The fact is that if you, first of all, believe that there is no war permissible except a religious war, then this question is valid. But if this is not your belief, and wars other than religious are also permissible in certain situations, then this question as such is not valid, until you prove that not only on the religious grounds, but on political grounds as well, that and that war fought by or waged by a certain caliph was wrong.
So in that case, it is not just a generalization which would require an answer. You have to be particular about a certain war, and tell me that that war had neither a justification from a religious point of view, that is to say it was not a holy war, nor it had a justification from other exigencies of the situation. Because the wars which are fought today, it is just possible that both the participants are wrong, partly he and partly the other one. It is also possible that one is wronged and the other is the one who is wrongful. And it is also possible that there is no fault of anybody. Both are doing it in good faith, with good intention, only they are mistaken.
All these possibilities are there. Yet neither of the three possibilities belongs to a religious field. Religious wars or holy wars are a different phenomenon altogether. But once the empires came into being, when the state came into existence, a state in the name of Islam, but it was not Islam, it was a Muslim state. So whatever happened after that, it might have pertained to the region of statecraft. And that war will be judged by the customs and traditions of that age, not by the concept of statecraft as you hold today, nor by the practices of today, but practices of those days. If those practices and traditions and the international relationship warrants a war for reasons other than religious, then there can’t be any censure.
But even if in that context that war is not warranted, then you can censure that caliph alright. You have every right and everybody has a right. Why should we go on defending anybody while the Holy Quran does not, in any way, tries to defend the cause of that person? So that is what I want to tell you, that always go, instead of generalities, go to the particular situations. Ask the person who thinks a war was a wrong war, it had no justification, tell him that look here, first of all tell me justification, justification of what point of view? How can you call it a holy war? It was not a holy war.
According to the Holy Quran, the verse mentioned in Surah Hajj, the conditions of a holy war do not apply. But is there no war apart from holy wars? Most of the wars are not holy wars. They are wars of compulsion of human situations. So why can’t caliphs fight wars under that head, for those compulsions, which are just secular compulsions? Because they were not just holding a religious office, they were holding the office of a state, I mean the custodians of a state.
