Hassan al-Banna's "On Jihad," Part 9

A Study of Hassan al-Banna's "On Jihad"
Part 9

Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna published his treatise "On Jihad" in the late 1930s.  In his book on the group, Brynjar Lia notes that the treatise eventually "became a required part of the Muslim Brothers' curriculum."  This translation comes from Wendell's 1977 collection, Five Tracts of Hasan Al-Banna (1906-1949), and is the only one available that has not been sanitized for Western audiences.

Al-Banna draws six examples from the "legists" in this section.  In the last post we read the first three examples.  In this post, al-Banna concludes his section on the legists.  The emphasis on this entire section in on the "communal obligation" of jihad, and should probably be interpreted in the context of late-30s Egypt, particularly the question of whether the country should implement Islamic law (see the study on "Toward the Light").

(4) And in Al-Mughni of Ibn Qudama of the Hanbalite School, who said: "The problem: ^ihad is a communal obligation. If a group of people engage in it, the remainder are released. It becomes an individual obligation under three conditions:
    (i) If two armies meet and two lines [of soldiers] confront one another, those present are forbidden to take off, and it becomes an individual obligation on each one to remain at his station.
    (ii) If the unbelievers attack a territory, it becomes an individual obligation on its population to fight and repulse them.
    (iii) If the Imam calls a group of people to arms, they are obliged to join his military forces.

    And the least he must do is [to wage jihad] once every year."

    Abu ' Abd Allah (i.e., the Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal) said: 'I know of nothing after the divine commandments more excellent than jihad, and campaigning by sea is more excellent than campaigning on land. Anas b. Malik (May God be pleased with him!) said: "The Apostle of God (May God bless and save him!) was asleep. Then he awoke laughing, and Umm Haram said: 'What makes you laugh, O Apostle of God?' He said: 'People of my umma embarked on a military campaign in God's way, riding on the surface of this sea as kings on their thrones,' or 'like the kings on their thrones.'" [This is] generally agreed upon, and at the end of the Tradition, Umm Haram asked the Prophet (May God bless and save him!) to beseech God on her behalf that she might be one of them. So he prayed for her, and she lived long enough to ride upon the sea in the Muslim fleet which conquered the island of Cyprus. She died and was buried there, and there are a mosque and a martyrium attributed to her (May God have mercy upon her and be pleased with her!).

(5) And it says in Al-Muhalla of Ibn Hazm the Zahirite: "The problem: Jihad is obligatory on the Muslims, but if enough engage in it to repulse the enemy, campaign against him in his own territory, and protect the borderlands of the Muslims, the remainder are released from it. And if not, then the obligation remains. God Almighty said: 'March forth, light and heavy, and strive with your wealth and your persons in God's way!' [Q.9:41]. It is not allowable save with the permission of parents, unless the enemy attacks a group of Muslims. Then it is obligatory on everyone who can aid them to set out to succor them, parents permitting or not, unless one or both would suffer through his absence. It is not lawful for him to abandon either of them who would suffer thereby."

(6) And Al-Shawkani said in Al-Sayl al-Jarrar: "The available arguments regarding the religious ordinance of jihad, both in writing and in customary observance [sunna], are too numerous to be set down here. Nevertheless, it is a communal observance, and if some engage in it, the remainder are released from it. Before a certain number engage in it, it is an individual obligation incumbent on every adult by law, and similarly, it is incumbent on everyone called to arms by the Imam to join the armed forces, and thereupon it becomes an individual obligation."

    Now you can see from all this how the men of learning, both those who employed independent judgment and those who strictly followed tradition, the earliest and the latest, agree unanimously that jihad is a communal obligation imposed upon the Islamic umma in order to broadcast the summons [to embrace Islam], and that it is an individual obligation to repulse the attack of unbelievers upon it. Today the Muslims, as you know, are compelled to humble themselves before non-Muslims, and are ruled by unbelievers. Their lands have been trampled over, and their honor besmirched. Their adversaries are in charge of their affairs, and the rites of their religion have fallen into abeyance within their own domains, to say nothing of their impotence to broadcast the summons [to embrace Islam]. Hence it has become an individual obligation, which there is no evading, on every Muslim to prepare his equipment, to make up his mind to engage in jihad, and to get ready for it until the opportunity is ripe and God decrees a matter which is sure to be accomplished.

    Probably, to terminate this inquiry, I should mention to you that the Muslims, throughout every period of their history before the present period of oppression in which their dignity has come to its end, never abandoned jihad nor did they ever grow lax in waging it, not even their religious authorities, mystics, craftsmen, etc. All of them were fully prepared [to do so] at a moment's notice.  Abd Allah b. al-Mubarak, the canon lawyer and ascetic, was a volunteer in jihad for most of his life, and Abd al-Wahhab b. Zayd, the mystic and ascetic, was the same. And in his time, Shaqiq al-Balkhi, the Sufi shaykh, used to despatch himself and his disciples off to jihad.

    And Al-Badr al-'Ayni, the commentator on Al-Bukhari, the canon lawyer and traditionist, would take part in jihad one year, study for one year, and go on pilgrimage one year, while the judge Asad b. al-Furat of the Malikite School was an admiral in his day, and the Imam al-Shafi'i would shoot ten [arrows] and not miss once.

Such were the early generations of Muslims (God's grace be upon them;), and what are we alongside such a history?