:sl:
This is issue which some young emotional and unfortunately ill-informed Muslim brothers think they can answer by picking out fragments of Qur'anic passages and Ahadiths and using them to support their fanciful interpretations. They have absolutely no understanding of the asbâb an-nuzûl, and they don't know about takhsîs so they don't understand which rulings are general, which have been restricted and so on. They haven't studied the Sîrah or the Ahâdith in detail either. They simply hear a few things from a few people and then spread their propaganda everywhere.
This is not an issue to be dealt with lightly. The scholars of Islam have researched this issue in great detail and have written encyclopedias pertaining to all the rulings and circumstances. It is terrible misguidance for people to spurn the fatâwa which come from well established scholarly circles, and claim they conflict with the evidence. Conflict with what evidence - or more importantly - who's corrupt ill-informed understanding of the evidence? One must have a solid understanding of both the rulings and the circumstances in order to see how the rulings apply to the circumstances.
http://www.islamtoday.net/english/sh...sub_cat_id=607
http://www.islamtoday.net/english/sh...main_cat_id=15
I've provided the writings and views of scholars on many misquoted texts in this article:
http://www.load-islam.com/artical_de...conceptions#13
People read about virtues and rulings on this issue and then they look at the world situation and use their own ideas to try to figure out how these rulings apply to the various nationalistic conflicts in the world today. I'll quote the advice of Shaykh Jalal Abualrub, a palestinian with first-hand experience in such conflicts and the translator of Imâm Ibn al-Qayyim's Zâd al-Ma'âd (a voluminous analysis of juristic rulings from the Sîrah). He writes:
Even if the ruling applies today, the 'jihad' has to be legitimate under leaders who raise the pure Islamic flag. The means used in 'jihad' have to be legitimate (no suicide or targetting of civilians or places of worship). The Muslims in the area of jihad have to ask for help or at least it must become known that they need help. Where is the 'Islamic state' today that is led by a ruler who practices the islamic law and who calls muslims to fight to raise the flag of Allah ? (not the flag of nations, such as my nation, the palestinians whose fight is mainly nationalistic then when they are in trouble, they raise some kind of islamic slogan that is supported by Iran of all nations). Where is that muslims ruler who rules by Islam and says, 'I need your help' so that you rush to his help, if you can'? My advice to you: disregard the slogans and concentrate on learning your religion and practicing and preaching it to mankind. Discard emotions and seek your benefit in this life and the hereafter. Do not listen to young people who do not have knowledge, only emotions and grief that leads one of them to, in the name of jihad, enter a shi'ite masjid and blow himself up and kill dozens of people in the masjid. This is not jihad, this is fitnah and those who do so are not friends of Allah, they want civil wars and mayhem and death and destruction without any benefit for Muslims.
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Jihad is originally and mainly established for the protection of Islam and Muslims and to defend their honor, lives, freedom of religion, lands and their right to preach islam. If a country does not commit aggression against Islam or Muslims, then Muslims are not allowed to attack them because this will be a type of aggression that Allah disallowed in ayah 190 surah 2:
{Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors.}