Book of Jihad
Introduction

The Book of Jihad
Jihad is a collective obligation, but it becomes individually binding whenever a person is actually present at the engagement, when an enemy besieges his town, or when the imam calls him to arms. A full term of ribat (guarding the frontier) is forty nights¹. If both his parents are Muslims, he may not volunteer for jihad without their permission.

The imam inspects his army at the time of departure and excludes anyone who would demoralise the troops or spread alarm². At the beginning of the campaign he may distribute, after the statutory one-fifth, a discretionary quarter of the spoils, and on the return a third after that. The army must obey him and remain steadfast with him, and no expedition may set out without his leave—unless they are suddenly surprised by an enemy whose onslaught they fear.

Spoils become owned once they are seized in enemy territory. They belong to all combatants who were present at the battle. One-fifth is first set aside; the remainder is then divided, one share to each infantryman and three shares to each horseman—one for the rider and two for his horse³. The main army shares with its detachments in whatever those detachments take, and the detachments share with it in whatever it takes. Anyone who embezzles from the spoils has all his baggage burned, except for his weapons, his Qur’an, and any living creature.

If land is conquered by force, the imam may either divide it among the soldiers or set it aside as a waqf for all Muslims, placing upon it a permanent kharaj to be collected from whoever holds it.

The assessment of kharaj and jizya is left to the imam’s considered judgment, and whoever is unable to—