONTEXT OF THE EARLY MUSLIMS (CONT.)

❖ It was only five-year into his prophetic mission, and after he had fled to
Medina, that Muhammad and the early Muslims were permitted to engage in
earned in armed resistance, but only under certain stringent conditions, as
specified in the following verses of the Qur’an (Surah al-Hajj, Q22:39-40):
“Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they
were wronged. And indeed, Allah is competent to give them victory. [They are]
those who have been evicted from their homes without right - only because they
say, "Our Lord is Allah ." And were it not that Allah checks the people, some by
means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches,
synagogues, and mosques in which the name of Allah is much mentioned. And
Allah will surely support those who support Him. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and
Exalted in Might."
❖ It is interesting to note that the above verses give precedence to the
protection of monasteries, churches, and synagogues over that of mosques in
order to underline their inviolability and the duty of the Muslim to safeguard
them against any desecration or abuse and to protect freedom of belief.
❖ The aim of fighting, according to this critical verse, is the defense of not only
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 5.3 THE QUR’AN AND THE ETHICS OF WAR AND PEACE

❖ In the succeeding eight years (624-632CE) Muhammad and his growing group of
followers engaged in a series of battles to defend Islam against the military
aggression of their adversaries, including the critical battles of Badr, Uhud, and
the Khandaq.
❖ Warfare was a pugnacious affair in seventh-century Arabia.
❖ A chieftain was not expected to display weakness to his enemies in a battle, and
some of the Qur’anic injunctions seem to share this spirit (Q4:90).
❖ Because the Qur’an was revealed in this context of deadly conflict, several
passages deal with the ethics of warfare (Q5:49; Q8:61; Q11;118-119; Q49:9;
49:13).
❖ The most contentious of these is the so-called sword verse (ayat al-sayf) (Surah
al-Taubah, Q9:5):
“And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever
you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at
every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give
zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful .”
❖ This passage has received considerable exegetical attention from both classical
and modern Muslim scholars. 5
 5.3 THE QUR’AN AND THE ETHICS OF WAR AND PEACE
(CONT.)
❖ The majority of Muslim scholars both past and present have argued that this
verse cannot be generalized (‘am) and that it relates to a limited context
(khass).
❖ They point out that this verse was revealed at a time when hostilities between
Muhammad and his enemies were frozen for a three-month period.
❖ During this difficult period, Muhammad encouraged the combatants to join his
ranks or leave the Muslim-controlled areas in peace.
❖ If, however, they rejected both of these options and chose instead to continue
with their aggression, then the Muslims would have no alternative but to fight
back until victory.
❖ The concluding part of the above verse provides still another opportunity for
forgiveness, mercy, and clemency.
❖ The vast majority of Muslim jurists conclude, from the specific context to
which the verse refers, that it was permitted to kill the idolaters (mushrikun)
only if they declared war and posed a mortal threat to Muslims.
❖ Moreover, classical exegetes explain that this so-called sword verse does not
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apply to Jews and Christians.
 5.3 THE QUR’AN AND THE ETHICS OF WAR AND PEACE
(CONT.)

❖ Their discussion of the verses in question center on relations with the idolaters, to
the exclusion of the “People of the Book” (ahl al-kitab).
❖ For example, al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1272), renowned for his exposition on the legal
implications of the Qur’anic text, stated, concerning the verse in question, that the
expression “idolaters” (mushrikun) did not refer to Jews and Christians (ahl al-kitab).
❖ Contemporary extremist groups such as al-Qa’ida, Boko Haram, and the Islamic
State, cite the sword verse to justify their attempts to coerce non-Muslims to
convert to Islam or face death.
❖ According to the vast majority of Muslim scholars, this interpretation of the sword
verse is inappropriate and constitutes a manipulation of the passage to suit the
political agendas of extremist movements.
❖ In contrast to the specific context of the revelation of the sword verse, other
Qur’anic verses encompass more general exhortations to peace, including the
following (Surah al-Nisa’, Q4:90):
❖ “Thus, if they let you be, and do not make war on you, and offer you
peace, God does not allow you to harm them.”

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5.3 THE QUR’AN AND THE ETHICS OF WAR AND PEACE (CONT.)

