﴿ وَجَٰهِدُوا۟ فِى ٱللَّهِ حَقَّ جِهَادِهِۦ ۚ هُوَ ٱجْتَبَىٰكُمْ وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِى ٱلدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍۢ ۚ مِّلَّةَ أَبِيكُمْ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ ۚ هُوَ سَمَّىٰكُمُ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ مِن قَبْلُ وَفِى هَٰذَا لِيَكُونَ ٱلرَّسُولُ شَهِيدًا عَلَيْكُمْ وَتَكُونُوا۟ شُهَدَآءَ عَلَى ٱلنَّاسِ ۚ فَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتُوا۟ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَٱعْتَصِمُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ هُوَ مَوْلَىٰكُمْ ۖ فَنِعْمَ ٱلْمَوْلَىٰ وَنِعْمَ ٱلنَّصِيرُ ﴾

“And strive hard in God’s cause with all the striving that is due to Him: it is He who has elected you [to carry His message], and has laid no hardship on you in [anything that pertains to religion, [and made you follow] the creed of your forefather Abraham. It is He who has named you in bygone times as well as in this [divine writ] – “those who have surrendered themselves to God”, so that the Apostle might bear witness to the truth before you, and that you might bear witness to it before all mankind. Thus, be constant in prayer, and render the purifying dues, and hold fast unto God. He is your Lord Supreme: and how excellent is this Lord Supreme, and how excellent this Giver of Succour!”

The addressees of this verse were directly the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, and indirectly all the believers in the Quran. God chose this group for the special task of making all communities and nations aware of the true and eternal religion of God. The task of bearing witness was performed by the Prophet Muhammad for the people of his own times, and his followers were required to perform this same task for their contemporaries uptill Doomsday. This obligation is a very delicate one. For this purpose, a vigorous and persevering struggle is required. It can be properly performed only by those who bow down before God in the real sense; who are well-wishers of others to the extent that they derive pleasure from spending their time and money on them; who rely on the one and only God; who rise above everything else; who fulfil in the real sense the requirement of the term ‘Muslim’, which term has been specially devised for them by God. However, God has made a special dispensation in relation to the work of bearing witness, i.e. He has removed forever all the external hurdles in the way of this work. A revolution has been brought about through the Prophet Muhammad, which has resulted in the permanent abolition of such hurdles as once constricted the ways of the prophets of the past and their followers. Now there is absolutely no real obstacle to performing this work, unless the bearers of the Quran themselves create self-made difficulties out of ignorance, and thus make an easy task unnecessarily difficult.