The Islamic Personality by Sheikh Taqīuddīn An-Nabahānī

Jihad is expending (one’s) effort in fighting in the way of Allah (swt) directly or assisting by wealth or opinion or increasing numbers or other than that. The fighting to raise the word of Allah is jihad. As for jihad by speaking in the path of Allah (swt), this is jihad if the speech relates directly to fighting in the way of Allah. If it does not relate directly to it, it is not Shar’i jihad even if it involves difficulty and even if the results benefit in raising the word of Allah (swt). This is because jihad in Shar’a is specific to fighting, so there enters within it everything related directly to fighting. Similar to the opinion is writing and speaking; they are jihad if they are related directly to fighting in the way of Allah (swt) like the speech to the army to encourage it to fight directly or words inciting fighting the enemies. If not, this is not (jihad). Neither political struggle nor rebuking the rulers is termed jihad though their reward is high and their benefit to the Muslims great. The issue is neither difficulty nor the benefit, but rather it is the Shar’i meaning with which it came for this word. The Shari’ah meaning is fighting and all that it relates to from opinion, speech, writing, strategy and other things.

The cause of jihad is not jizyah even though we stop (fighting) them when they accept the jizyah. Rather, the cause of jihad is that those whom we fight are disbelievers (kuffar) who rejected the da’wah. Allah (swt) said:

The command to fight them is (due to) their attribute of disbelief i.e. fight them because they do not believe in Allah and the Last Day etc. So this description is a restriction and at this point it becomes a cause. So the cause of fighting is disbelief. It came in another ayah:

So the command to fight them is due to the attribute of disbelief. There are many similar ayat such as:

And

And

All these ayat command the fighting due to a specific attribute which is the cause of fighting i.e. disbelief. As for the payment of jizyah, the Qur’an combined it with humiliation as the cause of stopping the fighting not the cause of fighting. From here it is understood that the cause of jihad is disbelief. If those whom we fight accept the da’wah they become Muslims; if they refuse to accept Islam (but) accept to pay the jizyah and be ruled by Islam, it is accepted from them and they are not fought as it is not permitted to force them to accept Islam. As long as they accept to be ruled by it and pay the jizyah, they have submitted to the da’wah even if they have not accepted Islam. Accordingly, it is not allowed to fight them after they accept to be ruled by it and pay the jizyah. However, if they accept to pay the jizyah but refuse to be ruled by Islam, it is not allowed to accept this from them because the cause of fighting which is that they are disbelievers who have refused to accept the da’wah remains standing so fighting them remains obligatory, an obligation which has not fallen from the Muslims’ necks. As for the emergency treaties in which the Khalifah accepts from them the jizyah while leaving them to rule themselves by the system of disbelief, due to the absence of compliance of the external and internal circumstances for it, the Shar’a gave concession to this emergency situation in the situations of necessity so no analogy is done upon it. Therefore the cause of jihad is that those whom we fight are disbelievers who refused to accept the da’wah and there is no other cause for jihad. As for jizyah together with humiliation being a cause to stop fighting, this is only with non polytheist Arabs. As for polytheist Arabs, it is not accepted from them except Islam or fighting due to Allah’s statement:

Jihad is obligatory by the explicit text of the Qur’an and Hadith. Allah (swt) said:

And He (swt) said:

And Allah (swt) said:

And He (swt) said:

It is narrated from Anas (ra) who said: “The Messenger of Allah (saw) said:

Also from Anas that the Prophet (saw) said:

He also narrated that he (saw) said:

Imam Ahmad and Abu Dawud narrated from Anas who said: The Messenger of Allah (saw) said:

It has been narrated from Zayd bin Khalid who said: The Messenger of Allah (saw) said:

And he (saw) said:

It has been narrated from Abi Awfa (ra) that the Messenger of Allah (saw) said:

It is narrated from Abu Hurayra (ra) who said:

Jihad is an obligation of sufficiency (fard kifayah) offensively, and an individual obligation (fard ‘ayn) against the enemy who attacks them while being a obligation of sufficiency upon the rest. The obligation does not fall until the enemy is expelled and the Islamic land liberated from their filth. The meaning of jihad being an obligation of sufficiency offensively is that we start fighting the enemy even if they do not start (fighting) us. If no Muslim performs the fighting offensively at any period then they will be sinful for leaving it. If the people of Egypt perform the offensive jihad then (its obligation) falls from the people of Indonesia, as there exists practical fighting by Muslims against belligerent disbelievers therefore the obligation of jihad has occurred. However if fighting broke out between Muslims and disbelievers but the sufficiency (kifayah) has not occurred by the people of Egypt fighting the disbelievers alone, then its obligation does not fall from the people of India and Indonesia by the performance of the people of Egypt and Iraq. Rather it is obligatory upon the nearest (Muslim) then the nearest to the enemy until sufficiency occurs; if sufficiency does not occur except with all the Muslims, then jihad becomes obligatory upon all the Muslims until the enemy is subdued. Jihad is an obligation of sufficiency (fard kifayah) if the Khalifah has not told him to advance; as for the one whom the Khalifah has told him to take part, then jihad has become obligatory upon him due to Allah’s statement:

And his (saw) statement:

The meaning of the sufficiency in jihad in the Islamic State is that there arise for jihad a people whose fighting is sufficient; whether they are an army for whom there are books of accounts (dawawin) for this as was the case in the time of Umar (ra), or they had prepared themselves for jihad freely as was the case in the time of Abu Bakr (ra). It is the same whether the first ones or the latter ones or both of them together such that if the enemy targets them they are able to defend so it is a obligation of sufficiency upon them. If they are unable to defend, then the Khalifah prepares others for jihad and so on. Offensive jihad does not mean that we initiate fighting the enemy directly; rather we must first call them to Islam.

If is not allowed for Muslims to fight those whom the Islamic da’wah has not reached; rather, the disbelievers must first be called to Islam. If they reject, then they are asked to pay the jizyah; and if they reject, we fight them. Muslim narrated from Sulayman bin Buraydah from his father:

And from ibn Abbas (ra):

And from Furwat bin Maseek who said: