Comparison of Islamic Religious Texts: the Quran and Hadith

The Quran is the most important text in the Islamic faith, believed to be the word of God communicated to the prophet Muhammad who spoke to his followers, and what he said was written down in the Quran years after his death. The Hadith is about the actions and sayings of Muhammad, religious laws are formed around these events rather than the events themselves. Both religious texts are highly important to Islam, and both feature some utterances of violent concepts, notably the concept of jihad and certain rules to follow when at war or going to war. Early Islamic history is usually taken to mean from when Muhammad first received his revelation from God to the end of the Rashidun Caliphate and the beginning of the Umayyad Caliphate. This approximately covers the years 610 to 661 AD. Although a fairly short period of history, it was filled with much violence. Since the Quran and Hadith were recorded approximately at this time it stands to reason there is a relationship between the two. This is particularly the case for the Hadith because it's about the actions (and the religious interpretations) of Muhammad's life, and Muhammad's life was filled with violence. It is also the case that the nature of life in the Arabian peninsula also featured in the religious texts, after all both were composed by Arabs. The Arabian peninsula at that time was subject to frequent raids and other violent actions by all tribes.

Perhaps the most well-known concept of violence related to the two religious texts is 'jihad'. This means striving, and can be divided into two categories. These two meanings are greater and lesser jihad. Greater jihad means to struggle against one self in terms of overcoming sin, therefore it is more of a spiritual task and one that does not involve physical violence to others. Lesser jihad is meant to mean Islam is under threat and that the faith must be protected. It can also potentially mean spreading Islam by the form of the sword or conquest. However, this violent form of conversion is contradicted because the Quran forbids forced religious conversion. This form of jihad is the one most westerners think of when hearing the term. This is in part because of its use by terrorists even though the religious texts disapprove of such methods. Surprisingly jihad is rarely mentioned in the Quran being uttered around 49 times, mostly referring to lesser jihad. Nevertheless, jihad is mentioned frequently in the Hadith where the tone is more towards fighting especially against idolaters. However, whereas most Muslims firmly believe the Quran is the word of God, many sayings in the Hadith may not be trustworthy, potentially being sources of gossip and untrue. Therefore some of the more violent concepts in the Hadith may not be true.

Another concept of violence in the Quran and Hadith is fighting or qtl. This is a set of rules about how to conduct war and when to go to war. According to Reuven Firestorm these rules are permission to engage in a defensive war, an offensive war when allowed, mostly patience with people of the Abrahamic faiths, and the general point of being patient and self-restrained during war. The rules also deal with how to treat prisoners and how to divide spoils. With many religious texts, there is quite often confusion and contradiction within the text and what exactly it means. Nevertheless, the Quran and Hadith give the concepts of violence in the form of lesser jihad and a set of conduct in how to deal with violence. This may have been influenced by the exacting conditions of war, both in the Arabian Peninsula and the later wars against the Byzantines and Sassanids.

The Hadith contains the actions of Muhammad, and Muhammad faced many forms of violence. Being rejected by his tribe, the Quraysh, he and his followers fled from Mecca to Medina in 622. At this point Muhammad did not fight back because militarily Islam was weak. This is a part of the self-restraint concept of violence in the religious texts. Nevertheless Muhammad also struck back in the form of raids on Meccan trading caravans. These were gaza or raid, which also means striving, similar to jihad. Raiding was a common part of Arabic life and so this concept of violence was incorporated to the religious texts via Muhammad's raids. When Islam began to attract more followers Muhammad started to fight back against the Meccans, capturing Mecca in 630. This was essentially a war of self-defence, a concept of violence approved by the Quran and Hadith. The Hadith gave religious laws surrounding the interpretation around Muhammad’s life. Muhammad experienced two forms of violence, enduring and delivering. In this sense the Hadith gave some advice on how to endure and successfully overcome an enemy regardless of the situation.

Upon Muhammad's death in 632, many Arab tribes wished to split from the new Rashidun caliphate. The Rashiduns wished to stop this and so the Ridda (or apostacy) wars were waged from 632 to 633. The Rashiduns won and once again this was primarily a war for the preservation of Islam as outlined in the religious texts. The Rashiduns war against both the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires is more difficult to explain in terms of the religious texts why the war occurred. Some writers closer to the time believed the Caliphs were inspired by God to conquer the lands, because the first four Caliphs were revered and seen to be closest to Muhammad this could be true. Another interpretation is the Rashiduns could and conquest was needed to expand Islamic territory but not the religion itself. Nevertheless, these were referred to as the futuh or conquests, and many rules of war set out in the Quran were followed. There was patience towards the other Abrahamic faiths only requiring they pay the jizya tax. Although it is difficult to tell there may have been little forced conversion of conquered people's towards Islam, another essential concept. After the Rashidun Caliphate fell it was replaced by the Umayyad Caliphate which was seen as more distant from Muhammad's life. The new Caliphate went on a large series of expansions reaching from Spain to the borders of India. This expansion may have used jihad as a justification to expand and to give political legitimacy to the successors, echoing the expansion of the Rashiduns.

In conclusion, both the Quran and Hadith were compiled in early Islamic history, and early Islamic history is filled with violence of some kind or another. Therefore the religious texts give concepts to deal with this conflict. The Quran gives general rules to follow in a conflict such as the distribution of spoils, treatment of prisoners, and preventing forced conversion of religion. The concept of jihad appears in the Quran as a form of striving within one self. The Hadith gives a more interesting guide to war because it was itself composed in a time of violence. Muhammad suffered persecution and violence by the Meccans, the actions he took during this time give a guide on how to deal with this type of violence via self-restraint. Later on in Muhammad's life when Islam had grown in strength then he led the Muslims against the Meccans eventually winning. There are two types of violence; receiving and inflicting. Given the newfound power of Islam, many jurists (interpreters of the Quran and Hadith) paid more attention to the later parts of Muhammad's life.