The Ruling on Jihad in Palestine?

The Shaykh: That is, the ruling on going, if it is for jihad... only in Palestine, but rather for going directly there.

The questioner : There is no objection.

The Shaykh: Yes, there is no obstacle if you want to... I mean, jihad in Palestine is like jihad in Syria, like jihad in the Philippines, like jihad in Afghanistan, in terms of the Shari'ah ruling; is that clear?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: But a person must be rational, not emotional, and as I say, based on what Allah has opened up for me, is jihad to support the Muslims in the Philippines facilitated as it is in Afghanistan?

The questioner : No.

The Shaykh: Okay; is jihad in Palestine obligatory?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: This is a Shari'ah ruling, but is it obligatory; I mean, is it possible?

The questioner : No.

The Shaykh: Okay; now the question is repeated, we are following the sequence until we reach Palestine; is jihad in Palestine possible?

The questioner: Okay; let me finish.

The Shaykh: No, don't finish... give the short answer and take a lecture...

The questioner : It is not possible.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : It is not possible.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is it.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner: Now I have retracted my statement that jihad in Afghanistan and the Philippines is equivalent to jihad in Palestine, no, it is not equivalent... from one aspect.

The Shaykh: It is not equivalent.

The questioner: I mean, or...

The Shaykh: From which side.

The questioner: I mean, jihad in Palestine is more obligatory than jihad in Afghanistan and jihad in the Philippines...

The Shaykh: Okay, no, I am not with you, until we reach... more obligatory; is that what you say?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: I have caught you in your answer: "more obligatory"; good?

The questioner: No, I mean, do you want my words to be correct?

The Shaykh: No, no, it is not correct, but let me tell you: suppose the matter is like this; because we... the research is theoretical, we need to research practically.

The questioner: Practical research, from the aspect of legitimacy that it is a blessed land, a land in which is the extreme.

The Shaykh: ... I explained to you earlier, jihad in the Philippines is also obligatory, but if you are in Palestine it is obligatory because the land is sacred, there is no need, but we have already agreed on the obligation of jihad in all lands where Muslim lands are attacked, we are done with this and agreed, we returned to ask: is jihad in Palestine possible? Your answer was: No.

The questioner: Yes, in this research, no.

The Shaykh: The research is in this...

The questioner : But... .

The Shaykh: ... We said that jihad in Afghanistan is facilitated for whoever wishes; as evidence, each of you prepares his situation, for example, to go and train there with weapons, this one with the intention to fight in Palestine, and this one with the intention to fight there, then if jihad in Palestine becomes possible for him, he fights, so what will he be? One who took the means of training in Afghanistan, this is possible, but in Palestine is jihad possible? You said: No.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: So jihad in Palestine and jihad in Afghanistan, in terms of the Shari'ah ruling, are obligatory, but in Palestine it is not possible, in Afghanistan it is possible; so since it is possible, it is the obligatory one, so this is prioritized over an obligatory one that is not possible...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Be patient, Afghanistan did not do like your story, Afghanistan was able to do as they did in Syria, exactly.

The questioner: O Shaykh, you are right.

The Shaykh: Correct? As they did in Syria, but the group... Allah knows, they were, I mean, more sound in their creed... faith in the religion, or they had some of the psychological and military preparations... but the original matter, they were surprised by what you were surprised by... the Shi'ite rule, so it arose between the leaders... and our Lord - Mighty and Majestic - extended them with good from Him and weapons from some Islamic countries, and so on, and it continued for 10 years, and they were fighting until they expelled the most dangerous state from their lands, and their tails remained in it, so jihad there is possible, jihad in Palestine is not possible, so regarding... your question, since jihad in Afghanistan is obligatory; why is not jihad in Palestine obligatory? No one says this, jihad is not in Palestine, it is in all lands of the world as we said earlier, but what... you are not seeing now, or the situation they call the Intifada in Palestine; in that case, it will be without benefit, and I do not believe that this enables them of anything at all; why? Because this Intifada, neither the psychological preparation nor the material preparation... and therefore its outcome is that we will kill ourselves and our youth and without advancing a single step forward, then the greatest calamity that happens in Palestine is like what we are seeing now in Afghanistan; what will happen in Palestine is that... the movement is for the benefit of a non-Islamic group.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: ... Now you want to train... but not when you train... always the problem of Muslims is the problem of the group of Juhayman and so on, and no one will tell you: No, do not train, do you see how?

The questioner: ... There is no ruler or...

The Shaykh : In what?

The questioner: ... Emirate.

The Shaykh: No, this matter is different, I mean, in reality, jihad without an emirate does not happen, but defense of the land for the emirate happens, there is a difference, and perhaps this difference became clear to you from the speech that... I mean, now there is no pledge of allegiance in any land of the lands of Islam, correct?

The questioner: There is no, there is no.

The Shaykh: There is no Caliphate, but it is not permissible in any town of the lands of Islam, from... the disbelievers with their soldiers and their equipment and their strong weapons, therefore we in the country in the region are with our hands tied; because we have no Amir, or else everyone in his house has this... this is a rifle, this... this... to repel this oppressive enemy, they do not... the pledge of allegiance and the Caliphate, but if we want to establish the rule of Allah on earth, it cannot be established ever except on the path of the righteous Salaf, and in which the hadiths came one after another: , and therefore do not let the matter be confused for you, this is with this. Now in Afghanistan, since the news started reaching us about... there are several groups, yes, but this is better in the path of expelling this disbelieving enemy than waiting for the enemy to occupy all the lands, and control the necks of the servants, so that we remain waiting until we achieve the Rightly Guided Caliphate, one matter differs from another exactly, so it is not permissible to compare the two situations.
Before I finish... I do not know if you were, when we took you to your house in Jordan, when we spoke about these situations, were you present or not?

