In classical
Islamic law
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...
, the major divisions are ''dar al-Islam'' (lit. territory of Islam/voluntary submission to God), denoting regions where Islamic law prevails, ''dar al-sulh'' (lit. territory of treaty) denoting non-Islamic lands which have concluded an armistice with a Muslim government, and ''dar al-harb'' (lit. territory of war), denoting adjoining non-Islamic lands whose rulers are called upon to accept Islam.
["Dar al-Harb"]
''The Oxford Dictionary of Islam''
The Arabic singular form ''dar'' (), translated literally, may mean "house", "abode", "structure", "place", "land", or "country". In
Islamic jurisprudence
''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh.
The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and e ...
it often refers to a part of the world.
The notions of "houses" or "divisions" of the world in
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
such as ''dar al-Islam'' and ''dar al-harb'' does not appear in the Quran or the
hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
.
According to
Abou El Fadl, the only ''dar''s the Qur'an speaks of are "the abode of the Hereafter and the abode of the earthly life, with the former described as clearly superior to the latter".
Early Islamic jurists devised these terms to denote legal rulings for ongoing
Muslim conquests
The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...
almost a century after
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
. The first use of the terms was in Iraq by
Abu Hanifa
Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā ibn Marzubān ( ar, نعمان بن ثابت بن زوطا بن مرزبان; –767), commonly known by his '' kunya'' Abū Ḥanīfa ( ar, أبو حنيفة), or reverently as Imam Abū Ḥanīfa by Sunni Mus ...
and his disciples
Abu Yusuf
Ya'qub ibn Ibrahim al-Ansari () better known as Abu Yusuf ( ar, أبو يوسف, Abū Yūsuf) (d.798) was a student of jurist Abu Hanifa (d.767) who helped spread the influence of the Hanafi school of Sharia, Islamic law through his writings and ...
and
Al-Shaybani. Among those in the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
,
Al-Awza'i
Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al-ʾAwzāʿī ( ar, أبو عمرو عبدُ الرحمٰن بن عمرو الأوزاعي) (707–774) was an Islamic scholar, traditionalist and the chief representative and eponym of the Awza'i, ʾAw ...
was leading in this discipline and later
Shafi'i
The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...
.
The concept of ''dar al-harb'' has been affected by historical changes such as the political fragmentation of the Muslim world, and has little significance today.
[ The theoretical distinction between ''dar al-Islam'' and ''dar al-harb'' is widely considered inapplicable, and many contemporary Islamic jurists regard the ]Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. as part of the former, since Muslims can freely practise and proselytize their faith in Western countries.
Major religious divisions
Early Islamic legal theory divided the world into two divisions: "abode of Islam" and "abode of war". The first, called ''dar al-Islam'', sometimes ''Pax Islamica
Islamica is an Islamic company founded in Chicago, Illinois that sells apparel, accessories and media marketed towards Muslim youth. It was founded in 1999 by Mirza Baig, Azher Ahmed and Afeef Abdul-Majeed.
Islamica hosts an internet forum whic ...
'', consisted of Muslims and non-Muslims living under Islamic sovereignty. The second was ''dar al-harb''.
Dar al-Islam
''Dar al-Islam'' ( ar, دار الإسلام literally ''house/abode of Islam'' or ''dar al-Tawhid'', ''house/abode of monotheism'') was a term used by Muslim scholars
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...
to refer to those countries under Muslim sovereignty, sometimes considered "the home of Islam" or ''Pax Islamica
Islamica is an Islamic company founded in Chicago, Illinois that sells apparel, accessories and media marketed towards Muslim youth. It was founded in 1999 by Mirza Baig, Azher Ahmed and Afeef Abdul-Majeed.
Islamica hosts an internet forum whic ...
''. ''Dar al-Islam'' meaning "house/abode of Islam" is also referred to as ''dar al-salam'' or "house/abode of peace". In the Qur'an (10.25 and 6.127) this term refers to Paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...
in Heaven.
Dar al-Islam consisted of Muslims and non-Muslims, with the latter living as ''dhimmis
' ( ar, ذمي ', , collectively ''/'' "the people of the covenant") or () is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. The word literally means "protected person", referring to the state's obligatio ...
