JIHAD: Shedding Light to the Muslim Holy War

A Research Paper Presented to the

Senior High School Department
St. John’s Academy, INC.
Dinalupihan, Bataan

In Partial Fulfilment
of the Requirement of the Courses
Research in Daily Life I, Introduction to World Religions, and Disciplines and Ideas in Social
Science

The Researchers
Ramirez, Andrei Lawrence S.
Alvendo, Cyrus Daniel R.
Fabia, John Gabriel C.
Mariano, Justine M.
Mallo, Jairah O.

2019
 CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

INTRODUCTION

‘Struggles’ or ‘Muslim holy war’, these are the words that comes to mind of a normal
individual whenever he hears the word Jihad. However, as stated by Handwerk (2003), the term
Jihad is a very brimful concept that leads to different misconceptions to the people. For him,
Western people define Jihad as the clash of civilization. On the other hand, most scholars of
Islam and common Muslims define the term as “exerted effort”, thus representing expansive
activities. On the other note, according Afsaruddin (2020), in the religious and ethical realm,
Jihad refers to promoting what is right and preventing what is wrong. However, Handwerk and
Afsaruddin are symmetrical to the Western or non-Islamic definition of Jihad. They both agreed
that Western people define it as the holy war. This demonstrates that Jihad has various
denotations floating over the minds of the people across the globe.

In international law, as stated by Afsaruddin (2020), the concern of the classical Muslim
jurists are the state security and Islamic realms

Jihad is defined as a stuggle of effort. But the exact definition of it depends on its context. In the
West, it is translated as holy war. In the religious and ethical realm it refers to promoting what is
right and preventing what is wrong. According to Afsaruddin (2020) in the Qurab, the term jihad
has multiple meanings. In the time of the Meccan Period, Prophet Muhammad acquired
revelations of Quran at Mecca and jihad is highlighted as a term "abr" referring to the Muslims
practice "patient forbearance" which means when they face alteration or a shift in their life and
towards those who wants to harm them. The Quran also implies jihad as a "verbal and discursive
stuggle against those who do not accept the message of Islam. A new dimension of jihad uprise
in the Medinan Period (622-632) when Muhammad redeemed Quranic revelations at Medina. In
this period, jihad is defined "fighting in self-defense against the aggression of Meccan
prosecutors".
Jihad is a religious struggle against evil in ourself or in society. The meaning of Jihad is
struggle or effort, it means much more than holy war. Jihad appears to become the scariest
word in the world. From the Arabic root meaning “to strive,” “to exert,” or “to fight”; it
means depend on the context. It express a struggle against one's evil inclinations, an
exertion to convert unbelievers, or a struggle for the moral betterment of the Islamic
community. Jihad is the only legal warfare in Islam, and it is carefully controlled in Islamic
law.
Internet Jihad: According to a 1997 New York Times report, Muslim extremists are using
Internet blogs and websites used to spread anti-Jewish and anti-American ideology across
the world. Mahommed Ahmad (the Sudanese mandi) proclaimed a jihad in 1882. Thereupon
Fodio unfurled the green banner of Mahomet and preached a jihad or religious war. After a
siege of sixteen and a half months Damietta was taken by the Franks on Tuesday the 6th of
November 1219; al-Kamil thereupon proclaimed the Jihad, and was joined at his fortified
camp, afterwards the site of Man~ra, by troops from various parts of Egypt, Syria and
Mesopotamia, including the forces of his brothers Isa and Miis. 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. The word
jihad appears frequently in the Quran with and without military connotations,often in the
idiomatic expression "striving in the path of God (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)".Islamic jurists and
other ulema of the classical era understood the obligation of jihad predominantly in a
military sense.They developed an elaborate set of rules pertaining to jihad, including
prohibitions on harming those who are not engaged in combat.In the modern era, the
notion of jihad has lost its jurisprudential relevance and instead given rise to an ideological
and political discourse. While modernist Islamic scholars have emphasized defensive and
non-military aspects of jihad, some Islamists have advanced aggressive interpretations that
go beyond the classical theory. Jihad is classified into inner ("greater") jihad, which involves
a struggle against one's own base impulses, and external ("lesser") jihad, which is further
subdivided into jihad of the pen/tongue (debate or persuasion) and jihad of the sword.Most
Western writers consider external jihad to have primacy over inner jihad in the Islamic
tradition, while much of contemporary Muslim opinion favors the opposite view.Gallup
analysis of a large survey reveals considerable nuance in the conceptions of jihad held by
Muslims around the world.

Only a few people in America heard the word jihad ten years ago. But now it is so common
that jihad is in the Oxford English Dictionary. According to Streusand, the first time he did a
web search on the word jihad it says, "jihad to remove Barney from television." Streusand
also stated, "That is wha the term has come to mean in the West. It means a fanatical
struggle." The interpretation of Muslims with the word jihad changed as years pass by. But
jihadists says they mean one thing. It is violence and violence alone to attain their ends.
Jihad actually has sets of definitions. In Al-qaeda who call themselves jihadists and they do
not mean its an inner struggle for peace. Islamic historian Reza Aslan says that Al-qaeda
represents a wholly new sect in multiple ways that it has arisen out of Islam. Streusand
stated that jihad usaully means "Jihad fi sabil Allah" which means striving in the path of
God." Just like its definition it is a good thing to do. By calling them meritorious Muslims but
they are strive for the path of God, then we are implying that we are fighting Islam even we
are not.