Islam, Jihad, and the Fiqh of Weapons of Mass Destruction

While most of the world’s major historical traumas related to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) did not involve Muslims, it is becoming part of the present fear politics related to Islam and jihad. WMDs therefore have become one of today’s sub-discussions of Islam and the laws of armed conflict discourse. My commentary critically examines how Islamic scholars today treat WMDs in context of fiqh al-jihād (laws of war). I begin by exploring how primary sources and classical scholarship heritage treat war and how it is regulated because Islamic sciences (including fiqh) are built on over a thousand years of intellectual tradition. I continue by discussing how international law and Islamic law impact each other in today’s discourse, which will affect how various contemporary issues (including WMDs) are discussed. Finally, I critically analyze the various opinions of Islamic scholars concerning WMDs. As a reflection, I find that these opinions are legacies of the Islamic intellectual tradition as colored by present‑day Islam and international‑law dialectics under the shadow of an unjust global order.