Abode Of War Research Articles

Contemporary Discourse on Citizenship: An Islamic Perspective

The pre-modern practices of political institutions of Muslims are no longer compatible with nation-state framework. The new classifications, Dār al-Shahādah (Abode of Testimony), Dār al-Ahd (Abode of Truce) and Dār al-Amān (Abode of Peace) have been the contemporary additional terms (Mustalhāt al-Mʻāsirah al-Ḥarbiya) to the classical legalistic framework which classifies the countries into Dār al-Islam (Abode of Islam) and Dār al-Harb (Abode of War). This paper will analyse the contribution of modern Muslim scholars in the emergence of the concept on the one hand while reformist scholars on the other hand. The basic idea of citizenship (Muwātana) seems to treat all the citizens alike and make the concept wider, inclusive and cohesive in light of Darūrah (Necessity/Compulsion). In the given context, the paper will highlight how has the concept of citizenship evolved during the course of time from Caliphate (632-661 C.E) to the Ottoman Empire (1299-1924 C.E) and afterwards.

Modernity, Its Crisis and Islamic Revivalism

Modernity is a global condition of an ongoing socio-cultural, economic, and political transformation of human experience, with tradition or religion having no significant role to play. It is the gradual decline of the role of religion in modernity through the implementation of the principles of secularism which has, according to Islamic revivalists, plunged the world into crisis or jahiliyya (unGodliness). Revivalists and sociologists such as Anthony Giddens (1991) call it the “crisis of modernity”. In response, many Islamic revivalist movements have emerged to address this condition. The Iranian Revolution of 1978–1979 gave a boost to many existing Islamic revivalist movements and inspired many to appear anew. The phenomenon of contemporary Islamic revivalism is a religious transformative response to the crisis of modernity—i.e., the inability of secularism and the process of secularization to fulfill the promise of delivering a model of perfect global order. Contemporary Islamic revivalism is not anti-modernity but against secularism and is thus an attempt to steer modernity out of its crisis through a comprehensive and robust process of Islamization—the widespread introduction of Islamic rituals, practices, socio-cultural and economic processes, and institutional developments to the pattern of modern everyday living—and transforming modernity from dar al-harb (abode of war) to dar al-Islam (abode of peace). The paper argues that contemporary Islamic revivalism is a complex heterogeneous global phenomenon seeking to steer modernity out of its prevailing crisis through finding in Islam the universal blueprint of life. It further argues that Islamic revivalism is not anti-modernity but is a religious based reaction against the negative consequences of modernity, particularly against secularism, and carving out a space for itself in modernity.

Fatwās for an Unprecedented Minority: Sheikh Rāʾid Badīr and the fiqh of Medical Transplantation for Muslims Living in Israel

Abstract This article deals with legal opinions (fatwās) for Muslims living in Israel as a minority under non-Muslim rule. A well-developed legal doctrine known as fiqh al-aqalliyyāt al-muslima (jurisprudence concerning Muslim minorities) applies to Muslim minorities living in the West. The innovators of fiqh al-aqalliyyāt, Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and Ṭaha Jābir al-ʿAlwānī, did not issue legal opinions for the Muslim minority living in Israel, which, because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is classified as The Abode of War (dār al-ḥarb). In this article, I examine developments in Islamic jurisprudence for the Muslim minority living in Israel, with a focus on the legal opinions of Sheikh Rāʾid Badīr, the senior religious authority of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel and the pioneer in issuing fatwās for the Muslim minority in Israel.

بين مفهومي الجهاد والإرهاب: دراسة في المفهوم والأهداف لحركة القاعدة وتنظيم داعش أنموذجا

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Islam has fell victim to the allegation that relates it to terrorism. This is due to the rise of terrorist movements such as al-Qaeda and ISIS that claim to be representing Islam and pursuing the holy war (jihād) to establish an Islamic caliphate (al-khilāfah al-Islāmiyyah). These terrorist movements also used the same terms and concepts that can be found in the traditional Muslim scholarship, such as the abode of Islam and the abode of war (dār al-Islām wa dār alḥarb), loyalty and disavowal (al-walā’ wa al-barā’), and excommunicating Muslims (takfīr). Thus, this study seeks to analyse these two concepts of jihād and terrorism (irhāb) to locate both their similarities and differences. Comparison is made from several aspects such as etymology and history and lastly its application in our contemporary reality in relation to other relevant terms and concepts as mentioned above. This study finds that there are substantial differences between jihād and irhāb, and it is the failure to grasp the ever evolving and developing nature of Islamic law (fiqh) and the contemporary reality that led to this confusion.

