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Chapter
19:
Jihad (Hadith -- The
Traditions):
(Note:
The superscript-numbers [e.g., intention2]
that
appear in the text [in
pink]
refer to the numbers of the explanatory footnotes that
appear at the end of each Hadith
[Tradition].)
1
Abu Hurairah said,
A man came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of
Allah be on him, and said,
Guide me to a deed which is equal to
jihad. He said, "I do not find it." (Then) he said: "Is it
in thy power that when the one engaged in jihad goes forth,
thou shouldst enter thy mosque and stand in prayer and have
no rest, and that thou shouldst fast and not break it not?"
He said, Who can do it? (B. 56 :
1.)
2
Abu Sa`id al-Khudri said,
It was said, O Messenger of Allah! Who is the most excellent
of men? The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah
be on him, said, "The believer who strives hard in the way
of Allah with his person and his property."
(B. 56 : 2.)
3
Mughirah reported,
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him,
said,
"Some people from among my
community shall remain in the ascendant, until the
command of Allah comes to them and they shall be
triumphant."1
(B. 61 : 28.)
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1
In the heading of 97 : 10, this hadith is related
with a slight variation : "A party of my umma shall
remain in the ascendant, propagating the Truth, and
these are the learned ones (ahl al-`ilm)." This
shows that Bukhari took the word jihad in the wider
sense.
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4
`Imran ibn Husain said,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, said:
"A party of my community
shall not cease fighting for the Truth -- they shall be
triumphant over their opponents." 2
(AD-Msh. 18.)
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2
The following explanation of this hadith is given
in the `Aun al-Ma`bud, a commentary of
Abu Dawud, on the authority of Nawavi :
"This party consists of different classes of the
faithful, of them being the brave fighters, the
faqihs (jurists), the muhaddithin
(collectors of Hadith), the zahids (those
who devote themselves to the worship of God), those
who command the doing of good and prohibit evil,
and a variety of other people who do other good
deeds." Fighting in the way of Allah thus
includes the service of Islam in any
form.
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5
Abu Hurairah reported,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, said:
"Surely Allah will raise for
this community at the beginning of every century one who
shall revive for it its faith."3
(AD. 36 : 1.)
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3
The preceding two hadith contain a prophecy that
among the Muslim community there shall always be
learned people who shall help the cause of Islam to
become ascendant in the world; this goes a step
further and contains a further prophecy that
generally at intervals of a century divinely
inspired people shall be raised among Muslims and
they shall revive the faith of the Muslim
community.
A person thus raised by God
is called a mujaddid (one who
revives) in the terminology of Islam. The
mujaddid is a muhaddath (one to whom God
speaks though he is not a prophet), and he is
raised up by God to remove errors that have crept
in among Muslims and to shed new light on the great
religious truths of Islam in the new circumstances
which Muslims may have to face in every new age.
The most famous names falling under this category
in this country are those of Sayyid Ahmad of
Sirhind, popularly known as Mujaddid Alf Thani,
Shah Wali Allah of Delhi, Sayyid Ahmad of Bareily,
and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, the founder of
the Ahmadiyyah movement, who was accepted generally
as the Mujaddid of the fourteenth century of
Hijrah, but who was later opposed owing to his
claim to be the Messiah, whose advent is spoken of
in Hadith prophecies.
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6
Abu Hurairah said,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, said:
"How would you feel when the
son of Mary makes his appearance among you, and he is
your imam from among yourselves."4
(B. 60 : 49.)
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4
This is a further prophecy relating to the
ascendancy of Islam. The son of Mary is the
Messiah, and Muslims are told that a Messiah would
appear among them. This Messiah is called
imamu-kum min-hum i.e., your imam from
among yourselves. In a hadith of the Sahih
Muslim on the same subject, the words are wa
amma-kum min-kum, i.e., he (the Messiah) shall
be your imam from among yourselves, leaving no
doubt that a member of the Muslim community would
be raised to the dignity of the Messiah. These
words were no doubt added by the Holy Prophet to
remove the possible misconception that the
Israelite Messiah would appear among
Muslims.
