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It Is An Obligation!
Abu Dujaanah Al-Khorasani
(May Allah Accept Him)
All praise is due to Allah, the One, the Most High, and prayers and peace
be upon the Cheerful One, the Slayer, our Chief Muhammad, and upon his
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[ O Hesitant One: It Is An Obligation! ] _________________________________________
family and all his companions and those who follow their guidance until
the Day of Judgement.
I greet you with the greeting of Islam: peace be upon you and the mercy
of Allah and His blessings.
As for what comes after:
This is a brief letter of motivation to Jihad in Allah’s path which I leave
in the mailbox of a Muslim who is wavering between the honor of going
forth and the humiliation of staying behind.
Know, my brother, that I singled you out for this letter due to my
conviction that you are the closest among all people to the Mujahideen in
Allah’s path. Almost no Mujahid goes forth to the fields of competition
without passing through this stage of indecision and lingering. However,
while for some a few days, hours or minutes suffice, for others this stage
goes on and on until even his entire life isn’t enough for him to make up his
mind.
And don’t think, my beloved brother, that your brother, this poor slave,
isn’t aware of your condition. I lived among you for such a long time that it
is as if I am wandering around in one of the impoverished neighborhoods
of your emotion, or resting my head on a cold sidewalk in the border zone
between consciousness and unconsciousness where you have hidden the
love of Jihad from sight and exiled it like a stranger without an identity or
like a lonely heart searching for company.
So I am calling to you from there, from the depth of your hearts, with
words whose letters resemble pieces of my body which I scatter like
severed limbs in the ether, for their echoes to reverberate in your ears
forever, and for me to plant them like seeds in your consciences, in the
hope that out of them will grow Jihad if I water them with my blood
tomorrow.
Oh, if only I had something other than these words with which to call on
you, then I would have flown to you without wings, like a breeze which
comes before the winds, in order to stand in front of each one of you, with
my eyes looking into your eyes and my hands on your shoulders, to shake
you and recite to you Allah’s statement, “Unless you go forth, He will
punish you with a painful punishment, and put others in your place. But
Him you would not harm in the least.” (9:39)
Oh, if only I had as many souls as there are hairs on my head, so that I
could send them to the minarets of all mosques in the realms of the
Muslims, to call out to the people on the day of the weekly congregation,
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[ O Hesitant One: It Is An Obligation! ] _________________________________________
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Jihad. We shall continue to search for you, and search again, until you join
us.
My brothers in Allah: Allah has tested the Ummah with idols who have
led the people away from their religion, and thus the Sunnah has been
deserted and Bid’ah has spread, and sound nature has been corrupted and
Jihad has become a reckless venture and gamble in the eyes of many
among the Muslim laity; and human devils sit beside jinni devils on the
pathways of the Muslim to turn him away from Jihad in the path of Allah,
by telling him, “Are you going to perform Jihad in the path of Allah, and
get yourself killed, and let your wife remarry and your children become
orphans?!” and by telling him, “To whom are you leaving your pretty
wife?! Who will be dutiful to your frail mother?! Who will take care of
your little child and your elderly father?! And how can you abandon your
wonderful work and desert your beautiful house?!”
But if you were to mention in front of them that you are going not to
Jihad in Allah’s path, but to spend a summer vacation or take a course in
some worldly sciences, you would see their faces brighten, and they would
help you with their time, money and counsel, and they would wish they
could accompany you, even if only in your suitcase. “If it had been an
immediate gain and a short journey, they would certainly have followed
you, but the long journey seemed too far to them.” (9:42)
Beware, my brother, of being turned away from the obligation of Jihad
by these enemies, who have concealed themselves in the cloak of family
and friends. Beware of letting them deceive and mislead you. “O you who
believe! Among your wives and your children are some who are your
enemies, so beware of them.” (64:14)
Beware, O undecided one, of agreeing to live according to others’
convictions after seeing the truth and having its happiness mix with your
heart. Don’t be like Abu Talib, the uncle of Allah’s Messenger (peace and
prayers of Allah be upon him), who was certain that his nephew was a
Prophet sent by Allah, but who, when death came to him, insisted that his
end be in accordance with his enemies’ wishes, and thus he said in his last
breath, “[I die] on the religion of our forefathers from [the tribe of]
Quraysh.”
And you, O you who realized that Jihad is the truth but chose to stay
behind: when death comes to you on your sickbed and you are surrounded
by those who claimed once upon a time that Jihad is annihilation and
staying behind is survival, they will exchange glances of sympathy over
you in despondent silence and with an awkward shedding of tears by those
of them who loved you the most; as for the others, their minds will be
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[ O Hesitant One: It Is An Obligation! ] _________________________________________
preoccupied with the procedures of washing and burial and how to pay the
hospital bill, so they will leave on your table a bouquet of flowers on which
they have written the last of their lies to you in this world: “For a speedy
recovery,” although they know for certain that death has come to snatch
you from their midst.
