OUR METHODOLOGY
Jihad & Ijtihad:
The Means of Resurgence
Allah (s.w.t) said: “And it is not (proper) for the believers
to go out to fight (Jihad) all together. Of every troop of
them, a party only should go forth, that they (who are
left behind) may get instructions in (Islamic) religion, and
that they may warn their people when they return to
them, so that they may beware (of evil).” [at-Tawbah: 122]
i
Imam al-Qurtubi (May Allah bless his
soul) said: “The verse instructs that Jihad
is not obligatory on each individualii but
is fard kifayah (public duty), because if
everyone goes out to fight, the household
will mislay; therefore a troop of them
must leave for Jihad whilst a party of
them must remain behind to study the
religion and protect the women, so that
when the fighters return home, the resi-
dents would teach them what they
learned from the rules of the Sacred Law
(Shari‘ah).” [al-Jami‘ li-Ahkam al-Qur’an, vol 8,
p 293]
In this verse, Allah, glory be to Him,
has classed people into two groups:
mujahids and mujtahids, leaving very lit-
tle good in the rest. Actually, the
mujahid is a mujtahid and the mujtahid
is a mujahid because the words ‘Jihad’
and ‘Ijtihad’ are linguistically derived
either from the root ‘jahd’, which means
‘exhaustion and hardship’, or from the
root ‘juhd’, which means ‘effort and
power’.
iii
Sayyid Qutb (May Allah bless his
soul) said: “The just understanding of
this Deen only emanates from the battle-
field and is not taken from a sitting
scholar at a time when a movement is
merited. Those who devote themselves
today to books and writings so to deduce
rules of jurisprudence that would
‘renew’ or ‘develop’ the Islamic
Jurisprudence whilst they themselves are
far from the movement that aims to lib-
erate humanity from servitude to man
and bring them back to the servitude to
Allah alone by establishing the Shari‘ah
of Allah solely and expelling the laws of
the taghoots (falsely worshipped beings
or things)…these people do not under-
stand the nature of this Deen and, conse-
quently, they do not know how to articu-
late the just understanding of this Deen.”
[fa Zilal al-Qur’an, p 1735]
We should know that the objective of
Jihad and Ijtihad is “to enslave human
beings to Allah (s.w.t) alone, to take
them out from the servitude to creatures,
By Harith Azzam
to remove all the taghoots from earth
and to clear out the world of corruption.”
[Qutb, S. Hatha ad-Deen, p 15]
This Deen was well understood by the
Salaf (Predecessors) of this Ummah, the
best of its generations, who accordingly
embodied it and made it an intricate ele-
ment of their souls and character. As a
result, they flooded the world with the
knowledge and consciousness of the
Message.
Imam at-Tabari (May Allah bless him)
said: “Sa‘d ibn Aba Waqqas sent Rib‘a
ibn ‘Amir to Rustum, the commander of
the Persian army, in al-Qadisiyyah in
compliance with Rustum’s request.
Rustum asked him, “What made you
come here” He said: “Allah has chosen
us and sent us to rescue whomever He
wills from the servitude to Creation to
the servitude of (the Creator) Allah, and
from the narrowness of this world to its
vastness, and from the tyranny of (cor-
rupt) religions to the Justice of Islam. He
sent us with His Deen to His slaves so
that we may invite them to it. So whoev-
er accepts this from us, we accept from
him and back away and leave him and
his land to rule over without us. But
whoever refuses, we shall fight him for-
ever until we meet Allah’s Promise!”
It should be clear to any
reasonable person that
the network relationship
between power and
knowledge is the true
manifestation of authority
in the complete meaning
of the term
ISSUE 1, VOLUME 9 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2002
Rustum asked: “And what is the Promise
of Allah” He replied: “Paradise for those
who die fighting those who refuse (the
invitation to Islam) and victory to those
who remain alive.” [Akhbar ar-Rusul wa al-
Mulak, vol 1, p 2271]
A long time passed since then and the
Ummah has deteriorated and forgot this
covenant with Allah. It seems like histo-
ry has repeated itself and the Deen has
returned to its original days of strange-
ness just as the Prophet (s.a.w) informed,
“Islam began as a strange thing, and it
will return to the strangeness from
whence it began. So glad tiding to the
Strangers.” [Muslim]
The decline of this great civilisation is
the strangeness of Islam. Therefore it
requires a renewal after stagnation, a
Renewal by means of Jihad and Ijtihad.
Only by such means will a comprehen-
sive outlook towards life’s intellectual,
social and moral aspects be achieved. It
has been long overdue for the contempo-
rary Muslim societies to revive the con-
cepts of Jihad and Ijtihad, according to
the Salaf’s interpretation, after they have
been suspended. The Muslims must
understand that Jihad and Ijtihad are
linked to the individual’s capability and
capacity and should not necessarily be
dependent on the Muslim Imams, as was
assumed during the past centuries of
decadence.
The prominence of the two concepts
lies in the fact that Jihad represents
power in its fullest sense while Ijtihad
represents knowledge in its fullest sense.
Accordingly, it should be clear to any
reasonable person that the network rela-
tionship between power and knowledge
is the true manifestation of authority in
the complete meaning of the term.
i Imam Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Qurtubi (d.
1273) was a famous and pious Andalusian schol-
ar. He is best known as an interpreter of the
Qura’n and a Malikite jurist.
ii The basic ruling regarding Jihad is that it is a
public obligation, wherein if a sufficient number
of Muslims carry it out then they would deserve
the reward and save the rest of the Ummah from
sin. However, Jihad, in certain circumstances,
may become an individual obligation, e.g. when
an insufficient number of Muslims carry it out; if
the enemy attacks a Muslim land and when the
Imam (ruler) of the Muslims calls to Jihad as in
the Hadith: “Jihad and a longing for it remains
incumbent. Whenever you are called upon to do
so (by the Imam), you should respond.” [Bukhari
and Muslim]
iii Sayyid Qutb is the revivalist of contemporary
Muslim thought and a distinguished leader of the
Islamic Movement. He has authored a large
impressive commentary on the Qur’an entitled,
“fi Zilal al-Qur’an” (In the Shade of the Qur’an).
He was sentenced to death by the taghoot
Gamal Abdul Nasser and died a martyr
(inshaa’Allah) in 1966.
DA'UL
NI
7