—so he turned aside.

The Prophet ﷺ, however, set the matter straight. He framed a brief, decisive maxim that serves as the criterion for every kind of fighting: “Whoever fights so that the Word of Allah may be supreme, he is in the path of Allah.”

By omitting any reference to those three specific motives, the Prophet ﷺ made the ruling broader and more inclusive. A person might take up arms to seize lands and territories, or he might fight merely to capture a woman from the enemy as a slave—indeed, the range of possible intentions is limitless. Yet the scale established by the Prophet ﷺ is complete and perfectly just. From this we understand that the slogans so many people repeat today are in dire need of correction.

Consider the intense propaganda for Arab nationalism: despite its strength, we have gained nothing from it. The Jews have occupied our lands while we have fallen apart. Under the banner of this nationalism, unbelievers—both Christian and otherwise—were welcomed, whereas Muslim peoples who are not Arab were excluded. We thereby lost millions of potential allies, millions of human beings, for the sake of this nationalism, and admitted into our ranks those who bring nothing but humiliation and defeat wherever they become involved.

The second slogan involves those who fight for the homeland, and if we were to fight solely for