5. Jihad — Principles, Terms and Conditions — Islamic Studies

Book reference: p.103 — "Discuss in detail the principles and terms and conditions for 'Jihad' in the light of Quran and Sunnah."

Literal and Technical Meaning

"Striving/struggle" — not synonymous with "holy war."
Spans a spectrum from personal moral struggle (Jihad al-Nafs) to, under strict conditions, armed defence.

Forms of Jihad Beyond Combat

Jihad through knowledge.
Jihad through speech (truth to power).
Jihad through wealth.
- All recognised categories, often ranked above armed Jihad in routine circumstances.

Conditions for Armed Jihad

Must be defensive in nature.
Must be sanctioned by a legitimate state authority — never private individuals or groups.
Bound by strict rules of engagement:
- No killing of non-combatants.
- No destruction of crops/property.
- No harming clergy (see Prophet PBUH as a Military Strategist, Theme II).

Not Aggression

"Fight those who fight you... but do not transgress" (2:190) — a hard limit against exceeding just bounds.

Distinguishing Jihad From Terrorism

Terrorism deliberately targets non-combatants and operates outside legitimate state authority.
Mainstream Islamic scholarship treats this as a categorical violation of Jihad's conditions, not a variant of it.

Qur'anic Evidence

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وَقَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ الَّذِينَ يُقَاتِلُونَكُم وَلَا تَعْتَدُوا ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُعْتَدِينَ

اردو: اور اللہ کی راہ میں ان لوگوں سے لڑو جو تم سے لڑتے ہیں، اور حد سے تجاوز نہ کرو، یقینا اللہ حد سے تجاوز کرنے والوں کو پسند نہیں کرتا۔

English: "Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress. Indeed, Allah does not like transgressors."

— Surah Al-Baqarah 2:190

وَإِنْ جَنَحُوا لِلسَّلْمِ فَاجْنَحْ لَهَا

اردو: اور اگر وہ صلح کی طرف مائل ہوں تو تم بھی اس کی طرف مائل ہو جاؤ۔

English: "And if they incline to peace, then incline to it [also]."

— Surah Al-Anfal 8:61

Hadith Evidence

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Returning from a battle, the Prophet (PBUH) said: "We have returned from the lesser Jihad to the greater Jihad" — the struggle against one's own soul. — widely cited in classical Seerah/Hadith literature; the doctrine of Jihad al-Nafs is independently well-established from other authentic texts.

لَا تَقْتُلُوا شَيْخًا فَانًِا وَلَا طِفْلًا وَلَا امْرَأَةً

اردو: کسی بوڑھے کو، بچے کو اور عورت کو ہرگز قتل نہ کرنا۔ (ابوبکر رضی اللہ عنہ کی وصیت)

English: "Do not kill an old man, a child or a woman" — part of Abu Bakr's (RA) formal instructions to his armies, codifying the Prophet's (PBUH) own practice.

— Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik 964

CSS Exam Tips

Structure as: (1) linguistic/conceptual meaning, (2) forms of Jihad beyond combat, (3) strict conditions for armed Jihad, (4) explicit distinction from terrorism — point 4 is what examiners are specifically testing for in the current climate.
Cross-reference: Rise of Extremism, Prophet (PBUH) as a Military Strategist (Theme II).

20-Mark Enrichment — Analytical Material

Core Argument

Jihād means struggle or exertion, not "holy war" — a phrase that has no Arabic equivalent in the Qur'an or Sunnah (the Arabic for war is ḥarb, and for fighting qitāl). The 20-mark thesis: jihād is a broad category of striving in the way of Allah, of which armed struggle (jihād bi'l-sayf / qitāl) is one narrow, heavily regulated species, subject to strict conditions of authority, cause, conduct and cessation. Extremists collapse the category into its narrowest form and then remove its conditions; Islamophobes accept the extremists' definition and attribute it to Islam. Both errors begin at the same point: taking qitāl to be the whole of jihād.