And that when death inserts its claws
You find that all amulets are worthless
That’s when you will remember these words of mine, and you will be
overcome with regret, but the time for regret will have passed. The reel of
Shaheeds will pass rapidly before you: Hamza bin Abd al-Muttalib…Anas
bin al-Nadr…Abdullah Azzam…Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi…Abu al-Laith
al-Libi…Abu Jihad al-Misri; and after these Shaheeds, your life will
appear. Woe to you that death has taken you so quickly and in such a short
period of time. It is then that you will realize that you are the loser and that
those slackers and deserters around you swindled you. You will realize that
you aren’t the same as those Mujahideen you used to love, even if you
resemble them in your points of view and your claiming to love going forth
in Allah’s path; whereas they died the way they loved and wished for, you
died the way the slackers around you love. And there is neither power nor
strength except with Allah.
I would like to relate to you a short story, in the hope that it will
motivate you to Jihad in Allah’s path. It is the story of a disabled man in a
wheelchair who decided to go forth in Allah’s path. His name is Ahmad, a
non-Arab Muslim afflicted with an illness which wrecked his lower legs,
and as a result he can only walk using his hands. However, his defiant spirit
insisted that he join his brothers in the land of Jihad.
As soon as he reached the Mujahideen’s base, he demanded that the
Amir include his name in the nightly guard duty schedule. When the Amir
agreed, in order to placate him, he began to cry out of delight and
happiness that his eyes would spend a night guarding in the path of Allah;
and Allah decreed that I sleep outside, near the guard point, so I could
witness what happened that night.
From the time that guard duty began until the first rays of dawn, Ahmad
sat, guarding his station in Allah’s path, remembering Allah and asking His
forgiveness, and crying all the while. I was stunned by Allah’s grace
towards that man and how He provided his eyes – on a single night – with
both the blessing of guarding in Allah’s path and the blessing of shedding
tears out of fear and awe of Allah.
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[ O Hesitant One: It Is An Obligation! ] _________________________________________
But the truth is the opposite of what the fetus imagines, because he has
only entered the womb in order to be prepared to enter the flow of life, and
the years of his life will only begin after the birth event which he thought
was a sudden death. We know that for certain because we have experienced
the two stages and our senses have seen them both, and that’s why you
don’t find anyone who longs to go back to the womb; and this is what death
is like in the eyes of the believer, who has become certain that the life of
this world is nothing but his prison; and this is what death is like in the eyes
of the Mujahid in Allah’s path: he looks at it as nothing more than another
birth on the way to entering the flow of eternal happiness.
True, we haven’t seen a martyr come back to this world to tell us about
what he saw, but it is faith in Allah, His Book and His Messenger, the faith
which makes us wish for death in Allah’s path and crave it. I swear by He
in whose Hand is my soul that this worldly life is narrower and more
restrictive for the believer than the mother’s womb is for her fetus, and that
the easiest way for him to free himself from this restriction is martyrdom in
Allah’s path. In fact, the blood, suffering and pain which the fetus goes
through in order to reach the life of this world is a horrible tragedy when
compared with the killing of the martyr, for whom it feels like nothing
more than an insect bite. This is death in the culture of the Mujahid: a
transition from one deficient life to another perfect one, which, although he
hasn’t experienced it, he knows by heart, through Allah’s description of it.
“And He will bring them in unto the Garden which He has made known
to them.” (47:6)
Those who have been killed in Allah’s path aren’t dead, even if you have
buried their bodies beneath the earth. They aren’t dead, even if you ask
mercy for them as though they have died. They aren’t dead, even if you
have shed tears for them and opened your houses for consolations. They are
alive, but you don’t feel it. They are alive, in a place which your senses
haven’t before seen, but you aren’t aware of it. And were Allah to give you
the opportunity to look for a moment at their life in Paradise, the garrisons
would be flooded with those who seek that life; and were Allah to give you
the opportunity to listen to one conversation between two martyrs in the
breasts of green birds in Paradise, you would know that they are the ones
who are asking Allah to have mercy on you and grant you resolve.
My undecided brother: allow me to once again speak to the Islam,
manhood and chivalry in you, by telling you this story. Close your eyes for
a moment, and give free rein to your imagination to depict for you the
events of this story, which took place in the country of the Afghans. Don’t
listen to these words, but instead, view them as if they are being shown in
front of you on a screen inside your brain.
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[ O Hesitant One: It Is An Obligation! ] _________________________________________
One day, the Americans raided an Afghan village in order to capture two
Taliban commanders who had made them taste all types of woes.
Following fierce resistance, the two men were martyred. We reckon them
to be so and Allah is their Reckoner. But this didn’t quench the cross-
worshippers’ thirst for revenge, so they took the two commanders’ wives to
their helicopter, and then, while circling at a high altitude, they began to
throw the women’s clothes to the ground, so that the people of the village
could see what was happening to the two commanders’ wives.
When I recall the details of this story and swallow the bitterness of its
scenes moment by moment, I wish that I had a million lives on the face of
this earth so that I could destroy them one after the other in avenging our
chaste Muslim sisters. I wish that the evil scholars, who participated with
the Americans in this crime through their despicable fatwas which prohibit
Jihad and legitimize occupation, could be gathered on a single plateau for
the widows and orphans of the Mujahideen to pelt them with shoes until
they are buried alive under the boots.
