Book Reviews

NUMEN 53,4_f4-f6_511-526 10/30/06 10:28 AM Page 511

BOOK REVIEWS

RICHARD BONNEY, Jih®d. From Quræ®n to Bin Laden. Foreword by Sheikh Dr. Zaki Badawi — London, New York et al.: Palgrave Macmillan 2004 (XXVI + 594 p.), ISBN 1–4039–3372–3.

Without any doubt, jih®d is the most controversial term in modern Muslim debates regarding violence and propagation of faith in Islam. Westerners use to identify jih®d with “holy war” for the propagation of Islam while many Muslims argue against by saying it means a great effort on the path of God where military action is not a primary concern but it can also mean religious activities such as prayers and fasting. The book is a work of history which, in a solid attempt at putting all arguments forward, goes through the main lines of argumentation, from the Quræ®n up to the most recent debates in al-Qaeda circles. Though the book “makes no use of Arabic sources in Arabic, it is a work of synthesis, reliant on the detailed research of others; finally, perhaps worst of all, it unashamedly makes no excuse for using internet resources.” (XIII–XIV) Part one deals with the use of jih®d in the Quræ®n, the Sunnah, the first reports on conquests and their juridical justifications as well as on jih®d in early Sufism. It shows that the Quræ®n itself contains different mean- ings of jih®d. Therefore, different Muslim interpretations exist with regard to these texts. Consequently, the Sunnah interpretation goes along with this double understanding, of war on the one side and non military religious activity on the other. The same is true for biographies of Muhammad which sometimes underline his role as a political leader, sometimes, how- ever, see in him a spiritual rather than a political leader. And surprisingly enough, we find the same kind of ambiguity in Sufism. Part two studies Contextual Theorists and State Systems. As examples serve Ibn Taym¬yah and the defensive jih®d as a response to the Crusades and the Mongol Invasions. Then follows jih®d as State System in form of the Ottoman State, Safavid Persia and the Moghul Empire as well as Wahhabism and jih®d in the Colonial Period and Islamic Revivalism. It is

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obvious that the meaning of jih®d as military defense prevails in all these cases. Part three is dedicated to Sunni political Jih®dists of the 20th century such as Mawdudi, Hasan al-Bannaæ, Qutb, to Shiæa Depiction of jih®d and Martyrdom. Part four describes the most recent debates with regard to Palestinian jih®d from the times of the British Mandate up to present and Osama bin Laden’s global jih®d. It gives a clear description of present conﬂicts world-wide including Hamas and the Palestinian intif®dahs as well as bin Laden’s and his group’s interpretation of jih®d. The last two interpretations are distortions in the author’s view. In conclusion, the author correctly states “that jih®d is a multi-faceted phenomenon both in theory and practice. There is no single, all-embracing concept that has been applied within the long, complex and sometimes even tortuous, course of Islamic history. Rather, there have been continual selections of texts and doctrines and the adoption of different practices, in accordance with cultural traditions and the needs and circumstances of the period. Few of the jih®ds which we have considered in their historical context have conformed to a modern understanding of the theory: they were either preached and launched by individuals, not by the state, and subject to an excess of violence; or, alternatively, they were launched by states acting not in the defense of the faith but in their dynastic or national interests. Fewer still among the jih®ds of history would have passed the modern test of “just war”. The best case for jih®ds which would have passed such tests, those launched against colonial expansion by the Western powers, inevitably ended in failure because of the supe- rior military resources which the colonial power could deploy against them.” (399) The book is the best of its kind on the subject I have ever come across. It is extremely helpful in giving arguments against all kinds of historical justiﬁcation of jih®d cases. On the other hand, it also argues effectively against classical stereotypes in the debate by stating that “there is no legitimate offensive jih®d; nor should Islam be regarded as a ‘religion of the sword’.” (400) It shows the “need for mainstream Islam to embrace positively the existence of pluralist societies in the contemporary world” (407) in defending jih®d as a struggle “for justice and the betterment of