Defensive Jihād in Imāmī Jurisprudence: Foundations, Rules, and Security Implications

Focusing on defensive jihād in Imāmī jurisprudence, this study seeks to derive a coherent normative model of legitimate self-defense from authoritative jurisprudential foundations and textual sources, moving beyond a merely descriptive approach. The principal gap in the existing literature lies in the absence of an integrated analytical formulation capable of connecting ontological, anthropological, and eschatological foundations with the practical rules governing defense. Accordingly, the central research question is: What foundations underpin defensive jihād in Imāmī jurisprudence, and what rules of action does it entail for safeguarding the security of the Islamic community? The study employs an inferential normative analysis based on authoritative jurisprudential texts. Within the theoretical framework, the principal rules underlying Islamic defense thought are identified and analyzed, with particular attention to their scope and their relationship to the criteria governing their implementation. At the level of legal and jurisprudential rulings, the obligation to defend in the event of enemy aggression is reconstructed, together with its relationship to the constraints of necessity, proportionality, and the prohibition of transgression. The findings indicate that connecting foundational principles with operative rules provides a coherent framework for Islamic defense policy, one that remains open to theoretical evaluation and contemporary reassessment.

کلیدواژه ها:

defensive jihād ، Imāmī Jurisprudence ، Qāʿidat nafy al-sabīl (Rule of the Prohibition of Domination) ، Qāʿidat al-muqābalah bi-l-mithl (Rule of Reciprocity) ، Jurisprudential Security