Do I have to learn my religion first before I go to Afghanistan, or do I go like this without knowledge?

The questioner : That is, do I understand from your words that as a young Muslim, if I want to go to jihad in Afghanistan, it is obligatory for me to educate myself in the knowledge of 'aqidah and tawhid (the oneness of Allah) before I go to jihad, so that I am a truly Muslim young man, fully educated, and then I go to jihad? Or is it, as some told me, that before you go to jihad in Afghanistan, you should call to Allah here in your country, that it is more right for you to raise and prepare young people for the religion, and so on, or to prepare yourself for knowledge, and after that it is possible for you to go to jihad? I mean, one of the shaykhs told me: if you want to do the greater jihad, which is the jihad of the self, before you fight with weapons, you must fight your self and prepare yourself spiritually and morally, and then go to jihad. So jihad itself is a school. But do I understand from your words that as a young Muslim, I must first prepare myself in terms of knowledge, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), hadith, and so on, and the Qur'an, and then go to jihad? Or do I go now?

The Shaykh : I will answer you according to my view first, and then I will answer you according to your view second. I say: it was obligatory for you to understand Islam. Of course, not Islam in all its details and branches, but rather to correct your 'aqidah and correct the worship for which you are obligated. For example, I give an example considering you as a young man; usually, you cannot be rich, for example. Zakah is obligatory on you, and Hajj to the House of Allah the Exalted is obligatory on you. This is the case for most young people, meaning they live on the shoulders of their fathers. I want to reach a point from this example, whether it matches your reality or not, because the point is the example. You, for example, do not own wealth that makes zakah obligatory on you, so you do not have to learn the rulings of zakah. You do not own the wealth that enables you to go to Hajj to the House of Allah the Exalted, so it is not obligatory for you to learn the rulings of Hajj. But it is obligatory for you to pray, it is obligatory for you to fast. And before these obligations, it is obligatory for you to know what we briefly discussed earlier: La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadur Rasul Allah. What does this beautiful word mean in its entirety? And Ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasul Allah, and so on. So it was obligatory for you, before you go to jihad, to have completed the first obligation. This is according to my view. As for you, according to your view, I tell you now: go and fight in the path of Allah, and do not hold me accountable if I told you in haste and in a rough manner. But there, you will indeed find yourself in an atmosphere different from the one you are living in here. First, I am giving you good news: this softness I see in you, and you are a young man, is not befitting for you; it will fall away there. Of course, you will become like your companion.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : ... it comes out, but you have already fallen by it here. You will see the beards are different here; this beard is not that one. When this one grew, it was like my beard, shaggy here and there. And there were young men who used to laugh, saying what do we have to do with them? Anyway, this is just an example. May Allah reward you. So it is upon you now to go there. But before that, among the rulings that apply to you specifically, I must say: when I told you "go there now," that is an answer according to your view. But I want to know now: are you your father's only son?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : No. So if you are not your father's only son, are you the eldest of your brothers?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : Yes, and so on. All these questions are necessary for the jurist who wants to issue a fatwa that it is obligatory for you to go, or not obligatory, as was told to you. It is obligatory that he knows the details of these circumstances. Because if you are your parents' only son, who will serve them? In that case, we tell you, as said in the authentic hadith: But you, and praise be to Allah, you have brothers, and they may be older than you and stronger in serving the parents. In that case, they are in no need of your service in terms of work. And even if they do not dispense with your service emotionally, here emotion must be restrained and one must not submit to its ruling. Otherwise, we will not find a father on the face of the earth, especially in this time, who allows his son to go to jihad, because he is going to fight, which means he might die. Except for one who believes in Allah and His Messenger with true faith. He is like that woman, al-Khansa, who is cited as an example, whose four [sons] died. This is rare in men, let alone women. But at the very least, there are men who sell their sons in the path of Allah the Exalted and find in that a means of relief. Like me; I cannot fight as we said earlier, due to my age and my illness, and so on. But I hope that one of my sons will be honored by going to jihad in the path of Allah, so that either he lives happily in this world or he dies a martyr in the Hereafter, and so on. So, after the conditions we have mentioned, I say: be gentle with your parents and seek their permission to go to jihad in the path of Allah. Keep in mind that you will complete the obligation in which you were short in your past life, for which the one who said to you "no, before you go to fight, complete your jihad here" said that. Do not combine the two, as we said earlier. We combine jihad with the tongue and with the teeth. You will fight there with the teeth and with the training of the self on the ruling of Allah and His Messenger. Perhaps I have answered you.

The questioner : You have answered me.

The Shaykh : If Allah wills.