No Compulsion in Religion: Jawdat Saʿīd (d. 2022) and the Jihād of the Prophets

What is it about?

The question of jihad, literally the effort made 'in the path of God', has always been at the centre of an internal debate within Islam between those who support its military nature and those who emphasise its ethical-spiritual dimension, both of which are attested in the Qur'an. This issue is closely linked to the idea of non-compulsion, a principle widely attested in the Qur'an, particularly in Q. 2:256: 'There is no compulsion in religion', but in fact subordinated to the doctrine and conditions of jihad. In contemporary times, we are witnessing an effort to attribute ontological autonomy to this concept as an unconditional principle: among the scholars who have endeavoured in this sense, the Syrian Sunni thinker Jawdat Sa'id (1931-2022) occupies a particular place as an exponent of the nonviolent trend in Islam. Sa'id is author of dozens of works in which the verse 'There is no compulsion in religion' is at the centre of a social and anthropocentric exegesis that aims to emphasise freedom of thought as a conditio sine qua non of a sincere adherence to Islam and as one of the very purposes of revelation: for him, it is not jihad, as some of his co-religionists think, but non-complusion that lies at the basis of the constitution of a true Islamic society. His hermeneutics calls into question traditional interpretative paradigms by carrying out a profound renegotiation at a doctrinal level._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_

Featured Image