Islamisches Völkerrechtsverständnis und Terrormiliz

Islamic international law, As-Siyar, is part of the Islamic Sharia and was developed in the early days of Islam. It consisted mainly of rules of behaviour towards non-Muslims and was therefore “unilateral external law”. It divided the world into Dar al Islam (abode of Islam) and Dar al Harb (abode of ​war). There has always been war between the two, at least in theory. The concept of Jihad is very important in this context. The question arises as to what role Islamic international law has today in supporting or justifying the use of force by Islamist terrorist groups. In addition to the legal analysis, the perspectives of political, religious and Islamic studies need to be taken into account. It turns out that, although Jihad has some similarities with the right to self-defence, in practice the use of force is too often justified by the construction of a constant “attack” from outside, be it on the Muslim community as a whole or on individual members, not just in the narrow limits of an exception. In this context, the prohibition of violence against non-combatants, such as civilians, women, children and the elderly, firmly rooted in Islamic law is frequently violated.

Models of coexistence: approaches for overcoming the classical legal division between the ‘Land of Islam’ and the ‘Land of War’ by contemporary Islamic scholars

This article aims to present contemporary interpretations of the territorial division between the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War in classical Islamic legal theory, with a focus on perspectives that try to overcome outdated concepts and suggest suitable alternatives. Towards this end, it presents approaches from two modern Muslim scholars – the Swiss intellectual Tariq Ramadan and the Syrian academic Wahbah al-Zuhaili – that offer different perspectives on the notion of the two abodes. They both attempt to mould new models that consider the current circumstances, while trying to develop a vision of coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims that is firmly based on Islamic law. Finally, there is an evaluation of the two positions and their arguments, so as to conclude which one of them offers objectives that are better suited to the needs of modern Muslim societies.

The Islamic State's Êzîdî Genocide in Iraq: The Sinjār Operations

This paper critically examines the Islamic State's annihilatory violence committed against the Êzîdîs in Iraq since 2014. It argues that the violence is a product of both Êzîdî marginality and the ideology of the Islamic State, which is grounded in its particular neo-historical iteration of Islam. Annihilatory violence is fundamental for the IS to actualize its iteration of the holy Qur'ān, the words and actions of the Islamic prophet, and historical events, dividing the world into binaries of the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War, or good and evil. It draws from anthropological research and interviews conducted by the authors with survivors and perpetrators in 2014 and 2016 to argue that the Islamic State's campaign against the Êzîdîs constitutes the subjective and objective elements of the crime of genocide.

Al-Miknāsī's Mediterranean Mission: Negotiating Moroccan Temporal and Spiritual Sovereignty in the Late Eighteenth Century

In 1779 the sultan of Morocco, Muḥammad bin ʿAbdallah (Muḥammad III, r. 1757–90), sent an ambassadorial delegation to Spain to ransom Ottoman-Algerian prisoners. The delegation was led by Muḥammad bin ʿUthman al-Miknāsī (d. 1799), who left a detailed account of the mission in his extant text Al-Iksīr fī fikāk al-asīr (The Elixir That Will Liberate the Prisoner). When juxtaposed on the historical record, al-Miknāsī's travelogue illustrates how Muḥammad III and the Moroccan religio-political elite navigated the complex Mediterranean web of religious identity, political allegiance, and ethnicity. Positing a division between “temporal” and “spiritual” sovereignty increases our understanding of how Muḥammad III substantiated his authority on multiple levels in relation to Spain, Ottoman-Algeria, and the Sublime Porte in Istanbul. While previous scholarship has focused on a religio-political aggression against the Christian Europeans, this article employs al-Miknāsī's travelogue to demonstrate how Muḥammad III halted religio-political aggression against Dār al-Ḥarb (Abode of War) and questioned the unity within Dār al-Islām (Abode of Islam).

The Concept of Jihad in Islamic International Law

In the post 11 September 2001 legal and political environment, Islam appears to have become one of the most misunderstood religions. Islam has been equated with fanaticism, intolerance, violence and wars of aggression – the classical Jihad ideology is often deployed to cast doubts on the compatibility of Islam with modern norms of international law as enunciated in the United Nations Charter. Much confusion stems from the fact that Islamic international law and Islamic laws of armed conflict have not received due attention in western legal scholarship. The concept of Jihad has arguably been central to many modern conflicts including that of resistance to US occupation of Iraq (2003–2005), the struggle for self-determination in Kashmir (1947–2005) and the Palestinian struggle for reclaiming their land from Israel (1948–2005). This article seeks to provide a jurisprudential analysis of the concept of Jihad. Amidst controversies surrounding Jihad, the authors attempt to contextualise the concept and relate the discussion to contemporary norms of International law as established by the United Nations Charter. The authors identify the conditions under which Jihad is permissible in Islamic law in the light of its various sources. The distinction between dar-al-harb (abode of war) and dar-al-Islam (abode of Islam) is presented as this issue impacts on laws of war in Islam. The significance of humanitarian principles within Islamic international law as well as in Islamic humanitarian law is highlighted. Self-exertion in peaceful and personal compliance with the dictates of Islam (constitutes) the major or superior Jihad.

