Amid the escalation in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Islamic State has published an editorial in its al-Naba’ newsletter that does not explicitly mention Hezbollah or Lebanon but has nonetheless been clearly written in light of the escalation, highlighting the conflict between “the Jews” and “the Rafidite axis” (i.e. the Shi‘a-led ‘axis of resistance’) and discussing how (Sunni) Muslims worldwide should view the escalation, and what path they should pursue. The main points are as follows:
(i) The conflict between the two sides is an example of how God inflicts the disbelieving oppressors on each other. That is, it is an example of how the disbelievers in their different specific affiliations are kept in check through ‘mutual repulsion.’ There is no doubt that the killing of ‘Rafidite’ military commanders by ‘the Jews’ (i.e. Israel) serves the interests of the Muslims (i.e. Islamic State and its supporters etc.), but at the same time the two sides are aware of how the Muslims can benefit, and thus they keep their conflict within certain limits.
(ii) The ‘apostate’ Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) prove their own deviancy and betrayal of the Sunnis by mourning Israel’s killing of ‘Rafidite’ military commanders and figures, putting themselves at odds with e.g. Syria’s Muslims who rejoice in the killings. The Ikhwan find themselves at their lowest point historically, isolated from the Muslim masses and resorting to an alliance with Iran and its axis. In so far as any groups follow the Ikhwan in their deviancy, they will similarly be humiliated.
(iii) The Jews/Israel know that the Islamic State’s fight against the ‘Rafidite’ resistance axis and the other ‘apostate’ armies will pave the way for a great Sunni Muslim confrontation with the Jews. In this regard, the group invokes the memory of the Khaybar expedition in the Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime that led to the subjugation of the Jewish community in Khaybar.
(iv) Any Muslims who can kill Jews anywhere in the world should do so as such acts are on the path to freeing Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis/al-Quds), even as the priority is nonetheless to eliminate the ‘Rafidites’ and other ‘apostates’ so that the way can be properly paved for the final confrontation that will defeat the Jews. It should be remembered that those who conquered Jerusalem are the Caliph Omar bin al-Khattab (hated by the Shi‘a) and Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (who abolished the Shi‘a Fatimid Caliphate). So follow in their footsteps.
Below is the editorial fully translated. Any parenthetical insertions in square brackets are my own.
Wretched is the course and wretched is the fate
God has spared the believers the evils of a great clique of the disbelieving, immoral, murderous Rafidite leaders, by granting the Jews supremacy over them in one of the rounds of conflict and mutual repulsion within the Satanic, Jahili [pre-Islamic ignorance] camp on the road to hell. There is no doubt that this serves the interest of the two sides’ joint enemy- the Muslims- and the only disagreement about this has come from the Rafidites’ vehicles of the apostate Ikhwan who have impeded the laws and contravened the Sunnas and killed wala’ and bara’ [loyalty to Islam/believers and disavowal of disbelief/disbelievers] and have thus come into Iran’s embrace as a final resort, and have wholeheartedly embraced “the unity of course and fate.”
We have learned from the Shari‘a of our Exalted Lord that mutual repulsion is a divine law as it occurs between the camps of truth and falsehood. It likewise occurs between the components of the camp of falsehood itself. As the Almighty says: “And likewise We place some of the oppressors as authority over others of them”- i.e. “We grant supremacy to some of them over others of them, and We destroy some of them through others of them, and We bring punishment upon some of them through others of them, as a reward for their oppression and transgression.” So an oppressor will inevitably be afflicted by a greater one, and it is likewise of God Almighty’s arrangement and scheme for His believing servants, and the Exalted’s scheme against the disbelievers: “And they scheme and God schemes, and God is the best of schemers.” This is among the axioms of the Shari‘a.
Therefore, two reasonable Muslims do not disagree that the escalation of the conflict between the Rafidites and the Jews wholly serves the Muslims’ interest, just like any Jahili conflict between the disbelievers. Therefore, the two disbelieving sides will strive to contain it, limit it and frame it within specific boundaries, lest the Muslims should benefit from it. But indeed in the disappearance and retreat of the Rafidite axis are good and great interest for the Muslims, because the Rafidite axis has become a fitna [test/tribulation] for many of the groups claiming affiliation with the Sunna, such as the apostate Ikhwan, for these people are those who were most tempted by the Khomeinist revolution and its Rafidite axis, such that they began to defend and protect them, and indeed spare the Rafidites many of the rounds of war and became shields and armed wings for the Rafidite in the region, being burned for their sake, and receiving “the traps” instead of them.
There has been much talk recently about the people of al-Sham’s joy about the killing of the Rafidites at the hands of the Jews, so the followers of the apostate Ikhwan have begun to curse and berate the Muslims of al-Sham and deem them traitors, and hint that they have fallen into the nullifier of loyalty to the Jews, in an act of general takfir of the Muslim masses! These people who whimsically declare takfir say the following: If you rejoice in the killing of the Rafidites, you are closer to the rank of the Jews and loyalty to them! As for standing in the trench of the Rafidite axis of disbelief and siding with it, being loyal to it, and affirming the “unity of your course and fate” with it, and warning about “breaking links” with it, this constitutes your exercising of prudence and political wisdom for which you should be rewarded twice!
