A Trait of Hypocrisy

Abu Hurairah (radi Allahu anhu) narrated that the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Whoever dies without having participated in Jihad or having prepared himself for Jihad, dies on one of the traits of hypocrisy.” [Sahih Muslim]

Imam Nawawi (rahmatullah alaihi) writes in his commentary of this hadith: “And this means that whoever does this, in reality in this attribute he has become like the Munafiqeen (hypocrites) who used to stay behind from participating in Jihad, because to abandon Jihad is one of the traits of hypocrisy.” [Sharih Muslim]

Allama Sindhi (rahmatullah alaihi) writes in his commentary of this hadith: “(and did not prepare himself for Jihad): This means that he did not even say in his heart, ‘I wish I were a Ghazi’. And this means that he did not even make the intention to participate in Jihad. And the sign of having such an intention is that one should have prepared the things that one needs for Jihad because Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) says: ‘And if they had intended to set out they would surely have made some preparation for it.’ [Quran 9:46]” [As-Sindhi ala Sunan An-Nisai]