Said Ramadan Al-Buti 's Understanding of Jihad

In this study, I will discuss the ideas of Dr. Muhammad Saʿid Al-Buṭi regarding the term Jihad. Three major topics will be highlighted: Islamic thought and western dependency, the revolutionary approach and the establishment of the Islamic society, and Islam and the Islamic system of governance. These topics, I would argue, had a major impact on the conceptualization of Jihad in the thoughts of Al-Buṭi. I have argued that Al-Buṭi presented a project of Jihad as an individual reform, which focuses on the ethical transformation of individuals. He tried to set an individual reform from the bottom up emphasizing the obligation of Al-Daʿwah which precedes the obligation of forming an Islamic rule. In order to define the concept of Jihad, Al-Buṭi explained the concept of freedom of belief and the concept of (taklif). He introduced the terms worship (al-ʿibadah), intellectual belief (iʿtiqad fikri) and purification (tazkiyah) in the face of the ""movement"" adopted by the Islamists. Regarding the impact of modernity, he embraced the peaceful relationship with the non-Muslims opposing the claim of the classical jurists of consensus. However, there are other modern ideas which were opposed or overlooked, such as revolution and the form of the nation state.