All Praise is for Allah. We praise him and seek his assistance. We ask for his forgiveness and take refuge in him from the evil within ourselves and from the evil of our deeds. He whom Allah guides will never be diverted yet whomever he sends astray will never find his way, and I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, alone, he has no partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad is his servant and messenger. O Lord, nothing is easy except for what you make easy. And you lighten distress if you wish.

I wrote this Fatwa and it was originally larger than its present size. I showed it to our Great Respected Shaykh Abdul Aziz Bin Baz. I read it to him, he improved upon it and he said "it is good" and agreed with it. But, he suggested to me to shorten it and to write an introduction for it with which it should be published. But the shaykh was busy, it being Hajj season, so he had not the time to review it again.
 

Then the Shaykh (may Allah protect him) declared in the mosque of Ibn Ladna in Jeddah and in the large mosque of Riyadh that jihad with your person today is Fard Ayn (individual obligation). Then I showed this Fatwa, without the six questions at the end, to the peers of Sheikh Abdullah al-Waan, Saeed Hawa, Mohammed Najeeb al-Mutyey, Dr. Hassin Hamid Hissan and Umar Sayyaf. I read it to them, they agreed with it and most of them signed it. Likewise, I read it to Shaykh Muhammed Bin Salah Bin Uthaymeen and he too signed it.

I also read it to Sheikh Abdur-Razaq Afifi, Hasan Ayub and Dr. Ahmad al Assal. Then I spoke on the topic in a lecture in Minna in the General Guidance Center during the Hajj season where there were gathered more than one hundred scholars from the entire Islamic world. I said to them:

Agreed are the Salaf, the Pious Predecessors, all people of understanding, and the Muhaditheen that in all ages of Islam: That if a piece of Muslim land the size of a hand span is infringed upon, then jihad becomes Fard Ayn (individual obligation) on every Muslim male and female, where the child shall march forward without the permission of its parents and the wife without the permission of the husband. I decided in the presence of the Amir of the Mujahideen (Sayyaf) and by my time of three years spent in the Afghani jihad that, the jihad in Afghanistan needs men. So whoever has an objection from you O Ulama then let him raise it.

And there was not one objection. On the contrary, Dr. Shaykh Idriss said,

Oh my brother! there is no difference of opinion in this matter.

So finally, I published this Fatwa. Maybe Allah will cause it to be useful for us in this world and the next, and for all Muslims.

- Dr. Abdullah Azzam