Striving in the Path of God

The term jihad is perhaps the most contentious Arabic word to enter the English language in recent decades. In public discourse it has become shorthand for “holy war” and synonymous with violent Muslim extremism. This scholarly examination of jihad and martyrdom by Asma Afsaruddin, a professor of I...

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Autor principal: Sadek Hamid
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Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2015
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:975d545cfb4a48948cd13b80cee3b8082021-12-02T19:22:54ZStriving in the Path of God10.35632/ajis.v32i3.9922690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/975d545cfb4a48948cd13b80cee3b8082015-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/992https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 The term jihad is perhaps the most contentious Arabic word to enter the English language in recent decades. In public discourse it has become shorthand for “holy war” and synonymous with violent Muslim extremism. This scholarly examination of jihad and martyrdom by Asma Afsaruddin, a professor of Islamic studies at Indiana University, carefully disentangles their multivalent meanings within Islamic scholarship from early Muslim history up to the present day. It also challenges the assertions of those who focus only upon martial connotations. Instead, she argues that “conceptualizations of jihad as primarily armed combat and of shahada as primarily military martyrdom are relatively late and contested ones and deviate considerably from the Qur’anic significations of these terms” (p. 5). In this substantial, dense text, comprising nine chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion, she demonstrates an impressive command of materials by skillfully engaging a representative range of Qur’anic exegetical works, Prophetic sayings, and faḍā’il literature. The first chapter is prefaced with a detailed discussion of the first term’s etymological origin and semantic usage. Rooting her analysis in the Qur’an, she points out that its polyvalent nature cannot be reduced only to a combative ... Sadek HamidInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 32, Iss 3 (2015)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Sadek Hamid
Striving in the Path of God
description The term jihad is perhaps the most contentious Arabic word to enter the English language in recent decades. In public discourse it has become shorthand for “holy war” and synonymous with violent Muslim extremism. This scholarly examination of jihad and martyrdom by Asma Afsaruddin, a professor of Islamic studies at Indiana University, carefully disentangles their multivalent meanings within Islamic scholarship from early Muslim history up to the present day. It also challenges the assertions of those who focus only upon martial connotations. Instead, she argues that “conceptualizations of jihad as primarily armed combat and of shahada as primarily military martyrdom are relatively late and contested ones and deviate considerably from the Qur’anic significations of these terms” (p. 5). In this substantial, dense text, comprising nine chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion, she demonstrates an impressive command of materials by skillfully engaging a representative range of Qur’anic exegetical works, Prophetic sayings, and faḍā’il literature. The first chapter is prefaced with a detailed discussion of the first term’s etymological origin and semantic usage. Rooting her analysis in the Qur’an, she points out that its polyvalent nature cannot be reduced only to a combative ...
format article
author Sadek Hamid
author_facet Sadek Hamid
author_sort Sadek Hamid
title Striving in the Path of God
title_short Striving in the Path of God
title_full Striving in the Path of God
title_fullStr Striving in the Path of God
title_full_unstemmed Striving in the Path of God
title_sort striving in the path of god
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2015
url https://doaj.org/article/975d545cfb4a48948cd13b80cee3b808
work_keys_str_mv AT sadekhamid strivinginthepathofgod
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