ABSTRACT
The very consideration of offensive or defensive jihad has no moral or legal foundation in Islam. Jihad is in the way of Allah, and therefore to be conducted in accordance with Allah's commandments. The idea of jihad as a bellum justumexists already in classical Islam. That is, in Ibn Khaldun's words, wars of jihad and justice (hurub jihad wa-`adl) in the way of Allah. Defensive jihad, according to most Islamic exegetes is when the kuffar, the infidels in Dar al-Harb, attack the Muslims, the Muslim lands, or gain control of a Muslim country, and force them into a defensive position of war. The idea of jihad incorporated a powerful motivational tool for mobilizing the people to make all the needed sacrifices for the Islamic struggle by the able, mature and free Muslims to fight the infidels. Jihad became a religious action of the Ummah community against the unbelievers.
