A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád': Showing that all the Wars of Mohammad Were Defensive; and; that Aggressive War, or Compulsory Conversion, is not; Allowed in The Koran - 1885Cherágh Ali
Islamic
A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád': Showing that all the Wars of Mohammad Were Defensive; and; that Aggressive War, or Compulsory Conversion, is not; Allowed in The Koran - 1885
Cherágh Ali
Islam -- Apologetic works; Islam -- Relations; Jihad; War -- Religious aspects -- Islam
I am very sorry the Rev. gentleman is altogether wrong in his assertions
against the Koran. There is neither such a division of the world in the
Koran, nor such words as "Dar-ul-Islam" and "Dar-ul-Harb" are to be
found anywhere in it. There is no injunction in the Koran to the True
Believers to fight against the infidels till they accept Islam, failing
which they are to be put to death. The words "Dar-ul-Islam" and
"Dar-ul-Harb" are only to be found in the Mohammadan Common Law, and are
only used in the question of jurisdiction. No Moslem magistrate will
pass a sentence in a criminal case against a criminal who had committed
an offence in a foreign country. The same is the case in civil
courts[320]. All the inhabitants of Dar-ul-Harb are not necessarily
infidels. Mohammadans, either permanently or temporarily by obtaining
permission from the sovereign of the foreign land, can be the
inhabitants of a Dar-ul-Harb, a country out of the Moslem jurisdiction,
or at war with it.
[Sidenote: 130. The untenable theories of the Common Law and
conclusion.]
It is only a theory of our Common Law, in its military and political
chapters, which allow waging unprovoked war with non-Moslems, exacting
tribute from "the people of the Book," and other idolaters, except those
of Arabia, for which the Hanafi Code of the Common Law has nothing short
of conversion to Islam or destruction by the sword. As a rule, our
canonical legists support their theories by quotations from the
Mohammadan Revealed Law, _i.e._, the Koran, as well as from the Sonnah,
or the traditions from the Prophet, however absurd and untenable may be
their process of reasoning and argumentative deductions. In this theory
of waging war with, and exacting tribute or the capitation-tax from, the
non-Moslem world, they quote the 9th and other Suras. These verses have
been copied and explained elsewhere in this book. The casuistic
sophistry of the canonical legists in deducing these war theories from
the Koran is altogether futile. These verses relate only to the wars
waged by the Prophet and his followers purely in their self-defence.
Neither these verses had anything to do with waging unprovoked war and
exacting tributes during Mohammad's time, nor could they be made a law
for future military conquest. These were only temporary in their
operations and purely defensive in their nature. The Mohammadan Common
Law is by no means divine or superhuman. It mostly consists of uncertain
traditions, Arabian usages and customs, some frivolous and fortuitous
analogical deductions from the Koran, and a multitudinous array of
casuistical sophistry of the canonical legists. It has not been held
sacred or unchangeable by enlightened Mohammadans of any Moslem country
and in any age since its compilation in the fourth century of the
Hejira. All the _Mujtahids_, _Ahl Hadis_, and other non-Mokallids had
had no regard for the four schools of Mohammadan religious
jurisprudence, or the Common Law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account