But don’t open your eyes yet, my brother, because the scene hasn’t
ended. Imagine that these sisters in Islam were your mothers, or your
sisters, or your wives. Do you dare to imagine that? Do you dare to think
about that? If your answer is “no,” then know that this is what is really
happening on the soil of Afghanistan. This is what the filthy infidels are
doing to the chaste and pure Muslim women. This is just one of the many
scenes which the media hide from the people. So what are you going to do
about it, now that you know?
I am amazed at how some of you are able to go back to your lives and
lusts after hearing these words of mine, as if the matter doesn’t concern
you. What I told you, O Muslims, isn’t a story from the heritage of the
American Indians, nor a scene from the tragedy of the Vietnam War: no, it
is happening on the soil of the Muslims, O Nation of Muhammad (peace
and prayers of Allah be upon him). These women whose private parts were
exposed and honors were violated are from the Nation of the Messenger of
Allah (peace and prayers of Allah be upon him). They face the direction we
face in prayer, they fast during the month we fast, and they make the
pilgrimage to Allah’s Sacred House. So there is no good in you if you don’t
come to their aid, and there is no manhood in you if you don’t avenge
them.
O you who hesitate to come to Jihad, I won’t relate to you the heroic
stories of men in the country of the Afghans in order to call you to the
fight. Instead, I will tell you about some of the heroics of the women here,
in order to assess your manhood and put it to the test, and in order for you
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[ O Hesitant One: It Is An Obligation! ] _________________________________________
to find out whether you are a real man from those who have fulfilled the
covenant they made with Allah, by departing for the land of Jihad, or a
counterfeit man whose masculinity is only attested to by his birth
certificate.
One of the female martyrdom seekers went to a checkpoint of the
apostates, and pretended to cry so that the largest possible number of troops
would gather around her; and as soon as they had all gathered around her,
she shouted “Allahu Akbar” and detonated her belt, for her soft body to
turn into blazing shrapnel which severed the limbs of the enemies of Allah.
Another woman, an elderly one, when some emigrants came to stay at
her home, took up her weapon, a PK machine gun, and stood guard over
the brothers. When they asked her to rest, she told them, “No, by Allah;
should the enemies of Allah come, no one other than me will fight them.”
Another young woman advertises her bride-price to everyone: that she is
ready to marry any man who will help her to carry out a martyrdom
operation against the unbelievers and apostates.
And prior to this is what happened here in Pakistan, when the female
students of Shaykh Abdul Rasheed Ghazi chose resolve over the exemption
they had been given and insisted on staying until death to help Allah’s
Shari’ah. Someone whom I don’t accuse of lying related to me that rivers
of blood flowed from the mosque, and that when the people put their hands
in the stream of blood, they took out eyes and fragments of bone and hair,
which were all that remained of some of our martyred sisters, due to the
extent of the massacre committed against them.
This is what was given to Islam by Zainab, ‘A’ishah, Khadijah and
Ruqiyyah; so what have you given to this religion, O Harb, and O Dirgham,
and O Ja’far and O Ghalib? What have you given to Islam, O undecided
ones? What will you say to Allah tomorrow, when He gathers you together
at the fixed time of an appointed Day? What excuse will you put forward,
when our heroic sisters have torpedoed all your flimsy arguments?
My undecided brother: I would like to end this talk of mine with a
Hadeeth about the virtue of martyrdom in Allah’s path. I swear by Allah
that I believe it to be one of the most comprehensive Hadeeths ever
reported on this subject. ‘Aamir bin Sa’ad narrated that his father (with
whom Allah was pleased) said that a man came to the prayer, while the
Prophet (peace and prayers of Allah be upon him) was leading it, and when
he reached the row of worshippers, he said, “O Allah, give me the best
thing You give Your righteous slaves.” When the Prophet (peace and
prayers of Allah be upon him) finished the prayer, he asked, “Who spoke
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[ O Hesitant One: It Is An Obligation! ] _________________________________________
just now?” The man said, “It was me, O Messenger of Allah.” So the
Messenger of Allah told him, “Therefore your steed will be crippled and
you will be martyred in Allah’s path.”
Allah is the Greatest! Allah is the Greatest! Allah is the Greatest!
Martyrdom in Allah’s path by having one’s steed crippled and oneself
martyred is the best thing that Allah gives His righteous slaves as stated by
the Messenger of Allah (peace and prayers of Allah be upon him).
So come, brothers! Come to the act of worship which is not equaled by
any other act of worship! Come to the way of being killed which the Chief
of Creation (peace and prayers of Allah be upon him) wished for thrice.
Come to the dignity which the martyr never forgets, even after entering
Paradise, and because of which he asks Allah to return him to this world so
he can be killed in His path ten times. Demolish the barriers, cross the
borders, defy all the security apparatuses, and burst out from all directions
towards a Paradise as wide as the heavens and the earth which Allah has
prepared for His slaves the martyrs.
“You will soon remember what I say to you. And I entrust my affair to
Allah.” (44:40) “And Allah has full power and control over His affairs;
but most among mankind do not know [that].” (12:21)
29 December, 2009.
Your brother in Allah,
Abu Dujaanah al-Khorasani
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