Reconceptualizing Jihad: Said Nursî and the Formation of a Nonviolent Islamic Epistemology

This article explores how Said Nursî (1877–1960) reimagined the concept of jihad within modern Islamic thought, shifting it away from battlefield imagery and toward an intellectual, ethical, and nonviolent form of struggle. While conventional interpretations highlight military action (jihād al-aṣghar), Nursî redirects attention to self-discipline, the attainment of knowledge, and moral transformation (jihād al-akbar). Discourse analysis and hermeneutic readings of Nursî’s writings demonstratehow the concept of jihad is removed from the sphere of state power, sovereignty, and coercion, and recontextualised within theological persuasion, religious education, and spiritual formation. Nursî’s explicit rejection of compulsion—grounded in Qur’anic interpretation and Islamic legal history—reveals his principled defense of freedom of conscience and reform through knowledge rather than force. In doing so, he contributed to the intellectual lineage that argues for nonviolent jihad and speaks directly to contemporary debates in Islamic ethics, political theology, and peace studies. The article argues that Nursî’s approach is not quietism, apoliticism, or retreat from the public sphere; rather, it represents a constructive model of ethical resistance and epistemic agency. By situating Nursî within late Ottoman reformism and the broader landscape of modern Islamic intellectual history, the study also underscores the wider relevance of intellectual jihad for ongoing discussions around religious authority, modernity, and communicative ethics in Islam. Keywords: Intellectual jihad, nonviolent Islam, Greater Jihad (Jihād al-Akbar), Islamic political theology, Qur’anic hermeneutics, communicative ethics, freedom of conscience