FREE ESSAY ON JIHAD AND JI'ALA

JIHAD AND JI'ALA

Jihad and Ji'ala
Recently Jihad has made national headlines. Most people don't know what that word means
and what are the rules for declaring Jihad. Well, Jihad means holy war, which applies to
Muslims. The idea of Jihad came about when Prophet Muhammad wanted to spread Islam. Jihad
was first declared against the people of Mecca, who chased out the prophet and his
followers and they had to escape to Medina. The take on Jihad was also used to expand the
Muslim empire. Jihad can only be declared by an Imam (the leader of Islam) under certain
conditions. Michael Bonner wrote a book titled Studies in the Jihad and the
Arab-Byzantine Frontier. He talked about how Jihad had certain practice that was used in
pre-Islamic Arabia, which was used in battles between the Arabs (Muslims) and the
Byzantines. This paper is going to concentrate about Jihad and try to oppose his beliefs
about how Jihad has pre-Islamic practices.
The first thing that Michael Bonner talks about is Ja'l which means:wage or pay which one
gives to a man that he may aid himself thereby to serve in the war (p.12) He also
mentioned Ji'ala which also mean when a man is obligated to go to war and has another man
take his place in exchange for a wage stipulated in advance. (p.12) Also known as a
bribe. He applied those two activities to Islam, and how they were used in the basis of
Jihad. To start out with, Jihad is for a free adult Muslim male, in a health shape and he
must bring his own provisions, weapons, equipment and mount all out of his own wealth.
Islam opposes having Muslim pay other Muslims to fulfill their obligation to go to war
and get rewarded the same as for the person who actually went and fulfilled his religious
obligation. Michael Bonner said in his book that Ji'ala was used before Islam, a time
called Jahiliyya. He also mentioned that Islam opposed it by mentioning Abdallah bi Umar,
who was the son of the caliph Umar I, in how when he was asked about Ji'ala he replied 'I
don't accept bribes, except for the bribe which God offers me' (p.31), also another proof
of opposition by the same person 'The man who stayed [at home] used to give a donation to
the warrior. But for a man selling his won capacity for warfare, I don't know what that
is' (p.30) From those two quotes on could surely see no relation between Jihad and Ji'ala
since Ibn Umar was raised by an influential Muslim leader (caliph). Also the Qur'an (holy
book in Islam) doesn't mention this kind of activity. The Qur'an mentions that a person
could donate money or gifts to the men leaving for Jihad, but that person will not
receive any service in return for what he donated. Ibn Umar used to do this.
Also Michael Bonner tried to prove his point by talking about how several Hadiths, which
means formally recorded saying of the prophet Muhammad and of those around him, passed
down through a process of oral transmission, supplemented at some point by writing.
(p.xii), by using quranic verses, and by also translating poems after the spread of
Islam. First of all Hadiths can be interpreted differently by Muslim lawyers, for example
Iraq and Medina had different interpretation about the Hadith of Companions. In addition,
the Qur'an is the language of God, and some parts in the Qur'an, it's true meaning is
still unclear, and different people have different interpretation. He used a quranic
verse as a strong point to back up his point, but as mentioned above there are different
interpretations. The prophet set certain conditions for jihad and it didn't mention
Ji'ala at all. Finally, he mentions a poem written by a Muslim poet. Poems are completely
irrelevant to prove a sensitive point, they are not mean to be used to prove a religious
point, it's a form of art, and the Arabs back then were known for writing beautiful poems
for the purpose of competing with other poets. So, these poems shouldn't be used to back
up historical activities.
In conclusion, for Michael Bonner to try to prove that Ji'ala was used during Jihad as a
form of substitution for Jihad is not accurate. Yes, Ji'ala was used during the
pre-Islamic time period, but Islam got rid of it. Jihad is an internal feeling a person
feels in order to spread or protect God's name. Also if a person goes to Jihad only to
make people think he's fighting in the name of Allah he may as well say home, because his
jihad is not accepted. So ji'ala what Bonner was trying to argue that it existed in Islam
weren't consistent. Some Muslims interpret things in their own benefits to prove their
point and that's unacceptable in front of god. This point applies to what happened in the
recent tragic events.
Bibliography
Bonner, Micheal. Aristocratic Violence and Holy War American Oriental Society