What are the conditions and obligations of jihad?

The questioner: And by Allah, O Shaykh, there are many upright young Muslims, meaning, as they say, committed, as Abu Bakr al-Jazairi describes them as upright and committed. They ask about what you see, may Allah reward you with good. They are very enthusiastic about jihad, and many of them are in a state of confusion regarding the conflicting opinions they hear about the non-obligation or non-mandatory nature of jihad, whether individually or in groups or Islamic communities, unless a Muslim authority is established that implements the law of Allah in an Islamic state. Some of them, too, are those whose opinion is respected by many people, and you know of such people, as well as our brothers whom we consider to be upon the path of Allah from among the people of the Salaf, who differ with some of their brothers or their Salafi teachers on this issue. So here it is the opposite, meaning that jihad is permissible if it is facilitated for one who has the ability and goes to jihad without there being obstacles from parents or obligations, and so on. They are in a state of confusion because they hear your opinion on this, because they love you for the sake of Allah and feel at ease with your opinion? This is my first question.The Shaykh : Abu Bakr al-Jazairi al-Mustaqim, who is committed, asks about what you see. May Allah reward you with good. Regarding jihad, many of them are enthusiastic for jihad, so they are in a state of confusion from what they hear of conflicting opinions concerning the non-obligation or non-mandatory nature of jihad as an individual obligation or as groups or Islamic communities, unless a Muslim authority is established that implements the law of Allah, meaning in an Islamic state. And some of them, likewise, are those whose opinion is considered by many people, and you know people like these, as well as from our brothers whom we consider to be upon the path of Allah from the people of the Salaf, who differ with some of their brothers or their Salafi teachers on this issue. So here it is the opposite, meaning that jihad is permissible if it is facilitated for the one who has the ability, and he goes to jihad without there being obstacles from the parents or obligations, and so on. So they are in confusion because they hear your opinion in this, because they love you for the sake of Allah and feel at ease with your opinion? This is my first question.

The Shaykh: The second question is the issue of the exiled ones. By the praise of Allah, we have come to know their reality; half of them or more, about two hundred and ninety-two, with their names, and we asked about them. They are people who were raised in the call of Allah the Exalted and were the driving force of Islamic jihad in the path of Allah in the land of Isra and Mi'raj. And I, as Muslims consider the issue of Palestine not to be an issue of Arabs and Jews, nor an issue of the Middle East, nor an issue of stolen land, but an issue of religion, an issue of Muslims in this regard.

The questioner : So how do you view the exiled ones? If they were given the opportunity to disperse in countries, whether European or Islamic, and they refused, saying, "We will not return to our land unless we are victorious, even if it is in the prisons of Israel, and the prisons of Israel have much oppression, and they expect that if they return, they will be content with this." Is it permissible by the Shari'ah to hand them over to the Jews if they return and surrender themselves to the Jews in the prisons, and they will not be able to move jihad as before? Or can they act with the option that allows them to go and disperse in any country, and then from there they can move jihad from abroad, so that they are free? Freedom in Islam and freedom for the human being is sacred. This is the second matter that comes to my mind now. We love you for the sake of Allah, and then we convey to you, with complete frankness, the calls of your brother scholars in Saudi Arabia, by name, whom we met, and the honor of our father,
Ibn Baz, who did not hesitate in many of his lectures when asked about the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that Allah the Exalted sends at the head of every hundred years one who renews its religion for it. This is in the hope, I hope to Allah, that it is in the category of the believer's immediate glad tidings. We do not praise you over Allah, we consider you to be upon the path of Allah, among them, that he promises you, O honorable father,The Shaykh : Ibn Baz, for this question that you are among the renewers of the religion in reviving the Sunnah of his Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and he loves you for the sake of Allah.The Shaykh: May Allah reward him with good, and we ask Allah the Exalted not to hold us accountable for what they say, and to make us better than what they think, and to forgive us what they do not know. Regarding jihad, my brother, yes?

The Shaykh: May Allah reward him with good.

The questioner: And finally.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward him with good, and we ask Allah, Mighty and Majestic, that He not hold us accountable for what they say, and that He make us better than what they imagine, and that He forgive us what they do not know. Regarding jihad, my brother, yes?

The questioner : Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Khalik, and a copy also to some of the brothers interested in the issue from the scholars of Saudi Arabia.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. Praise be to Allah alone, and blessings and peace upon him after whom there is no prophet. O noble brothers who are listening to this tape, I am now the poor servant in need of the forgiveness of the Exalted, before our honorable father and Shaykh,The Shaykh : Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, whom we do not praise over Allah, but we only ask Allah the Exalted to bless his life and to continue his benefit to the Muslims in every place, and I do not praise him over Allah. I ask that there be a good intention in this when I tell you that he is beyond the need for introduction, but our love for him increased when we heard our honorable father, Abd al-Aziz Ibn Baz, testify, as he believes, as he thinks, if Allah wills, and his thought, if Allah wills, is in its place, that our honorable father,The Shaykh : Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, considers, if Allah wills, to be among the renewers of the religion in reviving the Sunnah of his Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in our present age. I say this and I count what I intended in this speech for Allah the Exalted, without showing off or seeking reputation.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : al-Albani, on two matters, as they come to my mind now. So I say, and success is from Allah, we ask our honorable father,

The Shaykh : I have no objection.

