Search Results (65)

This article re-examines Islamic ethics of war and peace by returning to the formative Meccan–Medinan trajectory of the Prophet Muḥammad’s life, where early Islamic moral reasoning developed amid persecution, migration, diplomacy, and armed conflict. Contemporary debates frequently portray Islam either as a tradition that sacralizes violence through jihad or as one that reduces peace to purely inward spirituality. Both perspectives obscure the historically grounded ethical discourse that emerged within the early Muslim community. This study argues that the Qurʾān—understood within the Islamic tradition as the authoritative source of ethical guidance—together with prophetic practice articulated a coherent moral framework governing the use of force, the pursuit of peace, and the restoration of social order after conflict. Drawing on Qurʾānic discourse, canonical ḥadīth, classical tafsīr and sīrah literature, and modern scholarship in Islamic studies, religious ethics, and conflict resolution theory, the article reconstructs how early Islamic sources represent the ethical regulation of violence. The analysis identifies a threefold trajectory in prophetic practice: a Meccan phase characterized by nonviolent endurance and moral witness under persecution; a Medinan phase marked by constitutional governance, plural coexistence, and tightly regulated defensive warfare; and a culminating ethic of negotiated peace and post-conflict reconciliation exemplified in the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyyah and the Conquest of Mecca. Taken together, these stages reveal an integrated moral vision in which force is neither celebrated nor treated as a default instrument of political expansion, but permitted only under strict ethical constraints shaped by justice (ʿadl), mercy (raḥma), proportionality, and the protection of communal life. By reconstructing this early prophetic framework, the article demonstrates that Islamic sources contain significant internal resources for limiting violence, regulating warfare, and prioritizing reconciliation. In doing so, it contributes to contemporary scholarship on Islamic ethics and situates the prophetic model within broader global debates on the moral regulation of war, peacebuilding, and post-conflict justice. Full article

Poetry, the bearer of collective memory in the Turkish state tradition, has been used as an art and administrative tool for generations in the Ottoman dynasty. The fact that 27 of the 36 Ottoman sultans wrote poetry and 10 sultans owned a “divan” (poetry book) suggests that this art served a political function for the dynasty. This study aims to investigate whether the sultan poets used poetry as a religiously based political propaganda tool to appear pious and artistic and to reinforce the legitimacy of their reign. Because the poems in these works are noteworthy as texts that promote the image of the sultan as a just, pious, and powerful ruler, legitimise Islamic expansionist policy (jihad), and aim to perpetuate cultural superiority. The study includes an analysis of relevant examples selected from the poems of ten Ottoman sultans (Mehmed II, Bayezid II, Selim I, Suleyman I, Selim II, Murad III, Ahmed I, Osman II, Ahmed III, Selim III). It is argued that these types of poems by Ottoman sultans, besides being the result of a simple literary pursuit; they served as a means of communication that reinforced the religious and political legitimacy of the sultans. Full article

Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965) establishes a universe defined by the “Butlerian Jihad”, a historical crusade that banned artificial intelligence and created a vacuum filled by religious engineering. This paper argues that in this post-cybernetic setting, religion functions as a sociological operating system designed for political control rather than a metaphysical connection to the divine. The study analyzes the Missionaria Protectiva to demonstrate how the Bene Gesserit order creates belief systems by co-opting and re-engineering Islamic theology. It suggests that the order’s manual of superstitions serves as a library of cultural scripts that primes the indigenous population to accept a manufactured Messiah, specifically the Mahdi. Consequently, the protagonist Paul Atreides is reinterpreted not as a traditional “White Savior” or authentic religious prophet but as a “hacker” who utilizes these pre-planted Islamic codes to access and manipulate the social infrastructure of Arrakis. His prescience functions as a form of biological predictive analytics that traps him in a deterministic loop of his own calculation. Ultimately, this reading suggests that Dune offers a critique of “techno-theology” by showing how the instrumentalization of the Mahdi figure transforms the concept of Jihad from a spiritual struggle into an unstoppable, automated algorithm of violence. Full article

This article examines the relationship between jihād and the protection of non-Muslim places of worship in early Islam. Drawing primarily on Qurʾānic verses 22:39–41 and the Covenants of the Prophet, it employs a synchronically comparative framework that analyzes a broad corpus of textual sources, seeking to reconstruct how the early Muslim worldview understood the justification for jihād. It also examines the norms governing conduct after conflict, particularly in relation to treaty-making. The article attempts to make sense of Q22:39–41 within the broader landscape of late antiquity, which was marked by religious persecution and the destruction of sanctuaries under Byzantine and Sasanian rule. The study highlights how clear rules of engagement were articulated in early Islam, including limits on violence and the consequences of treaty violation. It argues that the motivations behind the early conquests cannot be reduced to material interests but rather were guided by a theological and ideological vision linking conquest with the establishment of a just peace, one grounded in the protection of communities, faith, and places of worship through a covenantal paradigm. Full article

