Jihad Watch linked from jihadist site

The black flag of Islamic jihad, flying at At-Tawba.com

I am delighted to inform you that the jihadist website at-tawbah.com, which takes its name from the ninth, chronologically last, and bloodiest sura of the Qur'an, has included Jihad Watch among its list of Internet jihad resources.

I doubt the link will last long, particularly after I post this, but here it is for now: http://www.at-tawbah.com/links.html. Judging from the contents of the At-Tawba site, which are decidedly in favor of the violent jihad being waged by Islamic terror groups worldwide, I suspect that someone at At-Tawba got the wrong idea from the name of this site.

But of course I welcome all who come here from there, and invite them to reconsider the path they have chosen, and ask themselves if a God of truth would really need or require them to kill in order to protect and spread that truth.

Over at the "Al-Jihaad" section of the At-Tawba website, meanwhile, you are invited to "Learn About The Peak Of Al-Islaam." To help you do this a number of helpful articles and books are available, including:

• "The Permissibility of Martydom Operations," that is, suicide bombing attacks against civilians;
• "The Greater and Lesser Jihad," which argues that the spiritual or "greater jihad" that American Muslims never tire of talking about actually has no foundation in the Qur'an or Sunnah, and that jihad means fighting only, and is obligatory for Muslims;
• Join the Caravan by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden's ideological mentor and a founder of Al-Qaeda.

I discuss Join the Caravan in Onward Muslim Soldiers. A few highlights from the book's conclusion:

CONCLUSION

1. When the enemy enters the land of the Muslims, jihad becomes individually obligatory (fard `ayn), according to all the jurists, mufassirin and muhaddithin.

2. When jihad becomes fard `ayn, there is no difference between it and salah [prayer] and fasting, according to the three Imams, Abu Hanifah, Malik and al-Shafi`i. As for the Hanbalis, they give priority to salah.

In "Bulghah al-Salik li-Aqrab al-Masalik fi madhhab al-Imam Malik" ("The Sufficiency of the Traveller on the Best Path in the School of Imam Malik"), the following is reported:

"Jihad in the Path of Allah, to raise the word of Allah, is fard kifayah [obligatory on the community] once a year, so that if some perform it, the obligation falls from the rest. It becomes fard `ayn [obligatory on every Muslim individually], like salah and fasting, if the legitimate Muslim Imam declares it so, or if there is an attack by the enemy on an area of people."

"Majma` al-anhur", a book of the Hanafi school, reports:

"If the sufficiency (to defeat the enemy) is not reached except by everybody participating, then at such a time it (jihad) becomes fard `ayn, like salah."

And in "Hashiyah Ibn `Abidin", another authoritative Hanafi text, we find,

"...and (jihad is) fard `ayn if the enemy has attacked part of the Islamic homeland. It thus becomes an obligation like salah and fasting which cannot be abandoned." ...

5. Donating money does not exempt a person from bodily jihad, no matter how great the amount of money given. Nor is the obligation of jihad, which is hanging over the person's neck, lifted from him; just as it is not correct to give money to the poor for missed fasts or prayers without making them up.

6. Jihad is the obligation of a lifetime, just like salah and fasting. As it is not permissible to fast one year in Ramadan and eat in the following Ramadan, or to pray one day and abandon salah another day, similarly one cannot perform jihad one year and abandon it for some years if he is capable of continuing.

7. Jihad is currently fard `ayn - individually obligatory, in person and by wealth, in every place that the Disbelievers have occupied. It remains fard `ayn continuously until every piece of land that was once Islamic is regained.

8. The word "jihad", when mentioned on its own, only means combat with weapons, as was mentioned by Ibn Rushd, and upon this the four Imams have agreed. ...

10. The saying, "We have returned from the lesser jihad (battle) to the greater jihad (jihad of the soul)" which people quote on the basis that it is a hadith, is in fact a false, fabricated hadith which has no basis. It is only a saying of Ibrahim Ibn Abi `Abalah, one of the Successors, and it contradicts textual evidence and reality.

11. Jihad is the zenith of Islam, and proceeds in stages. Before it comes hijrah, then preparation (organisation), then ribat, then combat. Hijrah is necessary for jihad, for it has been reported in the authentic hadith reported by Imam Ahmad on the marfu' authority of Junadah, that "hijrah will not cease as long as jihad continues." Ribat refers to living on the Muslims' front-line to protect the Muslims. It is a necessity of combat, because battles do not occur every day. A person may perform ribat for a long time and only participate in one or two battles during this time.

12. Jihad today is individually obligatory (fard `ayn), by self and wealth, on every Muslim, and the Islamic community remains sinful until the last piece of Islamic land [i.e. Israel, Spain, Southeastern Europe] is freed from the hands of the Disbelievers, nor are any absolved from the sin other than the Mujahideen. ...

17. Jihad is a collective act of worship, and every group must have a leader. Obedience to the leader is a necessity in jihad, and thus a person must condition himself to invariably obey the leader, as has been reported in the hadith,

"You must hear and obey, whether it is easy or difficult for you, in things which are pleasant for you as well as those which are inconvenient and difficult for you."

Note the heavy reliance on traditional Islamic theological and legal sources. This makes the case for violent jihad difficult, if not impossible, for moderate Muslims to refute — unless they definitively reject those traditional sources.

Read the articles and books at At-Tawba, and you will know the plans, goals, and mindset of the mujahedin worldwide. Yet most analysts continue to ignore material like this. They ignore it at their own risk.

Posted by Robert at April 14, 2004 7:23 PM
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