“I Have Been Commanded to Fight the People”: Between Excess and Neglect

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 17 May 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — [Watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQAhu7RlLZc)

This is our weekly meeting with *Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam* by Imam Ibn Rajab, may Allah have mercy on him, and today we meet with the eighth ḥadīth.

The Text of the Ḥadīth

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with them both, tells us that the Prophet ﷺ said: «أُمِرتُ أن أُقاتلَ الناسَ حتى يشهدوا أن لا إله إلا الله وأن محمدًا رسول الله، ويقيموا الصلاة، ويؤتوا الزكاة، فإذا فعلوا ذلك عصموا منّي دماءهم وأموالهم إلا بحقّ الإسلام، وحسابهم على الله» (I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah, and establish the prayer, and give the zakāh; so if they do that, they have protected from me their blood and their wealth, except by the right of Islam, and their reckoning is with Allah).^[5]

Two Extremes That Clung to the Ḥadīth

This ḥadīth is one that many have clung to, but in their minds it leaned to one of two extremes. The first extreme claimed that Islam commanded its followers to pursue the creation and kill them wherever they were and wherever they wished, and they say: this is the explicit statement of the ḥadīth, so whoever does not testify that there is no god but Allah is a target for killing that the Prophet ﷺ himself commanded, and no one is left on the face of the earth unless he testifies, so they claimed that Islam kills the creation on the pretext of this ḥadīth. The other extreme likewise clung to the apparent wording of the ḥadīth, and saw that it makes lawful the blood of everyone who differs from this direction.

And both groups did not study the reality of the Prophet's ﷺ biography in its origin, nor his conduct in itself. Look at him living in Makkah for thirteen years, then years in Madinah; which of the people was at peace with him and he raised his sword in his face? The Jews and Christians lived around the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and came to him back and forth, and he never attacked anyone, ﷺ. Indeed, he, upon him be peace and blessings, would make lawful the blood of some people for very grave crimes that issued from them, then an objector would object and pardon would come. And he never raised his sword except in a battle. So how do we understand the ḥadīth, then?

What the Commentators Said

Some of the commentators on the ḥadīth held that it came in the context of speaking about Quraysh, as a general principle: as long as they are fighting him, he is fighting them until they say there is no god but Allah, Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah, and establish the prayer and give the zakāh.

And some said: we must break down the structures of the ḥadīth and understand every word in its place. He ﷺ says: «أُمرتُ أن أُقاتل» (I have been commanded to fight), and in the language there is a word for fighting (muqātalah) and a word for killing (qatl), so which one is it here? "Uqātil" and not "aqtul." And the word "uqātil" means a duel between two sides, so which of them begins? And did the Prophet ﷺ begin fighting with anyone without a sound reason other than his being a disbeliever? Such as his being an aggressor, or posing a danger to the Ummah, or supporting those who attack it, and in that there are logistical and military matters that the people of soldiering understand better than we do. And anything short of that he ﷺ did not do. So the word "uqātil" always came to express defense: defense of identity first, then of the land, the sanctities, the honor, and dignity. It is as though the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is saying: I am here to defend the religion as long as there is someone fighting it among those who do not testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah.

The Problem That Remains

But a problem comes to us. And where is the problem, dear sir? The problem is that the Prophet ﷺ said: «ويقيموا الصلاة ويؤتوا الزكاة» (and establish the prayer and give the zakāh). If the matter were that as long as they fight us we fight them until they say the two testimonies, then where do we place the rest of the statement? Then we are surprised by what is narrated^[1] that the Prophet ﷺ took the pledge of people on "there is no god but Allah, Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah" and did not speak to them about prayer and zakāh. And there are other narrations on the matter that we do not want to go into because they are distant from people's understanding.

And the point, as I understand it, is that this was perhaps at the beginning of Islam and the beginning of the call, then verses came afterward, such as the verse of permission for those who are fought, because they were wronged and Allah is certainly able to give them victory,^[2] to the end of what came in the formulation of this legislation and the regulation of its conditions and the arrangement of its requirements. So was the statement at the beginning of the call, and then circumstances developed to what is beyond that? And if so, are we addressed by it? Was the Prophet's ﷺ statement temporary, binding upon him and his time, so that when circumstances changed and he ﷺ died this clause was abolished? And if it does not remain in force among us, what is the benefit of the ḥadīth's existence, and the insistence of the people of ḥadīth on citing it and opening their books with it? It is the eighth ḥadīth in *Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam*, and Ibn Rajab took its order from Imam al-Nawawī in *al-Arbaʿūn al-Nawawiyyah* and added to it. So we are before the pillars of the people of ḥadīth, who open the beginnings of their compilations with this ḥadīth, so what is its benefit if the fighting has ceased?