The prophecy relating to the
advent of a Messiah among Muslims, generally known
as the second advent of the Messiah, is on all
fours with the prophecy relating to the second
advent of Elias among the Israelites : "Elijah went
up by a whirlwind into heaven" (11 Kings 2 : 11);
"I will send you Elijah the prophet before the
coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord"
(Mal. 4 : 5). When Jesus Christ was confronted with
this difficulty -- "Why then say the Scribes that
Elias must first come?" (Mt. 17 : 10), he simply
replied : "Elias is come already but they knew him
not" ....... "Then the disciples understood that he
spake unto them of John the Baptist" (Mt. 17 :
11-13); because, as further explained, John the
Baptist came "in the spirit and power of Elias"
(LK. 1 : 17). The appearance of the Messiah among
Muslims thus meant only the appearance of a
mujaddid "in spirit and power" of the
Messiah.
The Messiah's work is thus
described in the Bukhari : "The son of Mary
will appear among you as a judge, doing justice
(between people), and he will break the Cross and
kill the swine" (B. 60 : 49). This clearly shows
that the Messiah would come when the religion of
the Cross will be in the ascendant, and that his
work will be to spread Islam among the Christian
nations of the world in particular, which in other
hadith is described as the rising of the sun in the
West, the sun standing for the Sun of Islam and the
West for the Western nations. Thus this prophecy
speaks in fact of the final ascendancy of Islam in
the world.
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7
Sahl reported,
He heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of
Allah be on him, say:
". . . Then invite them to
Islam, and inform them of what is incumbent on them; for,
by Allah, if a single man is guided aright through thee,
it is better for thee than red
camels."5
(B. 56 : 102.)
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5
These instructions were given to `Ali by the Holy
Prophet in the expedition of Khaibar, which shows
that invitation to Islam was the greatest jihad of
Muslims.
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8
Ibn `Abbas reported,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, wrote to the Caesar inviting him to Islam, and sent his
letter to him with Dihyah al-Kalbi, and the Messenger of
Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, ordered him
to make it over to the Chief of Busra that he might send it
to the Caesar.6
(B. 56 :
102.)
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6
This hadith which speaks of the Holy Prophet
inviting the Caesar to Islam forms part of the
chapter on Jihad in the Bukhari,
which again shows the wide sense in which jihad was
interpreted by Muslims. The subject-matter of the
letter written is produced in the next hadith which
should be treated as a supplement to this
hadith.
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9
Ibn `Abbas reported,
. . . And this (letter) ran as follows:
"In the name of Allah the
Beneficent, the Merciful. From Muhammad, the servant of
Allah and His Messenger, to Heraclius, the Chief of the
Roman Empire. Peace be with him who follows the guidance.
After this, I invite thee with invitation to Islam.
Become a Muslim and thou wilt be in peace -- Allah will
give thee a double reward; but if thou turnest away, on
thee will be the sin of thy subjects. And, O followers of
the Book! Come to an equitable proposition between us and
you that we shall not serve any but Allah, and that we
shall not associate aught with Him, and that some of us
shall not take others for lords besides Allah; but if
they turn back, then say : Bear witness that we are
Muslims."7
(B. 1 : 1.)
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7
B. 1 : 1 is a very long hadith, only the part
relating to the letter spoken of in the last hadith
is produced here. The subject-matter of the letter
is a clear proof that invitation to Islam was not
accompanied by any threat of hostilities. Similar
letters were written to other rulers.
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10
Salamah said,
I swore allegiance to the Prophet, peace and blessings of
Allah be on him, then I turned to the shade of a tree. When
the crowd diminished, he (the Prophet) said, "O Ibn
al-Akwa`! Will thou not swear allegiance?" He said, I said,
I have already sworn allegiance, O Messenger of Allah! He
said, "And do it again." So I swore allegiance to him a
second time. I (the reporter) said to him, O Abu Muslim! For
what did you swear allegiance (to him) then? He said, For
death.8
(B. 56 :
110.)
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8
This happened at Hudaibiyah where the famous truce
of that name was concluded. Swearing allegiance for
death meant that a man would defend Islam and stand
by the Holy Prophet even though he had to face
death.