1. Linguistic and Conceptual Foundation

Root j-h-d: to exert effort, to strive to one's utmost. Ijtihād (intellectual exertion) and mujāhadah (spiritual struggle) share it.
Qur'anic usage is overwhelmingly broader than combat: وَجَاهِدْهُم بِهِ جِهَادًا كَبِيرًا — "And strive against them by means of it (the Qur'an), a great striving" — (25:52) — revealed in Makkah, where fighting was not permitted; the instrument of this "great jihād" is the Qur'an, i.e. argument and preaching.
وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا — "And those who strive for Us — We will surely guide them to Our ways" — (29:69) — striving in the general sense of effort in God's cause.
Not "holy war": no war in Islam is "holy"; war is at best just and permitted, and always regrettable.

2. The Categories of Jihād

Jihād al-Nafs (against the self): the struggle against one's own desires and moral failings; the foundation of all the others.
Jihād al-Shayṭān: resisting temptation.
Jihād bi'l-Lisān / bi'l-Qalam: by tongue and pen — daʿwah, teaching, writing, refuting falsehood, speaking truth to power. أَفْضَلُ الْجِهَادِ كَلِمَةُ حَقٍّ عِنْدَ سُلْطَانٍ جَائِرٍ (Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī).
Jihād bi'l-Māl: by wealth — funding good causes; the Qur'an repeatedly places wealth before life: jāhidū bi-amwālikum wa anfusikum (9:41, 61:11).
Jihād bi'l-ʿIlm: by knowledge and research.
Jihād bi'l-Sayf / Qitāl: armed struggle, permitted under strict conditions.

The Prophet ﷺ told a man seeking permission to fight, "Are your parents alive? Then in them is your jihād" (Bukhārī & Muslim) — service to parents named as jihād.
To a woman he said Ḥajj is the jihād of women (Bukhārī).
Note on the "greater jihād" report: the narration "we have returned from the lesser jihād to the greater jihād" is weak in chain (al-Bayhaqī, Ibn Ḥajar and others noted its weakness). Do not cite it as a ḥadīth; the point it makes is established anyway by the authentic texts above.

3. Conditions of Armed Jihād (the Heart of the Answer)

Authority (sulṭah):

Declaration belongs to the legitimate authority of the state, not to individuals, parties or self-appointed groups. Private warfare is fasād fi'l-arḍ, not jihād. This condition alone disqualifies every non-state militant organisation.

Just cause:

Self-defence: أُذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتَلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا — "Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged" — (22:39).
Repelling aggression: وَقَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ الَّذِينَ يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ وَلَا تَعْتَدُوا — "Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress" — (2:190).
Defence of the oppressed: وَمَا لَكُمْ لَا تُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَالْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالنِّسَاءِ وَالْوِلْدَانِ — "And what is [the matter] with you that you fight not in the cause of Allah and for the oppressed among men, women, and children" — (4:75).
Defence of freedom of worship: 22:40 — protection of monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques.
Never for: territorial expansion, plunder, forced conversion, national glory or revenge.

Right intention:

مَنْ قَاتَلَ لِتَكُونَ كَلِمَةُ اللَّهِ هِيَ الْعُلْيَا فَهُوَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ (Bukhārī) — fighting for reputation, booty or ethnic pride is excluded explicitly.

Last resort and proportionality:

8:61 requires acceptance of peace whenever offered; 2:190 and 2:194 impose proportionality; 9:6 requires safe conduct for one who seeks it.

Conduct (ādāb al-qitāl):

Prohibited targets: women, children, the elderly, monks and clergy in worship, non-combatant labourers, the wounded and prisoners.
Prohibited acts: mutilation, treachery, killing envoys, burning with fire, poisoning wells, destroying crops, trees and livestock without necessity, and destruction of places of worship.
Abū Bakr's (RA) ten instructions to Usāmah's army codify these — the earliest known code of military conduct.
Prisoners: وَيُطْعِمُونَ الطَّعَامَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِ مِسْكِينًا وَيَتِيمًا وَأَسِيرًا — "And they give food, in spite of love for it, to the needy, the orphan, and the captive" — (76:8); ransom or release (47:4).

