The Shaykh's response to the accusation leveled against him, namely that he does not recognize jihad in any form, and that he makes the condition of an imam a prerequisite for it.

The Shaykh : So now, after this explanation, which I consider an answer to what came in the question regarding jihad. Now, let us mention the doubts or the evidence, in their claim, by which they refuted us, where they assumed that we deny jihad absolutely, and that we make the condition of an imam a prerequisite for it, whereas we distinguish between one type of jihad and another.
Let us see the evidence.

The questioner : Jihad without an imam.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : A doubt... no jihad without an imam, which is...

The Shaykh : And now we have said that we affirm jihad without an imam, but we say: the jihad that—for example—we assume there is a ruler who is a disbeliever explicitly; this is permissible by the text of the hadith that came in your question . Okay; does this going out against this disbeliever, who is a disbeliever explicitly, not require preparation? Is this not a point of disagreement between one Muslim and another?!

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : Okay; now they say: the group of jihad; where is the group of jihad? And where are their preparations that enable them to go out against the ruler who is a disbeliever openly? Where is this? And where is the disagreement they claim that the imamate is obligatory?
We say: the jihad that is intended to be this going out, it must have an imamate, but this alone is not sufficient; does it not require spiritual preparation and material preparation, starting from His saying—Blessed and Exalted is He—: ?! This address is not realized in an Islamic land, unfortunately; and therefore we say: this is necessary. So did those who called themselves the group of jihad fulfill this obligation?

The questioner : They did not.

The Shaykh : Okay; so if they are raising a disagreement where there is no disagreement, we say: jihad is of two types: jihad that is an individual obligation, and you have known its form, and jihad that is a collective obligation, and you have known its form.
The first jihad does not need an imamate, nor does it need a preparation similar to the preparation of the disbeliever who is stronger than us, nor does it need a preparation like that of the ruler from whom we have seen open disbelief, but it must have the preparation that enables the Muslims. Today—unfortunately—the Muslims cannot... the disbeliever does not have the means to prevent the Muslims from their preparation for this jihad; I mean the faith-based jihad; so there is no group of Muslims who are united and gathered on a correct understanding of the Book and the Sunnah, and who have also been raised with a correct upbringing, so that all their actions are in light of this Book and Sunnah.
In the recent past, we were speaking on this topic; therefore we say now: if we wanted to fight jihad in a certain country; where would we get the weapons? These are actually a group of unorganized people, and the example they saw was in the jihad that lasted more than ten years; namely the Afghan jihad; where did they get their weapons? Did they have the preparation to produce weapons locally, or did they import them from the very countries that fight the Islamic call?! How can these people fight jihad when they do not have such preparation? The very painful truth is that the Muslims today are like unorganized children who do not know the magnitude of the responsibility of carrying out jihad against the disbelievers or the rulers who are considered to be ruling with explicit disbelief; they did not know the magnitude of this obligation to prepare for it, they think the issue is a matter of gathering a hundred people, a thousand people, two thousand people, and motivating them for jihad in the path of Allah, then they are not able to make a needle to patch a tear in their clothes; let alone make a weapon to fight their enemy with!!
Where is this preparation commanded in the Qur'an from the reality of this group or others from whom we have seen the effects of their jihad, and then the outcome is a loss for the Muslim call, starting with the group of "Juhayman" in the Makkah Haram, and secondly the group that followed in Egypt, "al-Saburi"?

The questioner : Al-Buri.

The Shaykh : Al-Buri, yes, that is right.
Thirdly: in Syria, the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood, and finally: the Algerians and what they are now suffering from setbacks and so on; what did the Islamic call benefit from this haste in a matter that actually realizes some of the sayings we consider wisdom in its place; and that is the saying of the one who said: "Whoever hastens a thing before its time is tested with its deprivation," this is what the Muslims are suffering from today.
Okay; what else do you have?