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise is to Allah alone, and blessings and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet. O noble brothers who are listening to this tape, I am now the poor servant in need of the forgiveness of the Exalted, before the magnificence of our father and our Shaykh.The Shaykh: I say, after praise to Allah and blessings and peace upon the Messenger of Allah and his family and his companions and whoever follows them, I will answer with a brief answer due to the many tapes in which we have spoken about jihad and its conditions and obligations that must be present in it. So we say briefly, to the extent of our ability.The Shaykh : Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, who is considered, if Allah wills, to be among the renewers of the religion in reviving the Sunnah of his Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in our present age. I say this and I reckon what I intended in this speech to be for the sake of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, without showing off or seeking reputation.
And now we have been tasked by some of our young, zealous Muslim brothers in the land of the two sacred sanctuaries, who are enthusiastic for jihad, to convey to them the opinion of the magnificence of our father.The Shaykh : Al-Albani on two issues, as they come to my mind now, so I say, and success is from Allah, we ask the magnificence of our father.The Shaykh : Al-Albani about the permissibility of jihad in the path of Allah against the enemies who have invaded or occupied the lands of the Muslims, and this is known. Does his magnificence see that it is permissible by the Shari'ah for this zealous Muslim youth to go forth individually or in groups under the command of associations or Muslim groups for jihad in the path of Allah to confront these enemies who have occupied and invaded the lands of the Muslims? Or as we hear from some of our brother scholars, whom we testify to their goodness, likewise, because he postpones this, or that this jihad is not to be except under the banner of a Muslim ruler who establishes the state of Islam and rules by the law of Allah, Mighty and Majestic? We ask Allah to grant success and inspire the right path for the magnificence of our father.The Shaykh : Al-Albani to answer this question?

