INVESTIGATING ISLAM

Part 6: Holy War by Law

Jihad, Conquest, and the Sharia Engine

Let’s stop pretending jihad is just “an internal spiritual struggle.”

That’s the bedtime story. The brochure version. The PR facelift for Western media.

Sharia law doesn’t just regulate daily life — it codifies armed conquest. It legally mandates offensive warfare, distributes war booty, legalizes enslavement of captives, and defines how non-Muslims must be subjugated. This isn’t fringe interpretation. This is mainstream Islamic law, backed by Qur’an, Hadith, and over a thousand years of jurisprudence.

Jihad isn’t a metaphor. It’s a battle plan.

🧠 Jihad in the Qur’an: Not Just Defense — But Dominance

Qur’an 9:29 — “Fight those who do not believe in Allah… until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”

Qur’an 8:12 — “Strike [the disbelievers] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.”

Qur’an 9:5 (The ‘Sword Verse’) — “Kill the polytheists wherever you find them…”

These are not symbolic verses. They’ve been used, cited, and acted upon by Muslim empires for 1,400 years — as legal mandates for expansionist war.

📚 Sharia Codifies Jihad as a Legal Obligation

Islamic jurists didn’t speculate about jihad. They legislated it.

Reliance of the Traveller (o9.0–o9.16):
– “Jihad means to war against non-Muslims… It is a communal obligation.”
– “The caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians… until they become Muslim or pay the jizya.”
– “The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim.”

This isn’t spiritual guidance. It’s imperialist law.

🔥 Four Sunni Schools Agree: Offensive Jihad is Legitimate

School	Position on Jihad
Hanafi	Sanctions offensive jihad to expand Dar al-Islam
Maliki	Views jihad as valid even against peaceful non-Muslims
Shafi’i	Requires war against all who refuse Islam or dhimmi status
Hanbali	Endorses offensive jihad, with strict rules for spoils

All four schools agree: jihad isn’t just defensive — it’s expansionist. And yes, the caliph or state leads it — but the legal doctrine is built in.

🏴 Dar al-Islam vs Dar al-Harb: Legal Geography of War

Sharia divides the world into two zones:

Dar al-Islam (The Abode of Islam): Under Muslim rule
Dar al-Harb (The Abode of War): Everyone else

The obligation? Expand Dar al-Islam. Shrink Dar al-Harb. By force if necessary.

Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Khaldun, and classical jurists all agree: peace with non-Muslims is a tactical pause, not a permanent goal.

That’s not peace. That’s legalized expansionism.

🏆 Spoils of War: A Divinely Authorized Loot List

Qur’an 8:41 — “And know that anything you obtain as spoils of war — indeed, a fifth of it is for Allah and the Messenger...”

Sharia doesn’t just permit looting. It regulates it.

War spoils include:

Captives (slaves and concubines)
Weapons and horses
Property and land
Women as sex slaves

Reliance of the Traveller (o10.0–o10.3):
– Describes the distribution of war booty
– Authorizes rape of captive women (see also Part 5)

Islamic law treats warfare like a business plan: Conquer, divide, and profit.

⚰️ Who Gets Killed, Captured, or Enslaved?

Qur’an 47:4 — “When you meet the unbelievers in battle, strike their necks until you have thoroughly subdued them…”

Sharia manuals and Hadith define clear protocols:

Kill resisting males
Enslave women and children
Offer conversion or death
Tax and subjugate “People of the Book”
No protection for atheists or polytheists

This is not justice. This is religiously codified colonialism.

🛡️ Jizya: The “Protection” Racket

Qur’an 9:29 — “Fight… until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”

Jizya is not just a tax. It’s a badge of inferiority.

Ibn Kathir (Tafsir on 9:29):
– “This is to ensure their humiliation… they should be punished for their disbelief…”

Reliance of the Traveller (o11.1–o11.11):
– Non-Muslims must pay jizya
– Cannot build new places of worship
– Cannot display crosses or religious symbols
– Must show “humility” in public

Sharia turns tolerance into legalized humiliation.

🌍 Historical Reality: Jihad Wasn’t a Footnote — It Built Empires

Islam didn’t spread via peaceful pamphlets. It spread via sword, treaty under threat, and mass conquest:

Region	Method of Islamization
Arabian Peninsula	Military conquest under Muhammad
Persia	Conquered by Rashidun Caliphate
North Africa	Annexed by Umayyad expansion
Spain (al-Andalus)	Conquered 711 CE
India	Ghaznavid and Mughal jihads, forced conversions, mass killings
Southeast Asia	Trade + local jihads, some conversion via pressure

The Islamic Caliphates — Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Ottoman — were military empires fueled by Sharia-sanctioned jihad.

This isn’t distortion. It’s history.

🧠 Logical Reality: If Your Peace Requires War, It’s Not Peace

Let’s be blunt.

Premise 1: A truly peaceful religion would not mandate military conquest.

Premise 2: Sharia explicitly mandates offensive jihad, subjugation of non-Muslims, and regulated plunder.

Conclusion: Sharia is not peaceful — it is codified aggression with divine branding.

Calling this a “spiritual struggle” is like calling a firing squad a prayer circle.

⚠️ Modern Echoes: Jihad Didn’t Die with the Caliphate

Even in the 21st century, Sharia-based jihad doctrine is alive — and deadly:

Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram, Taliban: All cite classical Sharia rulings and Qur’anic war verses
Pakistan’s blasphemy mobs chant “Jihad!” while lynching critics
Hamas Charter: Declares jihad as the method for liberating “all of Palestine”
Saudi and Iranian military doctrine include religious warfare mandates
Textbooks across the Muslim world teach jihad using legal definitions — not metaphor

This isn’t “extremism.” It’s implementation.

💥 Final Verdict: Jihad Isn’t Hijacked — It’s Hardcoded

Let’s stop playing semantic games.

Sharia defines jihad as warfare
Sharia regulates jihad as law
Sharia empowers jihad as divine mandate
And Islamic history proves it was followed to the letter

This is not about bad actors twisting the faith. This is about a legal engine built to conquer, control, and expand — at swordpoint.

You can’t reform this. You can only confront it.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This post critiques Islam as an ideology, doctrine, and historical system — not Muslims as individuals. Every human being deserves dignity. Legal doctrines that justify war and subjugation do not.

📚 Sources & Documentation

Qur’an — 8:12, 8:41, 9:5, 9:29, 23:6, 47:4
Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawud – On jihad campaigns and spoils
Reliance of the Traveller (Umdat al-Salik) — Sections o9.0–o11.11
Tafsir Ibn Kathir – Commentary on 9:29 and jihad verses
Ibn Khaldun, Al-Mawardi, Al-Ghazali – Classical legal opinions on jihad
Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam – Expansionism and law
Robert Spencer, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam – Jihad in classical law
BBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters, UN Reports – Documentation of jihadist citations of Sharia
ISIS slave contracts and training manuals – Verified materials citing Qur’an and Hadith