The Concepts of Jihad and Extremism in the Thought of Dr. Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Bouti: An Critical Analysis in Light of His Book "Al Jihad Fi Al-Islam

The intellectual understanding of Jihad in the Islamic religion is wide in its content and nature. Islamic thought, in its turn, represents a complex of cultural and academic attempts to recognize this or that part of truth and essence of Islam. Conversely, Islamic sciences are all the elements of the religion that are established on certainty like beliefs, rulings, and the texts that determine them according to the famous standards of certainty as established by the principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh). In this context, the current research provides a systematic critical approach to the intellectual interpretation of Jihad, in an attempt to examine the theoretical and practical aspects of Jihad on the basis of the work of Dr. Muhammad Sa’ id Ramadan Al-Bouti, entitled Jihad in Islam: How to Understand It? How to Practice It?. Being one of the brightest representatives of the Islamic thought nowadays, Dr. Al-Bouti offers a detailed model of reconsidering Jihad in the context of the true Islamic sources and the modern world. Some of the main themes and analytical elements that help to define the outlines of this vision and further the comprehension of the normative and applied meaning of Jihad are also outlined in the study.