They attribute contradictory statements to you regarding jihad; some report that you said: jihad is an individual obligation, while others say
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The questioner : I say—O Shaykh—that they attribute contradictory statements to you regarding jihad, meaning—for example—one of them says: you said: jihad is an individual obligation, and others say that you forbid going to Afghanistan.
The Shaykh : To ... .
The questioner : So we want to know the details and conditions, meaning if possible, if they are found?
The Shaykh : Both are attributed to me, and without doubt one is valid and the other is invalid, and the valid one is the first; perhaps the problem is the cause of the second statement, perhaps it is better to postpone, perhaps this.
Jihad in Afghanistan is an individual obligation without doubt; because this is what every Muslim understands: that if some Islamic lands are attacked, it is obligatory for all Muslims to mobilize in their entirety to drive this attacking enemy out of those lands. As for the second statement, which we deny being attributed to us, I am the one who says: it is obligatory for every able Muslim to fight there in the cause of Allah as an individual obligation. Personally, I see—and Allah knows best—that the fate of the Afghan lands, based on the Muslims' negligence in supporting their Afghan brothers, is such that I fear most that Palestine will return a second time because of the Muslims' negligence, and especially the rulers who have the power and authority, in supporting the Afghans openly. I fear most that Afghanistan will become a second Palestine. So this is a thing, and this is my opinion; the future will either refute it or confirm it, and all I hope for is that the future refutes it and that the Afghans first return to what they were before, Islamic lands over which a disbelieving state has no absolute authority, and secondly that they return to a state better than what they were; for it is known that those lands, like many of the non-Arab lands of Islam, are the furthest from the correct Islamic creed.
So my hope is that Afghanistan first returns as it was, an Islamic state over which a foreign disbelieving state has no authority, and secondly that it returns better than it was; because they have undoubtedly benefited from the association with some of the princes, the princes of jihad today; they benefited from their contact with some individuals from the Arabs, whether they were, meaning, official government figures or they were mujahideen for Allah—Mighty and Majestic—, so these Arab mujahideen transferred to those lands for the first time, a transfer that is almost a collective transfer, what concerns tawhid (the oneness of Allah), and what concerns returning to the Book and the Sunnah, and so on; this is the thing that the Afghans, as a Muslim people, did not know anything of. And this does not mean that there were not individuals among them who, for example, studied in these lands, or in India or Pakistan, and heard about the da'wah (calling) of the people of hadith or the Salafis or the like, but as a people, they did not have this concept. So I hope that the return of the Afghan people will be to a state better than what it was before. But looking at the negligence of those who have the power and authority, without supplying these people with what is obligatory for Muslims, based on the fact that this is an individual obligation, in supplying them with money, equipment, and personnel when the matter requires it; I fear most—and behind this battle, as you know, are two great states, as they say—I fear that it will return to a second Palestine; meaning they will divide Afghanistan into two parts, a communist part and an Islamic part, and the war will lay down its arms on this basis.
As for if the Islamic nation, its rulers and the ruled, perform their individual obligation, it is impossible for the lands of the Afghans not to return to Islamic lands and better than what they were before. So I am not, meaning, contradictory in expressing the legal ruling, for the legal ruling is an individual obligation. But although I am not a politician and I do not engage in politics; because what I have of engaging in religious knowledge is sufficient for me; but I see and consider, from what the Muslims are like today in general, that I fear Afghanistan will become a second Palestine, and you do not need us to define to you what Palestine is like now; for all of you know that.
The Shaykh : To ... .
The questioner : So we want to know the details and conditions, meaning if possible, if they are found?
The Shaykh : Both are attributed to me, and without doubt one is valid and the other is invalid, and the valid one is the first; perhaps the problem is the cause of the second statement, perhaps it is better to postpone, perhaps this.
Jihad in Afghanistan is an individual obligation without doubt; because this is what every Muslim understands: that if some Islamic lands are attacked, it is obligatory for all Muslims to mobilize in their entirety to drive this attacking enemy out of those lands. As for the second statement, which we deny being attributed to us, I am the one who says: it is obligatory for every able Muslim to fight there in the cause of Allah as an individual obligation. Personally, I see—and Allah knows best—that the fate of the Afghan lands, based on the Muslims' negligence in supporting their Afghan brothers, is such that I fear most that Palestine will return a second time because of the Muslims' negligence, and especially the rulers who have the power and authority, in supporting the Afghans openly. I fear most that Afghanistan will become a second Palestine. So this is a thing, and this is my opinion; the future will either refute it or confirm it, and all I hope for is that the future refutes it and that the Afghans first return to what they were before, Islamic lands over which a disbelieving state has no absolute authority, and secondly that they return to a state better than what they were; for it is known that those lands, like many of the non-Arab lands of Islam, are the furthest from the correct Islamic creed.
So my hope is that Afghanistan first returns as it was, an Islamic state over which a foreign disbelieving state has no authority, and secondly that it returns better than it was; because they have undoubtedly benefited from the association with some of the princes, the princes of jihad today; they benefited from their contact with some individuals from the Arabs, whether they were, meaning, official government figures or they were mujahideen for Allah—Mighty and Majestic—, so these Arab mujahideen transferred to those lands for the first time, a transfer that is almost a collective transfer, what concerns tawhid (the oneness of Allah), and what concerns returning to the Book and the Sunnah, and so on; this is the thing that the Afghans, as a Muslim people, did not know anything of. And this does not mean that there were not individuals among them who, for example, studied in these lands, or in India or Pakistan, and heard about the da'wah (calling) of the people of hadith or the Salafis or the like, but as a people, they did not have this concept. So I hope that the return of the Afghan people will be to a state better than what it was before. But looking at the negligence of those who have the power and authority, without supplying these people with what is obligatory for Muslims, based on the fact that this is an individual obligation, in supplying them with money, equipment, and personnel when the matter requires it; I fear most—and behind this battle, as you know, are two great states, as they say—I fear that it will return to a second Palestine; meaning they will divide Afghanistan into two parts, a communist part and an Islamic part, and the war will lay down its arms on this basis.
As for if the Islamic nation, its rulers and the ruled, perform their individual obligation, it is impossible for the lands of the Afghans not to return to Islamic lands and better than what they were before. So I am not, meaning, contradictory in expressing the legal ruling, for the legal ruling is an individual obligation. But although I am not a politician and I do not engage in politics; because what I have of engaging in religious knowledge is sufficient for me; but I see and consider, from what the Muslims are like today in general, that I fear Afghanistan will become a second Palestine, and you do not need us to define to you what Palestine is like now; for all of you know that.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.