The Scope of Self-defence

A Comparative Study of Islamic and Modern International Law

Abstract

Muslim scholars working on the doctrine of jihad in the post-colonial period have generally found it difficult to reconcile the concept of nation-state with the notion of the ummah (global community of Muslims). This dilemma has caused analytical inconsistency in the work of some of these scholars because even when they talk of the so-called “defensive” jihad, they include in it many instances of wars which are certainly beyond the scope of a nation-state’s right to self-defence. Providing military aid to Muslims facing persecution in foreign territories is one such example as the contemporary international legal order does not consider it an instance of self-defence. However, some parallels to this idea can be found in the notions of “protection of nationals and interests abroad,” “collective self-defence” and “humanitarian intervention.” The present paper analyzes in some detail the scope of self-defence in Islamic law by considering the work of three eminent Muslim scholars of the twentieth century, namely, Sayyid Abu ’l-A‘la Mawdudi, Muhammad Hamidullah and Wahbah al-Zuhayli. It concludes that the scope of self-defence in Islamic law is wider than that of self-defence in international law because in Islamic law this concept is not confined to the defence of the state’s territory alone; rather, it also includes defence of the global Muslim community as well as of the value-system of Islam.