The Clause of Defense and the Paths of Daʿwah

First: "uqātil" means "ujāhid" (I strive), and "ujāhid" means "udāfiʿ" (I defend), and defense involves pulling and pushing. And there is a clause that is absent from many minds; I do not say that it cancels the first, and we never deny the words of the Prophet ﷺ, nor would any sensible person do so, but there is a clause called the clause of defense through the paths of daʿwah. These daʿwah paths do not exist with us. So if we are unable to realize the first clause, whatever its possibilities, why have we fallen silent about the other clauses? And where is daʿwah in our lives?

And when he ﷺ says: «أُمرتُ» (I have been commanded), take this text and measure by it the rest of the commands he ﷺ was commanded with; you find that he was commanded in the whole of the Noble Qur'an with the dimensions of daʿwah, for the command to the Prophet ﷺ came directly, and the matter of daʿwah is in the first place. Then: «حتى يشهدوا أن لا إله إلا الله وأن محمدًا رسول الله» (until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah), so one acknowledges the oneness of Allah, Blessed and Exalted, and testifies to the Prophet ﷺ that he is a messenger, then that is naturally and spontaneously followed by establishing the prayer and giving the zakāh. He ﷺ says: «فإذا فعلوا ذلك عصموا منّي دماءهم وأموالهم» (so if they do that, they have protected from me their blood and their wealth). Did the Prophet ﷺ ever attack anyone's wealth? I am not speaking about Muslims, but about non-Muslims: did he ever stretch out his hand to the wealth of any of them? Never.

And we ask Allah for success in the word that comes out from us, and that we do not deviate from the basic principle in speech: that the Prophet ﷺ was sent as a mercy to the worlds. This is the very large general level. Then we move to what is more specific: «إنْ أنتَ إلا نذير» (You are not but a warner),^[3] and "as a bringer of good news and a warner"; so we moved to the stage of warning and then to the stage of glad tidings. And these are the three major terms in the Qur'an for describing the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and I find nothing else unless my mind is heedless, for my mind today is not in good shape, we ask Allah for safety.

And when he ﷺ says: «عصموا مني دماءهم وأموالهم» (they have protected from me their blood and their wealth), where is his action ﷺ? In Madinah there were those who lived next to him and came and went and stirred up discord and turned the Muslim society against itself, and plotted conspiracies from within the society, and made pacts with his enemies and broke their covenants with him ﷺ. And when he went to one of their fortresses, it was as though they tried to kill him by throwing a rock down on him from above. And verses were revealed in Sūrat al-Ḥashr^[4] explaining this tragedy that passed over the Muslim society at one of its stages.

If You Cannot Extend Your Hand

The point is that whoever cannot extend his hand, let him extend his tongue, and let him extend his mind and his thought and his wealth, and let him sacrifice something of that so that he may take heed. Imagine that the Muslims, if each one of them considered himself a part of the machine of daʿwah, a cogwheel of its cogwheels: this one extends his hand with money, and this one says I have my ideas, and a third says I am present with my two hands, and a fourth says I will move in such-and-such a place. Cogwheels in a machine, each working in his own direction. So when would this machine stop? Impossible. And when would its production stop? Impossible. But daʿwah stopped when we stopped.

My brothers, by Allah the Almighty, people are entering Islam now, and the efforts exerted compared with the numbers of those entering are not worth mentioning at all. Two weeks ago a young man came to me in the office, and after the greeting said: I want to be a Muslim. So I asked him: Why, my son? What is your story? And he began to tell me his story: he had been asking about Islam and searching, and then things came together for him one after another until he said: I want to pronounce the testimony. And we had done nothing for him; we had not knocked on his door, nor searched for him in his school or place or university, nor penetrated into societies and dived into them and moved. This is what we did not do. And the matter, in the end, is roles: I am here and you come to me, but you must move among people; so where is your reaching their hearts and their minds?