❖ The Qur’an also quotes the Torah, the Jewish scriptures, which permits
people to retaliate aye for eye, tooth for tooth, but like the Gospels, the
Qur’an suggests that it is meritorious to forgo revenge in a spirit of charitable
benevolence (Q5:45).
❖ Hostilities must be brought to an end as quickly as possible and must cease
the minute the enemy declares peace (Q2:192-93).
❖ The Qur’an, moreover, makes it emphatically clear that conflict can be
successfully ameliorated only through the establishment of justice, which
transcends personal or sectarian self-interests (Q4:135; Q7:29).
❖ “O Believers! Stand up firmly for justice, as witnesses for Allah, even if it be
against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor,
Allah is more worthy of both. Follow not the lusts of your heart’s desires, lets
you distort or decline to do justice, for surely God is all-aware of what you
do.” (Surah al-Nisa’, Q4:135)

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 5.4 CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN EARLY ISLAM

During his stay in Medina, Muhammad drafted a constitution known as Sahifah

al-Madina to regulate intertribal and interreligious relations between the
various communities in Medina.
The constitution also granted rights and responsibilities to all communities
and was instrumental in bringing an end to persistent intertribal conflicts.
Muhammad also attempted to resolve the conflict with the Meccan leaders
and their allies by entering into a peace treaty at a place called al-Hudaybiyya.
The treaty came to be known as sulh al-Hudaybiyya. Sulh is an important
virtue in Islam.
The purpose of sulh is to end conflict and hostility among adversaries so that
they may conduct their relationship in peace and amity (Q49:9).
The word itself has been used to refer both to the process of restorative
justice and peace-making and to the actual outcome of that process.

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 5.4 CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN EARLY ISLAM (CONT.)

Even though sulh al-Hudaybiyya never actually achieved its aims because the
Meccan tribesmen violated its condition, it remains an example of an
instructive conflict-intervention strategy.
Toward the end of Muhammad’s life, in 630CE, the Muslims gained their most
significant victory when they captured the city of Mecca, remarkably without
bloodshed.
This provided Muhammad with a third opportunity to institute a genuine sulh
process.
In a spirit of magnanimity, he forgave his enemies and enacted a process of
reconciliation.
A general amnesty was proclaimed in which all tribal claims of revenge were
abolished.
Two years later Muhammad died in Medina, at around the age of sixty-two.

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 5.5 PERSPECTIVES ON THE CONCEPT OF JIHAD

❑ The Qur’anic term most often conflated with that of violence is jihad.
❑ The Arabic verb jahada form which the verbal noun jihad is derived literally
means, “to strive hard, to exert strenuous effort and to struggle.”
❑ The Islamic concept of jihad should not be confused with the medieval
concept of holy war because the actual term for holy war – al-harb
al-muqaddasa – is never used in the Qur’an. In Islam, a war is never holy.
❑ As a multivalent Islamic concept, Jihad denotes any effort in pursuit of a
commendable aim.
❑ Jihad is a comprehensive concept embracing the struggle against oppression
and injustice as well as the personal struggle to purify the soul and improve
one’s character.

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 5.5 PERSPECTIVES ON THE CONCEPT OF JIHAD (CONT.)

❑ In mystical (Sufi) traditions of Islam the greatest form of jihad is the personal
jihad (jihad al-nafs), which involves purifying the soul and refining the
disposition.
❑ Muhammad is reported to have advised his companions as they returned after a
battle, “We are returning from the lesser jihad [physical fighting] to the greater
jihad [jihad al-nafs].”
❑ Sufis have traditionally understood this greater form of jihad to be the spiritual
struggle to discipline the lower impulses and base instincts in human nature.
❑ The renowned thirteenth-century Sufi scholar Jalaluddin Rumi articulated such
an understanding of jihad when he wrote: “The prophets and saints do not
avoid spiritual struggle. The first spiritual struggle they undertake is the killing of
the ego and the abandonment of personal wishes and sensual desires. This is
the greater jihad.”

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 5.5 PERSPECTIVES ON THE CONCEPT OF JIHAD (CONT.)

