Resolution of the Islamic Fiqh Council on Allocating Zakat for Jihad in the Path of Allah:
The Islamic Fiqh Council of the Muslim World League issued a resolution on 7/2/1405 AH stating:
Because the aim of armed jihad is to exalt the word of Allah Most High and to spread His religion by training, supporting, and assisting preachers—so that both endeavors are forms of jihad—and because Islam is under intellectual assault by atheists, Jews, Christians, and other enemies of the religion who enjoy material and moral backing, Muslims must confront them with the same weapon they use against Islam.
Since military campaigns in Muslim countries now have their own ministries and dedicated budget lines in every state, whereas the jihad of daʿwah receives little or no allocation in most national budgets, the Council has, by majority vote, ruled that inviting to Allah and everything that supports it—including funding its activities—falls under the Qur’anic category of “in the path of Allah.”
May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and all his Companions.

Benefit—abridged from a treatise on jihad by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḥabannakah:
He—may Allah preserve him—writes: “The enemies of Islam have devised cunning strategies to eliminate jihad in the path of Allah from the Muslims’ reality by distorting Islamic concepts and stripping away their source of strength. They directed their efforts toward removing faith in Allah from Muslims’ hearts, substituting it with hollow, resounding forces: in place of reliance upon Allah, they fostered self-conceit and dependence on the supplies of ambitious states driven by self-interest; in place of the remembrance of Allah the Exalted, they introduced slogans of atheism, racism, and classism; they divided the ranks of the Muslims and corrupted their leaders, so the Muslim armies thereby lost the very elements of their strength…"