Jihad in Islamic jurisprudence comparative study

Jihad is a significant, fundamental basis of conviction in the Islamic World,whose implementation is based on fatwas and opinions,cited by the religious authorities to legitimize the action. Thus, views of the religious scholars had direct influence on social and historical developments,as issuing of a fatwa is tantamount to either a license or a roadmap to do a certain job.Today,Jihad has different dimensions to the extent that some may take it as assassination and terrorism, not the implementation of Godchr('39')s command. Some may also consider it as an obligatory order that must be implemented at the discretion of the scholars.This study simply seeks to clarify the borderlines and concepts of Jihad based on precise realization of the issue, divine verses of the Holy Quran and the Prophetchr('39')s manners,i.e.Prophetic Biography.It goes without saying that the opinion of Shiite and Sunni scholars are different on Jihad. Therefore, I have made a comparative study of the opinions of Shiite and Sunni scholars. Among the Sunnis,the author has referred to Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Buti and Yusuf al-Qaradawi,and among the Shiites,Allama Sheikh MuhammadMahdi Shams al-Din and the great Mufassir or commentator of the Qurchr('39')an,Allama SeyyedMohammadHussein Tabatabai were taken as the reference. The comparative study concluded that Shiite scholars had set limits to Jihad restricting it to a self-defense.However,SunniUlema had taken it as a necessity in any circumstances.Therefore,according to Shiite scholars, elementary Jihad is allowed only in the presence of the Infallible Imam,and among the Sunnis,the denial of the boundary between elementary and defensive jihad is raised.