behind them, while busying oneself with the distant enemy allows them to seize the opportunity against the Muslims because the Muslims are occupied elsewhere. It was said to Ahmad: They narrate from Ibn al-Mubarak that it was said to him: You abandoned fighting the enemy that is near you and came here? He said: These are People of the Book. Abu Abd Allah said: Glory be to Allah! I do not know what this statement is! He leaves the enemy near him and comes here? Can this be? Can this be sound? Allah the Exalted has said: {Fight those who are adjacent to you among the disbelievers}. If all the people of Khurasan acted upon this, no one would ever fight the Turks. This, and Allah knows best, was only done by Ibn al-Mubarak because he was volunteering for Jihad, and sufficiency was already achieved through others from the state payroll and the Muslim armies. The volunteer has the option to leave Jihad entirely, so he had the right to participate in Jihad wherever he wished and with whomever he wished. Once this is established, if he has an excuse for starting with the more distant enemy—because they are more dangerous, or for a benefit in starting with them due to their proximity and the possibility of seizing an opportunity against them, or because the closest enemy has a truce or there is an obstacle preventing fighting them—then there is no harm in starting with the more distant one, as it is a place of need.

Section: The matter of Jihad is entrusted to the Imam and his Ijtihad (independent legal reasoning), and the subjects are obligated to obey him in what he sees fit regarding that. It is appropriate for him to begin by arranging for people to be in the frontier lands to ward off the polytheists adjacent to them, and to order the construction of their fortresses, the digging of their trenches, and all their interests. He should appoint a commander in each region, entrusting him with the affairs of war and the management of Jihad. This commander should be someone who possesses sound judgment, intelligence, courage, insight into warfare and the stratagems of the enemy, and who has integrity, kindness, and sincere concern for the Muslims. He begins with this because he cannot be certain of safety from the polytheists in those regions. Every people shall fight those who are adjacent to them, unless there are people in some fronts who are not sufficient to handle those who are adjacent to them, in which case he should transfer people from others to support them. He should instruct the one he appoints not to lead the Muslims into destruction, and not to order them to enter a subterranean chamber where it is feared they might be killed.