Retracing Jihad: A Comparative Study between Said Nursi and Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Abstract

The dialogue about jihad has become a phenomenon that continuously fuels public conversation ubiquitously. Stigmatization of Islam as a vile religion and jihad as an act of terror are detrimental consequences of two factors: distortion by propagandists and abusing the concept of jihad by extremist-literalists. This article is an attempt at an overview of Nursi and Nasr’s thoughts on the highly contentious issue of jihad. These two prominent Muslim thinkers are worth our attention, given the enormous influence that their thoughts have had on intellectual discourse and Muslim social movements in innumerable places all over the globe. Study shows both Nursi and Nasr share a common conviction that jihad has a prodigious essence which cannot be reduced to just military activity, and they repudiate all violence and coercive actions in the name of religion. Nevertheless, their thoughts do exhibit some differences particularly regarding the nature of jihad and the implementation of jihad in the modern era.