A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád'/Chapter 12/124

[Sidenote: 124. Example cited from the Jewish history.]

There is only one instance in the Koran in which an example is cited for the war of defence by Mohammad, from the Jewish History. It is the asking of the children of Israel their prophet Samuel to raise up a king for them to fight in their defence against the Philistines, who had very much oppressed the Israelites. Saul was appointed king over the Israelites, and David killed Goliath, called Jálut in the Koran, which was in defence of the Israelites. I have quoted the verses relating to the above subject from the Koran (Sura II, 247 and 252) in page 19th of this work.

"Hast thou not considered the assembly of the children of Israel after the death of Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs,&mdash;'Raise up for us a king; we will do battle for the cause of God?' He said, 'May it not be that when fighting is ordained you, ye would not fight?' They said, 'And why should we not fight in the cause of God, since we are driven forth from our dwellings and our children?"....

This shows that what the Koran or Mohammad took as an example from the history of the Jews was only their defensive war.