The Obligation of Jihad (Book - Part 6)
01 December 2009
The Falsehood of Defensive Jihad
The enemies of Islam are attempting to generate among the Muslims that Jihad is a defensive war and not offensive and that initiating war against the enemies contradicts the meaning of Jihad in Islam. They justify their allegation by referring to Allah’s (swt) saying: “But if the enemy incline towards peace, do also incline towards peace.” [8-61] and also His saying: “Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loves not transgressors.” [2.190]
They also refer to Allah’s (swt) saying: “To those against whom war is made, permission is given to fight, because they are wronged; and verily, Allah is most powerful for their aid.” [22-39].
They argue that these verses denote defensive fighting and that the verse of initiating war does not abrogate the verses denoting that Jihad is for defensive situations.
The whole of this allegation is refuted from three aspects:
First: The evidences of Jihad are general and unrestricted; they encompass defensive war and initiation of war against the enemy; they also encompass limited war, unlimited war, and preventive war and so on. These evidences include all types of fighting against the enemy because they are general and unrestricted. To specify them or restrict them to being in reference to defensive war requires a text to either specify or restrict them; and there are no texts as such either from the Book or from the Sunnah; hence they remain general in their evidential aspect and they include all types of wars and all types of fighting against the enemy. Let us review the verses of Jihad in Surat ...
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