This is the moderation of the apostate Ikhwan, who make people choose between an “original disbeliever” they have declared takfir on as a matter of politics and patriotism and not religious profession, and another disbeliever they have refused to declare takfir on, in order to justify and promote their battalions and movements. If they should affirm the first, it would be necessary for them to affirm the second, but they refrain from doing so by declaring the Rafidite and their axis Muslims. Indeed this is the middle path between falsehood and falsehood, between disbelief and disbelief, between the Rafidites and the Jews, between the killers of the prophets and the defilers of their honour. This is the madhhab [school of thought] of the apostate Ikhwan. As for the madhhab of the Sunnis, it is rejection of the two groups and disavowing both of them, and waging war on them by every means. For the Rafidites and the Jews are disbelievers, and both of them are on the path of Hell, and waging jihad against them is obligatory on the Muslims: on each one as far as possible for that person. Thus, whoever is in closer proximity to the Jews should fight them, and whoever is in nearer proximity to the Rafidites should fight them. And the one for whom God brings together the honour of fighting both groups, that is a favour of God, which He brings to whomsoever He wills.
In depth, the fact that the apostate Ikhwan go to such great lengths to defend the position of their Karbalite [of Karbala’, a Shi‘a holy city] battalions and their Iranian factions is due to two reasons: first, wide segments of people have been delighted by the killing of the criminal Rafidites, and this is an unmistakable matter and is not confined to al-Sham [Syria]. This is what has made the apostate Ikhwan’s supporters feel historical isolation they have not experienced before, as they have retreated into a defective, deviant rank that goes against the “mass of the Ummah” as they have been accustomed to call it. Second, they view the Rafidite axis as the last front in which they can take cover behind the slogans of “resistance and revolution,” which in their view are the last ally for their branches that have fallen one after another from Egypt to Turkey. For only their Gaza branch has remained, whose fate has been sealed to melt into the Rafidite camp! And this branch has officially announced the unity of its course and fate with the Rafidites, rather than the contrary. And so, for them, Iran is the fortress, embrace and last resort for them, before they remove the sheep’s wool and openly ally with Satan in his open form, without wool and slogans.
The apostate Ikhwan, over the course of history, have been the traitors to the Sunnis, and in the rank of their enemy, and they have deserved this degradation, and humiliation has been imposed on them, because of the chronic catastrophes they have brought against the creed in a Jahili course whose beginning, middle and end are deviation! For they have nullified Tawhid [Islamic monotheism] in every respect, and they have waged war on it in every field, and so they have been rendered as humiliated ones and slaves, who have no dignity and whose course is unsound, and they have become the disgrace of this time and the shame of this age! In so far as the groups are close to the course of the Ikhwan, thus have humiliation, degradation and bewilderment been imposed on them.
As for the Jews, they continue to be haughty and their scheme continues to grow worse, but if they think they have become safe and the field has become empty for them, they will be disappointed, for our war with their Crusader allies and the apostate armies is part of the war against them, and preparation for the decisive battles with them by the permission of God, and they realise this full well. Another Khaybar still awaits them at the hands of the followers of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) and the descendants of his companions.
Even if we think that the field has not yet been prepared for this decisive clash because of this bastardised state of methodology that contravenes the Prophetic methodology, we nonetheless reckon that it is an act of God Almighty’s wisdom to delay the arrival of the vanguards of the lordly mujahidin to Bayt al-Maqdis and open a direct, purely Sunni front against the Jews- so that the people can cut their connection with these Jahili models, and repudiate all these parties and watering holes in which the course of the traitors of the Sunna come together with the course and fate of the disbelieving Rafidites.
Until the Almighty Lord facilitates the reasons for the arrival and the direct confrontation with the Jews in wars on the way of Muhammad (SAWS) and his companions, and not the way of Khomeini and his group, we repeat the incitement to those of the contingents or individuals who have the opportunities, as we urge them not to slack in targeting “the Jewish presence” in every place, for the Jews in the Qur’an are all Jews, and killing them wherever they are found is a step on the path to al-Quds, just as fighting the Rafidites and their axes are a step on the path to al-Quds, which was conquered by the Rafidites’ implacable enemy Omar bin al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) and by Salah al-Din, who was the destroyer of the Rafidite Obaydi state.
So, oh descendants of al-Faruq [Omar bin al-Khattab] and Salah al-Din, God Almighty has decreed that the path to al-Quds should not be completed except by fighting the Rafidites and their axes, and this is God Almighty’s arrangement and testing of the truthfulness of the bearers of the banner in the age of the second Jahiliya. For this is the way of the conquerors who entered al-Quds the first time, and it is the same way for whoever has wanted to proceed on their footsteps. And God is your Lord, and He is an excellent Lord, and He is an excellent helper.
Documents referenced in this article are available in the original Substack version.