The Concept of Jihad in Islamic International Law

In the post 11 September 2001 legal and political environment, Islam appears to have become one of the most misunderstood religions. Islam has been equated with fanaticism, intolerance, violence and wars of aggression – the classical Jihad ideology is often deployed to cast doubts on the compatibility of Islam with modern norms of international law as enunciated in the United Nations Charter. Much confusion stems from the fact that Islamic international law and Islamic laws of armed conflict have not received due attention in western legal scholarship. The concept of Jihad has arguably been central to many modern conflicts including that of resistance to US occupation of Iraq (2003–2005), the struggle for self-determination in Kashmir (1947–2005) and the Palestinian struggle for reclaiming their land from Israel (1948–2005). This article seeks to provide a jurisprudential analysis of the concept of Jihad. Amidst controversies surrounding Jihad, the authors attempt to contextualise the concept and relate the discussion to contemporary norms of International law as established by the United Nations Charter. The authors identify the conditions under which Jihad is permissible in Islamic law in the light of its various sources. The distinction between dar-al-harb (abode of war) and dar-al-Islam (abode of Islam) is presented as this issue impacts on laws of war in Islam. The significance of humanitarian principles within Islamic international law as well as in Islamic humanitarian law is highlighted. Self-exertion in peaceful and personal compliance with the dictates of Islam (constitutes) the major or superior Jihad.

MUSLIM MINORITIES AND THE OBLIGATION TO EMIGRATE TWO FATWĀS FROM FIFTEENTH-CENTURY GRANADA TO ISLAMIC TERRITORY:

AbstractWhen Christian forces conquered the entire eastern regions (sharq al-Andalus) of the Iberian peninsula in the thirteenth century, a large population of Muslims became subject to Christian rule. Now known as Mudejars, these Muslims continued to practice their religion and regulate their communities according to Islamic law, but their residence in dār al-Harb (abode of war) became the subject of divided legal discourse among Mālikī jurists. Some of the controversies which surrounded a Mudejar's obligation to emigrate to Islamic lands are preserved in fatwā s issued by jurists in Granada, the Maghrib, and Ifrīqiya. The aim of this essay is to present two previously unknown fatwās, issued by al-Haffār and al-Mawwāq, that address two particular aspects of the Mudejar predicament: the validity of sadāq contracts authenticated by Mudejar judges and the obligations of Muslims to their Mudejar families and communities living under Christian rule.

Muslims in New Zealand

Muslims in New Zealand may be viewed from at least two angles. Viewed from New Zealand, they represent a part of the recent immigration that is beginning to change the face of this society from its Maori and Anglo-Celtic past. They are a relatively small part of this movement, but are distinctive and high-profile for various reasons. Viewed from the world outside, they are one of the smallest and most far-flung tentacles of the modern Muslim diaspora, which has brought several million Muslims to live as minorities in Western countries, thus inaugurating a different relationship between Muslims and the West from that which had existed before. These Western countries can no longer quite be dar al harb (the Abode of War), as the old Islamic tradition had it, since Muslims have come to them voluntarily in search of a better life, but they are certainly not dar al Islam (the Abode of Islam), since Muslims are minorities in them and Western life-styles are at variance with Muslim life-styles in many ways. The New Zealand Muslim community is even smaller than most other Muslim diaspora communities, both in absolute numbers—about 40,000—and as a percentage of the population—about one percent. New Zealand has in fact hosted Muslim immigrants for more than a hundred years, although little is known of the very first ones. Mainly from East and South Asia, as far as is known, they were very few in numbers, individuals rather than family groups, miners and possibly sailors arriving on these shores, deciding to stay for a time or permanently. At first hardly noticed, there are only sparse references to their presence in historic records.

Islam and the Abode of War: Military Slaves and Islamic Adversaries, David Ayalon

Islam and the Abode of War: Military Slaves and Islamic Adversaries, David Ayalon

Islam and the abode of war: military slaves and Islamic adversaries. By David Ayalon. (Variorum Collected Studies Series, 456.) pp. xii, 298, front. Aldershot, Variorum, 1994. £47.50.

Islam and the abode of war: military slaves and Islamic adversaries. By David Ayalon. (Variorum Collected Studies Series, 456.) pp. xii, 298, front. Aldershot, Variorum, 1994. £47.50.

David Ayalon, Islam and the Abode of War: Military Slaves and Islamic Adversaries. (Collected Studies Series, 456.) Aldershot, Eng., and Brookfield, Vt.: Variorum, 1994. Pp. xii, 298, numbered nonconsecutively; black-and-white frontispiece. $87.50.

David Ayalon, Islam and the Abode of War: Military Slaves and Islamic Adversaries. (Collected Studies Series, 456.) Aldershot, Eng., and Brookfield, Vt.: Variorum, 1994. Pp. xii, 298, numbered nonconsecutively; black-and-white frontispiece. $87.50.