Short answer
No. Islam forbids terrorism in the plainest words it has. The Qur'an says that killing one innocent person is like killing all mankind. It forbids suicide. It forbids crossing the limits even in a lawful war. The Prophet (ﷺ) forbade the killing of women and children. He disowned anyone who attacks his community, killing good and bad alike, and breaks the pledge of safety given to others. He said that bloodshed will be the first case judged between people on the Day of Judgement. Groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS kill women and children, torture people and terrorise ordinary people. Islamic law forbids every one of these. A religion is judged by its sources, and those sources condemn the killing of the innocent. That is Islam's answer.
Full explanation
Killing the innocent is forbidden
The Qur'an sets the value of one innocent life beside the life of all mankind. Some reply that 5:32 was addressed only to the Israelites, the Children of Israel. But the Qur'an gives the same command to Muslims directly: take no life that Allah (﷾) has made sacred, except by justice and law. It forbids Muslims to kill themselves or one another. It promises Hell to anyone who kills a believer on purpose. A hadith is a recorded saying of the Prophet (ﷺ). In one, he said that whoever kills a person under a covenant of protection will not smell the fragrance of Paradise. A covenant of protection is a pledge of safety given to a non-Muslim. The victims of these bombs are very often Muslims.
“On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our messengers with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.”
“Say: "Come, I will rehearse what Allah hath (really) prohibited you from": Join not anything as equal with Him; be good to your parents; kill not your children on a plea of want;- We provide sustenance for you and for them;- come not nigh to shameful deeds. Whether open or secret; take not life, which Allah hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus doth He command you, that ye may learn wisdom.”
“Nor take life - which Allah has made sacred - except for just cause. And if anyone is slain wrongfully, we have given his heir authority (to demand qisas or to forgive): but let him not exceed bounds in the matter of taking life; for he is helped (by the Law).”
“O ye who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves in vanities: But let there be amongst you Traffic and trade by mutual good-will: Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for verily Allah hath been to you Most Merciful!”
“If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein (For ever): And the wrath and the curse of Allah are upon him, and a dreadful penalty is prepared for him.”
Abdullah ibn Amr reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said that whoever kills a person who has a treaty with the Muslims will not smell the fragrance of Paradise, though its fragrance reaches a distance of forty years.
What the Prophet (ﷺ) said about such men
The Prophet (ﷺ) disowned in advance a certain kind of man. This man attacks his community and does not care whom he kills, the good and the wicked alike. He also breaks the pledge given to protected people. The Prophet (ﷺ) said a believer keeps room in his religion until he sheds blood unlawfully. He said that bloodshed will be the first case judged between people. He also warned that whoever kills himself will be punished with the means he used.
Abu Hurayra reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: whoever attacks his community, striking down the good and the wicked alike, sparing not even the believers, and not keeping faith with those given a pledge of security, has nothing to do with me, and I have nothing to do with him.
Ibn Umar reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said a believer keeps room in his religion as long as he does not shed blood unlawfully.
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said the first cases to be judged between people on the Day of Resurrection will be cases of bloodshed.
Abu Hurayra reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said whoever kills himself, whether by a fall, by poison or with a blade, will suffer the same in the Fire.
Even war has limits
Islamic law allows a lawful state to wage war, as the law of every state does. But it sets limits on the fighting. The Qur'an allows fighting only against those who fight, and forbids transgressing, which means going past the limits. The Prophet (ﷺ) forbade killing women and children, mutilating the dead and breaking a pledge. The Qur'an allows kindness and justice toward those who have not fought the Muslims. Jihad means striving in the way of Allah (﷾). Fighting declared by the ruler of a state is one form of it, and it is bound by these limits. No individual or group may declare it. One well-known English translation of Muslim 1731 reads "holy war". The Arabic says only "go out on campaign". The word "holy" is the translator's.
“Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors.”
Ibn Umar reports that a woman was found killed during one of the Prophet's (ﷺ) campaigns, and the Prophet forbade the killing of women and children.
