المعنى الاصطلاحي :

Any territory where laws of disbelief prevail and where the Muslims have no power or authority.

الشرح المختصر :

"Dār al-harb" (land of war): The Muslim scholars have two different opinions regarding the definition of "dār al-harb": 1. It is the territory where there is no sovereignty for the Muslim ruler, the laws of Islam are not applied, and there is no peace treaty between its people and Muslims. In other words, "dār al-harb" is the land where Islam is not dominant and Islamic laws are not implemented. This is the opinion of the majority of the scholars. 2. The fact that sovereignty is not for the Muslims is not enough to consider a territory a land of war. Rather, there are three conditions that should be met in order for a territory to be considered land of war: a) Non-Islamic laws apparently prevail. b) The territory is neighboring the Muslim lands, from where aggression is possible on Muslims. c) Muslims and "Dhimmis" (specific individuals living in Muslim lands who were granted special status and safety in Islamic law in return for paying the "jizyah" [capital tax]) living in this territory are granted protection by virtue of a covenant, not by the rule of Islam. This is the opinion of some scholars. There is no difference between "dār al-‘ahd" (land of the covenant) and "dār al-harb", except that in the former, there is a peace treaty between the Muslims and its people. Unlike the land of war, where there is no covenant or treaty and aggression is expected from its people at any time. Other than this, these two lands are contrary to the land of Islam. Therefore, "dār al-‘ahd" is a unique type of "dār al-harb" due to the treaties and covenants made between Muslims and its people. The difference between "dār al-Islam" (abode of Islam) and "dār al-harb" is that the Muslims' power and sovereignty dominate in "dār al-Islam". Therefore, any territory in which Muslims have the power and sovereignty is a "dār al-Islam"; otherwise, it is a "Dār al-harb".