The Quran and Legitimacy of Preliminary Jihad

Jihad is an important interpretive, jurisprudential, and historical issue in Islam which is known as kitab al-jihad in jurisprudential books and has many important branches. Within the wide range of this important issue, “preliminary jihad” is considered a very challenging issue in the time of occultation and has been discussed extensively; misunderstanding of which has led some groups to use it as an excuse to attack Islam and to introduce it as the religion of war. While, according to Islam, it is based neither on peace nor war, but it is a matter of difference among various cases. Nonetheless, there is a consensus among Islamic jurisprudents about the principle of legitimacy of preliminary jihad for which considerable traditional and rational evidences have been presented. The present research, after explaining the purposes of Islam for the establishment of preliminary Jihad, reviews the related verses of the Quran and states and criticizes the views of pros and cons of preliminary Jihad. It is worth mentioning that there are many other evidences like consensus, and religious requirement, as well as a considerable amount of traditional evidences in this regard, but the present research aims only to study the Quranic evidences on preliminary Jihad.