Cessation:

Hostilities end when aggression ends: فَإِنِ انتَهَوْا فَلَا عُدْوَانَ إِلَّا عَلَى الظَّالِمِينَ — "But if they cease, then there is to be no aggression except against the oppressors" — (2:193); وَإِنْ جَنَحُوا لِلسَّلْمِ فَاجْنَحْ لَهَا — "And if they incline to peace, then incline to it [also]" — (8:61).

4. Handling the "Sword Verse" (9:5) Correctly

This is the verse critics quote and the one candidates must be able to answer:

Context: it addresses specific Makkan polytheists who had repeatedly broken treaties, after a four-month notice period, in a state of declared hostilities — not humanity at large.
The very next verse, 9:6, commands: "if any of the polytheists seeks your protection, grant it, so that he may hear the word of Allah, then deliver him to his place of safety." A verse of extermination would not be followed by a verse of asylum.
9:7 affirms honouring treaties with those who honour them; 9:4 exempts those who did not breach.
Method point: verses of qitāl are situational and conditioned; verses of principle — 2:256, 5:32, 60:8, 8:61 — are general. Reading the situational as general is the interpretive error common to both extremists and Islamophobes.

5. The Historical Record

Thirteen Makkan years of persecution with no fighting permitted — the single most decisive fact against the claim that Islam is inherently militant.
Permission granted only after the Hijrah (22:39), i.e. once there was a polity capable of exercising legitimate authority.
Casualty figures across the entire Madinan decade are counted in the hundreds on both sides combined.
Non-Muslim populations survived under Muslim rule for centuries — Copts in Egypt, Christians in Syria and Lebanon, Jews in Andalusia and the Ottoman lands, Hindus in India. Had forced conversion been the doctrine, these communities would not exist.
Conversion patterns in Indonesia, Malaysia and much of West and East Africa followed trade and preaching, not armies — today the largest Muslim populations in the world are in countries no Muslim army conquered.

6. Common Misconceptions to Refute

"Islam spread by the sword" — refuted by the demographic evidence above and by 2:256.
"Jihād means killing non-Muslims" — refuted by the categories, by 60:8, and by the protection of dhimmī and muʿāhad.
"Suicide bombing is martyrdom" — refuted by 4:29, by the prohibition of killing non-combatants, and by the ḥadīth on self-killing (Bukhārī). It combines two capital prohibitions.
"Anyone can declare jihād" — refuted by the authority condition; a war declared without legitimate authority is ḥirābah (brigandage), punishable under 5:33.
"Jihād is a sixth pillar" — it is not; the pillars are five, and armed jihād is farḍ kifāyah (a collective obligation) in ordinary circumstances, becoming farḍ ʿayn only under direct invasion.

7. Contemporary Application

Legitimate resistance to occupation is recognised in international law as well as in Islamic law; but even then it is bound by the prohibition on targeting civilians. The distinction between resistance and terrorism is the target, not the cause.
Terrorism (ḥirābah) — spreading fear and killing indiscriminately — is a capital offence in Islamic law under 5:33, not a form of jihād.
The greater struggles of the present: against ignorance, poverty, corruption, disease, environmental destruction and injustice. A civil servant who eliminates corruption in his department is engaged in a jihād the texts recognise.
Pakistan: Paigham-e-Pakistan (2018), endorsed by some 1,800 scholars, declares that only the state may declare jihād, and that suicide attacks and armed rebellion against the state are ḥarām — the authoritative domestic articulation of exactly the conditions above.