Buraida reports that when the Prophet (ﷺ) appointed a commander he told him to fear Allah and to be good to his men, and not to steal from the spoils, break a pledge, mutilate the dead or kill children. Before any fighting the enemy was to be offered three choices: accept Islam; if not, pay the jizya, and then the Muslims must hold back from them; and only if both were refused, fight.
In this widely used English translation of Sahih Muslim, the Prophet's (ﷺ) order to his commanders in hadith 1731, the Arabic ughzu (go out on campaign), is rendered "Make a holy war". The Arabic has no word meaning "holy".
“Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just.”
Ibn Qudamah, a Hanbali jurist, holds that the matter of jihad is entrusted to the ruler (imam) and his judgement, and that the people must obey him in it. He makes one exception: if an enemy attacks suddenly and there is no time to ask the ruler, the people may defend themselves without his permission. He also holds that a Muslim who enters a non-Muslim land under a promise of safety (aman) may not betray its people or take their property, because the safety was given on the understanding that he would not betray them, even if this was not said in words.
No one may take the law into his own hands
Punishment in Islamic law belongs to a lawful authority and a qualified judge. A private man has no right to decide who deserves to die. Al-Qurtubi, a thirteenth-century commentator on the Qur'an, records one point on which the scholars do not differ. Retaliation, the punishment for a killing, is carried out only by those in lawful authority. And a Muslim in any country is bound by his agreement to keep its laws (17:34).
Al-Qurtubi records that the scholars do not differ that retaliation for killing is carried out only by those in lawful authority, and that individuals may not take it for themselves.
“Come not nigh to the orphan's property except to improve it, until he attains the age of full strength; and fulfil (every) engagement, for (every) engagement will be enquired into (on the Day of Reckoning).”
What al-Qaeda and ISIS do, and what Islam says
Groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS say they act for Islam, but their deeds break its law. They kill women and children, which the Prophet (ﷺ) forbade (Bukhari 3015). They torture people, yet he said that Allah (﷾) will torment those who torment people in this world (Muslim 2613). They also turn on other Muslims and brand them unbelievers. The Prophet (ﷺ) warned that when a Muslim calls another Muslim an unbeliever, the charge comes back on one of them (Bukhari 6104). In 2014 more than 120 Muslim scholars and imams, among them the Grand Mufti of Egypt, wrote an open letter to the leader of ISIS. They told him that Islam forbids killing the innocent, torture, harming Christians or others who follow earlier scriptures, and forcing anyone to convert.
Ibn Umar reports that a woman was found killed during one of the Prophet's (ﷺ) campaigns, and the Prophet forbade the killing of women and children.
Hisham ibn Hakim ibn Hizam passed by farmers in Syria who had been made to stand in the sun. He was told that they had been detained over the jizya. He said that he bore witness that he had heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: Allah will torment those who torment people in this world. In another narration he went to Umayr ibn Sa'd, then governor of Palestine, and told him the hadith, and the governor ordered them to be let go.
Abdullah ibn Umar reports that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: if a man says to his brother, "O unbeliever", then the charge falls on one of the two.
An open letter from Muslim scholars, muftis and imams around the world to the leader of the group calling itself the Islamic State. Its signers include Shawqi Allam, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, and Abdallah bin Bayyah, with scholars and leaders from Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia and North America. Its summary lists what it says is forbidden in Islam, among them: killing the innocent; killing emissaries, and so journalists and aid workers; declaring people non-Muslim unless they openly declare disbelief; harming or mistreating Christians or any People of the Scripture; forcing people to convert; torturing people; and disfiguring the dead. It adds that bringing slavery back is forbidden in Islam, because it was abolished by universal consensus, and it condemns his taking women as concubines as a revival of strife and corruption.
Against the manners of a Muslim
Their acts also break the manners, or adab, that Islam asks of every Muslim. The Prophet (ﷺ) said the believer is the one from whom people's lives and wealth are safe (Nasa'i 4995). Once, one of the Prophet's (ﷺ) companions took another's rope while he slept, and he woke in fright. The Prophet (ﷺ) said it is not lawful for a Muslim to frighten a Muslim (Abu Dawud 5004). If a prank like that is wrong, terrorising a whole city is far worse. The Prophet (ﷺ) also said that Allah (﷾) is gentle and loves gentleness (Muslim 2593). Terrorists give Islam a bad name, but Islam is judged by what it teaches, not by those who break it.
