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Lebanese Shi'ite Islamic scholar Mohammad Ali Al-Husseini said in a July 24, 2024 interview with Al-Arabiya Network (Saudi Arabia) that Hizubllah's war against Israel is not considered a "defensive Jihad," but rather an offensive war, which is forbidden according to the Ja'afari school of Islam, which forbids preemptive attacks. He said that Hizbullah should stop the war and that Lebanon was not attacked on October 8. Al-Husseini stated that following the 2006 Lebanon war, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that had he known that kidnapping two Israeli soldiers would lead to a war of such a scale with Israel, he would not have authorized it, and therefore, Nasrallah must be advised that his actions are leading him towards annihilation and the destruction of Lebanon.
Mohammad Ali Al-Husseini: "We are obliged to always act according to the religious ruling and a fatwa, and all the more so when we are talking about fighting and blood, about Jihad. No religious authority on any level of the Ja'fari jurisprudence permits a Shi'ite to carry out a preemptive raid or an attack. All the [Ja'fari] jurisprudents permit only defensive Jihad. What happened recently in Gaza – and especially in Lebanon on October 8 – was not defensive. [Hizbullah] launched a war from south Lebanon.
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"I sent official letters to our religious jurisprudents and sources of authority, and their answers and fatwas are available.
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"[Hizbullah] started it, and after almost 10 months, it has no achievement to show. In addition, many lives have been lost, there are many wounded people, and a whole lot of ruin and destruction. There is real annihilation. We were cast into this and there is no clear prospect for this war in the horizon.
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"What is the rule regarding this military action, which constitutes an attack rather than an act of defense? The truth is that in this war, Lebanon was not subjected to any attack. We initiated the attack. We were not subjected to an attack that would have made this a defensive Jihad. I have received answers [to my letters], and I swear by Allah, if it were not for my respect for the blood that was shed in south Lebanon, and if not for my respect to the victims' families, I would have revealed the answers of the religious authorities.
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"All our religious jurisprudents said that there can be no presumption of innocence in [Hizbullah's] attack, and that there is a religious problem with the lost lives.
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"There was one exception. I do not want to mention his name. Well, its sayyed Khamenei...
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"All the others said that there can be no presumption of innocence in this war, and that [Hizbullah] must stop, because protecting people's lives and property comes first. We were not attacked. We perpetrated the attack.
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"Today, our country is on the verge of destruction. It is not a game. This is a great responsibility. Allow me to say for the record, because this was something I personally witnessed. Today, Hassan Nasrallah cannot say 'no' to the Iranians, but in 1988-89, the secretary-general of Hizbullah was Subhi Al-Tufayli. The [Iranian] ambassador Akhtari [to Syria] and [FM] Ali Akbar Velayati asked him... There was great discord between Amal and Hizbullah, and Sheikh [Al-Tufayli] objected to this, bur Akhtari tried to force him to continue fighting in south Lebanon. Sheikh Subhi physically slapped [Akhtari] and rejected this decision. I witnessed this myself.
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"In 2006, Hassan Nasrallah said: 'If I knew [that this would lead to war]..." So today, I give him an informed piece of advice: You are heading towards annihilation, towards the destruction of Lebanon, and towards the killing of innocent Lebanese."
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