Jihad aka holy war aka al-harb al-muqadassa in the Qur'an

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Oct 24, 2010 at 07:51

Hi Dr. Pipes you wrote

>For at least four years, Jamal Badawi, an Egyptian-born Canadian professor of management at St. Mary University in Halifax, Canada, who sidelines as an apologist for radical Islam, has made a standing offer: "a million dollars to anyone who finds the word of 'holy war' in the Qur'an." Of course, Badawi is right: the Islamic scripture includes neither the words harb muqaddasa nor any synonyms.

This might not be true as if we read Malik's kitab al-jihad or even the darling of western dhimmis Ibn Sina we are told that the word jihad really means holy war or harb muqadassa and you will find it in the Qur'an in Q9:73

ya ayuha al-nabi jaahidi al-kuffar wa al-munafiqina

Or and here is tarjamt al-lafz/kilma

1. ya ayuha al-nabi means O prophet

2. jaahidi (root JHD) means make war (it deos not mean strive as this is surat al-tauba and as per ayat al-sayf (the sword verse) or Q9:5 there were no more civilized discussions with the pagans of Mecca and no more lakum dinakum wa leya deeni or you have your religion and I have mine and it was all war and the sword so the word jaahidi here cannot be anything but make holy war or harb muqadassa as per Q2:216 or kutiba 3alaykum al-qital or war (holy that is) is ordained for you) and it is as clear as it can get

3. al-kuffar wa al-munafiqina means the unbelievers and the hypocrites

And here is tarjamat al-ma3na

O prophet make holy war against the unbelievers and the hypocrites

I never check translations by the likes of Yusuf Ali (because his translation is very poor and very tendentious) but it seems that this is very close to dawood's translation

And the cornerstone of the doctrine of holy war or al-harb al-muqadassa is Q2:216

kutiba 3alaykum al-qital

Or: holy (as it is ordained by Allah because what Allah ordains must be holy and these are the words of Malik and not my words) war was ordained for you

It is all in black and white

And what is really absurd about Badawi' and his claim is that he knows that the Qur'an does not tell us very much and about almost anything and we have to resort to sources external to the Qur'an to really understand what the Qur'an is really saying and the truth is there is a doctrine of holy war or harb maqadassa aka jihad in the islamic tradition and its foundation is Q2:216 and it not us that are saying that but it is their islamic sources the likes of Malik and Ibn Sina that are saying that

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".