What is your opinion of the one who says: Being cautious about jihad in Bosnia and Herzegovina is cowardice?

Al-Halabi : To complete this topic, a question or discussion took place between me and some of the brothers regarding the matter of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He called me on the phone and said to me: What is Shaykh Nasser’s opinion on this event that has befallen some of our Muslim brothers in some countries? Does it mean that the Muslim youth there should go to fight and so on? So I said to him: The Shaykh says that this matter is not something that mere individual youth, even if they are a few hundred or a few thousand, can go to that school of thought or to those countries; rather, the matter requires, meaning, great preparation and organization and so on; a summary of our Shaykh’s fatwa in this regard. Then I said to him: We ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that our enthusiasm and emotion not push us to recklessness; consequently, we would end up with a second Afghanistan. He said a word that I want, Shaykh, for you to comment on, meaning as a benefit. He said: But, also, we do not want to be cowards.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed!
Al-Halabi: Yes.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed!
Al-Halabi : It would be best, Shaykh, if you spoke, meaning, a little about this, and may Allah bless you?

The Shaykh : Allah is the One to be sought for help, and there is no power and no strength except by Allah.
The Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were never cowards, but at the same time, they were not people of foolishness and recklessness. They did not throw themselves into destruction before preparing the means, before anything else. And this is the easiest thing and the easiest jihad, which is migration from one land to another; from the lands of disbelief to the lands of Islam. And we see now many of the Muslim youth, and some of them may say, as you quoted from your companion: We do not want to be cowards; and yet we find that due to their cowardice, they do not settle in their own country; because they are exposed to some harassment from some official quarters, so they do not have patience for it, they retreat, and they justify their retreat by settling in the lands of disbelief, in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade residing in many hadiths; such as his saying (peace be upon him) — and I will not prolong the speech on this matter —: , meaning: Whoever mixes with the polytheist and resides with him is like him in misguidance. And this is a tangible matter, clear to the touch; that the Muslims who travel — and I do not say: migrate — from the lands of Islam to the lands of disbelief; because migration is the opposite of that; it is from the lands of disbelief to the lands of Islam. So we find many of the youth who do not have the literary courage to bear some of the harm that the first generation, the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), bore, the majority of whom we cannot imagine today. But when permission came down for them to fight the disbelievers and polytheists, they were up to the good expectations of all people; whether they were Muslims or disbelievers. And what is your memory of the story of the steadfastness of the people of Badr, who were about three hundred fighters against a thousand men, their number and count being multiples of theirs. And therefore, we advise these youth to remember with me the saying of the one who said:
"Opinion is before the courage of the brave *** It is the first, and the place is the second"
So we do not want, in the name of courage, to entangle ourselves and destroy ourselves before adopting the means that would then allow us to make our blood cheap in the path of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). This is what I say to such an enthusiastic youth, and I say to him, and I do not know him personally; tell him in my name: Go and show your courage in those lands. What will the poor man do? He will throw himself into destruction, without a doubt.
I remember well that His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): is the opposite of what we currently take comfort from and quote from. But the truth is that "the lesson is in the generality of the wording, not the specificity of the cause." The verse was revealed after Allah (Mighty and Majestic) had helped His believing servants, the Ansar and the Muhajirun. And the Ansar, as you know, were people of land, crops, and fear; therefore, they relied on this and did not become active in jihad in the path of Allah at that time. And after Allah (Mighty and Majestic) helped these Muslims, jihad became a collective obligation; meaning, let us say, transferring the call from an Islamic place to another place that is not Islamic. And here, people’s preparations for performing collective obligations differ; so some are content with the way of that Bedouin or Arab or Najdi who asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) about what Allah had made obligatory for him every day and night, and he said: . He said: "Is there anything else upon me?" He said: . So the man said with all sincerity: "By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I will not add to them..."