Jihad: What Everyone Needs to Know: What Everyone Needs to Know ®

by Asma Afsaruddin

The word "jihad" is everywhere in the global media. It generally appears in the context of violence waged against the West by militants in or from Muslim-majority societies. This usage overwhelmingly colors popular discourse about Islam and Muslims and it has resulted in highly simplistic, distorted, and ahistorical understandings of the concept of jihad. For most Muslims, jihad refers to the continuous human struggle to promote and implement what is morally good and noble in all walks of life, as well as to resist and prevent what is morally wrong and unjust. This book addresses the great need for a discussion of jihad that explores its various dimensions without fear-mongering or sensationalism. Here it is examined from multiple scriptural, theological, moral and ethical, legal and socio-political. Asma Afsaruddin looks at the key questions about jihad and provides concise yet thorough answers. What Everyone Needs to Know ® provides a historically-grounded,
scholarly yet accessible treatment of the meanings of jihad from the formative period of Islam until the contemporary period.

Genres: Islam

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2022

Reviews

[Dr. Mansur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive discussion of the topic from all the historical angles. I enjoyed the discussion at the end about the political and media misuse of the word Jihad. I also enjoyed the question and answer format.

Although I have the print version of the book, I went through the audiobook format of the book.
The book publishers should have instructed the narrator to skip parenthetical information as they are a distraction in audiobooks. Additional editing to remove repetition and redundancies would have shortened the length.

The audiobook is 11 sections but could easily have been a lot more sections. Each question and answer could have been a section. That would make skipping a section or coming back to one easier.
The narrator has an excellent voice and did a great job with cadence and pace of narration. However, the pronunciation of Arabic names and words were a problem. For example, Ibn is ibne and not ibin.
Overall, this is a very important book that everyone should read or listen to instead of being misguided by the media and political pundits or politicians. I learned an incredible amount about the topic through this audiobook.

[Pramble · Rating 1 out of 5]

Must one be nice about such educational books ?
I certainly did learn a bit. I had no idea about the different schools of interpretation of islamic teaching. Unfortunately, there was too little honest opinion. It reads too much like a list of references, without aiming at any coherent story. It is a matter of taste, but straightforward impartiality is not as interesting in well-argued bias.

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m shocked this doesn’t have a higher rating! Well written and the authors goal of writing an educational yet easily accessible book was achieved! I saw a few comments about the author not putting her opinion in it and that was just fully missing the point of this book. It was meant to be an objective educational book.

[Rickey McKown · Rating 5 out of 5]

On page xi Professor Afsaruddin states that "[t]his book is intended for a broad readership. Its style is meant to be accessible, without being weighed down by the usual scholarly apparatus of sense and copious footnotes." Although not myself a professional academic, I have read several of her scholarly works, including "Striving in the Path of God", and, comparing "Jihad: What Everyone Needs to Know" with her scholarly works, I believe that she achieved her objective here: "Jihad" is clearly written (although I find her scholarly writing clear as well), keeps use of Arabic terms to a necessary minimum, and for the most part covers the ground thoroughly.

Chapters 1, 2, and 4 of "Jihad" cover most of the main points found in the chapters from "Striving" that deal with jihad, shahid, and sabr as they appear in the Qur'an, ahadith, and ethical literature. Although "Jihad" does largely omit the argument (and supporting evidence) in "Striving" that sees the ideological shift to giving primacy to combative jihad and military martyrdom originating with scholars who were close to the Umayyads and supportive of their aggressive military adventurism (a shift opposed by scholars in the Hijaz and Iraq who did not support the Umayyads), it expands on the sabr material in the ethical literature, pointing to some works of additional early scholars that would be interesting to explore. In Chapter 3, "Jihad" adds material regarding jihad and shahid from the legal literature, an area that was intentionally omitted from "Striving". In Chapters 5-7, "Jihad" expands upon the material presented in those chapters of "Striving" that deal with the perspectives of modern Islamists, mainstream Muslim scholars, and Muslim advocates of non-violent struggle, especially expanding the coverage of the latter two groups, providing additional personalities and more detail about their views. In Chapter 8, "Jihad" breaks new ground, adding an examination of the biased treatment of jihad in the Western media that includes a discussion of the underlying issue of the well-funded "Islamophobia industry".

I recommend "Jihad: What Everyone Needs to Know" as a good starting point, but would suggest that readers follow up by digging deeper into the list of Professor Afsaruddin's works found in the Bibliography.