Qur'anic Evidence Bank

al-Ḥajj 22:39–40 — permission granted to those wronged; protection of all houses of worship.
al-Baqarah 2:190–194 — fight those who fight you; do not transgress; proportionality; cease when they cease.
al-Baqarah 2:256 — no compulsion in religion.
al-Nisāʾ 4:75 — fighting for the oppressed men, women and children.
al-Anfāl 8:61 — incline to peace.
al-Tawbah 9:6 — asylum for one who seeks it.
al-Furqān 25:52 — the "great jihād" waged with the Qur'an.
al-ʿAnkabūt 29:69 — those who strive in Us, We guide.
al-Māʾidah 5:32–33 — sanctity of life; ḥirābah as a capital crime.
al-Nisāʾ 4:29 — do not kill yourselves.

Hadith / Seerah Application

أَفْضَلُ الْجِهَادِ كَلِمَةُ حَقٍّ عِنْدَ سُلْطَانٍ جَائِرٍ (Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī).
فَفِيهِمَا فَجَاهِدْ — "then in them (your parents) strive" (Bukhārī & Muslim).
مَنْ قَاتَلَ لِتَكُونَ كَلِمَةُ اللَّهِ هِيَ الْعُلْيَا فَهُوَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ (Bukhārī).
لَا تَتَمَنَّوْا لِقَاءَ الْعَدُوِّ وَسَلُوا اللَّهَ الْعَافِيَةَ (Bukhārī & Muslim) — never wish for battle.
Abū Bakr's (RA) ten commands to the army of Usāmah.

Critical / Analytical Angle

The examiner is testing whether the candidate can defend jihād without apologising for it and without excusing its abuse. Do not claim jihād is purely spiritual — the texts plainly permit armed struggle, and a candidate who denies this looks evasive. Argue instead that Islam did something rarer than prohibiting war: it regulated it, at a time when no other legal system did. Fourteen centuries before the Geneva Conventions, Islamic law fixed who may declare war (the state), for what cause (defence of life, faith and the oppressed), against whom (combatants only), by what means (no perfidy, no mutilation, no destruction of crops or worship), and when it must stop (the moment peace is offered). Measured against the record of its contemporaries — and of the twentieth century — that is not a militant doctrine but a restraining one. The abuse of the term by non-state actors is therefore best framed as a usurpation: they take a regulated state prerogative, strip it of every condition, and keep the name.

Model 20-Mark Answer Skeleton

Introduction (2) — jihād as striving, not "holy war"; 25:52 as the Makkan "great jihād."
Categories of jihād (3) — nafs, tongue and pen, wealth, knowledge, sword; parents as jihād.
Conditions of armed jihād (6) — authority, just cause, intention, last resort, conduct, cessation.
Handling 9:5 with 9:6 (2) — situational versus general verses.
Historical record (3) — thirteen Makkan years, casualty figures, surviving minorities, Indonesia.
Misconceptions refuted (2) — sword, suicide bombing, private declaration, ḥirābah.
Contemporary application and Paigham-e-Pakistan (1); conclusion (1).

✍️ Full Model Answer — Structured Exam Notes

Write this out as flowing paragraphs in the actual exam — the bullets here are for fast revision.

Introduction (2 marks):

Jihad = struggle/exertion, not "holy war" (no such phrase in Qur'an/Sunnah; war = harb, fighting = qital).
Jihad is a broad category of striving; armed struggle is one narrow, heavily regulated species.
Both extremists (who collapse jihad into violence) and Islamophobes (who accept that collapse and blame Islam) make the same error — mistaking the part for the whole.

Categories of Jihad (3 marks):

Qur'an's own usage confirms this breadth: "strive against them with it, a great striving" (وَجَاهِدْهُم بِهِ جِهَادًا كَبِيرًا, al-Furqan 25:52) (revealed in Makkah, where fighting wasn't yet permitted; the instrument is the Qur'an itself — argument and preaching).
Beyond jihad al-nafs (struggle against one's own soul) and jihad bi'l-lisan (word and pen), the Prophet ﷺ named the highest form: "a word of truth spoken before a tyrannical ruler" (أَفْضَلُ الْجِهَادِ كَلِمَةُ حَقٍّ عِندَ سُلْطَانٍ جَائِرٍ (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi).
Told a man seeking to fight that his jihad lay in caring for his living parents (Bukhari, Muslim).

