o employ one's-self vigorously, diligently, studiously,
sedulously, earnestly, or with energy; to be diligent or studious, to
take pains or extraordinary pains. _Vide_ Appendix A.

In the second place, Yezid bin Abi Shaiba, a link in the chain of the
tradition, is a _Mujhool_,[304] _i.e._, his biography is not known,
therefore his tradition can have no authority.

There is also another tradition in Bokharee to the effect that the
Prophet had said, "I have been enjoined to fight the people until they
confess that there is no god but the God." This tradition goes quite
contrary to the verses of the Koran which enjoin to fight in
defence,--that is, until the persecution or civil discord was
removed.--(_Vide_ Sura II, 189; VIII, 40.) Thus it appears that either
the whole tradition is a spurious one, or some of the narrators were
wrong in interpreting the words of the Prophet.

[Sidenote: 111. Early Moslem legists quoted against Jihad.]

That the Koran did not allow war of aggression either when it was
revealed, or in future as the early jurisconsults did infer from it,
will be further shown from the opinions of the early Moslems; legists of
the first and second century of the Hegira, like Ibn (son of) Omar the
second khalif, Sotian Souri, Ibn Shobormah, Ata and Amar-bin-Dinar. All
these early legists held that the fighting was not religiously incumbent
(_wajib_), and that it was only a voluntary act, and that only those
were to be fought against who attacked the Moslems.[305]

[Sidenote: Biographical sketches of the legists.]

I will give here short biographical sketches of the legists named
above--

(1.) "Abu Abd-ur-Rahman Abdullah ibn Omar ibn-al Khattab was one of the
most eminent among the _companions_ of Muhammad by his piety, his
generosity, his contempt of the world, his learning and his virtues.
Though entitled by birth to aspire to the highest places in the empire,
he never hearkened to the dictates of ambition; possessing a vast
influence over the Moslims by his rank, his instruction, and his holy
life, he neither employed nor abused it in favour of any party, and
during the civil wars which raged among the followers of Islamism, he
remained neutral, solely occupied with the duties of religion. For a
period of thirty years persons came from all parts to consult him and
learn from him the Traditions.... He died at Mekka A.H. 73 (A.D. 692-3)
aged 84 years...."--[_Tabakat al Fokaha_, fol. 5.]

(2.) Ata Ibn A