Abu Hurayra reports that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: the Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand people are safe, and the believer is the one from whom people's lives and wealth are safe.
Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Layla reports from the Companions that they were travelling with the Prophet (ﷺ). One man fell asleep, and another went to a rope the sleeper had and took it, and the sleeper woke in fright. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: it is not lawful for a Muslim to frighten a Muslim.
Aisha reports that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Aisha, Allah is gentle and loves gentleness, and He grants for gentleness what He does not grant for harshness, nor for anything else.
Colonial rule and the rulers called Islamic
Much of the Muslim world came out of European rule only within living memory. Between 1945 and 1960, about three dozen new states in Asia and Africa won self-rule or full independence from European rulers. Indonesia fought the Dutch for its freedom after 1945. Algeria fought France from 1954 until 1962. Foreign control did not end with independence. In 1953 Iran's elected prime minister was overthrown in a coup carried out under CIA direction, as the CIA's own internal history states. And some rulers the West called Muslim leaders did not rule by Islam. Saddam Hussein's Ba'th Party was founded on the secular slogan of unity, freedom and socialism. He turned to Islamic language to shore up his rule, first in the war with Iran and then in his "Faith Campaign" of 1993. Muammar Gaddafi pushed aside the scholars of Islam and questioned the hadith as a basis for Islamic law. None of this history excuses terrorism. Islam forbids killing the innocent, whatever the grievance. Those who do it break the law of the Qur'an; they do not follow it.
States that between 1945 and 1960 three dozen new states in Asia and Africa won autonomy or outright independence from their European colonial rulers, and names Indonesia's struggle for independence from the Netherlands in 1945-50 among the wars of that period.
Records that the war of independence against French rule began with attacks on 1 November 1954, and that Algeria's first independent government was formed in 1962.
Publishes the CIA's internal history 'The Battle for Iran', declassified under the Freedom of Information Act, which states that the military coup that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953 was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy.
Traces the Iraqi Ba'th Party from its founding slogan of 'unity, freedom, and socialism' to its turn to Islamic language and policy by 2003, a change that began during the war with Iran of 1980-88 and deepened in the Faith Campaign of 1993, driven by the regime's need for support and legitimacy.
Records that Qadhdhafi denigrated the roles of the ulama, imams and Islamic jurists, and questioned the authenticity of the hadith, and so the sunna, as a basis for Islamic law.
Samson's last act, and his place among the heroes of faith
The Book of Judges tells of Samson praying for strength to die with the Philistines. He pulls down the house on himself and everyone in it. The text says he killed more at his death than in his life. The New Testament then names Samson among the heroes of faith. The Qur'an and the Prophet (ﷺ) forbid both parts of that act: the suicide, and the killing of the women gathered with the men.
“Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport. And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.”
“And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,”
“O ye who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves in vanities: But let there be amongst you Traffic and trade by mutual good-will: Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for verily Allah hath been to you Most Merciful!”
Ibn Umar reports that a woman was found killed during one of the Prophet's (ﷺ) campaigns, and the Prophet forbade the killing of women and children.
The texts critics quote
Qur'an 9:5 — Surat al-Tawba (The Repentance), verse 5
“But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.”
Cited for
Critics read this as a command to kill non-Muslims wherever they are found.
The response
The verse is about pagan Arabs at war who had broken their treaties. The verse before it exempts those who kept their treaties. The very next verse orders that any of them who asks for protection be given it and escorted to safety.
Where it lands — 9:5 is a law of war against treaty-breakers, and 9:6 protects any enemy who asks for safety.
Qur'an 8:60 — Surat al-Anfal (The Spoils of War), verse 60
“Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know. Whatever ye shall spend in the cause of Allah, shall be repaid unto you, and ye shall not be treated unjustly.”
Cited for
Critics read this as a command to terrorise non-Muslims.
