Transliteration:( Wa jaahidoo fil laahi haqqa jihaadih; Huwaj tabaakum wa maa ja'ala 'alaikum fid deeni min haraj; Millata abeekum Ibraaheem; Huwa sammaakumul muslimeena min qablu wa fee haaza li yakoonar Rasoolu shaheedan 'alaikum wa takoonoo shuhadaaa'a 'alan naas; fa aqeemus salaata wa aatuz zakaata wa'tasimoo billaahi Huwa mawlaakum fani'mal mawlaa wa ni'man naseer (section 10) (End Juz 17) )
157. Strive against your baser self, your evil friends, and bad children to bring them on the Straight Path, And strive against the infidels with the sincerity and correctness of intention. which should not be for mere show and territorial aggrandizement.
158. For the sake of holy war and for ones acts of worship because you are the Ummah- (followers) of the beloved Prophet of Allah.
159. As it was placed on the previous Ummahs You have been given easy and convenient laws. The entire earth is made as a mosque for you, Tayammum with sand is made permissible for you, and you are presented with Qasr in your Raka'ats of Fard Salaahs during a journey.
 160. From this emerge two issues:
1. The name of the Ummah of the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم was also recorded in the previous scriptures as Muslims.
 2. Muslims can only be referred to as the Ummah of the Holy Prophet sense. Others, have called it in terminologically.
Says Allah Almighty: "Verily, only Islam is the Deen (Religion) before Allah" (S3:V19). It is further stated: "Then O Beloved by your Lord, they shall not be Muslims until they make you judge in all disputes among themselves" (S4:V65) Besides us, all those who were called Muslims were only in terms of language.
161. At this place, the preposition 'on' is not used for loss, and testimony does not denote adverse testimony. In fact, testimony would be in accordance with the Ummah. At the same time, it would give verification of the Ummah, that this Ummah is just and not sinful. Hence, the preposition on is used. On the Day of Judgement, the Ummah will give testimony in favor of all the previous Prophets, that Oh Allah! these Prophets had conveyed Your message to their people.
These people are liars who say that Your Messengers had not come to us. Thereafter, the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم will testify that the testimony of these Muslims is correct.Â
162. So that you would be worthy of giving testimony on the Day of Judgement, because the testimony of the transgressors is not acceptable.
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The tafsir of Surah Al-Hajj verse 78 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Hajj ayat 77 which provides the complete commentary from verse 77 through 78.
(22:78) Strive in the cause of Allah in a manner worthy of that striving.[128] He has chosen you[129] (for His task), and He has not laid upon you any hardship in religion.[130] Keep to the faith of your father Abraham.[131] Allah named you Muslims earlier and even in this[132] (Book), that the Messenger may be a witness over you, and that you may be witnesses over all mankind.[133] So establish Prayer, and pay Zakah, and hold fast to Allah.[134] He is your Protector. What an excellent Protector; what an excellent Helper!
128. The Arabic word jihad is very comprehensive. It includes every kind of effort, exertion, conflict and war. Jihad for the cause of Allah means that it should be performed for His service and for His approval against those who prevent others from following His Way. The performance of jihad also requires that one should first of all fight against his own self in order to subdue it. For there can be no true jihad unless one fights against his evil self and subdues his desires and lusts to the obedience of Allah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) himself has emphasized the need for this jihad. Once when the warriors for the cause of Allah returned from jihad, he said: You have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad. They asked: What is that greater Jihad. The Prophet (peace be upon him) replied: It is the jihad against his own desires and lusts.
Moreover, the battlefield for jihad is, in fact, the whole world, and Islam demands that one should exert his utmost against all the rebels of Allah and the wicked powers with all of his heart and mind and body and wealth.
129. The direct addressees of this were the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him), for they were the first who had the honor to be chosen for this service; others have been addressed only indirectly being their followers. This thing has been mentioned in the Quran in other ways as well. For reference, see (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 143) and (Surah Aal-Imran, Ayat 110).
130. “(Allah) has not placed upon you in religion any hardship”. That is, the creed you have been given is very simple and straightforward and the laws and regulations you have to obey are practicable. You are free within its bounds to make as much progress as you can. This was to impress that the lives of the Muslims were free from all those useless and unnatural restrictions which had been imposed upon the former communities by their priests and law givers. The negative aspect of the same thing has been mentioned in (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayat 157): He enjoins them to follow virtue and forbids them from evil: He makes pure things lawful for them and impure things unlawful. He relieves them of their burdens and frees them from the shackles that bound them.
131. Though Islam may be called the religion of Prophets Noah, Moses, Jesus, etc. yet the Quran emphasizes over and over again that it is the religion of Prophet Abraham (peace be upon them all). Therefore, you should follow it. This is for three reasons.
(1) The first addressees of the Quran were the Arabs who were more familiar with Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) than with any other Prophet and acknowledged him to be a holy personage and their leader.
(2) Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) alone was the person whom the Jews, the Christians, the Muslims and the mushriks of Arabia and of the adjoining countries unanimously acknowledged as a great Prophet.
(3) When the Quran invites all these communities to follow the way of Abraham, it in fact, admonishes them that all their religions had been invented long after Prophet Abraham and, therefore, were not trustworthy because they contradicted many things taught by him. As for the mushriks of Arabia, they also acknowledged that idolworship among them had been started by Amr bin Luhayy, who was a leader of Bani Khuzaah, and had brought an idol, called Hubal, from Moab in about 600 B.C. So the religion to which Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) invited them was the same pure, un-adulterated religion which was taught by Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him).
For further details, see (Surah Al-Baqarah, ayat 134-135) note 134-135 and (Surah Aal-Imran, ayat 65) note 58, (Surah Aal-Imran, ayat 96) note 79 and (Surah An-Nahl, ayat 120) note 119-120.
132. Here the word “you” has not been addressed exclusively to those believers who lived at the time of the revelation of this verse, or those who believed after its revelation. It includes all those human beings, who, from the beginning of human history, believed in Tauhid, the Hereafter, Prophethood and the divine Books. They were not Jews, Christians, etc. but Muslims in the sense that they had surrendered themselves to Allah. Likewise the followers of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) are not Muhammadans but Muslims.
133. For explanation see (Surah Al-Baqarah, ayat 143) note 144.
134. “Hold fast to Allah”: Follow exclusively the guidance and the law of Allah: obey Him alone: fear Him and have all your hopes and expectations in Him: invoke Him alone for help: trust in Him and pray to Him for all your needs.
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