Recently Jihad has made national headlines. Most people don't know what that word means and what are the rules for declaring Jihad. Well, Jihad means holy war, which applies to Muslims. The idea of Jihad came about when Prophet Muhammad wanted to spread Islam. Jihad was first declared against the people of Mecca, who chased out the prophet and his followers and they had to escape to Medina. The take on Jihad was also used to expand the Muslim empire. Jihad can only be declared by an Imam (the leader of Islam) under certain conditions. Michael Bonner wrote a book titled Studies in the Jihad and the Arab-Byzantine Frontier. He talked about how Jihad had certain practice that was used in pre-Islamic Arabia, which was used in battles between the Arabs (Muslims) and the Byzantines. This paper is going to concentrate about Jihad and try to oppose his beliefs about how Jihad has pre-Islamic practices.The first thing that Michael Bonner talks about is Ja'l which means:"wage or pay which one gives to a man that he may aid himself thereby to serve in the war" (p.12) He also mentioned Ji'ala which also mean "when a man is obligated to go to war and has another man take his place in exchange for a wage stipulated in advance." (p.12) Also known as a bribe. He applied those two activities to Islam, and how they were used in the basis of Jihad. To start out with, Jihad is for a free adult Muslim male, in a health shape and he must bring his own provisions, weapons, equipment and mount all out of his own wealth. Islam opposes having Muslim pay other Muslims to fulfill their obligation to go to war and get rewarded the same as for the person who actually went and fulfilled his religious obligation. Michael Bonner said in his book that Ji'ala was used before Islam, a time called Jahiliyya. He also mentioned that Islam opposed it by mentioning Abdallah bi Umar, who was the son of the caliph Umar I, in how when he was asked about Ji'ala he ...
