Interpretation of the Verses on Jihād and Qitāl in Taʼwīlāt al-Qurʼān of Imam al-Māturīdī

Abstract

In today's world, armed organizations such as al-Qaeda, ISIS and al-Nusra try to legitimize their actions by refering to the Qur'anic verses about jihād and qitāl (fight) and some of the hadiths of the Prophet. This leads the concept of jihād to be associated with violence and terrorism. So there is a need to consider the issue of jihād in detail. Recently references have been made to the Islamic view in the Ḥanafī-Māturīdī tradition in order to prevent the aforementioned organizations from becoming more widespread. This view of Islam is said to be an alternative to the jihadist movements. In this study, Imam Māturīdī's commentary on the verses related to jihād and qitāl will be examined and the accuracy of the opinion that “Māturīdiyya is an alternative to the jihadist views of Salafī organizations” will be assessed. Also Imam Māturīdī's views will be compared with Shāfi‘ī, Hanbalī and Mālikī scholars' interpretation of the verses related to jihād and qitāl. The word jihād has a broad meaning in the Islamic literature. In this sense, jihād is defined as “showing effort, commanding good and forbidding evil, fighting against the inner self and external enemies.” However, in the Islamic legal doctrine, the word is limited to the meaning of “war against the non-muslims.” There are many verses about jihād in the Qur'ān both in the Makkī and in the Madanī surahs. According to the majority of Islamic scholars, Muslims had not been allowed to go into war during the Meccan period. The Prophet and the believers were ordered to fight in the way of Allah and to endure the difficulties they faced on this way. They are told to disobey the disbelievers and fight against them using the Qur'ān (al-Nahl 16/110; al-Furqān 25/52). The first Qur'anic verse (al-Hajj 22/39) declares that war is permissible was revealed in the Madinan period. The word jihād, which is found in about thirty verses a