The Shaykh : I say, after praise to Allah and blessings and peace upon the Messenger of Allah and his family and his Companions and whoever follows them, I will answer with a brief answer due to the many tapes in which we have spoken about jihad and its conditions and its obligations that must be present in it. So we say briefly to the extent of our ability.
Jihad in this era, and indeed before this era, is an individual obligation. The problem now is not the issue of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has stirred the emotions of young Muslims anew. Here, right next to us, the Jews have occupied Palestine, and not a single Islamic state has moved to fulfill its duty of fighting them and casting them into the sea, as some head of state in one of the Arab countries used to say. The point is that jihad is an individual obligation because many Islamic lands have been occupied, both in the past and in recent times, by some disbelievers. Such an occupation is not hidden from any Muslim who cares about the affairs of Muslims, let alone Islamic groups, Islamic parties, or Islamic states. However, jihad has its pillars and its conditions. We, the scholars of Islam, all believe that the obligatory jihad is that which is incumbent upon Muslims who cooperate together to carry out what Allah the Exalted has made obligatory upon them: fighting the disbelievers and expelling them from the Islamic lands they have occupied. We do not need to cite evidence from the Book and the Sunnah now, for there is no disagreement among scholars that jihad is an individual obligation if a part of the Islamic lands is occupied. How much more so when many parts, and very many parts, are occupied? But, unfortunately, I want to say that this jihad, which is an obligation and an individual obligation, cannot be carried out by individuals, as mentioned in the question, nor by some Islamic groups or Islamic parties. Such a jihad, especially in our time when means of warfare have multiplied, cannot be undertaken by these parties or these groups, let alone individuals. Rather, this individual obligation lies upon the states, the Islamic states, which possess the equipment, strength, and modern means of war. If they were to unite and be sincere in this jihad, they would fulfill this individual obligation. But, to our great regret, these states do not lift a finger to fulfill the duty of this jihad. They have entrusted the matter of this jihad to some groups and parties, which are unable to do anything to stop the aggression of the aggressing disbeliever against some of the Islamic lands. Reality bears witness that any Muslim group that rises, whether to fight the aggressor, as happened in Afghanistan for example, or to rebel against a ruler whose disbelief has become apparent, as happened in Algeria for example, this unfortunate reality indicates that individual or party-based jihad does not yield the expected result of the obligation of jihad. That result is that the word of Allah is the supreme word. Therefore, we believe that jihad cannot be possible except under an Islamic banner, first, and under a united Muslim group from various Islamic lands, not from one country or one region. In addition to this, it is necessary to have mindfulness of Allah the Exalted by staying away from what Allah the Exalted has forbidden, matters that are well known to all Muslims, scholars and others, but which are, unfortunately, far from being applied in practice. We have mentioned, and I have also tried to be as concise as possible, that the humiliation and degradation that has befallen Muslims today, which Islamic history has never known, is caused by the fact that Muslims have failed to apply at least one verse, namely the saying of the Blessed and Exalted: And there is no doubt that the victory of Muslims for Allah the Exalted means the victory of the rulings of His Shari'ah and making them a realized reality. And this, unfortunately, is not achieved in the governments or in the individuals. Most of the governments do not rule by what Allah has revealed, and those among them that still have a remnant of ruling by what Allah has revealed have not yet declared jihad in the path of Allah the Exalted. Therefore, individuals and peoples are lost as long as no Islamic government has raised the banner of jihad in the path of Allah, which necessitates fighting the disbelievers who are next to them, not those who are far away from them. If Muslims, with their states, parties, groups, and individuals, do not carry out jihad against the disbelievers who are beside them and close to their lands, they will not be able to fight those who are far from them, such as Eritrea, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the like. For this reason, we now remind this young Muslim, as individuals, groups, and parties, to spread the correct Islamic awareness among the peoples first, and then among the rulers second. That is that all these people should rule by what Allah the Exalted has commanded, by what the rulers were commanded to rule by what Allah has revealed, and by what the individuals were also commanded to rule by what Allah has revealed.
I feel today that many individuals, groups, and parties place the responsibility solely on the rulers, whereas I firmly believe that the responsibility lies with these individuals, groups, and parties just as it lies with the governments. This is because these governments emerged only from the land of these Muslims. It is these Muslims whom the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) addressed with two hadiths. One is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): The other hadith is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): These violations mentioned by the Messenger (peace be upon him) in this hadith are, unfortunately, currently occurring in all Muslim societies. They are among the great calamities that necessitated the descent of this humiliation upon the Muslims, which has settled upon their hearts, whether in governments, as we said, or in groups and individuals. The governments do not rule by what was revealed. And even if there are some who rule by what Allah revealed, the first sign indicating that they do not rule by what Allah revealed is that they have not declared jihad in the path of Allah. If this time is not the time when jihad in the path of Allah is obligatory, and much of our land has been occupied, when will this jihad become obligatory? Ah, but the calamity, and this is the problem of problems, is that we have no one capable of jihad. Why? Because we are immersed in sins and immersed in partisan and international disputes. We know that one of the causes of weakness and defeat is that Muslims differ with one another. We recently experienced a very regrettable trial, namely the Afghan jihad. It was the Afghan jihad, where we hoped the outcome would be victory for the Muslims and strong signs for establishing the nucleus of the Islamic state. But the outcome and result reversed because the initial signs of victory over the arch-enemy, namely the communists, faded when division began among the parties. Their Islam, which they profess, did not prevent them from splitting into seven parties. And our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) says: Therefore, whoever wants to perform jihad must first take the means of jihad and secondly the means of attaining victory. Unfortunately, neither of these is realized in this time. And Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) says in the Noble Qur'an: Therefore, we call for individuals, groups, and parties, in addition to Islamic governments, to focus on spreading the correct Islam, purified from all foreign elements that have crept in over time, and to educate Muslims in this correct Islam. The day these signs manifest in this vast Islamic arena, the signs of preparation for performing the individual obligation of jihad will begin. These enthusiastic individuals who go to many lands conquered by the disbelievers, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, what weapons do they have with them? Who are the commanders? Who are the leaders who can organize them and make them fight under one command and under one banner? If multiple banners were raised there, as happened in Afghanistan, the result would be as we saw in Afghanistan. Therefore, Allah the Exalted said: Where is this preparation, and who is able to carry out this preparation? The individuals? No. The governments? Yes, we can say that the governments carry out some preparation, but they take this preparation from their enemies. If there were a battle and jihad between the Muslims and the disbelievers, these Muslims would not be able to continue supplying their armies with the necessary weapons except by purchasing them from their enemies. Can victory and jihad be achieved by purchasing weapons from the enemies of the Muslims? This is impossible. Therefore, this preparation commanded in this verse has not been carried out even by Islamic states, because the purchase of destructive weapons by Islamic states has been from their enemies and adversaries. There may be some conspiracies that could sabotage their weapons if they wanted to use them against their disbeliever enemy. For this reason, I conclude my speech and answer to this question: When Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) said: to the end of the verse, this address, as is clear to every Muslim, was initially directed to the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), and then it is directed to the general Muslim community by the generality of the text. But this address was directed to the Companions after they had received a correct Islamic education, enabling them to carry out such an address, which is the preparation of material strength, after they had prepared the spiritual strength of their souls or in their souls due to the education of their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). History repeats itself, so it is necessary to educate one of the Muslim peoples so that this Muslim people can carry out the preparation of material equipment. Today, we do not find a people who have carried out this duty, which we express with two words: purification and education. We find scattered individuals here and there, but there is no group with an imam pledged to by all Muslims who has raised the banner of jihad to fight the enemies. This has not happened yet. Therefore, we call for establishing this prerequisite for the holy jihad. As for launching into action based on emotions that have not been realized in their people, perhaps the spiritual jihad, which is understanding Islam correctly and applying it collectively, and having an imam over them who orders them to prepare as much weaponry and strength as they can. The day such a thing exists, the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah, and Allah gives victory to whom He wills.
This is all I have as an answer to this question.