Continuing our series on war and peace in Islam, the justifications Jihadi-Salafi groups give for their attacks that breach well-established Islamic rules on covenants and treaties are based on their issuing of erroneous Islamic edicts (fatawa). Issuing fatawa is only for qualified scholars Ijtihad (اِجْتِهاد) is derived from the root word Jahada (جهد). Linguistically, it means striving or self-exertion in any activity, which entails a measure of hardship. The great scholars of Usul such as Abu al-Husayn Ali otherwise known as Al-Amidi (d.631 AH) and Mohammad bin Ali Al-Shawkani (d.1255 AH) defined it as, “the total expenditure of effort made by a jurist in order to infer, with a degree of probability, the rules of Shariah from their detailed evidence in the sources.”[1] Extracting Islamic edicts (fatawa) from the Qur’an and Sunnah via ijtihad is only for those who are qualified. If someone is seriously ill, they will go to a doctor to diagnose their illness and prescribe medicine. If they went to an unqualified person, then they may end up losing their life due … Continue reading War and Peace in Islam: Issuing Islamic edicts (fatawa)