⦗fatwa⦘⦗1⦘ however, these easily performed actions ultimately lead back to the loftiest of states: faith in Allah and His Messenger and striving in His path, as the texts make clear.

123 – The Exalted says, "True believers are only those who believe in Allah and His Messenger, then entertain no doubt, and who strive with their wealth and their lives in the way of Allah; it is they who are the sincere." (Al-Ḥujurāt 49:15)

Striving is what proves a believer’s faith

124 – Thus jihad is the realization of a believer’s being a believer. For this reason Muslim relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ⦗2⦘ that the Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever dies without having fought, nor having resolved within himself to fight, dies upon a branch of hypocrisy."

125 – Jihad is a collective obligation: it is addressed to all believers in general, and once some of them discharge it the rest are exempt. Every believer, however, must hold that he has been commanded to undertake it, must believe in its obligatoriness, and must resolve to engage in it whenever the need arises. This necessarily includes stirring himself to perform it; therefore, whoever dies without having fought, or without having resolved within himself to fight, has fallen short of the faith that is due to him to that extent and thus dies upon a branch of hypocrisy.

126 – If someone were to ask, “Since jihad is superior to pilgrimage according to the Qur’an and the Sunnah…"