The Islamic State recently claimed a suicide bomb attack in Sadr City in Baghdad that killed and wounded dozens of people. The attack proved to be a particular moment of joy for the group's supporters, coinciding with the start of Eid al-Adha. The group's media department has also responded quickly to the event, making the bombing the topic of its editorial for this week's issue of the group's al-Naba' newsletter. The editorial's main points in summary:
. The attack proves the failure of the Americans and their allies to destroy the Islamic State, whose jihad continues. Their condemnation of the attacks reflects their own worry about the Islamic State and the danger it poses to them despite all their years of efforts.
. The attack is justified from the Shari'i angle by the general command to fight the idolaters until God alone is worshipped, and it is all the more justified against the Shi'a who are responsible for crimes against the Sunnis.
. There are those who would criticise the jihad and its tactics embodied in attacks like this, but the mujahideen and their supporters must realise that their legitimacy has already been explained before by the likes of Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, and the criticisms and attacks they face are in accordance with the prophetic hadith that talks about how Islam began strange and will return strange, so blessed are the strangers (ghuraba'). They must be aware of this truth and the only response is to continue the jihad regardless of the circumstances.
. The success of these operations, in the end, solely comes down to God. Their success is testament to the continuation of the jihad (which will continue till the Day of Judgement) and the astute Muslim should realise its continuation and join the caravan of jihad.
. Baghdad belongs to the Sunnis and not the Shi'a (branded descendants of Ibn Saba'- the Jew who purportedly founded Shi'ism- and Ibn al-Alqami, who has been associated with the Mongol capture of Baghdad and the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate in the 13th century CE). Baghdad and other places of Islam like Damascus and Jerusalem and Mecca will only return to Muslim control through returning to the Prophetic Methodology and waging of jihad.
. God has no need for men but has created them to test them and see who is best in deed. Those who are best in deed are the mujahideen.
Below is the editorial fully translated by me.
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Reflections on the Baghdad attack
The blessed martyrdom attack that struck the gatherings of the idolatrous Rafidites in Baghdad, has shattered the Rafidite delusions and claims concerning the imposition of security in the regions of Iraq. It has also shattered with it as well the Crusader hopes that the Tawagheet of America dream of realising as they alternate in rule, as the Islamic State has continued proceeding on its path by the grace of God Almighty, while the American administrations continue proceeding to a black fate in which they inherit from each other a great inheritance of failure and economic and military olosses.
Noteworthy was how the Crusaders rushed- that is, America, the international coalition, the EU, the Security Council, and a number of other Crusader states and entities- to 'condemn' the blessed attack, and 'offer condolences' to the perished of the Rafidites, and emphasise the 'necessity of bringing the perpetrators of the attack to justice, and continuing to wage war on terrorism.' Meanwhile 'officials in the UN' said in a statement issued from the organisation's office in 'New York' that 'the covert explosions in Iraq are the most intense that the capital Baghdad has been witnessing for six months.'
This Crusader bellowing represented in the succession of condemnations in 'strong terms' and the accumulation of statements of 'threat' and affirmation of the necessity of waging war on the Islamic State and pursuing its soldiers in every place: they clearly reflect the extent of worry that the Crusaders are living through now, and the danger that surrounds them after all these years in their war and gathering against the Islamic State, and they admit today that 'its terrorism knows no borders.' And the truth is that there are no borders besides the limits of the wise law.
The mujahideen made their strike in Baghdad, and thus they struck the heart of Crusader America and its allies who can no longer benefit from what they have spent and exerted in their war against the jihad. For as it expands and intensifies and it brings them back to the first square: bloody days and attacks in the heart of the cities.
From the Shari'i angle, the attack comes in response to the commands of God Almighty to fight the idolaters in order to remove idolatry. The Almighty has said: 'And fight them until there is no more fitna and religion belongs to God'- (al-Baqara 193). Al-Tabari (may God have mercy on him) said: 'This means: until there is no more idolatry against God, and until He alone without anyone besides Him is worshipped, and the worship of idols, gods and peers disappears, and worship and obedience are to God alone with no one besides Him.'
Indeed the Tawheed of God Almighty requires that we fight those who have associated other gods with Him, so what then of the one who has brought together with that waging war on the Muslims and killing them for the sake of their religion and their Sunnism? And the Rafidites, soldiers or not, divide among themselves this sin, and the history of their crimes against the Sunnis in Iraq is not to be forgotten.
