References to nuclear weapons are a common excuse brought to justify neglecting the obligation of jihad. This line of argument is absolutely invalid.

Any nuclear strike against Muslims would be a huge blessing on the ummah. No one should be deterred from jihad by the presence of nuclear weapons. The biggest source of our weakness is division, and if the kuffar were stupid enough to launch a nuclear strike, this would have an incredible unifying effect on the ummah.

There has been an intense propaganda campaign to convince the general masses of Muslims that the mujahideen are violent, extremists, radical, and so forth. This campaign has been somewhat effective, such that the mujahideen are alienated from the common people in many countries.

After the beheading of a teacher who repeatedly offended his Muslim students, the French government projected offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم onto government buildings. This hateful act of blasphemy resulted in a huge surge of popular anger among Muslims and an incredible display of unity. Muslims of all different backgrounds united in their condemnation of this act. The French government’s disgraceful attitude revealed to many Muslims the evil which many of the kuffar carry in their hearts.

یَـٰۤأَیُّهَا ٱلَّذِینَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تَتَّخِذُوا۟ بِطَانَةࣰ مِّن دُونِكُمۡ لَا یَأۡلُونَكُمۡ خَبَالࣰا وَدُّوا۟ مَا عَنِتُّمۡ قَدۡ بَدَتِ ٱلۡبَغۡضَاۤءُ مِنۡ أَفۡوَ ٰهِهِمۡ وَمَا تُخۡفِی صُدُورُهُمۡ أَكۡبَرُۚ قَدۡ بَیَّنَّا لَكُمُ ٱلۡءَایَـٰتِۖ إِن كُنتُمۡ تَعۡقِلُونَ

O you who have believed, do not take as intimates those other than yourselves, for they will not spare you [any] ruin. They wish you would have hardship. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater. We have certainly made clear to you the signs, if you will use reason.

3:118

A nuclear strike would have a unifying effect far more powerful than the incident of the French government’s hateful behavior. It would completely shatter the carefully crafted illusion of human rights that underpins Western hegemony. It would show to all the reality that the kuffar are willing to murder thousands of children and poison and corrupt the earth purely for the sake of power.

They understand this as well, which is why no one actually uses these weapons. There is also huge opposition to the use of nuclear weapons in the West, so any regime that used them would probably fall from power. It would have a divisive effect on the kuffar at least as powerful as its unifying effect on the Muslims. Unity is strength, and division is weakness; thus, a nuclear strike would greatly strengthen the Muslims while weakening the kuffar.

Furthermore, the power of nuclear weapons has been greatly exaggerated. There is no hard evidence that a nuclear war could actually cause a “nuclear winter” capable of eliminating all life on earth.

Russian intelligence officer Sergei Tretyakov stated that the data supporting a “nuclear winter” scenario was faked and spread in the West as part of a KGB disinformation plot. He claimed the first Western scientific article publicizing the theory was published as a result of KGB influence, with the intention of mobilizing popular support in the West against the development of advanced nuclear warheads.

Even a large-scale nuclear war would probably only lower global temperatures by a few degrees for a period of years. It might lead to reduced crop yields for a time, which would result in some famine, but this would impact the northern hemisphere, where the growing season is shorter, much more severely. This would be to the advantage of the Muslims, since most Muslim lands are further south.

Exaggerating one’s own power is a standard tactic of war. The largest nuclear bomb ever produced is approximately 3,800 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, but this doesn’t mean that it would do 3,800 times more damage than the Hiroshima bomb. Blast radius does not increase with blast power in a linear fashion. That means the actual fireball resulting from the largest nuclear weapon ever made would be less than 10 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb, even though the blast power is 3,800 times stronger. Eizo Nomura was just 170 meters away from where the atomic bomb in Hiroshima dropped. He was in the basement of a reinforced concrete building, and lived for 37 years after the war before dying at the age of 82.

A number of survivors close to the blast were not even underground, but were in above ground open blast shelters made out of heaped earth. Still, the scale of destruction was devastating, and tens of thousands did die. However, the fact that many did survive, despite having no idea that a nuclear blast was coming, shows that it is possible to prepare for and survive such a blast.

Once it became clear that some nation was intent on using nuclear weapons, the natural response would be to quickly evacuate cities and move to the countryside. They could destroy a lot of buildings and infrastructure, but the overall death toll would be relatively limited after any initial surprise strikes, and it would leave them in a much worse position for the reasons mentioned above.

In short, the threat of nuclear weapons is not really anything to worry about, and even if the Muslims were to make the decision to fight in spite of the presence of these weapons, it’s likely that their use would only accelerate our inevitable victory, which is why it’s quite unlikely that they’d be used at all. Some especially dull kuffar sometimes like to threaten to drop nuclear bombs on Mecca. Surat al-Fil contains a reminder not to be intimidated by these threats. It reminds us that this is not the first time seemingly
powerful armies with terrifying power have threatened to attack the Kaaba. If you don’t think war elephants are terrifying, try looking up a video of an elephant rampage.

Not a single leaf falls in any forest on earth except by Allah’s permission, and the same applies to bombs. These seemingly powerful weapons are a test of our faith to see whether we fear the creation or the Creator.