Juridical Justifications for War

Abstract

The outbreaks of hostilities between the Muslims and their enemies in Medina during the Prophet’s lifetime and the different interpretations of the Qur’ānic casus belli, studied in chapters one and two, respectively, were the basis on which the jurists of the second/eighth and third/ninth centuries developed the Islamic law of war. This chapter studies the justifications for war and Islamic attitudes toward non-Muslims in the classical Islamic juridical theory of international law and modern Islamic writings on the issue. It also examines how the Islamic justifications for war in classical and modern writings are presented in Western literature. The significance of studying how the Islamic justifications for war are dealt with in Western literature is that it indicates how Western scholars and policymakers view the nature of conflicts where Islam plays, or is thought to play, a role.