MUST READ: UNDERSTANDING JIHAD

Understanding Jihad
By Mark Gould
An authentic Islamic tradition


The widespread presence in the Islamic world of organizations that legitimate the use of political violence in terms of values they draw from Islam leads to a simple, often asked question: Is there an intrinsic connection between Islam and political violence? A sociologist’s obvious answer to this question is “no.” All of the major religious traditions are able to legitimate political violence, and most sociologists would analyze the conditions leading to the use of political violence situationally as well as normatively. Even so, my perspective is different. While it would be foolish to argue that Islam alone, or any set of religious commitments alone, explains the sustained use of violence apart from the situational conditions that may motivate and enable the organized use of violence, here I focus on the logic of religious commitment in Islam in an attempt to understand the tendencies toward action that are regulated by it.

Islam is a complex religious tradition, with many variants. In general, my references to Islam are to the dominant Sunni tradition. My goal is to characterize an authentic variant of that tradition in terms of an ideal type. One could argue, with the nominalists, that we should not say anything about Islam, even about Sunni Islam, without focusing on the beliefs and practices of specific people. But this point of view ignores the claims to unity of belief made within the Islamic umma, and it ignores the reality that attaches to those claims. As Frederick Denny puts it, “Islam has maintained a more consistent system of fundamental beliefs and practices than any other world religion.”

My purpose here is to characterize the nature of value commitments within Islam. I contrast them with those dominant in Christianity, focusing on ascetic Protestantism — especially the contrast between Christian theology of salvation and Islamic theology of the Last Judgment. Unlike Christians, Muslims, untainted by original sin, believe themselves, with God’s guidance, capable of acting in ways meriting salvation. In Islam, God gives men the will to act for good or evil, but he predetermines the outcome of their actions. I contend that the requirement to act in accordance with God’s decrees, possible but nonetheless difficult to fulfill, thus attaining salvation, may be short-circuited when fulfilling the religious obligation of jihad. There, either one accomplishes good works (as decreed by God) or dies a martyr; if the former, one enhances one’s chances of being sent to heaven at the Last Judgment; if the latter, one goes directly to heaven.

Thus, I argue that there is an authentic Islamic tradition that partially explains the predisposition to the use of force, in jihad, that is diffused widely among contemporary Muslims. Of course, this does not mean either that all or even most Muslims are disposed to use force, or that Muslims will use force in all situations or any particular situation. It does suggest, however, that contemporary activities cannot be explained in purely situational terms: for example, that Muslims are simply reacting to external impingement on Muslim lands. While the specific form of their reaction may be situationally constituted, the reaction itself must, in part, be explained by the logic of Islamic religious conviction.

While the impetus for this article is found in the events of 9/11, it emerges out of an attempt to treat Islamists seriously, to take seriously their own claims about their activities. In this respect, while I will not discuss them systematically, S. Abul A’la Maududi and Sayyid Qutb are particularly important. As will be clear to those who have read their work, I do not presume the veracity of their characterizations of Islam, but neither do I presume that they have “hijacked” Islam for nefarious purposes. Both were men of intelligence and learning; both sought, like so many before and after them, to find what was authentic in Islam by a process of rejuvenation, by returning to what they believed to be the religion of Muhammad and his companions, and both problematized what they took to be medieval and modern deviations from Islam. It seems to me that it is essential that we understand how their writings were embedded in an authentic Islamic tradition, if only because their writings are the most important intellectual justifications of contemporary Islamism.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Understanding Jihad