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11
`Abd Allah ibn Abu Aufa reported,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, said:
"And know that paradise is
beneath the protection of the swords."9
(B. 56 : 22.)
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9
The word zilal used in the hadith is plural of zill
which generally means shadow, but it really means
that which serves to protect a thing. The
hadith emphasizes a Muslim's duty to be always
ready to fight for the defence of the Truth.
Muslims could not use the sword otherwise than in
defence (v. 5).
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12
Abu Hurairah said,
I heard the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him,
say:
"By Him in Whose hand is my
soul, were it not that there are men among the believers
who cannot bear to remain behind me -- and I do not find
that on which to carry them -- I would not remain behind
an army that fights in the way of Allah; and by Him in
Whose hand is my soul, I love that I should be killed in
the way of Allah then brought to life, then killed again
then brought to life, then killed again then brought to
life, then killed again." (B. 56 : 7.)
13
Abu Hurairah said,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, said :
Whom do you count to be a
martyr among you?"
They said, O Messenger of Allah!
Whoever is killed in the way of Allah is a martyr. He
said:
"In that case the martyrs of
my community shall be very few -- he who is killed in the
way of Allah is a martyr; he who dies a natural death in
the way of Allah is a martyr; he who dies of the plague
(in the way of Allah) is a martyr; he who dies of cholera
(in the way of Allah) is a martyr."10
(M-Msh. 18.)
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10
The Arabic word for martyr is shahid which
means a witness of truth. One who is killed in
defence of the Faith is called a shahid
because he as it were sees the truth with his own
eyes and lays down his life for it. This hadith
shows further that every one who devotes his life
to the service of the Truth is a shahid,
whether he is killed in a battle for the defence of
Faith or dies a natural death or dies of plague or
cholera.
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14
Anas said,
On the day that the battle was fought at Uhud, (some) people
fled away form the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be
on him, He said, And I saw `A'ishah, daughter of Abu Bakr
and Umm Sulaim, and they had both tucked up their garments,
so that I could see the anklets on their shanks, and they
were carrying skins (full of water) on their backs, and they
poured water into the mouths of the people; then they went
back and filled them again, then came and poured them into
the mouths of the people.11
(B. 56 : 65.)
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11
This shows that in the Holy Prophet's time women
did the duty of nursing the wounded and helping the
armies of Islam in all other possible ways. As the
next hadith shows, they did the duty of carrying
the slain to Madinah. In B. 56 : 63, it is related
that a woman, named Bint Milhan, requested the Holy
Prophet to pray for her to be among those who
sailed on the seas to fight in the way of
Allah.
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15
Rubayyi` daughter of Mu`awwidh said,
We used to be with the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah
be on him, (in his battles), giving drink to and tending the
wounded, and removing the slain to Madinah.
(B. 56 : 67.)
16
Abd Allah reported,
A woman was found among the killed in one of the battles of
the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, forbade
the killing of women and children.12
(B. 56 :
147.)
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12
Thus in the exigency of battles Islam did not allow
the killing of non combatants. "Do not kill a
woman, nor a labourer" "Do not kill an old man, nor
a child, nor a woman", are the words of other
hadith. (AD-Msh. 18 : 4).
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17
Ibn `Umar reported,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, said:
"I have been commanded that I
should fight these people till they bear witness that
there is no god but Allah and keep up prayer and pay
zakat. When they do this, their blood and their property
shall be safe with me except as Islam requires, and their
reckoning is with Allah."13
(B. 2 : 16.)
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13
The hadith begins with the words, I have been
commanded, and the command to fight is
contained in the Holy Qur'an in the following words
: "And fight in the way of Allah with those who
fight with you and do not exceed this limit" (v.
5). Muslims, therefore, could not resort to
fighting unless an enemy was the first to assume
hostilities. What the hadith means is that fighting
begun under these conditions is to cease when the
enemy people accept Islam. Bukhari himself hints at
this when he quotes this hadith under the heading :
"But if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the
poor-rate, then leave their way free." i.e., cease
fighting with them.
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Hadith
Section
> A
Manual of Hadith
> Chapter 19: Jihad (Hadith -- The Traditions)
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