ABSTRACT
Both the just war tradition and the Islamic juristic tradition of jihad of the sword are under sharp attack from contemporary versions of the just war and jihad ideas. This chapter examines the concept of the jihad of individual duty as it appears in a variety of thinkers from different periods and contexts within that tradition, providing a more pointed criticism of the radical Islamist claim. It deals with the legal qualifications for participation in jihad and the damage allowed to be inflicted during jihad. Though the conceptions of the individual duty of jihad found in the sources treated in the chapter differ in certain details, and while further study of new sources on this topic as they come to light may produce additional variations. The insistence by radical Islamism that their understanding of it is the meaning of the jihad of individual duty represents a substantial challenge to the normative tradition on jihad of the sword as a whole.
