What is meant
The author holds that lawful combat in the path of God is for the service of freedom, justice, and equality, not for imposing rule or declaring dissenters unbelievers He therefore distinguishes between combat that adheres to these purposes and one-sided killing, and considers assassinations and the bombing of civilians to be a departure from the meaning of combat
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: Critical
- Movement of the argument: Individual killing and assassination lie outside the meaning of lawful combat.
- Central terms: individual killing, lawful combat, assassinations, bombing of civilians.
- Degree of centrality: Central.
The atom prevents equating lawful combat with an act of solitary killing, and sets strict ethical limits for confrontation. It also removes any claim to religious legitimacy from civilians and from assassination.
Links that help reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Draining the Sources of Terrorism
- Jihad, Combat, and the Critique of Violence
- Lawful combat is defensive and constrained by the aim of freedom
Grounding
- Supporting text: «He states that combat in the path of God is only for the service of freedom, justice, and equality, not for seizing power or declaring opponents unbelievers. He distinguishes between lawful combat and one-sided killing, and considers assassinations and bombing civilians a departure from the meaning of combat».
Place of the grounding in the book
- Book: Draining the Sources of Terrorism.
- Location: In the first section of the book, in his discussion of jihad, combat, and the removal of coercion.
- Type of grounding: Close witness.
- Verification marker: freedom, justice, and equality
- Reading note: This passage works as evidence because it links lawful combat to freedom, justice, and equality, not to individual killing.
Degree of documentation
- Level: Directly documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom relies on a clear witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: The formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted word for word.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
The criterion here is purpose and the regulation of means.