'' (protected persons). The non-Muslims had the right to their own law and religion in exchange for paying the jizya
Jizya ( ar, جِزْيَة / ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis, that is, permanent Kafir, non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Sharia, Islamic law. The jizya tax has been unde ...
. While Muslims enjoyed full civil rights, non-Muslims were given partial civil rights. However, both Muslims and non-Muslims were equal in their claim to security and being protected from attack. For example, if an enemy seized dar al-Islam's citizens, the state was obliged to free them, whether they were Muslim or non-Muslim.
Likewise, in foreign affairs, the Muslim government represented both its Muslim and non-Muslim citizens. Relations between Muslims and non-Muslims were regulated by "constitutional charters" (special agreements issued by the authorities), and these agreements recognized the personal law of each non-Muslim community (the Jewish community, Christian community etc). Non-Muslims could access Islamic courts if they wished.
According to Abu Hanifa
Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā ibn Marzubān ( ar, نعمان بن ثابت بن زوطا بن مرزبان; –767), commonly known by his '' kunya'' Abū Ḥanīfa ( ar, أبو حنيفة), or reverently as Imam Abū Ḥanīfa by Sunni Mus ...
, considered to be the originator of the concept, the requirements for a country to be part of ''dar al-Islam'' are:
# Muslims must be able to enjoy peace and security with and within this country.
# The country should be ruled by a Muslim government.
# It has common frontiers with some Muslim countries.
Dar al-'Ahd
Dar al-'Ahd ( ar, دار العهد, links=no "house of truce") or dar al-Sulh Sulh ( ar, صلح, ṣulḥ) is an Arabic word meaning "resolution" or "fixing" generally, in problem solving. It is frequently used in the context of social problems. It is also an Arabic surname, mostly from Lebanon used in the variant Solh.
Usag ...
( ar, دار الصلح, links=no "house of conciliation/treaty") were terms used for territories that have a treaty of non-aggression or peace with Muslims. Such a division was recognized by Shafi'i
The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...
jurists. But Hanafi
The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named aft ...
jurists argued that if a territory concluded a peace treaty with dar al-Islam, dar al-Islam was obligated to protect this territory and its people, hence the territory effectively became dar al-Islam. Thus, Hanafis did not recognize this division.
This designation can be found in the Quran, where Muslims are directed on how they should act in war:
Dar al-harb
''Dar al-harb'' ( ar, دار الحرب, links=no "house of war") was a term classically referring to those countries which do not have a treaty of non-aggression or peace with Muslims (those that do are called dar al-'Ahd or dar al-Sulh). The notions of divisions of the world, or ''dar al-harb'', does not appear in the Quran or the Hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
.[ According to some scholars, the term "abode of war" was simply a description of the harsh reality of the premodern world.
According to ]Majid Khadduri
Majid Khadduri (Arabic: مجيد خدوري) (September 27, 1909 – January 25, 2007) was an Iraqi–born academic. He was founder of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Middle East Studies program, a division of Johns ...
, the fundamental distinction between ''dar al-Islam'' and ''dar al-harb'' was introduced after the defeat of the Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...
at the Battle of Tours
The Battle of Tours, also called the Battle of Poitiers and, by Arab sources, the Battle of tiles of Martyrs ( ar, معركة بلاط الشهداء, Maʿrakat Balāṭ ash-Shuhadā'), was fought on 10 October 732, and was an important battle ...
in 732 which prevented the expansion of Islam to the north, while at the same time the expansion of the caliphate to the east had been halted. Wahbah al-Zuhayli
Wahbah Mustafa al-Zuhayli (1932 – 8 August 2015) born in Dair Atiah, Syria was a Syrian professor and Islamic scholar specializing in Islamic law and legal philosophy. He was also a preacher at Badr Mosque in Dair Atiah. He was the author ...
argues that the concept of dar al-harb is mostly historical: "The existence of Dār al-Islām and Dār al-Ḥarb in contemporary times is rare or extremely limited. This is because Islamic countries have joined the United Nations covenant that stipulates that the relationship between nations is peace and not war. Therefore non-Muslim countries are Dār al-‘Ahd ..."
