What are the conditions of a banner that is raised, such that it becomes obligatory for the Muslims to support it, so that we do not fall into the text of the hadith: “Whoever fights under a banner of ignorance…”

Abu Malik: And the first question we pose to our Shaykh is from one of the brothers: What are the conditions of a banner that is raised, such that it becomes obligatory for the Muslims to support it, and that is so that we do not fall into the text of the hadith or the prohibition mentioned in the hadith . So please clarify the matter for us, may Allah reward you with good. I say to you, my brothers, in advance, I hope that you listen to the answer of our Shaykh, because many of the questions that have reached us, most of them or the majority of them, revolve around this meaning. And therefore, what I hope for is that you pay attention to the detailed answer, so that perhaps the answer to this question alone will suffice for many questions that the brothers have submitted to us, and may Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah. After that, it is obligatory for all Muslims to know that jihad is of two types: jihad to repel the aggression of the disbeliever, and jihad to carry the call to the lands of disbelief. The first type of jihad is not subject to the aforementioned condition, because in this case—when the disbeliever invades a land of the Muslims—it is obligatory for all Muslims to mobilize in their entirety and not to think about any condition that should be met in the jihad that is for carrying the call to the lands of disbelief and misguidance. Raising the Islamic banner, which we always talk about and support fully, is only when Muslims want to prepare themselves and establish their state; in that case, it should not be except under an Islamic banner, and they should not fight that type of jihad except under it. As for the first case, when the disbeliever invades a land of the Muslims, in this case we do not think about whether that condition is met or not, but rather it is upon the Muslims to mobilize in their entirety to repel the greatest danger, which is the attack of the disbelievers on the lands of Islam. Therefore, people today have very narrow thinking when they think about the condition of raising an Islamic banner to repel, for example, the aggression of these disbelievers who have gathered from every direction and side to attack the lands of the Muslims, which is Iraq. Here, it is obligatory for the Islamic states to support the people who are being attacked by the disbelievers and not to think about whether the state of that people raises the banner of Islam or not, because in this case we want to save the Muslim people from the control of that disbeliever or those disbelievers. Here, it is obligatory for all Muslims to mobilize in their entirety. The truth is that among the effects of this trial that has befallen the Muslims in this era, and for which we know no parallel in the entire Islamic history, is that the truth becomes mixed with falsehood for the Muslims, and the obligatory becomes mixed with what is not obligatory, or even with what is not permissible. The reason for this goes back to two things. The first relates to the general public of the Muslims, in that they are far removed from understanding the religion. The other reason relates not to the general public of the Muslims, but to their specialists, those specialists who are supposed to study what has befallen the Muslims of trials in light of what came in the Book and the Sunnah, and that is what helps them to know the legal ruling in what has befallen the Muslims. There is no harm in reminding you of a hadith and a legal ruling. As for the hadith, it is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): So, supporting the Muslims, one another, according to this detail mentioned in this authentic hadith is, unfortunately, one of the things that has become forgotten in the Islamic world, and tribal or local fanaticism has often prevailed over them. This is what happened to many Muslims when the first trial occurred, which was the aggression of Iraq against Kuwait. The Muslims divided themselves into two groups: a group that approved of this aggression, which is a clear aggression, and a group that condemned it. We were, and still are, with the group that condemned it, because it contradicts clear and evident texts from the Shari'ah, including the noble verse that is not hidden from anyone, which is His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): It was obligatory for the Islamic states, and we should say it was obligatory for the Muslim state, but unfortunately, there was none, and perhaps a Muslim state will be near. Rather, there are Islamic states whose people are Muslim, but their governments may be in one place and the people in another. However, this does not take these Muslim people out of the circle of Islam; they are Islamic people. I say it was obligatory for the Muslim state to apply the text of this noble verse: to the end of it. But there were only states, and Muslim states whose rulings, or at least many of their rulings, contradict Islam. So it was very natural that none of these states was able to, or did, apply the aforementioned verse: If reconciliation is not achieved, No Muslim state stood to apply this noble verse, because there was no state that had been established with the rulings of Islam in their entirety, including His saying (Exalted is He): ... The second trial occurred, which was the entry of the greatest disbelieving and tyrannical state into the Islamic Arab lands, which had never been trodden by such feet in Islamic history. The Saudi state sought the help of the American state, and they entered them by their choice, as they claim, and we have no choice but to hold to what they say: they entered their lands with their consent, and even at their request. This was the second trial. They