Dear Fellow Muslim: A Message to the Modern Jihadist

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said:

“Do not be people without minds of your own saying that if others treat you well you will treat them well, and that if they do wrong you will do wrong to them. Instead, accustom yourselves to do good if people do good and not to do wrong (even) if they do evil.”  [Al-Tirmidhi]

Based on the above, it is not appropriate for a Muslim to cite evil done by the western governments to inhabitants of Muslim lands as justification to do evil to western inhabitants. We have our own principles and standards, mentioned in the Qur’an and Sunnah, with which we abide by and need not lower ourselves to their standards. We even have rules of respectful engagements with prisoners of war! During the Prophet’s (pbuh) time, when a Muslim was captured, he was tortured, beaten, murdered and even mutilated, but the Prophet (pbuh) never returned this type of behavior towards non-Muslim prisoners. And if you have trouble understanding or believing any of the above, then you have never studied his biography and you need to enroll yourself into a seerah(try this, this, this or this book) program and study his life from beginning to end.

So enough of your emotional arguments rooted in ignorance and more practicing the faith with actual knowledge and understanding. You can never truly understand your religion unless you sit at the feet of the scholars, and thus far every self proclaimed jihadist is so ignorant of his religion that he cannot even answer basic fiqh questions. Prophet (pbuh) called the scholars of Islam the inheritors of the prophets for the very reason that we should go to them and learn! And you will find this self-proclaimed jihadist take everything from a particular scholar except his fatwa on terrorism and killing innocent people. Afterwards, he has the audacity to call this scholar, whom he takes everything else from, a sell out! This goes further to show that these guys are notreally rooted in knowledge or understanding of their faith but are infected with serious emotional problems, ignorance of basic principles of their religion, and wanting to fulfill their false fantasies of adventure and danger.

It is also interesting to note that during the Prophet (pbuh) life, a man by the name of Abdullah bin Ubayy was a confirmed munafiq (someone who pretends to be Muslim but does not really believe in its doctrines) who was always causing trouble for the Muslims and plotting against them with their enemies. When Umar, one of the closest companions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh),  advised him to have him killed, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) “turned down his proposal on the grounds that it did not become of a Prophet (Peace be upon him) to be accused of killing his people.”  This goes further to show that the Prophet (pbuh) did not want people to have a bad image of Islam and Muslims including himself. This notion is even more clearly stated in the following narration from his wife Aisha:

“The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, placed me on his shoulder so I could look at the Abyssinians [who were playing with shields and spears] until I felt tired and turned away from them.” Urwa [Aisha’s nephew] said: “Indeed, I heard Aisha say that the Messenger of Allah said on that day, ‘So the Jews will know that there is flexibility in our religion; verily, I have been sent with a lenient, upright religion.’” [Musnad Ahmad, Number 24333, Sahih]

The Jews are pointed out specifically in this version of the narration while in other versions, idol worshipers (mushrikeen) and Christians are mentioned. However, these self-proclaimed jihadists go around giving a really bad name to Islam and its followers without thinking twice. Not only that but they’re actually proud of it and falsely believe that their doing some sort of service to the religion.

If we further reflect on the case of Abdullah bin Ubayy mentioned earlier, it is astounding how far off the right path the modern jihadists really are.  Here you have a prophet of Allah forbidding execution of a confirmed hypocrite in order to not give a bad name to Islam, but the modern jihadists will slaughter fellow Muslims through accusations of apostasy just because those Muslims disagree with them.  There is no doubt that the greatest number of those killed by the hands of the jihadists are either fellow Muslim civilians or rival Muslim rebel groups.

For even more in depth refutation of the modern jihadists, see:

The Modern Jihadists: Khawarij or Mujahideen?   – In this scintillating look at the past, Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi examines the histories of these movements, tracing their development to the turbulent times of the early 70’s in Egypt. In fact, some of the people alive now that are involved in current movements were active in these past movements of three decades ago as well.

On Jihad and Jihadist Thought – Young overzealous youth, angered by the transgressions of Western powers, are often swayed by fancy rhetoric and enticing slogans into entering a military conflict that eventually ends up harming the very people they claim to protect.

Should Muslims in the West go to Syria and join the Jihad? – It is the duty of every Muslim to help against any oppression whether it be towards Muslims or Non-Muslim, whether it be towards humans or animals it is our God-giving responsibility that we stand up against injustice & oppression wherever and whenever it may be. Does this mean that we here living in the west have a duty to go and fight in Syria and join the Jihad (struggle) against the evil forces of Bashar?

Open Letter to Al-Baghdadi – Muslims scholars refute ISIS and it’s leader on a theological level in great detail.  As VICE News points out, “More than a hundred Muslim scholars and leaders from around the world released an open letter addressed to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Wednesday, telling the self-proclaimed caliph, in no uncertain terms, that the group’s use of Islamic scripture is illegitimate and perverse.”