A comparison between the function of Islam in the lives of Al-Hajj Umar Taal and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) suggests that Shabazz’s example of translating his Islamic obligations into the secular philosophy of Pan-Africanism reflects more promise toward the interest of interreligious Pan-African unity. During the nineteenth century, figures like Edward Blyden and Duse Muhammad Ali both presented the compatibility of Islam with Pan-Africanism. However, the practical examples of the steps needed to obtain interreligious unity require continued exploration. The author begins with an examination of the question of jihad and the “religious other” in Islam as understood by some. Secondly, the author focuses on Umar Taal to explore the way his understanding of Islam affected his relationship with both Muslim and non-Muslim Africans he encountered in nineteenth-century West Africa. Subsequently, the author analyzes how Malik El-Shabazz understood Islam to relate to the quest for Pan-Africanism. Using concepts from the critical theory of religion, the author will argue that Shabazz’s determinate negation of elements of his religious commitments that might hinder unity among people of African descent is instructive for the construction of an interreligious Pan-African unity. Full article

This open-source-based article presents an automated method for identifying and tracing popular Salafi discussions online. The novelty of this method lies in its inter-disciplinary approach developed through collaboration among experts in the fields of the Middle East, Islamic studies, and computer science. The computerized model presented here harnesses machine learning techniques to accurately identify popular Salafi writings on social media and to distinguish them from the writings of Muslims from other denominations. Creating an AI-supported model to distinguish between writings on social media that pertain to two different Islamic denominations is a highly difficult task. Based on this machine learning model and the methodology that it implements, the study presented here identifies United Kingdom-based Twitter accounts that embody Salafi thinking (even if they do not utilize terminology that is manifestly Salafi) and, based on that identification, analyzes and characterizes the United Kingdom-based Salafi community on Twitter. Unlike other machine learning ideology-related studies that are focused on Salafi-jihadism, the present research is focused on quietist Salafism (Salafi-taqlidis) in the United Kingdom. The purpose of this study is to examine the virtual Salafi community in the United Kingdom, with a focus on identifying the key issues of concern to its members and assessing the influence of global Salafi trends within this UK-based community. Full article

When Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized Idlib, it alarmed and disturbed international observers. However, HTS is only one among a number of radical Islamist groups in a part of Syria that has become an incubator of Jihadism. As the last remaining redoubt of the armed opposition in the country, the governorate has become an international concern. Events have now reached an impasse, and the time is thus right for a reappraisal that steps back and considers contemporary developments in the wider context of ongoing events in the governorate. This article also places local developments in a wider context in another sense by considering how regional and international interventions contributed to HTS’s rise in the Idlib governorate. This is particularly important as external interventions by Turkey, Iran, Russia and the US have not only failed to establish a sustainable basis for peace by addressing the root causes of violence but have actually inflamed hostilities and exacerbated the various challenges involved in ending the conflict, which has at times taken on the appearance of a proxy war. In seeking to better theorise externalisation, this article draws on peacebuilding theory. This historical and political contextualisation seeks to contribute to an improved understanding of HTS’s rise and the means through which it can be most effectively combated in the future. Full article

This essay examines the theology and politics of queer Muslims in South Africa. Through a queering of the analytical lens of “struggle and praxis” or jihad, this essay traces the deployment of the term jihad by a collective of queer Muslims in Cape Town. In this articulation, queer Muslims play with their inherited traditions of liberation, challenging its presuppositions, and expanding its contours. This essay argues that these queer Muslims read liberation traditions through their experience and praxis which guide their orientations toward theological meaning-making and community practice. By doing so, they challenge the regulatory nature of hegemonic forms of queerness, which emerged in the Global North, resonating in the local posturing of South Africa as a safe space for queer people, ignoring the disparity between the law and public practice, and erasing the experiences of the margins of the queer community. By embracing this marginality, queer Muslims “reimagine” tradition by presenting an inclusive alternative theology and praxis, suggesting a queer possibility within Islam. Full article

After a difficult conquest under the Umayyads, the eastern Maghreb or Ifrîqiya region was turned into the western borderland of the Abbasid Empire in the second half of the 8th century, and its governance was soon delegated to the Aghlabid Emirate (800–909). In this context, the Sahel (or Ifriqîyan coastline) quickly became a major centre of asceticism and pious collective retreat in places dedicated to ribât activities. This practice provided a framework for the life of devout people who kept a watchful eye on the Byzantine enemy while zealously performing their devotions. A genuine frontier society of religious men and devotees, ascetics and traditionalists arose in this burgeoning coastal fringe. Over the last two decades, this topic has given rise to a very rich historiography, notably produced by Tunisian researchers who have profoundly renewed our understanding. Based on these considerable achievements, the present contribution proposes to broaden the analysis in order to show how the rise of this movement of warrior piety, advocating an ideal of jihâd, must be related to a more global phenomenon, considered at the scale of the Abbasid Empire. Remaining in a comparative dimension, this article also proposes several approaches to the specific architecture of ribât sites, especially the place devoted to the community mosque. Full article

Although the militant jihād remains one of the most popular topics in modern Islamic studies, most of the works focus on ideologies and actions, leaving out the popular perception of this phenomenon. Our study of the storylines about confronting the Franks (ifranj) in the Arabic folk epics, inspired by the Crusades, shows that the protagonists of the epics are presented in the narratives precisely as the holy warriors, i.e., mujāhidūn, whose key attributes are the power of faith, which often goes through tests in the fights against the infidels, as well as the divine support and readiness for martyrdom on the path of jihād. The widespread jihād and anti-Frankish rhetorics in the epics make them a valuable source for the study of the Crusades’ memory in the Medieval Arab culture. Full article

