Muhammad's Military Expeditions - Were they Offensive Jihad or Defensive? | Ayman Ibrahim

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Gabriel Reynolds is an American academic and historian of religion who serves as professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at the University of Notre Dame. His scholarship focuses on World Religions and World Church, History of Christianity, Quranic Studies, Islamic Origins, and Muslim-Christian relations. Gabriel Said Reynolds obtained his PhD in [...]

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Jihad is an Arabic word which literally means striving or struggling, especially with a praiseworthy aim. It can have many shades of meaning in an Islamic context, such as struggle against one's evil inclinations, an exertion to convert unbelievers, or efforts toward the moral betterment of society, though it is most frequently associated with [...]

Frequently Asked Questions (1) | Muhammad's Military Expeditions - Were they Offensive Jihad or Defensive? | Ayman Ibrahim | Exploring Quran Bible

1.Why should we believe the Quran if it comes 600 years after Jesus?

The Quran may have come 600 years after Jesus, but does that make it false? Jesus came 1600 years after Moses, does that make Jesus false? The underlying or main argument here is the time between one person and another, but as we can see, if time is a problem then Christians should reject the other Prophets and Messengers since they have a greater number of years between them.

The complete manuscript collections of the New Testament and Old Testament date to the 4th and 5th century, within 100 years of the Qur'an, if Christians want to reject the Qur'an because it is 600 years after Jesus then they must be consistent and also reject the New Testament.

It should be noted that the Church itself did not ordain or make it canon (law) that the New Testament should be scripture until 393 and 397 CE in the Carthaginian councils. With all of these evidences, and centuries between Jesus and the New Testament, then they must reject the New Testament first. If not, then they are admitting that their argument is weak, unintelligent and absurd.

2.What is the Quran?

The Quran is the scripture revealed to Muhammad via the Angel Gabrial

3.Do Muslims believe in scripture other than their own Quran?

Muslims believe the scripture given to other prophets including Moses, David and Jesus have some elements of truth in them. But the Quran is the final revelation from God and takes precedence over other scripture.

4.How was the Quran revealed?

The Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad through the Angel Gabrial. Muhammad would repeat the exact words Gabrial gave him and they were written down and memorised.

5.What does the Quran say about Jews and Christians?

The Jews say "The Christians have nothing [true] to stand on," and the Christians say, "The Jews have nothing to stand on," although they [both] recite the Scripture. Thus the polytheists speak the same as their words. But Allah will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that over which they used to differ.
[Quran 2:113]

6.How authentic is the Quran?

Thanks to its undisputed authenticity, the text of the Quran holds a unique place among the books of Revelation, shared neither by the Old nor the New Testament.

7.How was the Quran text kept authentic?

As the Quran was revealed, the Prophet and the believers following him recited the text by heart and it was also written down by the scribes in his following.

It therefore starts off with two elements of authenticity that the Gospels do not possess. This continued up to the Prophet's death.

At a time when not everybody could write, but everyone was able to recite, recitation afforded a considerable advantage because of the double-checking possible when the definitive text was compiled.

8.How was the Quran revealed?

The Quranic revelation was made by Archangel Gabriel to Muhammad. It took place over a period of more than 23-years of the Prophet's life up to his death in 632 AD

9.How was the Quran preserved?

Whenever a fragment of the Quran was revealed, the Prophet called one of his literate companions and dictated it to him, and setting the exact position of the new fragment in the fabric of what had already been received.

Muhammad then asked the scribe to repeat back what he dictated so that he could correct any deficiencies.

Another famous story tells how every year in the month of Ramadan, the Prophet would recite the whole of the Quran (so far revealed) to Gabriel.

Since that day, Muslims recite the whole Quran during the month of Ramadan. The head scribe of the Quran was Zaid Ibn Thabit who was present at the final compilation of the Quran text.

Extremely diverse materials were used when recording: parchment, leather, wooden tablets, camels' scapula, soft stone for inscriptions, etc.

At the same time however, Muhammad encouraged the faithful to learn the Quran by heart. Many memorized the entire Quran by heart and helped to spread it abroad.

By preserving the Quran text both in writings (on materials) and by human memorization proved invaluable in the preservation of the entire text.

10.After the death of Muhammad, the Quran was changed?

This is false. The first three Caliphs, especially Uthman completed a critical analysis of the entire Quran text.

This was due to the rapid expansion of Islam in the first decade amongst people whose native language was not Arabic. So it was deemed essential the text retained its original purity.

Uthman sent copies of the standardized Quran text to the centre of the Islamic Empire. Today, copies attributed to Uthman exist can be found in Tashkent and Istanbul.

Apart from a few dialect variations in copying, the oldest documents known to the present day found throughout the Islamic world are identical; the same is true for documents preserved in Europe (fragments in the Biblioth�que Nationale in Paris which, according to the experts date from the 8th Century AD).

The minor dialect variations do not change the general meaning of the text. For example, the absence of diacritical marks could make a verb either active or passive and in some instances, masculine or feminine. This is a minor issue since the context indicated the meaning in many instances.

Therefore the Quran has been fully preserved since its revelation.

11.Is Muhammad mentioned in the Quran?

The Bible speaks about a prophet who cannot read Gods word

12.Does the Quran tell Jews and Christians to refer to their Scriptures (Torah and Bible)?

When the Quran refers to the previous Scriptures (Torah, Gospel etc.), this is understood to mean the original revelations sent to Moses and Jesus, and not the 'corrupted' versions we have today

13.Does the Quran encourage violence against the disbelievers (non-Muslims)?