If We Do Not Move

I will not prolong it for you, but the highest aim for me now in explaining this ḥadīth and others is that the Muslims' fervor should be stirred again in their souls and hearts, so that they move toward calling people to the religion of the Lord of the worlds, Glory be to Him, the Exalted. I told you some time ago about the churches listed for sale in America, and this is only one snapshot, on one website and one program, which if you enter you find the red pins covering all of America. So where did these people go, and why are their places of worship being sold? And is it conceivable that a time will come upon the people of Islam in which our children do the same? We seek refuge in Allah from that. If we do not move, this is the inevitable fate.

The Children of Imams

Two days ago we were talking, with some shaykhs with us, about how the children of imams may be among the children most exposed to deviation. O Lord, O Most Merciful, O Most Compassionate. And why? We were discussing: why does this happen? Because they see their fathers' suffering in this mission. Imagine that my young son lives in the house while I am speaking with his mother and I am angry, and he asks: Why are you upset? And he is told: Such-and-such happened and there was such-and-such a problem, so he hears all these problems. Someone who works in business and comes home complaining about the problems of his business, that is natural; and likewise the doctor with his patients. But you work in the house of the Lord of the worlds, and your son is looking at you: you work in the house of Allah, and the morals in it are supposed to be at their best, so how is it that you suffer this suffering while you work in the house of our Lord? And what is it that drives me to a job whose affair none knows except Allah? Leave all this aside! So you find them turning out like this. And we ask Allah for safety, O Allah, make our children walk the path of guidance, O Lord of the worlds, make them steadfast, O Lord. And therefore, Glory be to Allah, the Almighty, I see that the effort exerted in raising one of these children is double the effort exerted in raising another.

Conclusion

And we ask Allah for blessing and safety. So strive as much as you can, and do not spare any effort in serving the religion of Allah, Glory be to Him, the Exalted, and show people goodness from yourselves, for you are the example of Islam moving on the earth.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The transcript is garbled at this point, and the speaker ascribed this to a report from Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him); that ascription has not been established. What is established in the story of Abū Bakr is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (al-Bukhārī 7284; Muslim 20) from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him): ʿUmar said to Abū Bakr, concerning fighting those who withheld zakāh: How can you fight the people when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: «أُمرت أن أقاتل الناس حتى يقولوا لا إله إلا الله…» ("I have been commanded to fight the people until they say: there is no god but Allah…")? And Abū Bakr said: «والله لأقاتلنّ من فرّق بين الصلاة والزكاة» ("By Allah, I will fight whoever separates prayer from zakāh"). On the Prophet ﷺ accepting the Islam of people with a condition: Abū Dāwūd (3025) narrates from Jābir (may Allah be pleased with him) about Thaqīf: «اشترطت على النبي ﷺ أن لا صدقة عليها ولا جهاد» ("It stipulated to the Prophet ﷺ that there would be no charity due from it and no jihad"), and that he heard the Prophet ﷺ say afterwards: «سيتصدّقون ويجاهدون إذا أسلموا» ("They will give charity and fight when they become Muslims"); and Aḥmad narrates in the Musnad from Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim, from a man of his people: «أنه أتى النبي ﷺ فأسلم على أنه لا يصلي إلا صلاتين، فقبل ذلك منه» ("that he came to the Prophet ﷺ and accepted Islam on condition that he would pray only two prayers, and he accepted that from him"). ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker referred to the verse in brief and did not complete it; it is most likely His saying, the Exalted, ﴿أُذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتَلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ نَصْرِهِمْ لَقَدِيرٌ﴾ (Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged, and indeed Allah is competent to give them victory) [Al-Ḥajj: 39]. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The location was not precisely identifiable from the transcript; the phrase "إن أنت إلا نذير" occurs in the Qur'an in more than one place (among them Fāṭir: 23). ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The speaker did not specify the verses or the names in this passage, but said only that the verses of Sūrat al-Ḥashr explain this stage. What Ibn Isḥāq reports in the Sīra is that the Prophet ﷺ went to Banū al-Naḍīr to seek their help with the blood money of the two men of Banū ʿĀmir, and they plotted for one of them to drop a rock on him from the top of a house; news of it reached him and he left them. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Narrated by al-Bukhārī (25) and Muslim (22) from the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both).