Following its acknowledgment of the death of 'Atiyyat Allah Al-Libi, Al-Qaeda released a lecture given by the late jihadi leader titled "Incitement to Jihad." Al-Qaeda's media company, Al-Fajr, which released the audio recording of the lecture, did not provide any details as to when and where it was delivered. In the lecture, 'Atiyyat Allah warns the mujahideen that they must distinguish between two kinds of jihad, one of which is commendable and the other reprehensible and unacceptable to Allah. Jihad, he says, must be waged in order to satisfy Allah and further Islam, and not for any worldly gain.
Expounding on a hadith, he lists five conditions for true and desirable jihad, the second of which is absolute obedience to the emir of one's jihad group. In Islamic political language, the imam is the legitimate leader of a Muslim community. 'Atiyyat Allah draws on the hadith to show that since nowadays there is no imam, the leaders and emirs of the "small groups of Muslims" (which obviously include Al-Qaeda) take the imam's place as the ultimate authority. Therefore, obedience to these emirs is a condition for fulfilling the duty of jihad for the sake of Allah, fulfillment or evasion of which affects the mujahid's status in Allah's eyes on Judgment Day. ...
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