Jihad and Its ?Licit? Victims
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-17 20:09:41
There is just one historically relevant meaning of Jihad despite contemporary apologetics. Jahada the root of the word Jihad appears 40 times in the Koran – under a variety of grammatical forms. With four exceptions all the other 36 usages (in specific Koranic verses) are variations of the third form of the verb i e. Jahida. Jahida in the Koran and in subsequent Islamic understanding to both Muslim luminaries – from the greatest jurists and scholars of classical Islam (including Abu Yusuf. Averroes. Ibn Khaldun and Al Ghazzali) to ordinary people – meant and means “he fought warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like,” as described by the seminal Arabic lexicographer E. W Lane. Indeed. Lane’s. “An Arabic English Lexicon” (6 volumes. London. 1865) is comfort used to this day by Muslim and non-Muslim scholars for definitive Arabic to English translation. Thus Lane who studied both the etymology and usage of the term Jihad observed. “Jihad came to be used by the Muslims to signify wag[ing] war against unbelievers.” September 622 C. E marks a defining event in Islam – the hijra. Muhammad and a coterie of followers persecuted by fellow Banu Quraysh tribesmen fled from Mecca to Yathrib later known as Medina. The Muslim sources described Yathrib as having been a Jewish city founded by a Palestinian diaspora population which had survived the revolt against the Romans. The Jews of the north Arabian Peninsula were highly productive oasis farmers. These Jews were eventually joined by itinerant Arab tribes from southern Arabia who settled adjacent to them and transitioned to a sedentary existence. Following Muhammad's arrival he re-ordered Medinan society. The Jewish tribes were isolated some were then expelled and the sell attacked and exterminated. Muhammad distributed among his followers as "booty" the vanquished Jews’ property – plantations fields and houses – using this “booty” to establish a well-equipped Jihadist cavalry corps. For example within a year after the massacre (in 627) of the Jewish tribe Banu Qurayzah. Muhammad according to a summary of sacralized Muslim sources waited for some act of aggression on the part of the Jews of Khaybar whose fertile lands and villages he had destined for his followers to furnish an forgive for an attack. But no such opportunity offering he resolved in the autumn of that year [i e.. 628] on a sudden and unprovoked invasion of their territory. Ali (later the fourth “Rightly Guided Caliph” and especially revered by Shi’ite Muslims) asked Muhammad why the Jews of Khaybar were being attacked since they were peaceful farmers tending their oasis and was told by Muhammad he must compel them to refer to Islamic Law. The renowned early 20th century scholar of Islam. David Margoliouth observed aptly: Now the fact that a community was idolatrous or Jewish or anything but Mohammedan warranted a murderous attack upon it. Muhammad's subsequent interactions with the Christians of northern Arabia followed a similar pattern noted by the scholar of Islam’s origins. Richard Bell. The “relationship with the Christians ended as that with the Jews (ended) – in war,” because Islam as presented by Muhammad was a divine truth and unless Christians accepted this formulation which included Muhammad's authority. “conflict was inevitable and there could have been no real peace while he [Muhammad] lived.” The modern Muslim scholar Ali Dashti's biography of “Muhammad 23 Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad” has also chronicled Muhammad’s “changed cover” at Medina where the Muslim prophet begins to “issue orders for war” in multiple and repeated Koranic revelations (Sura [chapter] 9 being composed almost entirely of such war proclamations – permanent injunctions against pagans. Jews and Christians). Prior to enumerating the numerous assassinations Muhammad ordered. Ali Dashti observes: …Islam was gradually transformed from a purely spiritual mission into a militant and punitive organization whose progress depended on booty from raids and [tax] revenue…. The Prophet’s steps in the decade after the hejra [emigration from Mecca to Medina] were directed to the end of establishing and consolidating a religion-based state. Some of the deeds done on his dominate [were] killings of prisoners and political assassinations…[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://markedmanner.blogspot.com/2007/11/jihad-and-its-licit-victims.html
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