claimed that this seeking of help was out of dire necessity to repel a possible second aggression from the first aggressor against the Kuwaiti state. So, as a precaution to prevent such a second aggression, the Saudi state fell into what is more dangerous than what they thought would happen, which is bringing the Americans and the British into the lands of Islam without a drop of blood being shed from these disbelievers, and without them paying the jizyah (tax on protected non-Muslims) from the hand while they are humbled, as is supposed for the Muslim state that rules by what Allah has revealed, to impose the jizyah on the disbelievers, the enemies of Islam and the Muslims. But, with great regret, the matter was the opposite. The Saudis paid, instead of taking, millions and millions, as you hear and know, to supply these disbelievers in the path of what? In the path of fighting the Muslims in the lands of Iraq, which was formerly, as you know, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate, and Islam continued to work there for long centuries. So we used to say before that it is not permissible to support Iraq because it had aggressed against Kuwait. But Allah the Great is truthful when He said about these criminal disbelievers: Because they were able to gather many disbelieving states around them, and there is no wonder in that, for it was said long ago: "Birds fall according to their kind." But the greatest wonder is that they were able, through their cunning referred to, to include many Islamic states with them. What was the operative cause they relied on, and by which they were able to convince those Islamic states or Islamic governments? They were able to convince them to join them in the path of fighting Iraq. They claimed that the purpose of this dangerous gathering was to return Iraq to its borders and hand Kuwait over to its people. We thought that this call was sincere, and that if it were realized, we would wish for it, but not from the states of disbelief, rather from the Muslims themselves, in order to implement the aforementioned verse: The address is, without doubt, and without any doubt, to the Muslims: But, unfortunately, those who took charge, in what they claimed and not in what they did, after those who tried to return the Kuwaiti lands to their owners and send the aggressor back to his land, were these disbelievers and the Islamic governments that joined them. So what was the result of this cunning? It became apparent and clear to anyone with eyes, even if those two eyes had no insight, meaning even the disbelievers themselves saw that this alliance and this gathering was not truly to expel Iraq from Kuwait, but to destroy Iraq. This is a matter that does not need explanation, because the radio stations, newspapers, magazines, and all media have agreed on this truth, even the disbelievers themselves. In this situation, we now say: It is obligatory for those of the Islamic states that have not been compromised to join those they call the allies. It is obligatory for these remaining neutral Islamic states to fight the disbelievers who are now fighting the Iraqis. So, it is upon these states, and I do not say individuals alone, but upon the states with their regular, trained armies, practiced in fighting with modern weapons suitable for such an invasion, to take the initiative to join Iraq to fight the disbelievers whose intention has become clear: to destroy the Iraqi people and eliminate them. This ruling that I have reached now relates to that jurisprudential issue I referred to at the beginning of my speech when I said I would speak to you about a hadith and a jurisprudential issue. The hadith is: Now, Iraq is oppressed. Before, it was oppressive to the Kuwaitis, but now it has become oppressed by the states of disbelief, I do not know their number, twenty or more, and some Islamic states have joined them. So Iraq today is oppressed and must be supported. And when I say this, it should not occur to the mind of any listener that we mean supporting the Ba'ath Party or supporting a specific person. No. This is not permissible Islamically. Rather, it is obligatory to support the Iraqi people and to repel from them these states that used all means of destruction and poured them upon Iraq, and the Iraqi army is still in Kuwait. If they had been sincere in what they spread at the beginning, and Iraq returned to its borders and the Kuwaiti state returned to its owners, the problem would have ended. But, with great regret, this disbelieving call was exploited by them claiming they wanted to support the Kuwaiti people against Iraq. It became clear that their purpose was to destroy the Iraqi people. Therefore, they must be supported against their attacking enemies. As for the jurisprudential issue, it draws attention to the fact that the Muslim must be realistic and not have rigid thinking, like some jurisprudential matters. Intoxicants, when they are intoxicants, we prohibit them because the Lawgiver forbade them in His verses and in the hadiths of His Prophet. But if these intoxicants change and ferment and become vinegar, it is not permissible for the Muslim to stick to his previous statement that this drink is forbidden to drink, because it has developed and become something other than the previous reality. It was intoxicant, so it became vinegar; it was forbidden, so it became lawful. And on that basis, measure from yourselves many, many issues. The most famous of them is that water is divided into three categories: purifying, pure, and impure. But something may happen to these types that takes them out of their ruling. For example, the purifying water, which in its reality is pure, may cease to be purifying and remain pure. Then, in some cases, it may cease to be pure and become impure. This water that has become impure may develop and change by the addition of much water, i.e., by being mixed with pure water, and