The historical context is that this Quran verse was revealed at the Battle of Badr, a battle in which the pagans of Makkah traveled over 200 miles to destroy the Muslims of Madinah. The Pagans of Makkah had an army of about 1000 while the Muslims were only 300 followers. Muhammad and his followers had suffered severe persecutions and torture for 13 years in the city of Makkah. Having fled from Makkah to the safety of Madinah, they found that they were once again threatened.

It is obvious from historical and textual context therefore that this Quran verse does not promote the killing of innocents.

14.Are Muslims told to kill polytheists in the Quran?

This Quran verse is often quoted out of context. The preceeding Quran verses inform us there was a war treaty between the Muslims and pagan Arabs, which the pagans of Arabia broke.

Therefore this verse applies to a very specific historical event and applied only to those who broke the agreement.

Naturally, in war violence is expected. If country A declares war with country B because a peace treaty was violated, then both countries will expect their soldiers to kill or be killed.

15.Does the Quran promote killing?

This Quran verse is often misquoted. The previous verses clearly state the command is to fight those who fight you, and not to overstep the limits. This verse does not promote the killing of innocents, Muslim or non-Muslim, and only allows for fighting in self-defence (when attacked).

16.Does the Quran promote violence?

This verse was revealed by God to Muhammad at a time when Muslims were being attacked by the enemy from Makkah on a regular basis. The verse only allows for self-defence fighting against those who 'withdraw not from you nor give you (guarantees) of peace besides restraining their hands'. So the guarantee of a peace treaty or agreement is required for the war and fighting to completely stop.

17.Does the Quran encourage Muslims to kill non-Muslims?

This verse was revealed about the Battle of Badr. The pagans of Mecca travelled more than 200 miles to Madinah with an army of about 1000 to kill the Muslims who numbered around 300. The Prophet Muhammad and fellow Muslims had suffered severe persecution, torture and even murder of their brethren for 13 years in the city of Mecca at the hands of these very same pagans.

And once the Muslims had fled Mecca and found a sanctuary in the city of Madinah, they were followed by the pagans of Mecca. By this verse God gave the order to Muslims to fight to defend their lives and faith, as they had previously been forbidden from defending themselves.

18.Is their violence in the Quran?

This verse is applicable to the Muslims during the time of Muhammad � historical Muslims � who were terrified of fighting in the battles to defend themselves because they were out numbered.

God bolstered their bravery by assuring them that they would be rewarded.

19.Does the Quran encourage ill-treatment of non-Muslims?

The 'disbelievers' in this verse refers to those who persecuted and attacked the Muslims. This is not a verse directing Muslim to just go out and be awful to non-Muslims.

In fact there is a lot in the Quran and hadith collections that command Muslims to be compassionate and kind to all of God's creation. One such hadith states: Whoever is deprived of gentleness is deprived of all good. (Muslim, Abu Dawood)

It is also reported by Abu Dawood (a hadith collection) that Muhammad said, 'Beware! Whoever is cruel and hard on a non-Muslim minority, or curtails their rights, or burdens them with more than they can bear, or takes anything from them against their free will; I (Muhammad) will complain against the person on the Day of Judgement.'

20.Why does the Quran discourage the asking of questions?

This is in reference to those who asked useless questions about revelation. If all their questions were answered, it would have made the duties of faith more specific and, therefore, more difficult to perform. There is mercy in leaving questions alone and specifics unspecified. 7

In Chapter 2 of the Quran, when the Children of Israel were told to slaughter a cow, they began to ask useless questions about what type of cow. All the questions were answered to the point that it became very difficult for them to find such a cow. If they had not asked, any cow would have been acceptable.

Useless, petty questions are just a stalling tactic; ask any mother or teacher. But asking honest, sincere questions to clarify matters of faith is, in fact, encouraged.

Video Description (from Youtube)

In this interview, I chat with Dr. Ayman S. Ibrahim, the Bill and Connie Jenkins Professor of Islamic Studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Director of the Jenkins Center for the Christian Understanding of Islam. He is the author of Muhammad's Military Expeditions: A Critical Reading in Original Muslim Sources (Oxford University Press, 2024).

We discuss the historical and religious significance of Muhammad’s military campaigns, their role in the early Muslim community, and their lasting impact on Islamic theology and practice. Dr. Ibrahim provides insights into how these expeditions were interpreted within early Islam and sheds light on their broader socio-political and theological implications.

Dr. Ibrahim has two PhDs in Islamic History. He is a leading expert in Islamic historiography, Christian-Muslim relations, and Qur’anic studies. He has published the following works: Muhammad’s Military Expeditions (Oxford University Press, 2024) | Introducing Islam (Baker Academic, 2020–2024) | Islam and the Bible (B&H, 2023) | A Concise Guide to Islam (Baker Academic, 2023) | Medieval Encounters: Arabic-speaking Christians and Islam (Gorgias, 2022) | A Concise Guide to the Life of Muhammad (Baker Academic, 2022) | In Search of the True Religion (Gorgias, 2022) | Conversion to Islam (Oxford University Press, 2021) | Basics of Arabic (Zondervan, 2021) | A Concise Guide to the Quran (Baker Academic, 2020) | The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (Peter Lang, 2018) | Muslim Conversions to Christ (Peter Lang, 2018)

Muhammad’s Military Expeditions here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/muhammads-military-expeditions-9780197769171?cc=us&lang=en&

Dr. Ibrahim’s review of Juan Cole’s “Muhammad Prophet of Peace”: https://www.academia.edu/40107692/My_Review_of_Juan_Coles_Muhammad_Prophet_of_Peace_Amid_the_Clash_of_Empires

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