❑ After the death of Muhammad and the completion of the textual guidance of the
Qur’an, Muslims were faced with the challenge of interpreting and applying the
Islamic normative principles on conflict and violence to their own peculiar
socio-historical contexts.
❑ Subsequent generation of Muslims have interpreted these normative values pertaining
to conflict and violence in such a way as to give Islam a paradoxical role in human
history.
❑ In the first three centuries of Islam the classical doctrine of warfare, jihad al-qital, was
forged by Muslim jurists primarily in response to the imperial politics of the Abbasid
caliphate on the one hand and the Byzantine Empire on the other.
❑ According to this doctrine, the world was simply divided into a dichotomy of
territories: the abode of Islam (dar al-Islam) and the abode of war (dar al-harb).
❑ The abode of Islam constituted the Islamic caliphate. In accordance with this
belligerent paradigm, a permanent state of war characterized relations between the
two abodes.

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 5.5 PERSPECTIVES ON THE CONCEPT OF JIHAD (CONT.)

❑ The only way a non-Muslim territory could avert a war with the abode of Islam
was either to convert to Islam or to pay an annual poll tax ( jizya) and thereby
accept the hegemony of the Islamic caliphate.
❑ According to this classical doctrine, jihad is the instrument of the Islamic
caliphate to expand Muslim territories.
❑ Contemporary Muslim extremist groups, such as al-Qa’ida, Boko Haram and
the Islamic State, have employed the classical doctrine of jihad al-qital to
legitimate their struggles against colonial or postcolonial secular state rule.
❑ This controversial interpretation of jihad fails to capture the full range of the
term’s rich meaning.
❑ This hegemonic doctrine of jihad al-qital has and continues to be challenged by
Muslim scholars.

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 5.6 CHALLENGES TO DOCTRINE OF JIHAD AL-QITAL

❖ One of the earliest scholars who represented an alternative perspective on

jihad al-qital was Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 161/777).
❖ Al-Thawri believed that jihad al-qital was justified only in defense (jihad
al-dafi’i).
❖ Other contemporary Muslim scholars, such as Muhammad Abu Zahra,
Mahmud Shaltut, Mohammad Talaat al-Ghunaimi, Louay M. Safi, Ridwan
al-Sayyid, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Asma Afsaruddin, and Ahmed al-Dawoody have
criticized the predominant classical doctrine of jihad al-qital as being seriously
flawed because it violates some of the essential Islamic principles on the ethics
of the war.
❖ Other contemporary scholars have challenged the classical dichotomy of
territories (abode of Islam and abode of war) and insist on a third territory –
namely, the Abode of Peaceful Coexistence or (dar al-sulh or dar al-‘ahd).
❖ This was also the view of the classical scholar Malik ibn Anas (d. 179/795), the
founder of the Maliki School of Islamic jurisprudence.
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5.6 CHALLENGES TO DOCTRINE OF JIHAD AL-QITAL (CONT.)

❖ In support of the Abode of Peaceful Coexistence, contemporary scholar

Omid Safi (2009) reflects on the cordial relationship that had existed between
the early Muslims and the Abyssinian Christian state.
❖ He recalled that Muhammad himself had sent the earliest group of his
followers from Mecca to seek refuge from persecution in Abyssinian.
❖ They lived there peacefully for many years, and some of them did not return,
even after Muslims were in power in Mecca.
❖ Moreover, Muhammad had advised peaceful coexistence with the Abyssinians,
reportedly saying, “Leave the Abyssinians in peace as long as they leave in you
in peace”.
❖ Furthermore, Safi contends that the fact that the early Muslims did not make
any attempts to turn Abyssinia into an Islamic state is sufficient evidence that a
third abode, the “Abyssinian model,” was an Islamically sanctioned alternative.

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 5.6 CHALLENGES TO DOCTRINE OF JIHAD AL-QITAL (CONT.)

❖ The alternative paradigm represented by the Abyssinian model was

marginalized and ignored by the partisan interpretations of the dominant
classical Muslim jurists during the first three centuries of Islam.
❖ Some contemporary Muslims seek to reclaim this third paradigm of peaceful
coexistence.
❖ Other contemporary Muslims attempt to reclaim the rich Sufi tradition on
conflict transformation by relinking the lesser jihad to that of the greater Jihad.
❖ Both strategies have profound implications for expanding Muslim resources for
conflict transformation and peace-building efforts.

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 THANK YOU

@NSNA2020
Source: A. Rashied Omar (2015). Islam, Conflict and Violence. The Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim
World, 2nd edition. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

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