Iraq has witnessed another incident of a massive fire at a COVID hospital ward that has killed scores of people, this time in the southern city of Nasiriya. The Islamic State's media department has decided to make this incident the focus of the editorial in this week's issue of the al-Naba' newsletter. Entitled 'The Rafidite Catastrophes' (Rafidite being a derogatory reference to the Shi'a), the editorial argues that these fires and other disaster incidents that befall Iraq's Shi'a population are not the result of militia influence or governmental corruption etc., but rather a sign of God's torment against the Shi'a for their idolatry and war against the Muslims. God has repeatedly sent His punishments on the disbelieving nations (again the familiar historical narrative theme that 'history repeats itself') and He does so through natural disasters and through imposing the believers on the disbelievers in conquest, subjugation and vanquishing, with the latter reflecting God's promise to the believers for victory and the mastery of the Muslims over the land to impose the sole rule of the Islamic law (the Shari'a). The editorial again stresses the importance of certainty in God's promise and this overall worldview (similar to the line in the last editorial on the anti-Islamic State coalition in Rome).
It may of course be argued that similar disasters can also afflict the Muslims, but the answer to that point is that afflictions on the Muslims are reflective of purification and elevation of the ranks of the believers, and cannot be compared with God's torment against the disbelievers. Finally, the editorial points to the divisions God has created among the Shi'a, with the party and movement splits.
The Rafidite Catastrophes
Hardly a week or less goes by for the idolatrous Rafidites in Iraq without their being struck on account of their idolatry and oppression by the various strikes of the torment that God Almighty pours out on them and their being struck by something, for God through them has destroyed many of them and tearing evil has torn them apart. So they have become stories for the whole world, such that we have not found a need to dwell on the discussion about what the situation of the Rafidites in Iraq has come to recently from the succession of crises and the consecutive nature of the catastrophes upon them, as they have spread in the media and they have spread like fire in the 'south'!
And among the most recent and intense of these catastrophes upon them have been the fires that burned the bodies of hundreds of them in a place that was originally supposed to be a place of hope and healing so it turned on them as one of pain and suffering, and this is the strike that afflicts the disbelievers so it assails them and torments them through it, as punishment from God Almighty for the idolatry they have committed against the Exalted from false idols and gods, and they have waged war on His allies and committed oppression and transgression and they have sowed great corruption in the land, and the punishment is from the type of deed.
So what happens to the Rafidites today is the counterpart to what happened to disbelieving nations and peoples before them, and it is the counterpart of what the Almighty says: 'And those who have disbelieved are still afflicted by a strike for what they have done or it will befall them near their abode, until the promise of God comes. Indeed God does not forsake the promise'- (al-Ra'ad 31).
So this is a permanent and continual threat and promise from God Almighty for all the disbelievers in the land whoever they are, wherever they are and whenever they are around, in that the Almighty will send upon them from strikes, catastrophes, punishments and various kinds of torment, and they- so long as they do not repent and believe- will drown and remain in this worldly punishment until the promise of God Almighty comes, and indeed the torment of the Hereafter is more severe and lasting.
Imam al-Qurtubi (may God have mercy on him) said: 'That is, the disbelievers will still be afflicted by a destructive catastrophe that assails them for their disbelief and insolence, from a lightning bolt, or killing, or imprisonment or drought, or other kinds of torment and affliction. And Ikrimah said on the authority of Ibn Abbas: The strike is the catastrophe.' And Imam al-Tabari (may God have mercy on him) said: 'It is what strikes them from affliction and torment and punishment, with killing sometimes, and through wars at other times, and famine at other times (or you descend) or you come down, oh Muhammad (soon upon their abode) with your army and your companions (until the promise of God comes) that He made to you regarding them, and that is your supremacy over them and your conquest of their land, and your vanquishing of them by the sword (indeed God does not forsake the promise).' And Imam al-Baghawi (may God have mercy on him) said: '(Until the promise of God comes): it has been said: the Day of Judgment. And it has been said: conquest and victory.'