The questioner: No...

The Shaykh : ... .

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Were you not present?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: The important thing is that the news reached you, now I am drawing your attention to this again so that you are aware of the matter before you think of going to Afghanistan for jihad in the path of Allah, and this is what they call us in the Levant "putting your blood in your palm," so fight this simple jihad, and it is.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: I am not telling you, I am clarifying the matter to you, and it is... by the verses of Allah or other than the verses of Allah... like this "By gratitude, blessings remain," if you wrote it for the common person, he would think that this is a verse, or he would think that it is a hadith; why? Because the walls are decorated with it, and it is as if it is an inherited phrase with them, and this is nothing but wisdom, wisdom taken from like His saying - the Exalted - : , and if it were permissible for us to decorate the walls with some verses, we would say this is not permissible; why? Because this is from the speech that is forbidden, , is there a difference between this phrase and "By gratitude, blessings remain"? Yes, there is a difference; this is the speech of the servants and that is the speech of the Lord of the servants, ... the Verse of the Throne...

The questioner: Al-Falaq.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner: Surat al-Falaq.

The Shaykh: Al-Falaq, so this must first be removed, secondly this... the ground exactly, this is more difficult, have you heard anything about it?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : I did not understand.

The questioner: The Dome of the Rock.

The Shaykh: Have you heard anything about it...?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh: This is the Dome of the Rock, it only took this shape and this introduction in the foreheads of places that it is a sacred rock, and in reality it does not go beyond a forged rock, not a rock from a mountain, but a rock from a mountain forged that it is standing in the air, and I... and I before the occupation...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner: We went to it before the occupation and after the occupation.

The Shaykh: I mean, the incident you heard from me, I am Al-Albani myself, I mean, so I visited... and entered the place of the rock, and it is a rock of rocks, under it is empty something.

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : And they believed, as stated in the fabricated hadiths, that the Messenger ascended from it to the sky. This is a lie, and they added to the lie that it followed him, and that is why it remained suspended in the air. It is nothing but a rock...

The questioner : And the mosque built upon it, is this the Mosque of the Dome of the Rock?

The Shaykh : It is the Masjid Dharar.

The questioner : The Masjid Dharar.

The Shaykh : ... Do people not intend to pray in this mosque...?

The questioner : The concept of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Shaykh : That is it.

The questioner : This is what happened.

Another questioner : Now, in the magazines, in the...

The Shaykh : This... May Allah reward you. This is our position: that this rock has become a symbol of sanctification, and it has absolutely no basis in the Shari'ah. And when we establish it in the hearts of people, it means we are supporting the popular idea... among the masses...

The questioner : This is, may Allah know best, a Jewish idea. Why? So that they can demolish Al-Aqsa, while the rock itself remains.

The Shaykh : I noticed that this rock... in Islam, and then I did not hear of it until we said, as I mentioned earlier, that there is a mosque at the rock, under the rock, which people visit to pray in. And 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), on one of his journeys... stopped at a place, and saw people heading toward a specific direction =
-- Another questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings --
= So he asked those around him: Where are these people heading? They said: There is a prayer place where the Messenger prayed, so they go there to pray. =
-- Please proceed --
Where are these people going? They said: It is a prayer place for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So he said: "O people, if prayer time catches you in any of these mosques where the Messenger prayed, then pray there. And if not, do not do so; for those before you were destroyed only by following the traces of their prophets." And now, if there were a trace of a Prophet, as they claim that the Messenger ascended to the Mi'raj from this rock, he would not want to make it a mosque. Now the rock has become the Masjid Dharar, and what is intended? Praying in it instead of Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is the first issue that confronts us from some of them...
The point is, we look at the faults of others and forget our own faults. When we decorate the fronts of our meeting halls with this rock as a symbol for the Palestinians, this is not permissible, because in this case you are supporting the superstition associated with this image. Therefore, this must also be removed. And this is a reminder ...
So I took it to the house for three days... we discussed it... we told him to take a picture of a natural scene with trees, rivers, mountains, and the like... that is better; because first, it is permissible to decorate houses with such things. What is the means? It is a form of reminding of... Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His earth. As for this rock, this image, and its sanctification, and supporting the common people... this is among the harms... of the present. Therefore... ... permissibility; as Ibn 'Abbas said about that painter: "Paint everything except... living beings."

The questioner : ... The walls, for example?

The Shaykh : Yes, there is a prohibition against decorating walls, ... or as he (peace be upon him) said.

The questioner : This natural scene, is it...?

The Shaykh : ... What is the meaning of Ibn 'Abbas's words?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : When he tells him: "Paint everything," what is in your mind regarding this painting except for such ostentation? ...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : That is, decorating the wall with a natural picture, if it does not involve following... what we see, we see no obstacle. Now there are papers that make the whole wall look like an enlarged natural picture. This paper, as they say, I do not know... but it is reasonable. It replaces... the paint. Yes, so in that case, we kill two birds with one stone. But it should be noted that it should not be in a place where the people of the house are predominant over the worshipper, and secondly, that it should not be the qiblah of a mosque; meaning the place where you pray.