REASEARCH ON SOME QUR'ANIC VERSES ABOUT "JIHAD" & "QITAAL"

Article by Explore-Qur'an Team

REASEARCH ON SOME QUR'ANIC VERSES ABOUT JIHAD & QITAAL

The Prophet of ALLAH, himself guided the Muslims in his times what to do in wars and what not to do. These injunctions are in the books of his traditions called ‘Ahadees’. The world will be surprised to find more humane rules than the Geneva Convention concerning wars and POWs which were preached by the Prophet some fifteen centuries ago. We are mentioning some of its excerpts here.

No war should start without clear declaration.
Only those would be killed who had rallied in the enemy’s battalion.
Children, women, the aged persons would be spared.
Even young persons who are not involved in war would be spared.
The drinking water facilities of the enemy will not be polluted or destroyed.
The person who surrenders his arms will not be killed or wounded.
The prisoners of war will be treated in a human way.
There would not be an inordinate delay in setting POWs free.

Several other details have been left for the sake of brevity. They are available in the writings of the historians of repute. Unfortunately the Muslims nowadays are least interested in highlighting these aspects of Islam preached by Prophet Muhammad to their people and to the world.

Q-3: Islam divides mankind into two parts. If they are not Muslims, they are Kafirs. This concept has found ready acceptance in the minds of the Hindu society, resulting in hatred and communal violence. How will you react to this charge?

Analysis-3: It appears to be a common belief even among Muslims of our times. And taking the general character of the various Muslim societies as the true copy of Islam impedes an understanding of genuine Islam. While the reality is, the Qur’an regards the whole of human beings as one race. It is said:

"O mankind, WE have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily the noblest of you in the sight of ALLAH is the one who is most deeply conscious of HIM. Behold, ALLAH is all-knowing, all-aware."

(From Holy Qur'an 49/13)

Want to see or listen the original text please click here

It is very much clear that ALLAH HIMSELF will grade the human beings when this humanity will go back to HIM on the Final Day. In this world, HE is treating all of them as equal. We can simply see it by our common sense that HE is uniformly providing HIS bounties to all of them without any discrimination. In the allotment of this worldly wealth HE makes no special favor to the Muslims or to anybody. Furthermore the Qur’an gives us another important information that man has been created for testing his capabilities here in this world:

"Verily it is WE who have created man out of a single sperm intermingled, so WE might test him in his life. Therefore WE made him a being endowed with hearing and sight.”

(From Holy Qur'an 76/2)

Want to see or listen the original text please click here

The division of mankind into Muslim and Kafir is not in line with the basic ideology propagated by the Qur’an. By birth man is a man. To get clarification further, let us focus our attention on the word ‘Islam’ for the word Kufr has already been discussed in detail. The word ‘Islam’ has been derived from the root ("S-L-M" pronounced as SALAMA) meaning peace, surrender, or submission. We find all creatures in the Universe except man are subservient to their Creator. Only Man has the freedom to choose surrender or rejection. For the Creator has given supremacy to Man over the rest of creatures to test him how he utilizes his capabilities and reward or punish him accordingly. For reference see the verse 76/2 just quoted above.

Even a non-Muslim scholar, if he makes an objective study the Qur’an will arrive at the decision that Islam is not a religion in the traditional sense and it is not a religion by birth. Rather it is the religion of the Creator of this universe. Please refer the following verse which states:

"Behold, the only true Deen (religion, way of life) in the sight of ALLAH is man’s self-surrender unto HIM, (Islam), and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy and ego, to divergent views only after knowledge thereof had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of ALLAH’s messages - behold, ALLAH is swift in reckoning."

(From Holy Qur'an 3/19)

Want to see or listen the original text please click here

The Muslims do claim to possess the Book of The GOD, but the same Book has some surprise for them. Now they must realize and own this fact that their political savants and biased religious scholars have misinterpreted the verses to favor them and hatred for others. They are unmindful of GOD’s ways. It is likely that ALLAH HIMself will correct them and settle HIS account with them. Generally the Muslims, by virtue of birth in a Muslim family, regard themselves as Muslims and think others as Kafirs. In the backdrop of global perspective or coercion, the Muslims now need to correctly define their religion in the right earnest, in the light of the original sources and reform their international conduct. Otherwise, the rest of the world would question the pointlessness or worthlessness of their belief and what the Qur’an demands from them. It would be better if the Muslims discard their own fabricated formula and adopt the formula presented by the Holy Qur’an in Verse 109/6: which says: “For you your religion and for me mine.” and lead a life of peaceful co-existence in this pluralistic world. Of course, if there are persecutions, what one should do is well defined in verses like 16/126, 7/127-128-129, 41/39-40-41-42-43, 26/227.

To sum up the above answer, it can be said that the Islam as expounded by the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet does not bifurcate the human society on any inhuman ground.