And from another angle, the mujahideen will find the ones who attack them and their jihad and criticise these operations of theirs, and disseminate sowings of discord and doubts about their legitimacy, despite the fact that the mujahideen have left no stone unturned in this regard in terms of clarifying them and explaining them through da'wa and proof, and those are the lectures of Sheikh Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi (may God have mercy on him) which have done well in explaining for the one who has desired the truth, and there is much besides those.
But we would like to draw the concern of the mujahideen and their supporters to the fact that the criticisms and attacks on their jihad have not stopped and will not stop, for the strangeness of the religion escalates with the passing of time and does not grow less. And it is a promise that every believer who has gone on this path will live through, on account of the words of SAWS in the authentic hadith: 'Islam began strange and it will return as it began strange, so blessed are the strangers'- (narrated by Muslim). And indeed what the soldiers of the Caliphate encounter today from attack and distortion by those who claim knowledge: it is one of the types of this continuing strangeness, so let them strengthen themselves on that and not expect that the people of distortion and deviation will meet them with anything besides that, and they must only continue their jihad on the methodology of their prophet (SAWS) and not heed the arbitrary whims and moods of the servants.
Ibn al-Qayyim (may God have mercy on him) said: 'And among the qualities of these strangers whom the Prophet (SAWS) called blessed: clinging to the Sunna when people resent it, and abandoning what they have devised in innovation even if it seems right in their view, and making Tawheed pure even if most people condemn it'- (Madarij al-Salikeen).
And from the security angle, the moment in which the mujahid blows up his explosive belt is the last moment in the operation, preceded by a long series of steps of preparation, planning, and getting ready such that the operation should reach its final stage, and in that is a gesture in which we remind the Muslims that the granting of success in these operations is from God Almighty alone, and the Exalted is the One who makes right the shooting of His mujahideen servants and conveys them to their targets, and makes blind the sights of their enemy to them: 'For you did not kill them but God killed them and you did not shoot when you shot, but rather God did so, and indeed so that He should make the believers perform well. Indeed God is hearing, knowing'- (al-Anfal 17). Ibn Kathir (may God have mercy on him) said: 'That is, it is not in your power and force that you killed your enemies despite their multitude and your few numbers, but rather He is the One who granted you victory over them and granted you support against them, for He is the praised one in His Exaltedness, because He is the One who has granted them success for that and support them.' So the mujahideen and their supporters must remember and remind each other of these meanings and embody them, for they thus disavow their power and force and attribute it to God Almighty, so they return safe and sound and take booty.
Also the success of these bold operations in the heart of the cities despite the great precautions of the enemy is a living example of the continuation of the jihad despite all the global conspiracies to stop it and end it, for it continues until the Day of Judgement, continuing in few or large numbers, continue through us or without us, continuing in every circumstance. So if the astute Muslim realises that, it behoves him to strive to participate in this jihad, and the deprived is the one deprived of that, and the happy one is the one God has granted success so he joins the caravan.
And finally, the mujahideen's targeting of the Rafidites in Baghdad, must light up in the souls of the Muslims pride for their stolen fortresses and capitals as they remember that Baghdad is a land for the Muslims, the followers of Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman and Ali (may God be pleased with them), and it does not belong to their Rafidite idolatrous enemies, the descendants of Ibn Saba' and Ibn al-Alqami. And Baghdad will likewise not belong to the Crusaders and others besides them, and it will return to the civilisation of Islam as it was, and the Muslims must participate in realising this blessed return. And there is no return to Baghdad, al-Quds, Mecca and Damascus, without returning to the Prophetic Methodology on account of which the Crusaders and apostates hurry to form confederations to fight the Islamic State in every place in which this methodology has been revived by it.
The new Baghdad attack was not the first of its kind, and will not be the last by the permission of God Almighty, but the Muslims must reflect on these meanings of faith, and remember that God Almighty has no need for them, and that he is capable of supporting His religion for He is the Exalted and nothing in the land or sky can incapacitate Him. But His conveying wisdom has required that He should create creation in order to test them and see which of them does better, and indeed the mujahideen today are the best of the people in deed for they lie on the pinnacle of Islam, and it is the jihad by which the religion is supported and the path becomes supreme. So where are the seekers of this elevated honour?