The Crescent and the Cross as religious symbols are beyond the mere signification of religious affiliations. They are symbols on which over two hundred years of wars were sustained and are indicative of the religious dichotomy between modern Christianity and Islam across the globe. However, the tangential relationship between the usage of the symbols and the Jihad or the Crusade reeks of memories of fierce competition and unhealed historical memories. The collective memory of the wars fought under the symbols has remained a moniker for conquests and forceful submission. The exclusive propensities of the experiences are evident in the interreligious relation of the adherents of both religions in Nigeria. This article attempts to answer the question of how the exclusive religious disposition underlining most instances of religious crises in the country may be addressed. This article uses deconstructive analysis to strip the symbols and their exclusive religious dispositions for an inclusive religious pluralism model. It argues for the need for a critical rethinking of the exclusive interreligious model operative in the country to facilitate social development and the peaceful co-existence of the adherents of both religions. Full article

The subject of this essay is the role Rabbi Menachem Froman played as a mediator in crises between Israelis and Palestinians against the background of his interreligious vision of peace and attempts to implement it. Rabbi Froman was very active in this matter and initiated various schemes to promote reconciliation between the Israelis and Palestinians, both in his discussions with religious leaders of the two peoples as well as with politicians in Israel and around the world. The network of contacts and the open discourse that the rabbi developed in order to promote his vision enabled him to serve as a mediator during numerous crises that arose in the Middle East, in general, and Israel in particular. This essay sheds light on Rabbi Froman’s attempts at mediation throughout the years, including the outline of a solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict he crafted with the other side. This essay is primarily based on archival materials and newspaper articles about the rabbi that were revealed after his death in 2013. The essay also chronologizes Rabbi Froman’s attempts to serve as mediator for the Israeli and Palestinian leadership and the “jihad for peace” he advocated. Full article

The relationship between agricultural knowledge and water management is very important. Indigenous knowledge in agriculture can improve the water crisis situation and alleviate water stress from dry and semi-arid areas. Therefore, the combination of these two impacts can improve the agricultural sector and reduce the effects of drought. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting indigenous knowledge and the sustainable management of water resources for optimal water use in agriculture in the Sistan region of Iran. Alongside field research and interviews with 40 indigenous experts and experts from the Jihad-e-Agriculture sector of the Sistan region, the required information was collected by means of a questionnaire. Using the fuzzy hierarchy process (FAHP), the factors affecting indigenous knowledge and the sustainable management of water resources for optimal water use in the Sistan region were ranked. The final rankings of the factors influencing indigenous knowledge for optimal agricultural use of water resources indicate that the educational-extensional factor, with a final weight of 0.37, is the first priority, while social factors, government support, economics, farmers’ knowledge, and information, with weights of 0.24, 0.21, 0.13, and 0.03, respectively, are the next priorities. It is recommended that the indigenous knowledge of local authorities be augmented, and that farmers be encouraged to use modern irrigation techniques to optimize the agricultural irrigation of water. Full article

The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, is depicted through extremely polar interpretations. Some perceive his life as a source for peace-making societies, whereas others portray him as a “warmonger” or “Prophet of the sword”, and use his examples to justify violence and terrorist attacks. The major incidents referred to in the latter context are the wars and conflicts that occurred after his migration to Medina. These conflicts are also prominent in sīrah narratives of his Medinan life from classical and modern periods. One can argue that there is a significant difference in the way Prophet Muhammad acted in Medina compared to the Meccan period. This is mostly attributed to the power balance, as the Muslims had little power in Mecca, which resulted in them enduring adversities, including verbal insults and physical torture while remaining peaceful and non-violent. In Medina, however, the Muslims obtained relatively more power and behaved differently. The main criticism of the Prophet at this juncture is that he took advantage of this power and became violent; this is the reason all the battles fall in his Medinan life. This article examines the root causes of his behaviour and shift in attitude. It clarifies the Prophet’s goal and agenda at this stage of his life. The article highlights his attitude towards peace and war by holistically analysing the battles and skirmishes that unfolded during the Medinan period. It examines the time spent on war and peace throughout his prophetic mission. In doing so, it enumerates statistical data, such as the number of battlefield casualties and those from expeditions. To attain accurate information in this regard, classical sīrah works and modern research on the battles are referred to as the main resources. Full article

Using a discussion of the etymology of re-lig-io as a starting point, this essay begins by considering the problem of religion—of understanding God, and of language as an instrument for achieving the ends of religion and that understanding—and the problem for religion of revelation and interpretation. It follows to the consequences of this double complication for understanding “war” in the biblical and early Christian traditions. The essay leads, then, to a tri-valent discussion of “jihad”, and from this jihad centerpiece toward further versions of these complications as they apply to mysticism, medieval Jewish thought and thence toward and into modernity, from Spinoza to Levinas. Full article