—may Allah be pleased with them all.

The ruler, the sultan of the Muslims—may Allah strengthen him and guide him aright—has the foremost duty to uphold the religion of Islam and what the Messenger, peace be upon him, brought, and to restrain those who oppose it, speak about religion without knowledge, command what the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—forbade, or seek to extinguish his religion, whether through ignorance or desire.

Allah has declared His Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—free of these two failings. He, Most High, says:

“By the star when it descends! Your companion has neither strayed nor erred. Nor does he speak from his own desire. It is only a revelation sent down.”

And He, Most High, says of those who oppose him:

“They follow nothing but conjecture and what their souls desire, although guidance has already come to them from their Lord.”

They oppose his revealed law and the way of the Companions, the Successors, and the imams of the Muslims who know his Sunnah and his purposes and strive, to the best of their ability, to follow him—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. May Allah be pleased with them all.

Thus, once the matter becomes clear to the ruler, the sultan—may Allah grant him might—he is the one who wields the sword and bears the foremost responsibility for waging jihad in Allah’s cause through force, so that Allah’s word may be supreme, all worship may be devoted to Allah alone, and the testimony that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah may be clearly fulfilled; so that the reality of Allah’s oneness and of the mission of the Messenger whom Allah made the best and last of His messengers may become manifest; and so that the guidance and religion of truth with which he was sent, and the light revealed to him, may become manifest, and all this may be safeguarded