Jihad is the final stage of the Islamic foreign policy that is used to remove any obstacles or barriers, either through diplomacy or material means, that stand in the way of the Islamic Daw'ah from reaching the people of the world. The cornerstone of the Islamic foreign policy is to carry the Islamic message to the world, and this policy essentially comes in three stages:

1). The invitation to Islam, whereby the Islamic State will invite another state to accept Islam. Notice here that the invitation is to ISLAM, meaning the ENTIRE SYSTEM of Islam, and this necessitates a State that can implement the entire Islamic system and present it to the people. In Islam, ''invitation'' is not done in a missionary style from person to person. When doing Daw'ah to nations and people, this requires a practical example in the form of a living system that can provide a viable alternative for the people to witness and live under.

2). If that state or people choose to remain Kuffar, then they have the option of paying the Jizya, in return for protection of the Islamic State and living under the Islamic system as citizens of the State, with all the rights and duties of any other citizen.

3). If the nation or state continues to resist and create obstacles, then the final stage is the Jihad, and this Jihad is aimed only at removing the obstacle that stands before the Islamic Daw'ah from reaching the people. Typically in the real world, the ''obstacle'' will be a regime and its pillars of support, which includes its army, its leaders, etc.

Following are some points related to Jihad that we should keep in mind:

First, Jihad is a tool that is used BY THE ISLAMIC STATE, not to establish the Islamic State or as a method for reviving the Muslim Ummah. The Jihad is only used once the Ummah has been revived; otherwise, the result will be what we see, where Jihad has been reduced to an outlet for Muslims to vent their rage. And the evidence for this are:

1). The Prophet (saaws) employed the Jihad as a head of state, not as the amir of a group or an individual. And the Jihad itself was conducted by armies, and the mere existence of an army implies that the state already exists.

2). Jihad is part of the foreign policy, and foreign policy is a non-concept in the absence of a state. Furthermore, when the Jihad is concluded (either through victory or surrender from the opponent), a treaty is formed, and actions such as signing treaties, conducting surrender negotiations, require a state with a leadership. In addition to this, the state of the Islamic foreign policy that precedes the use of Jihad (the Jizya) by itself necessitates the existence of the Islamic State. A group or organization cannot demand the Jizya and offer protection and security in return.

Secondly, the objective of Jihad is not ''to die'' or to become a Shaheed. The shahada (matrydom) is a POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCE that may befall an individual, but the objective of Jihad is to achieve TANGIBLE RESULTS IN THIS LIFE.

Third, as Muslims, we are restricted in our behaviour and actions by the Islamic system, and this includes times of war. It is not up to us to decide how to treat the enemy or how to conduct ourselves in the battlefield. Rather, we must abide by the Hukm Sharii, and we will see that Islam goes through great lengths to preserve the property, dignity, and life of human beings as much as possible even during times of war. This is one of the hallmarks of the Islamic ideology because in Islam the people come first. And Allah (swt) revealed Islam to save humanity and uplift it, not to destroy humanity or threaten its existence. One manifestation of this was that, in the past, prisoners of war were treated better by the Muslims than they were as citizens of their own countries, which caused many of these Kuffar to embrace Islam. In contrast, in other ideologies, what matters are other material objectives, such as resources, land, economic leverage, etc., and the people are of secondary importance. For this reason, we see that in the contemporary world, when nations engage one another, the people will bear the brunt of the suffering and oppression.

On a final note, there is also ''defensive fighting,'' which Muslims are obligated to engage in when attacked or when any citizen of the Islamic State (even non-Muslims) are attacked. This is not only a right that is given to us by the Hukm Sharii, but it is a recognized universal right that all human beings acknowledge. Even the Jihad itself, which is offensive in nature because it is initiated by the Islamic State, is a natural consequence of living in this world because states will have different interests and outlooks, which will inevitably result in conflict. And it is an accepted reality that ideological states, or those that carry a certain way of life, have the right to engage in diplomacy and war to spread their way of life. What differs between these states is the method that they employ to carry out this task of spreading their ideology. For Capitalists, the method is colonialism, with all of its various styles. For Communists, the method is to initiate class struggle within the society. For Islam, Allah (swt) legislated the noble concept of Jihad as the method to spread Islam.