WHY ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE MUSLIMS STRONGER?

Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hādī al-Madkhalī رحمه الله said:

By Allāh, we believe that jihād will continue until the Day of Resurrection, and it is obligatory upon this Ummah. However, this Ummah has neglected many things, including jihād, so Allāh has given power over them to their enemies.

“If you engage in usury, are content with agriculture, follow the tails of cattle, and abandon jihād in the way of Allāh—and it is not in the way of rejection, innovations, and superstitions—in the way of Allāh, If you engage in usury, are content with agriculture, and follow the tails of cattle… Allāh will inflict upon you a humiliation that He will not remove from you until you return to your religion”

The first step toward honor and liberation from humiliation and disgrace is returning to the religion. This is the first and most essential step. The extremist Shiʿite who disbelieves in the Companions raises the banner of jihād, yet he fights against the religion and its people. How can he be victorious? How can he achieve anything? How can his jihād be in the path of Allāh?!

Jihād must be for the exaltation of the word of Allāh. One may be killed in jihād and enter Hellfire if one does not seek to exalt the word of Allāh, the Blessed and Exalted. “Whoever fights so that the word of Allāh is supreme is in the path of Allāh.” The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ was asked:

“A man fights out of courage, another fights out of zeal, and another fights to be remembered. Which of these is in the path of Allāh?” He ﷺ said: “Whoever fights so that the word of Allāh is supreme is in the path of Allāh.”

Muslims must first rectify their situation and return to the religion of Muḥammad ﷺ, the religion he and his noble companions strove to spread. This religion of monotheism, righteous deeds, and the true rituals of Islām is what the Messenger ﷺ worked to exalt.

I ask you now: is the banner raised in Lebanon by Ḥizb Allāh worthy of being called “in the path of Allāh,” and of being called “jihād in the path of Allāh,” when they declare the Companions of Muḥammad ﷺ to be infidels, tamper with the Qurʾān, and distort it in a way even the Jews did not surpass them in? Those who read the works of the Rāfiḍah (Shiʿites) will find that they distort the religion of Allāh more severely than the Jews and Christians.

By Allāh, we want jihād—we want true jihād. The Ummah must return to the religion and then prepare itself:

And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allāh and the enemy of your enemy
— Al-Anfāl: 60

Now Ḥizb Allāh has been fighting for three weeks, and only eight of their fighters have been killed, while nearly a thousand Lebanese have been killed and their institutions destroyed. Is this the jihād these people claim to pursue?! The Prophet ﷺ fought at Badr, at Uhud, at the Trench, and in other battles. Not a single child nor a single woman was killed. Now, fighters hide among women and children, and the blows fall upon them. Is this the jihād of the Jews?!

They have occupied large areas—twenty villages in Lebanon. Is this jihād? Is this the purpose? A mujahid kills Muslim women, their sons, and children, and destroys their institutions. Is this the result of true jihād? This is a clownish jihād, a rejectionist jihād. Muslims must be reasonable and return to their religion first. Only after returning to the true religion should they strive to exalt the word of Allāh. We believe in jihād more than these pretenders. We believe in it, but we tell the Muslims: Return to the true religion of Allāh, because you will not attain victory unless you fight to exalt the word of Allāh and remain on the correct religion.

— Marḥaban Yā Ṭālib al-ʿIlm pg. 419-421