According to Abu Hanifa there are three conditions that need to be fulfilled for a land to be classified as dar al-harb:
# Implementation of the laws of the non-Muslims openly and that no rule of Islam is implemented any longer
# Bordering another dar al-harb
# No Muslim remains safe as he was before the non-Muslims took power.
The purpose behind differentiating between dar al-Islam and dar al-harb was to identify the land as either one of safety for the Muslims or of fear. So, if Muslims are generally safe in a land and not in fear, then it cannot be classified as dar al-harb.
Under the classical doctrine, it was the duty of Muslim rulers to bring dar al-harb under Islamic sovereignty. A state of war was presumed between dar al-harb and dar al-Islam, but this did not necessarily imply that hostilities must occur. It was up to the ruler to decide when, where and against whom wage war.[ So in practice there was often peace between dar al-Islam and dar al-harb; formal armistices could last up to 10 years, while informal peace could last much longer than 10 years.]
During periods of a formal peace treaty with a territory in dar al-harb, it was immune from attack by Muslims, and its inhabitants (called ''harbi'') could enter Muslim lands unmolested. In the absence of a peace treaty, a ''harbi'' could also enter Muslim lands safely if that harbi'' first obtained an ''aman'' (assurance of protection). It was through such ''aman'' that trade and cultural exchange was conducted between dar al-harb and dar al-Islam. Any adult Muslim resident of dar al-Islam (male or female, free or slave) could grant such ''aman'' to a ''harbi''. Al-Shaybani ruled that even non-Muslim residents (dhimmis) could grant aman, while others sources say non-Muslim residents could not grant aman.
See also
* Outline of Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God (Allah) and that Muhammad is His last Messenger.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Islam.
Beliefs
Aqidah
:Allah
: ...
* Glossary of Islam
The following list consists of notable concepts that are derived from Islamic and associated cultural (Arab, Persian, Turkish) traditions, which are expressed as words in Arabic or Persian language. The main purpose of this list is to disambig ...
* Index of Islam-related articles
This is an alphabetical list of topics related to Islam, the history of Islam, Islamic culture, and the present-day Muslim world, intended to provide inspiration for the creation of new articles and categories. This list is not complete; please add ...
*Ummah
' (; ar, أمة ) is an Arabic word meaning "community". It is distinguished from ' ( ), which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history.
It is a synonym for ' ...
*Caliphate
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
*Dhimmi
' ( ar, ذمي ', , collectively ''/'' "the people of the covenant") or () is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. The word literally means "protected person", referring to the state's obligatio ...
*Sulh Sulh ( ar, صلح, ṣulḥ) is an Arabic word meaning "resolution" or "fixing" generally, in problem solving. It is frequently used in the context of social problems. It is also an Arabic surname, mostly from Lebanon used in the variant Solh.
Usag ...
*Pan-Islamism
Pan-Islamism ( ar, الوحدة الإسلامية) is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic country or state – often a caliphate – or an international organization with Islamic principles. Pan-Islamism was ...
*Islamic studies
Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...
*Theology of religion
The theology of religions is the branch of theology (mostly represented by Christian theology, Christian, Hinduism, Hindu, Islamic and Judaism, Jewish theology) and religious studies that attempts to theologically evaluate the phenomena of religion ...
References
*
*
Further reading
*
*''Western Muslims and the Future of Islam'', by Tariq Ramadan
Tariq Ramadan ( ar, طارق رمضان, ; born 26 August 1962) is a Swiss Muslim academic, philosopher, and writer. He was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at St Antony's College, Oxford and the Faculty of Theology and Religion, Univ ...
*''Fatwa on Terrorism
The ''Fatwa on Terrorism and Suicide Bombings'' is a 600-page (Urdu version), 512-page (English version) Islamic decree by scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri which demonstrates from the Quran and Sunnah that terrorism and suicide bombings are unjust a ...
and Suicide Bombings'', by Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri
Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri ( ur, ; born 19 February 1951) is a Pakistani–Canadian Islamic scholar and former politician who founded Minhaj-ul-Quran International and Pakistan Awami Tehreek.
He was also a professor of international cons ...
Nicola Melis, ''Trattato sulla guerra. Il'' Kitab al-gihad ''di Molla Husrev''. Cagliari: Aipsa, 2002
* König, Daniel G., Arabic-Islamic Views of the Latin West. Tracing the Emergence of Medieval Europe, Oxford, OUP, 2015.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Divisions Of The World In Islam
Islam and other religions
Religion and geography
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it:Dar al-Islam
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