Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2006 Ending Oppression and Establishing Justice: Examples from Islamic History of Select Muslims and Islamist Groups Justifying the Use of Armed Force Fazal Mohammed Hassan Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES ENDING OPPRESSION AND ESTABLISHING JUSTICE: EXAMPLES FROM ISLAMIC HISTORY OF SELECT MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIST GROUPS JUSTIFYING THE USE OF ARMED FORCE BY FAZAL MOHAMMED HASSAN A Dissertation submitted to the Interdisciplinary Program in the Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2006 Copyright © 2006 Fazal Mohammed Hassan All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Fazal Mohammed Hassan defended on September 15, 2006. ______________________________ Peter P. Garretson Professor Directing Dissertation ______________________________ Patrick O’Sullivan Outside Committee Member ______________________________ James P. Jones Committee Member ______________________________ Jonathan Grant Committee Member Approved: ______________________________ David Johnson, Chairperson, Interdisciplinary Program in the Humanities ______________________________ Joseph Travis, Dean, College of the Arts and Sciences The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii Dedicated to my parents whose hard work and sacrifice made this possible. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS No man is an island- Told by John Dunn and sung by Bob Marley I was taught the above phrase by a woman who took me by the hand, enrolled me into Broward Community College North Campus, read my papers, and helped me with math. Without the help of Dotlyn Lowe, finishing an Associates of Arts degree, much less a Ph.D, would have been much more difficult. Throughout the years, I have been fortunate to have met many special people who helped me along this journey. They cannot all be mentioned by name, but they are in my heart, always. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Peter Garretson, who himself, took me by hand and helped me through the writing of this dissertation. Thank you for being my major professor when finding one was proving difficult. Without your help, writing a dissertation would have seemed daunting and insurmountable. I am also thankful to Drs. Grant, Jones, and O’Sullivan for being on my committee and helping me through this process. I wish to acknowledge those who work in libraries around the world, but in Strozier Library, Nova Southeast University, and Tamarac Library in particular for helping me with interlibrary loan. Special thanks go to my siblings whose patience and love made this endeavor a little easier. Concluding thanks go to Dr. Jim Colvert who pushed me to pursue a Ph.D in May of 1993. Do not forget that I will always love you at least 50.01 percent. I would also like thank Batool Bashir who helped ignite the thirst for knowledge that has lasted the past thirteen years. Finally, no dissertation could hold the amount of gratitude I owe to family and friends. I was taught the above quote fifteen years ago and it will never leave me. In conclusion, in my third and fourth report cards in the ninth grade back in 1988- 1989, my GPA for the third was .9 and fourth had a GPA of 1.1, respectively. That third report card held five F’s and two D’s, while the fourth one had four F’s and three D’s, or something like that. Over the past seventeen years, I can only say that by having the health, money, and time to dedicate the past eleven and a half years could I have attained a Ph.D. For that, I am grateful to “something” that cannot be mentioned aloud in a secular society. It is to that “something” that I ultimately owe this dissertation to. iv NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTIONS Since there is not one standard form on the transliteration of words from Arabic to English, the author used the spelling that was most often used by authors. One note must be made evident however. The author’s spelling of Mohammed was based upon the spelling of his middle name. Other transcriptions of Mohammed are Muhammad, Muhammed, or Muhammed. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT vii INTRODUCTION 1 1. HARB (WAR), JIHAD (STRIVING), AND QITAL (FIGHTING) IN THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED 13 2. ARMED FORCE IN THE QURAN AND AHADITH 38 3. KHARIJITES, ASSASSINS, AND IBN TAYMIYYA 60 4. THE BACKGROUND TO 20th CENTURY EGYPT 85 5. SAYYID QUTB: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC IDEOLOGIES 112 6. ARMED FORCE IN THE WRITINGS OF SAYYID QUTB 134 7. AL-JIHAD 159 8. AL-QAEDA 185 CONCLUSION 209 GLOSSARY 217 BIBLIOGRAPHY 219 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 231 vi ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the justification for using armed force throughout Islam’s history. Special emphasis will be made to the following three terms, harb, jihad, and qital. These three words translate into war, struggle, and fight respectively. Not only are these terms the catalyst for the expansion of Islam in its first century, 632 to 732, but they have also contributed to many ideologies. The origins for such ideas begin in the seventh century and Islam’s most prominent religious figure, Mohammed. It is only fitting that the first chapter of this endeavor starts with his life and the reasons why he went to war with others. As his life showed, he never declared a “jihad” on others, a term that is used constantly in the media. It is important to remember that according to Muslims, Mohammed never did anything out of his own opinion; it was all done with the endorsement of God. The Qur’an and Ahadith will also be examined, as they are the major sources for justifying and conducting war. After the death of Mohammed in 632 however, armed force began to take on a different meaning. This work covers Mohammed, the Kharijites, the Assassins, Ibn Taymiyya, Sayyid Qutb, al-Jihad, and al-Qaeda, with emphasis placed on Mohammed and Qutb as key figures, and their respective justifications for using or writing about resorting to armed force as a means to an end. During this dissertation, comparisons will be made between all of the before-mentioned Muslims and their respective reasons for fighting or writing about the use of armed force. It is the main thesis of this work that violence committed in the name of God by Muslims throughout Islam’s history is based upon the need to end oppression and establish justice. This dissertation differs itself from other written works by solely examining the life and works of individual Muslims and Islamist groups and their justification for resorting to armed force. Though this topic has gained momentum since the events of 9/11, it is the intention of this work to show that using armed force is not new, but a political instrument used to establish Shari’ah or Islamic law. The term “political” is used because for most Muslims, including all those mentioned in this dissertation, believe that Islam is not just a personal belief system, like most in the West believe, but an ideology that is to be used for all times and for all facets of life. vii INTRODUCTION The focus of this dissertation examines the concepts of harb (war), jihad (struggling), and qital (fighting) through the ideologies of certain Muslims and Islamist groups throughout Islam’s history. The subject of religion and violence is pertinent today since religion has always played an important role in the lives of many. Needless to say, armed conflict has also played a major part of other religious traditions with such examples beginning in the Old Testament and Yahweh’s command for the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites. Other possible examples are the Crusades and the Thirty Years War. Islam has also had bouts of violence as three of its first four Caliphs were murdered; the last two by Muslims. The very first topic for a dissertation suggested to the author was, “Is violence endemic to religion?” The scope of this dissertation is not a total examination of religion and violence, since that would no doubt be an enormous task, but on what a few of Islam’s most noted followers have written and acted upon on the subjects of fighting and war. The subject of this work is important not only because of what has happened since September 11, 2001, but because it can help many today understand why certain Muslims in the past have justified the use of armed force. While there have been many studies on religion and violence, there is a gap on linking the ideologies, referring to armed struggle and a few of Islam’s most noted ideologues. Questions of why people resort to violence is abundant in literature, but other aspects explored in this endeavor examine specific verses from the Qur’an and Ahadith of Mohammed (c.570-632) to drive home the point that Muslims throughout the past thirteen centuries have been essentially using the same argument for armed confrontation; to end oppression and establish justice.1 This is where the dissertation contributes to the fields of history and religion. By looking at specific verses from the Qur’an and Ahadith that connect to certain Muslims throughout history, the reasons for justifying jihad al-qital (struggling through fighting) can be ascertained. The target audience of this work includes both scholars of history and religion, but also laymen. This study will especially appeal to those who are interested in Islam and the Middle 1 The Qur’an is Islam’s holy book and contains for Muslims the actual spoken words of God.