Translation of the Study: “The Monasticism of My Umma is Jihad: A Discussion on Asceticism, Sex, and War in Early Islam”

Abstract

This article explores the Islamic attitudes towards asceticism in the second Hijri century/eighth century AD and the third Hijri century: ninth century AD through the interrogation of the famous hadith of the Prophet: ‘Every Umma (nation) has monasticism, and the monasticism of my umma is jihad.’  This hadith can serve as a lens for assessing a number of broader phenomena, including the views of early Muslims on Christian monasticism, the rejection of celibacy in Islamic culture, and the establishment of a new code of sexual ethics in the Middle East after the Islamic conquest. This is what this study calls "the second sexual revolution in late antiquity." The study concludes by presenting several accounts of the Christian monks who converted to Islam and embarked on jihad, in addition to the Muslim soldiers who converted to Christianity and became monks.