Is this because many misinterpreted the concept of jihad?
well if the wars of conquests can be called Jihad, i don’t see how Muhammad’s compagnions who started them could have missed its meaning.
I have been ordered by God to fight with people till they bear testimony to the fact that there is no God but Allah and that Mohammed is his messenger, and that they establish prayer and pay Zakat (money). If they do it, their blood and their property are safe from me" (Bukhari ).
So Allah actually asks Muhammad and his followers to kill, a prescriptive command, and it is obviously Muslims who put the rule as to who is “innocent” and who is not.
In his book, “Jurisprudence in Muhammad’s Biography”, the Azhar scholar, Dr al-Buti says the following :
“The Holy War, as it is known in Islamic Jurisprudence,
is basically an offensive war. This is the duty of Muslims in every age when the needed military power becomes available to them. This is the phase in which the meaning of Holy War has taken its final form. Thus the apostle of God said: ‘I was commanded to fight the people until they believe in God and his message …”’
He adds:
“The apostle of God started to send military detachments from among his followers to the various Arab tribes which were scattered in the Arab Peninsula to carry out the task of calling (these tribes) to accept Islam
If they did not respond, they would kill them. That was during the 7th Higira year. The number of the detachments amounted to ten.”
And:
“
The concept of Holy War in Islam does not take into consideration whether (the war is) a defensive or an offensive war. Its goal is the exaltation of the Word of God and the construction of Islamic society and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on Earth regardless of the means. The means would be offensive warfare. In this case it is the apex, the most noble Holy War. It is legal to carry on a Holy War.”
"
Defensive warfare in Islam is nothing but a phase of the Islamic mission which the prophet practiced. After that, it was followed by another phase; that is, calling all people to embrace Islam so that nothing less would be acceptable from atheists and those who associate other deities with God than that they embrace Islam. Also,
nothing would be acceptable from the people of the Book except conversion to Islam or being subjugated to Muslim rule. In addition, there is the command to fight anyone who attempts to stand in its way. Now, after the domination of Islamic rule is in place, and its mission complete, it is meaningless (in regard to Holy War) to (talk about) defensive wars, as some of the researchers do. Otherwise, what does Muhammad’s statement mean (as it is related by the Bukhari), ‘
They would not invade you, but you invade them ’?"
and he continues:
…“This is the concept which professional experts of thought attempt to conceal from the eyes of Muslims by claiming that anything that is related to a holy war in Islamic law is only based on defensive warfare to repel an attack”
“The Book of the Islamic State” by Taqiy al-Din al-Nabahan , he says:
Whenever it found that the nature of the existing system in these states was a barrier which prevented the spread of the mission, they saw it as inevitable that the system be removed. **So holy war continued as a means of spreading Islam. Thus by holy war, countries and regions were conquered. By holy war, kingdoms and states were removed and Islam ruled the nations and peoples…Therefore, carrying the Islamic mission is the basis on which the Islamic state was established, the Islamic army was founded, and holy war was ordained. All the conquests were achieved accordingly.
Fulfilling the Islamic mission will restore the Islamic state to the Muslims."
Then he says:
The Islamic system is a universal system, thus it was natural that it would spread, and natural that countries would be conquered. Here the apostle is receiving from Muslims the pledge of ’aqaba the Second, making a pact with him to fight all people. Those Muslims were the core of the army of the Islamic state whose military task was to carry the Islamic mission.
The apostle of God had designed the plan of conquest before his death, then after him, his successors undertook the responsibility of implementing this plan when they started conquering the countries. Later, the Islamic conquests followed successively on this basis.
People’s resistance or rejection does not matter because the Islamic system is for all people in all countries
**
In Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s book this scholar tells the following:
“When the prophet migrated from Mecca to Medina, God ordered him to fight those who fought him only. Then when the chapter of Repentance was revealed,
God commanded His prophet to fight anyone who did not become a Muslim from among the Arabs,** whether (that person) fought him or not**. He did not command him to take the poll-tax from infidels.”
I just had to reply, though.