Wahbah Al-Zuḥaylī on International Relations: An Analysis

Wahbah Al-Zuḥaylī (1932-2015) has extensively and considerably enriched Islamic laws and legal jurisprudential through many of his speeches and his books which deal broadly with various ramifications of Islamic cultures. Most of all, his preaching, as erudite and par excellences scholar on many topics of relevance of Muslims, not only in Middle East, but all over the world. He argued, that religious compulsion to follow Sunni edicts is not compulsory for faithful, this sect’s constituents are free to follow four validated Sunni edicts, and even this is not compulsory, as long as one follows competent Islamic jurist. This is not religiously binding, but faithful need to follow the teachings of jurists, especially when one is not clear of the laws. His laws even go to the extent of permitting these people to follow the rules of other laws. All the material for this paper, have been collected from different primary and secondary sources, which include, libraries, websites, books, national and international journals, Quranic verses and hadiths. Zuḥaylī’s views and perspectives on relationships between Muslims and others are based on mutual respect, brotherhood and universal understanding. Zuḥaylī also claimed to be used as help and succor for victims of injustice and lawlessness and in particular, to be used only for self-defence and to ward off attacks on the suzerainty, integrity and autonomy of one’s Homeland. Besides, he strongly opposed targeting unarmed, innocent civilian targeting, was against gaining spoils during warfare and was against forceful conversion into Islam by powerful people.