as He, the Exalted, says: “Permission has been given to those who are fought because they have been wronged, and surely Allah is able to grant them victory—those who were driven from their homes without right, merely for saying, ‘Our Lord is Allah.’ ”

• Allah further ordained jihad to humble the unbelievers, take retribution from them, and shatter their power, as He says: “Fight them; Allah will punish them at your hands, disgrace them, give you victory over them, heal the breasts of a believing people, and remove the rage from their hearts. Allah turns in mercy to whom He wills, and Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.”

Fighting, however, is to take place only after the message has been conveyed. The Messenger ﷺ used to invite people to Islam before any combat; he wrote to kings with that call and instructed the commanders of Muslim armies to summon the people to Islam before fighting them. If they accepted, there was no battle; if they refused, then the Muslims fought them. The objective of combat in Islam is to eliminate disbelief and polytheism and to bring people into Allah’s religion. When that goal is achieved without warfare, fighting is unnecessary—and Allah knows best.

The detailed rulings of jihad are set out fully in the larger legal manuals.

If both of a person’s parents are free Muslims—or even if only one of them is—he may not volunteer for jihad unless