JIBRĀʾĪL (جبرائيل). The angel Gabriel. [[GABRIEL].]
JIBT (جبت). An idol of the Quraish mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah iv. 54]: “They (certain renegade Jews) believe in Jibt and T̤āg͟hūt, and say of the infidels, These are guided in a better path than those who hold the faith.” The Jalālān say certain Jews used to do homage to these idols in order to please the Quraish.
JIHĀD (جهاد). Lit. “An effort, or a striving.” A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muḥammad. It is an incumbent religious duty, established in the Qurʾān and in the Traditions as a divine institution, and enjoined specially for the purpose of advancing Islām and of repelling evil from Muslims.
When an infidel’s country is conquered by a Muslim ruler, its inhabitants are offered three alternatives:—
(1) The reception of Islām, in which case the conquered become enfranchised citizens of the Muslim state.
(2) The payment of a poll-tax (Jizyah), by which unbelievers in Islām obtain protection, and become Ẕimmīs, provided they are not the idolaters of Arabia.
(3) Death by the sword, to those who will not pay the poll tax.
Ṣūfī writers say that there are two Jihāds: al-Jihādu ʾl-Akbar, or “the greater warfare,” which is against one’s own lusts; and al-Jihādu ʾl-Aṣg͟har, or “the lesser warfare,” against infidels.
The duty of religious war (which all commentators agree is a duty extending to all time) is laid down in the Qurʾān in the following verses, and it is remarkable that all the verses occur in the al-Madīnah Sūrahs, being those given after Muḥammad had established himself as a paramount ruler, and was in a position to dictate terms to his enemies.
[Sūrah ix. 5, 6]: “And when the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush: but if they shall convert, and observe prayer, and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way, for God is Gracious, Merciful. If any one of those who join gods with God ask an asylum of thee, grant him an asylum, that he may hear the Word of God, and then let him reach his place of safety. This, for that they are people devoid of knowledge.”