He doesn’t mean an interior spiritual struggle, either. All the schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree that when a non-Muslim force enters a Muslim land, defensive jihad becomes the individual obligation of every Muslim (fard ayn) rather than a collective obligation of the entire umma, and need not be declared by anyone. Bulghah al-Salik li-Aqrab al-Masalik fi madhhab al-Imam Malik (“The Sufficiency of the Traveller on the Best Path in the School of Imam Malik,”) says this: “Jihad in the Path of Allah, to raise the word of Allah, is fard kifayah [obligatory on the community] once a year, so that if some perform it, the obligation falls from the rest. It becomes fard ayn [obligatory on every Muslim individually], like salah and fasting, if the legitimate Muslim Imam declares it so, or if there is an attack by the enemy on an area of people.”

A non-Muslim force has not entered Muslim land. All that happened was that the Indian government canceled Kashmir’s special status. But as far as Maulana Abdul Aziz is concerned, that is tantamount to an invasion of Muslim land, and so jihad violence is now mandatory. Looking at the recent history of Jammu and Kashmir, it is clear that many Muslims already thought jihad violence was mandatory there. But jihadis, like the Qur’an itself, have never shied away from repetition.

“WAR OF WORDS Kashmir war fears grow as Pakistan cleric close to Osama bin Laden tells followers to wage jihad against India,” by Jon Lockett, The Sun, August 9, 2019: