In today’s world, armed organizations such as al-Qaeda, ISIS and al-Nusra try to legitimize their acti-ons by refering to the Qur’anic verses about jihādand qitāl (fight) and some of the hadiths of the Prophet. This leads the concept of jihādto be associated with violence and terrorism. So there is a need to consider the issue of jihādin detail. Recently references have been made to the Islamic view in the Ḥanafī-Māturīdītradition in order to prevent the aforementioned organizations from beco-ming more widespread. This view of Islam is said to be an alternative to the jihadist movements. In this study, Imam Māturīdī’s commentary on the verses related tojihādand qitāl will be examined and the accuracy of the opinion that “Māturīdiyyais an alternative to the jihadist views of Salafī or-ganizations” will be assessed. Also Imam Māturīdī’s views will be compared with Shāfi‘ī,Hanbalī and Mālikīscholars’ interpretation of the verses related to jihād and qitāl.The word jihādhas a broad meaning in the Islamic literature. In this sense, jihādis defined as “showingeffort, commandinggood and forbiddingevil, fightingagainst the inner self and external enemies.” However, in the Islamic legal doctrine, the word is limited to the meaning of “war against the non-muslims.” There are many verses about jihādin the Qur’ānboth in the Makkīand in the Madanīsurahs.According to the majority of Islamic scholars, Muslims had not been allowed to go into war during the Meccan period. The Prophet and the believers were ordered to fight in the way of Allah and to endure the difficulties they faced on this way. They are told to disobey the disbelievers and fight aga-inst them using the Qur’ān(al-Nahl 16/110; al-Furqān 25/52). The first Qur’anic verse (al-Hajj 22/39) declares that war is permissible was revealed in the Madinan period. The word jihād, which is found in about thirty verses as either a noun or a verb, conveys the meaning of “fight in the way of Allah” (qitāl) in verses al-Tawbah9/41, 44, 81, 86. Thus, the word gained a similar meaning to warfare and qitāl.Māturīdī, in his work entitled Taʼwīlāt al-Qurʼān, acknowledgethat the word jihādhas a broad meaning and mentions that jihādhas the function of seperating true believers from hypocrites. According to him, the word “haythu” in the following verse means space/place: “Kill them wherever you overtake.” (al-Baqarah 2/191). Accordingly, polytheists must be killed everywhere except in sacred (haram)months and in the Masjid al-Haram. This generalization of thespace also includes time. According to most scholars in classical tafsir, the word “fitnah” in the verse,“Fight them until there is no fitna” (al-Baqarah 2/193) has the meaning of disbelief(kufr).Therefore disbelievernessis the main rationale for war. Māturīdīthinks that the verse al-Baqarah 2/193 commands us to fight against disbelievers until they accept Islam. The verse al-Anfāl 8/39 also tells us to fight the polytheists until polytheism ceaseand the religion, all of it, is for Allah. al-Tawbah9/123 informs us that jihādand war against the enemy will continue forever. al-Anfāl 8/60 states that jihādand qitāl will continue until the Day of Judgment. In the verse Ali Imrān 3/97, Allah gives his messenger permission to kill all the disbelie-vers, and moreover imposes it as a religious duty (fard). These views and interpretations of Māturīdīindicate that he does not have a moderate approach to jihādand qitāl.Māturīdī’s views on jihādand qitāl are similar to those of Shāfi‘īand Mālikīscholars. Shāfi‘īand Mālikīscholars, such as Abū Bakr Ibn al-‘Arabī (d. 543/1148), Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) and al-Qurṭūbī (d. 671/1273) comment on al-Baqarah 2/193 and state that “the reason for war is disbelief and the goal is to end it completely.” Nevertheless, Māturīdīsays that “We do not fight against disbe-lievers because they deny Islam” and explains the reason for levying jizya on the People of the Book is “to prevent bloodshed and provide them with an opportunity to know Islam better.” Moreover, Māturīdīin his works place emphasis to the distinction between polytheist and disbeliever. Accor-ding to him, every polytheist is a disbeliever, but not every disbeliever is a polytheist. The People of the Book are disbelievers, but fighting them is not emphasized as firmly as fighting the polytheists.Māturīdī, who interpret the verses al-Baqarah 2/191, al-Tawbah 9/5 and 123 as referring to war, com-ments on some other verses in another way. According to Māturīdī, qitāl/war is not presented as a punishment for denial of Islam. Māturīdī in his interpretation of the verse al-Baqarah 2/217 states that the war itself is a great concern and people die because of war. However, he says, people are created not to die, but to live. Considering all the explanations of Māturīdī regarding jihād and qitāl, and his opinion that the sword verse (al-Tawbah 9/5) does not abrogate other verses, it can be conc-luded that he has different opinions in different contexts.In conclusion, it should be noted that Māturīdī’s views on the verses of jihād and qitāl don’tsignifi-cantly differentiatefrom the views and comments of other scholars in the classical period. Given his views regarding these verses, it is not possible to say that Ḥanafīand Māturīdī scholars have a more moderate perspective on war than other sects. Furthermore, it is not right to say that the main reason for war according to Ḥanafī,Shāfi‘ī,Hanbalī and Mālikī scholars is the hostility towards Muslims. Ne-vertheless, it is not possible either to say that Māturīdī’s views legitimize the violence and terrorist activities committed by today’s ISIS, al-Qaeda and similar groups, for the reason thatjihād and qitāl must be read in the context of revelation.

KeywordsTafsir, Māturīdī, Taʼwīlāt al-Qurʼān, Qitāl, Jihād, Radical Islam