From Qitāl to Difā’: The Meaning and Behavior of Jihad according to Jihadists in Semarang City

Abstract

<p class="IABSSS">This paper describes the meaning and act of religion-based jihad according to some jihadists in Semarang city. Insisting that the real meaning of Jihad is <em>qitāl</em> (war, to fight) as said by the verse “La hukma Illa lillah” and hadith “<em>faqtulū haythu wajadtumūhum</em>” they, however, still propose another jihad called <em>difā</em>’ (defensive, to survive) for people who cannot meet the requirement of <em>qitāl</em>. The different act of jihad emerges because of its different factors behind such as social, economy, politics, psychology and others. The shift from <em>qitāl</em> to <em>difā</em>’ takes place by the process of humanizing the jihadists using: 1) personal approach by their morally closest men; 2) basic need approach such as economy, existency and peace; 3) religious approach by understanding that what they do is to fully adhere to Islam (kaffah); 4) emotional approach by caring and giving them empathy; 5) social approach by building solidarity to help their comrades.</p><p class="IABSSS" align="center">[]</p>Artikel ini mendeskripsikan makna dan perilaku jihad dari para pelaku jihad berbasis agama di Kota Semarang. Makna jihad yang sebenarnya bagi mereka adalah <em>qitāl</em> sebagaimana ayat “la hukma illa lillah” dan hadits “<em>faqtulū haythu wajadtumūhum</em>”, namun jihad <em>difā</em>’ dapat dilakukan bagi yang tidak memenuhi syarat jihad <em>qitāl</em>. Perbedaan perilaku jihad terjadi karena perbedaan faktor yang melingkupinya, yakni faktor sosial, ekonomi, politik, psikologi dan lainnya. Perubahan perilaku jihad (<em>qitāl</em>) menjadi <em>difā</em>’ terjadi karena proses memanusiakan manusia yang dilakukan dengan: 1) pendekatan personil yang dilakukan oleh orang yang dekat secara moril; 2) pendekatan berbasis kebutuhan primer mereka baik ekonomi, eksistensi ataupun rasa aman; 3) pendekatan agama dilakukan dengan memahami apa yang mereka lakukan adalah dalam rangka melakukan Islam secara kaffah; 4) pendekatan emosional dengan memberi perhatian atau empati; 5) pendekatan sosial dengan membangun solidaritas untuk membantu teman-teman seperjuangannya.

Role of Islamic Teachers in Combating Students’ Radicalism

“…However, there are people who understand the verses of the Qur'an depthless, textually, and finitely. This group then explained the Qur'an freely, on behalf of "tafsir bi ar ro'yi" that is explanation of Qur'anic verse with common sense, and uses it to defend their interests, for example for politic, ideology and revenge [4][5] [6].…”