The war in Iraq and Syria involving the Islamic State (IS) and other combatants since 2014 to date has numerous perspectives including the Sunni-Shi’a conflict and the threat posed by returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF) among others. This essay argues that the war’s multi-dimensional and dubious nature offer an insight of what is known in Islamic discourse on Muslim civil war as qital al-fitnah (QF) or civil strife. The first section of this paper will offer a conceptual understanding of QF through the examination of Islamic literature by Sunni scholars. The paper will then postulate the appropriate response to be taken by Muslims who live to experience such a war. The concept of an illegitimate war from the Sunni viewpoint will be deliberated before concluding that jihad, and to some degree martyrdom should not be hastily declared to respond to an armed conflict that involves a Muslim community/land.