Part 11
Ehsan
3. Distorted Jihad
In Daesh’s intellectual outlook, the concept of jihad has been distorted on a wide scale. With its deviant, violent interpretation of jihad, this takfiri group has paved the way for justifying its most savage crimes. According to the research carried out, the main features of Daesh’s outlook on jihad are these: rejecting defensive jihad and insisting on offensive jihad; counting jihad among the inseparable principles of the religion; turning jihad into a customary practice and an individual undertaking outside the authority of the legitimate ruler; widening the circle of jihad and designating all opponents as targets; and paying no attention to the principles and rules of jihad in Islam.
These innovations (bid’ahs), which have no precedent in the history of Islamic jihad, show the depth of this takfiri group’s intellectual deviation. These views make plain that this misguided group has turned jihad from a divine obligation into a tool it uses for its own political aims, territorial ambition and love of violence.
From Daesh’s viewpoint, contrary to the traditional and established interpretation of jihad in Islam, jihad has no defensive form at all. In Islamic fiqh, though, defensive jihad, that is, resistance against invaders, is an individual obligation (fard ayn) on all Muslims, while offensive jihad, that is, inviting other nations to Islam, is counted a collective obligation (fard kifayah). Daesh, by its own distorted, takfiri interpretation, counts as “dar al-kufr” and “dar al-harb” every area not under its rule, and holds any peace and tolerance with those areas forbidden. In other words, in Daesh’s view, jihad isn’t defense against an enemy’s aggression; it’s a comprehensive, unending war to seize the whole world and impose its own violent interpretation of Islam on all people.
Spreading terror through propaganda films is another feature of jihad in Daesh’s intellectual outlook. Unlike other jihadi groups, which count the mass killing of prisoners as unlawful and excessive, Daesh has made mass killings and staged, cinematic displays of horror a tool for crushing and eliminating opponents, spreading fear among people and holding on to the areas it rules. Beheading prisoners, burning them alive, setting fire to mentally ill patients in their hospital beds, drowning victims in metal cages, capturing these crimes in extremely high-quality footage and broadcasting the footage around the world are acts that have no precedent in Islamic history.
Daesh has published such horrors in its magazines in various languages in the name of jihad, has given detailed arguments to justify these crimes, and has called them a revival of the Prophetic Sunnah in war against the disbelievers. This claim, though, is in complete conflict with the Seerah of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), because he always stressed observing ethical principles in war.
Islam has laid down clear and precise moral and legal principles governing jihad, and Daesh has trampled all of them. Islamic jurists, on the basis of religious sources, have stressed that killing women, children, the elderly, monks and worshippers is forbidden, that is, people who don’t take part in the fighting must not be killed. Cutting off the limbs of the dead and mutilating their bodies is also strictly forbidden and is counted among the acts of Islam’s enemies.
Destroying places of worship, farmland and public infrastructure isn’t permitted either. War may be waged only against those who take an active part in the fighting and fight against Muslims. The verses of the Holy Quran also plainly stress moderation in jihad and not going beyond the limits. Allah (SWT) says: “And fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress. Indeed, Allah does not like transgressors.”
The Messenger of Allah (PBUH), in numerous narrations, also forbade Muslims to kill women, children and the elderly and made mutilation forbidden. For this reason, Daesh’s violent interpretation of jihad conflicts with the Prophetic Seerah and with the consensus of the jurists, and it presents a picture directly opposite to Islamic ethics in war. Daesh’s position on jihad has badly stained Islam’s sacred image worldwide and has fueled anti-Islamic sentiment in non-Muslim countries.
Even the reliable institutions of the Islamic world have called Daesh’s interpretation of jihad an innovation and contrary to Sharia. In truth, through this course, Daesh has turned jihad from a divine obligation into a criminal tool and has dealt the greatest blow to the existence of the Muslim ummah.