The response
The verse is about an army being ready to deter enemy forces in war. The next verse commands peace as soon as the enemy inclines to it. The Qur'an allows fighting only against those who fight, and forbids crossing the limits. The Prophet (ﷺ) forbade the killing of women and children. Verse 8:60 says nothing about attacking people who are not fighting.
Where it lands — 8:60 is about deterring an enemy at war, not attacking the innocent.
Sahih al-Bukhari 2977 — Kitab al-Jihad wa al-Siyar (Book of Fighting for the Cause of Allah), hadith 2977
Abu Hurayra reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said he had been sent with words brief in form and wide in meaning, and had been made victorious by awe cast into the hearts of the enemy.
Cited for
Critics read "victorious by awe" as praise for spreading terror.
The response
The saying describes fear that God (﷾) cast into the hearts of enemy armies. It was a help given to the Prophet (ﷺ) in war. It speaks of what God (﷾) did, not of any act of violence against people. The same Prophet (ﷺ) forbade killing women and children.
Where it lands — The awe was God's (﷾) help against armies at war, not a licence to harm civilians.
Sahih Muslim 1848 — Kitab al-Imara (The Book on Government), hadith 1848
Abu Hurayra reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: whoever attacks his community, striking down the good and the wicked alike, sparing not even the believers, and not keeping faith with those given a pledge of security, has nothing to do with me, and I have nothing to do with him.
Cited for
Some say Osama bin Laden was a true Muslim, and that men who kill people for insulting the Prophet (ﷺ) are obeying God.
The response
Claiming Islam does not make a man's deeds Islamic. The Prophet (ﷺ) disowned anyone who attacks his community, striking the good and the wicked alike. He also disowned anyone who breaks faith with those given a pledge of safety (Muslim 1848). The Qur'an tells Muslims to bear with patience the hurtful things they hear (3:186). Islamic law gives no private person the right to take a life. Killing one innocent soul is like killing all mankind (5:32).
Where it lands — Murder in Islam's name breaks Islam's own law.
Perspectives
Judging a religion by its sources
A religion is judged by what its scriptures teach, not by the crimes of people who claim it. No one judges Christianity or Hinduism by the crimes of people who claim them. Islam deserves the same measure.
Measured by its sources, Islam condemns the killing of the innocent that terrorists commit in its name.
Much of the Muslim world was under European colonial rule until after 1945. Foreign powers went on to overthrow governments there, as in Iran in 1953. No grievance makes killing the innocent lawful in Islam.
Rulers the West called Islamic did not rule by Islam. Saddam Hussein led a party founded on a secular ideology that turned to Islamic language to shore up its rule. Muammar Gaddafi sidelined Islamic scholars and questioned the hadith as a basis for law.
The Bible names Samson, who killed himself to bring the house down on the men and women gathered in it, among the heroes of faith. Islam forbids both the suicide and the killing of women.
The Islamic perspective
Terrorism is among the gravest sins in Islam. The Qur'an protects innocent life. The Prophet (ﷺ) disowned those who kill without distinction. Only a lawful authority may punish.
The Qur'an says that killing one person unjustly is like killing all people.
The Qur'an commands Muslims directly not to take life that Allah (﷾) has made sacred, except by justice and law.
Islam forbids suicide. The Qur'an says "Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves", and the Prophet (ﷺ) warned that whoever kills himself will be punished in the Fire.
The Prophet (ﷺ) spoke of a non-Muslim living under a pledge of protection. Whoever kills such a person, he said, will not smell the fragrance of Paradise.
The Prophet (ﷺ) forbade the killing of women and children in war.
Some attack the Muslim community indiscriminately and break the pledge given to protected people. The Prophet (ﷺ) said such a person has nothing to do with him.
Bloodshed will be the first matter judged between people on the Day of Resurrection.
Punishment belongs to lawful authority, not to private individuals.
The Prophet (ﷺ) forbade torture. He said that Allah (﷾) will torment those who torment people in this world.
Spreading fear breaks the manners Islam teaches. The Prophet (ﷺ) said the believer is the one from whom people's lives and wealth are safe. He also said a Muslim may not frighten a Muslim.