This is a lexicon entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur’s thought across his various books and connects its multiple usages.
This entry belongs to the Shahrur lexicon. For reading by theme, you may refer to Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
Meaning in Shahrur
Jihad is the exertion of effort in the service of a legitimate value or purpose. It may be moral, peaceful, or defensive, and it is not equivalent to fighting nor reducible to conquest or aggression. Here, the meaning expands the concept so that it becomes service to truth, mercy, and freedom, rather than merely a military practice.
Distinctions
- It differs from fighting; fighting is a specific form of confrontation, whereas jihad is broader than that and not confined to it
- It differs from conquest and traditional violence; in this sense, jihad does not legitimize aggression or confuse defense with attack.
Passages from his books
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism: jihad is redefined in the source as broader than fighting, and as something that may be a moral, peaceful, or defensive act. With this expansion, the author overturns its traditional equation with fighting and conquest, and makes it a concept tied to value-based service rather than aggression
What is adjacent to it and what differs from it
- fighting
- jihad is broader than fighting
- jihad, fighting, and martyrdom are distinct concepts
- the cause and the aim in fighting must not be confused
- Qur’anic fighting is defensive and restricted, and the historical context prevents legitimizing terrorism
- drying up the sources of terrorism requires returning religion to the Qur’an, freedom, and mercy, and stripping traditional violence of legitimacy
- the tradition’s conflation of jihad, fighting, and conquest