And the one who ponders finds that God Almighty imposes on the disbelievers two types of torment: the first is that the Exalted sends His torment and punishment on the disbelievers by the hands of soldiers among His soldiers: 'And no one knows the soldiers of your Lord but He.' Ibn Kathir (may God have mercy on him) said: 'That is: only the Almighty knows their number and abundance.' And that is like the fire, hurricane, deluge and other things by which God has tormented the disbelievers in the past and now. And the second is that God imposes His believing servants on the disbelievers, with killing, imprisonment and vanquishing by the sword and jihad.
The fact that catastrophes follow each other in succession on the idolatrous Rafidites is not something that only occurs in Iraq, but also in Majusi Iran which is on the other hand afflicted by strikes of torment and catastrophes from time to time, with what the country is suffering from an economic crisis that has had ramifications for its followers and militias in Iraq, so they have begun to curse it secretly and openly.
And while the idolatrous Rafidites try to pin the reason for all of these catastrophes on the rack of 'the militias, and governmental corruption, and foundational deficit in the administrative framework...'; the believers see in what befalls the Rafidites and other disbelievers a sign from God Almighty and preparation and groundwork for fulfilment of His divine promise for the defeat of the disbelievers and the mastery of the Muslims in the land, so that they should govern it through the Islamic Shari'a that has hegemony over all other laws, for no religion besides Islam should rule the in the land, and it is the objective for which the Islamic State has arisen and from which it will not deviate by the permission of God.
Indeed the Rafidite crisis is in its truth not a crisis of electricity, water, a fire or epidemic. It is a chronic destructive crisis whose cause is their idolatry against God Almighty and their war against the Muslims, and their worship of other deities along with God. And we have seen them on the occasion of every calamity or event descending on them, they rush and take refuge in their gods besides God Almighty, and they seek the help of men and seek their relief, help and mercy!
And here the mujahideen must keep these considerations present in their hearts and minds as they fight and attack the Rafidites through the length and width of Iraq: that the Rafidites are forsaken and were they to seek the help of all the Tawagheet of the Romans and Persians, they are defeated, even if they have with them all the armies of the Earth!
And on that matter, Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani (may God have mercy on him) says in direction and reminding: 'Oh soldiers of the Dawla, remember always that you are fighting a forsaken nation: if they seek help it is in Ali, and if they seek relief it is through al-Hussein, and if they seek protection it is in al-Abbas, and if they seek support it is in Fatima (may God be pleased with them and her). They put their reliance on men and worship idols, so God forbid that He should support them against you! So make your creed as your preparation, and your taqwa as your force, and be certain of the victory of God, for you are the soldiers of God, fighting in the path of God, while the Rafidites are the soldiers of Satan who fight in the path of the Taghut.' So the mujahid in his path to God Almighty must consider and contemplate these facts so his certainty can be strengthened by them and they can be an additional motive for him in the field of fighting, so he destroys these wretched idolaters like the lion that does not turn its face, as he knows that he is supported in evert occasion, so victory and being killed, both of them are a reward in God's eyes.
And despite the fact that the Rafidites are drowning in their successive catastrophes, they have not ceased to warn about the 'danger of the escalation of terrorism' and that these crises are to the advantage of the mujahideen. And it is what has previously been mentioned from the fact that all that is from God Almighty's arrangement for His servants and His escorting them and His preparing them for the true promise.
And someone may say: these catastrophes and calamities may also afflict some of the oppressed Muslims hidden in that land. So we say and in God is the guarantee of success: there is a difference between the two outcomes and two consequences: for is the torment of God Almighty for the disbelievers equal to the Exalted's purification and elevation of the ranks of the enduring believers?! It is the difference between obliteration and purification and it is not hidden. The Almighty has said: 'And that God may purify those who have believed and obliterate the disbelievers'- (Al Imran 141). So purification is elevation of the believers, while obliteration is destruction and annihilation of the disbelievers, and your Lord does wrong to no-one.
In addition to all that is the state of separation that has come upon the ranks of the Rafidites in Iraq, for God has sowed disagreement between their hearts and they have separated like pell-mell, such that the government has become movements, and the one party multiple parties. And observe their state in the 'burning south.' You then have no need for a long statement.
Oh God, save the oppressed of the Muslims in Iraq and every place. Oh God, intensify Your force on the Rafidites and their allies and cause disagreement between their hearts. Oh God make them experience years like the years of Yusuf. Oh God respond.