Il significato del ğihād nell’Islam

Abstract

The article analyzes the Qur’anic injunctions in which the verbal roots ǧhd and qtl are found expressing both militant and non-militant ways of propagating or defending the faith. While the Meccan verses exhort the first converts to Islam to preserve their beliefs with wisdom and prudence, the Medinan ones prescribe the use of armed struggle for the cause of God. References to fighting «in the path of God» are present both in the Sunnah and in numerous Traditions that express disapproval for those who fight for glory and material goods, as well as in the Sīrah, biography of the prophet Muḥammad. Finally I referred to a work written by šayḫ Muḥammad Sa‘īd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī in which the author highlights how the ğihād is a preaching effort aimed at transmitting the Qur’anic message and how it took on a warlike significance only after the formation of the ummah, to defend its territory from any threat of aggression.