Third Observation

When Allah, exalted is He, legislated fighting and jihad, He did so for many reasons and with manifest, enlightened objectives, among them:

– To fight those who oppose the Islamic call and seek to prevent the word of Allah from being supreme and His chosen religion from spreading: “Fight them until there is no persecution and the religion belongs wholly to Allah. But if they desist, there shall be no aggression except against the wrongdoers” (2:193).

– To protect the Muslims, defend them, and safeguard their divinely revealed creed—the straight, Abrahamic way: “Permission to fight has been granted to those who are fought against because they have been wronged, and Allah is surely able to grant them victory” (22:39).

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (1), may Allah have mercy on him, said: “Since the foundation of the prescribed fighting is jihad, and since its purpose is that the religion be entirely for Allah and that—”