Striving in the Path of God
Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought
Published on 23. April 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
392 pages
978-0-19-778709-0 (ISBN)
Description
In popular and academic literature, jihad is predominantly assumed to refer exclusively to armed combat, and martyrdom in the Islamic context is understood to be invariably of the military kind. This perspective, derived mainly from legal texts, has led to discussions of jihad and martyrdom as concepts with fixed, universal meanings divorced from the socio-political circumstances in which they have been deployed through the centuries. Asma Afsaruddin studies in a more holistic manner the range of significations that can be ascribed to the term jihad from the earliest period to the present and historically contextualizes the competing discourses that developed over time. Many assumptions about the military jihad and martyrdom in Islam are thereby challenged and deconstructed. A comprehensive interrogation of varied sources reveals early and multiple competing definitions of a word that in combination with the phrase fi sabil Allah translates literally to "striving in the path of God."
Contemporary radical Islamists have appropriated this language to exhort their cadres to armed political opposition, which they legitimize under the rubric of jihad. Afsaruddin shows that the multivalent connotations of jihad and shahid recovered from the formative period lead us to question the assertions of those who maintain that belligerent and militant interpretations preserve the earliest and only authentic understanding of these two key terms. Retrieval of these multiple perspectives has important implications for our world today in which the concepts of jihad and martyrdom are still being fiercely debated.
Contemporary radical Islamists have appropriated this language to exhort their cadres to armed political opposition, which they legitimize under the rubric of jihad. Afsaruddin shows that the multivalent connotations of jihad and shahid recovered from the formative period lead us to question the assertions of those who maintain that belligerent and militant interpretations preserve the earliest and only authentic understanding of these two key terms. Retrieval of these multiple perspectives has important implications for our world today in which the concepts of jihad and martyrdom are still being fiercely debated.
Reviews / Votes
Asma Afsaruddin's Striving in the Path of God is a signal contribution to the burgeoning literature on jihad. * Journal of the American Oriental Society* Asma Afsaruddin's Striving in the Path of God is a major accomplishment in the study of non-legal jihad literature. Afsaruddin is able to write about an astonishing range of material over centuries with subtlety and erudition, taking great care to contextualize historically semantic shifts in the terms she studies. * Journal of Religion and Violence * This book is erudite, comprehensive, authoritative and balanced, based as it is on a meticulous and thorough analysis of the concepts of jihad and martyrdom in key Arabic sources * the Qur'an, hadith, commentaries and books extolling the virtues of jihad. Especially impressive is the book's extensive coverage of all kinds of contemporary fatwas and speeches. This work is an invaluable tool for understanding jihad, past and present.Professor Carole Hillenbrand, University of Edinburgh * This book will challenge the field to reconsider much of its assumptions about the very nature of jihad and martyrdom... We are very lucky to have it. It will be indispensable in any discussion on the relation of piety to violence in Islam and will be very useful for discussions on this question beyond the circles of specialists in the study of Islam. * Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlaendischen Gesellschaft * This text makes a significant contribution to increasing our understanding of how the meanings of theological ideas evolve over time and space. It is rich in primary source material, systematic in its presentation, sharp in its analysis, and persuasive in counter-balancing the purely martial theorizations of jihad. * American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
* Asma Afsaruddin's Striving in the Path of God is the most comprehensive and instructive treatment of jihad to date. A holistic reading of texts dealing with jihad and its correlates * sabr (patience, forbearance) and martyrdom, it traces diverse interpretations of those terms, right through to the present day. This is a must read for anyone seriously interested in Islam and current events.Tamara Sonn, Author of Islam: A Brief History
* This book is erudite, comprehensive, authoritative and balanced, based as it is on a meticulous and thorough analysis of the concepts of jihad and martyrdom in key Arabic sources * the Qur'an, hadith, commentaries and books extolling the virtues of jihad. Especially impressive is the book's extensive coverage of all kinds of contemporary fatwas and speeches. This work is an invaluable tool for understanding jihad, past and present.Professor Carole Hillenbrand, University of Edinburgh
* Asma Afsaruddin's remarkable book, Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought, constitutes a major contribution... (T)his profoundly impressive and learned book... ought to find a place on the syllabus of any class on war, ethics and intra-scholarly debates in Islam. * Journal of Islamic Studies
* This book will challenge the field to reconsider much of its assumptions about the very nature of jihad and martyrdom... We are very lucky to have it. It will be indispensable in any discussion on the relation of piety to violence in Islam and will be very useful for discussions on this question beyond the circles of specialists in the study of Islam. * Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlaendischen Gesellschaft
* Asma Afsaruddin's Striving in the Path of God is a major accomplishment in the study of non-legal jihad literature... Afsaruddin is able to write about an astonishing range of material over centuries with subtlety and erudition, taking great care to contextualize historically semantic shifts in the terms she studies... Such careful treatment of this material will, hopefully, push scholarly discourse on jihad and martyrdom beyond such concerns as just war theory, opening up new trajectories... * Journal of Religion and Violence
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More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
578 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-778709-0 (9780197787090)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
06/2013
Oxford University Press Inc
€140.60
Shipment within 15-20 days
E-Book
05/2013
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€59.99
Available for download
Person
Asma Afsaruddin is Class of 1950 Herman B Wells Endowed Professor and Professor of Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is the author and editor of nine books, including Jihad: What Everyone Needs to Know (OUP 2022), The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Women (OUP 2023), and The First Muslims: History and Memory (2008). She was named a Carnegie Scholar in 2005 and was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2019.
Content
Introduction
Chapter 1: Striving "for," "in," and "in the path of" God: Qur'anic Imperatives in the Meccan Period
Chapter 2: Fighting in the Path of God: A Religious and Moral Obligation
Chapter 3: The Ethics of Fighting, Refraining from Fighting, and Peacemaking
Chapter 4: Dying in the Path of God: Exegeses of Martyrdom
Chapter 5: Jihad and Martyrdom Compared in Early and Later Hadith Literature
Chapter 6: Jihad and Martyrdom in Early and Late Treatises on the Merits of Jihad
Chapter 7: The Excellences of Patient Forbearance: Counter-Narratives on Striving in the Path of God
Chapter 8: Modern and Contemporary Debates on Jihad and Martyrdom I: Political and Militant Perspectives
Chapter 9: Modern and Contemporary Debates on Jihad and Martyrdom II: Privileging History, Context, and Polysemy
Conclusion: Analysis of Texts: A Summation
Chapter 1: Striving "for," "in," and "in the path of" God: Qur'anic Imperatives in the Meccan Period
Chapter 2: Fighting in the Path of God: A Religious and Moral Obligation
Chapter 3: The Ethics of Fighting, Refraining from Fighting, and Peacemaking
Chapter 4: Dying in the Path of God: Exegeses of Martyrdom
Chapter 5: Jihad and Martyrdom Compared in Early and Later Hadith Literature
Chapter 6: Jihad and Martyrdom in Early and Late Treatises on the Merits of Jihad
Chapter 7: The Excellences of Patient Forbearance: Counter-Narratives on Striving in the Path of God
Chapter 8: Modern and Contemporary Debates on Jihad and Martyrdom I: Political and Militant Perspectives
Chapter 9: Modern and Contemporary Debates on Jihad and Martyrdom II: Privileging History, Context, and Polysemy
Conclusion: Analysis of Texts: A Summation