Conditions of Armed Jihad (6 marks):

Authority: legitimate state only — never private individuals/groups; unauthorised warfare is fasad fi'l-ard, not jihad.
Just cause: only self-defence — "permission is given to those who are fought because they were wronged" (أُذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتَلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا, al-Hajj 22:39) — never for territorial expansion, plunder or forced conversion.
Right intention: fighting for reputation/ethnic pride excluded — only fighting to raise God's word is "in the way of Allah" (Bukhari).
Peace accepted whenever offered: "and if they incline to peace, then incline to it also" (وَإِن جَنَحُوا لِلسَّلْمِ فَاجْنَحْ لَهَا, al-Anfal 8:61).
Conduct: spare non-combatants — women, children, elderly, clergy, crops — codified in Abu Bakr's (RA) instructions to his armies.
Cessation: must stop the moment aggression ceases (2:193).

Handling 9:5 With 9:6 (2 marks):

9:5 (often cited by critics) addressed specific treaty-breaking Makkan polytheists after due notice — not humanity at large.
The very next verse, 9:6, commands granting protection and safe delivery to any polytheist who seeks it — extermination wouldn't be followed by asylum.
Method: distinguish situational verses of qital (context-bound) from general verses of principle (2:256, 8:61).

Historical Record (3 marks):

13 Makkan years: no fighting permitted despite severe persecution; permission only after the Hijrah, once a polity existed.
Madinan-decade casualties: in the hundreds on both sides combined.
Non-Muslim communities survived centuries under Muslim rule (Copts in Egypt, Jews in Andalusia, Christians in Ottoman lands).
Largest Muslim populations today (Indonesia, Malaysia) are in countries no Muslim army ever conquered — refutes "spread by the sword."

Misconceptions Refuted (2 marks):

Suicide bombing ≠ martyrdom — compounds two capital prohibitions (self-killing + killing non-combatants).
No individual/group may declare jihad — unauthorised war is hirabah (brigandage), punishable under 5:33.
Jihad is not a sixth pillar — it's a collective obligation (fard kifayah), individually binding only under direct invasion.

Contemporary Application and Conclusion (2 marks):

Paigham-e-Pakistan (2018, ~1,800 scholars): only the state may authorise jihad; suicide attacks/rebellion against the state are haram.
Closing line: 14 centuries before the Geneva Conventions, Islamic law fixed who may declare war, for what cause, against whom, by what means, and when it must stop — a regulated last resort, not a militant doctrine; those who kill civilians in its name haven't exceeded it, they've abandoned it.

One-Line Conclusion for a 20-Mark Answer

Jihād is a regulated last resort declared by a state to defend life and faith, bound by conditions no medieval legal system matched — and those who kill civilians in its name have not exceeded it, they have abandoned it.

📌 Past Paper Questions — CSS 2017–2026

Every FPSC question on this topic, linked to its solved model answer. Open the year page and jump to the Q number.

Asked directly (1 time):

2020 · Q5 — Discuss in detail the principles and terms & conditions for "Jihad" in the light of Quran and Sunnah. → 2020 — Islamic Studies (CSS)

Related questions (Jihad misused by extremists):

2017 · Q7 / 2023 · Q7 — Extremism in Pakistan and its Islamic solution. → 2017 — Islamic Studies (CSS) 2023 — Islamic Studies (CSS)

🎯 Exam pattern: Key conditions: only the state can declare it, a just cause, no harm to non-combatants, honouring treaties, stopping when the enemy inclines to peace (8:61, 2:190). 2026 MCQ: most mufassirin read fi sabilillah in Zakat heads as Jihad.