it turns back to being pure after it was impure. And so, the Muslim jurist must give every ruling its due and not stay with the first ruling when something has entered it that necessitates a change. I said in part of what I said earlier that it is obligatory for the Islamic states to support the Iraqi people, and I qualified it by saying, and not for individuals. I mean that the enthusiasm of individuals that we witnessed at the beginning of the trial, and especially now, these people should not think about supporting Iraq individually. Rather, they must urge their states to be with them in supporting Iraq against their enemies who were called the allies. The reason for this goes back to two things: the first is a legal reason, and the second is reality, which imposes it. As for the law, we know from the authentic Sunnah that the Muslims who were fighting the disbelievers in the early periods, even in the Prophetic era, every tribe fought with its individuals with its tribe. So the Muhajireen were with the Muhajireen, and the Ansar were with the Ansar, united by the circle of Islam. Why was this? Because every tribe has its customs and traditions that do not conflict with Islam. So understanding, language, and the like, all this relates to the organization of Islamic jihad. If a state goes with its people to jihad, they have their own banner, and the individuals of their people understand their methods and understand their language, and the like. This is the first reason, which is the legal one. As for the matter that reality necessitates, when individuals go there, they will join a system that they have no prior knowledge of and no familiarity with. And secondly, it may prevent them from performing many individual obligatory duties, because they are not accustomed to that system, living in the system of Islam that obliges Muslims to maintain the Shari'ah of Islam and the rulings of the religion, even in times of hardship and even in times of war. For example, perhaps you all know from the books of jurisprudence and the books of hadith a prayer called the Prayer of Fear. This Prayer of Fear has a special nature and a special characteristic, and I do not think that most Muslim individuals truly know this prayer called the Prayer of Fear. And in my opinion, if these individuals go to fight to achieve this support, which is now an individual obligation for everyone who can carry a weapon and can defend those Islamic lands, these who may go with this intention, if there is no state to organize their affairs, they will neglect more duties than they achieve of the duty they went for. In the sense that Allah said: And among that, the Prayer of Fear does not drop the obligation of maintaining the time, even in the Prayer of Fear, even in war, in fighting. And in my opinion, if these individuals from the Muslims are not united by an Islamic system that rules them and organizes their affairs, the loss for these individuals, if they go there to achieve an obligation, is that they will neglect many, many obligations in return. And perhaps what brings this picture closer to you, which should not be a reality, is that many of those who go to Hajj to perform the obligation of Hajj, the obligation of Islam, have never performed Hajj at all. He wants to perform this individual obligation, and because of his ignorance and lack of knowledge of the obligation to maintain the performance of every prayer in its time, he neglects many prayers in the path of achieving this obligation, which is Hajj to the House of Allah the Sacred. If the Muslim wants to perform a pillar like this pillar, Hajj, but neglects pillars in the path of that pillar, it is better for him to stay in his home in his country, maintaining his prayers, performing every prayer in its time. This is better for him than to perform many prayers in the path of performing a pillar of the pillars of Islam, which is Hajj to the House of Allah the Sacred. Therefore, and until there is provided for the Iraqi people someone to support this people from the Islamic governments, you must now strive against your souls and not surrender to your emotions, and not let each of you go without caring about anything except wanting to fight there, and when he arrives there, he is lost and disappears and neglects many legal rulings, as we hinted at earlier. So, in this situation, we must focus on the jihad of the soul, which in reality, the Muslim is not a fighter in the path of Allah unless he fights his desires. And he must train himself to fight his desires while in his own home, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And let each individual of us look here and find himself short in performing many individual obligatory duties. And so, let him rectify his matter and improve his repentance and return to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to achieve a type of jihad. Perhaps after that, when the time of jihad in the path of supporting Iraq against those disbelievers comes, he will be able to, having trained in jihad in his own home, to fight in the path of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) outside his country. And there remains something that is necessary, given the situation as we mentioned, that I remind the present ones of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): So, if we are weak now and cannot, as individuals, support the Iraqi people, at least let us pray for them and be sincere to them in supplication, especially in the qunut (supplication made standing in prayer) in the five prayers, as many mosque imams do today. But the important thing is that we be sincere in supplication to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), perhaps Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will return these disbelievers defeated and make the Iraqi people victorious, as we hope from the Lord of the Worlds.
Abu Malik: May Allah reward you with good.