If they are People of the Book...

If they are People of the Book, we should fight them until they become Muslims or, if they do not become Muslims, until they pay us tribute. Such is the opinion of those who say that the verse remains unconditional. The other view, however; holds that the unconditional must be interpreted as the conditional. Someone with this view would say that the other Qur’anic verses bring us the conditions for the legitimacy of jihad.

The other Qur’anic verses reveal that the true meaning of the verse is not unconditional at all. What, then, are the conditions for the legality of jihad? Amongst them, for example, are the following: That the other side intends to attack us; or that it creates a barrier against the call of Islam, meaning that it negates the freedom of that call and becomes an obstacle to its diffusion, while Islam says that those barriers are to be removed.

Or, likewise, in the case of a people subject to the oppression and tyranny of a group from amongst themselves, Islam says that we must fight those tyrants so as to deliver the oppressed from the claws of tyranny.

This has been expressed in the Qur’an thus: « And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed) (mustazafin)?» (4:75) Why is it that we do not fight for God and for the men, women and children who are subject to torture and tyranny? B- Can We Fight All the People of the Book? The second question relates to the fact that the verse does not explicitly state that we are to fight all the People of the Book.

Rather, the verse says fight against those who believe neither in God nor in the Hereafter, who permit what God has forbidden, and who are not at all religious in line with any religion of truth. Now what does this mean? Does it mean that the People of the Book en masse - i.e.

all the Jews, the Christians and the followers of the different sects - have no faith in God, no faith in the Hereafter, no faith in God's ordinances and no faith in any religion based on truth, so that if one of them claims that he believes in God, he is a liar and does not actually believe in God? Is the Qur’an actually saying that all the People of the Book, however much they claim to believe in God, in reality have no such belief?

Is it possible for us to argue that because the Christians claim Jesus is God or the 'son of God,” they really have no belief in God?