“Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their wealth in exchange for Paradise: they fight in the path of Allah, kill and are killed—a promise binding on Him in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah? Rejoice, then, in the bargain you have concluded, for that is the supreme triumph.”

There are specific situations in which jihad becomes a personal obligation:

1. When the battle is actually under way; he must stand and fight and is not permitted to withdraw.
2. When an enemy besieges his town.
   In both of these cases the jihad is defensive rather than offensive; if he were to leave, the unbelievers would violate the sanctities of the Muslims.
3. When the Muslims need his help in fighting and defense.
4. When the ruler calls him to arms, in accordance with the Prophet’s saying, “When you are summoned to go forth, then go forth,” and with Allah’s words, “When you meet a host, stand firm” and “What is the matter with you that, when you are told, ‘March forth in the path of Allah,’ you cling heavily to the earth?”

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) remarked: “Jihad may be carried out with the hand, and it may be carried out through preaching, proof, the tongue, counsel, planning, or skilled craft….”