Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus - Said Abu Saad: View on Jihad from inside: One year later

Said Abu Saad: View on Jihad from inside: One year later

An essay by Shaykh Said Abu Saad titled “View on Jihad from inside: One year later” was posted on Hunafa.com on May 18, 2009. In this essay Said Abu Saad recalls how he joined Jihad, refutes some rumors around Jihad in Caucasus, refutes accusations of Madkhalis and tells about the origins of their deviant sect, tells some details from the biography of Amir Dokka Abu Usman, and many more. Translation is going to be posted part by part, insha’Allah. Check out our Twitter for future updates.

View on Jihad from inside: One year later

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, Who endowed us with following the Truth and made us firm in this path. Peace and blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad, his family, companions and all who followed him till the day of Judgment. To proceed:

Allah said in the Holy Qur’an: “So relate the stories, perhaps they may reflect”[1]. Allah also said: “And proclaim the Grace of your Lord”[2]. Allah the Most High cited in the Qur’an a huge number of stories about Prophets and righteous men, for there is an example for the others in them. And therefore Junayd al-Baghdadi said: “Stories are the army of Allah, with which He strengthens others.”

I was thinking a lot before I sat down and wrote this work, trying to realize its benefit for Islam, and I decided to dedicate it in the first place to those who know me, so that they could see Jihad in Caucasus through my eyes. It is not an article dedicated to a particular subject, no, here we will touch on many things and try to address a number of problems.

Today is the 5th day of Jumada al-Ula month, year 1430 after Hijrah. One year has passed since the moment when Allah tested me with what He said in the Qur’an: “And surely, We shall try you till We test those who strive hard and the patient, and We shall test your facts.”[3] In this Ayah, Allah the Most High uses the strongest form of confirmation in Arabic language, “lam wa-nun al-tawkid”[4], in order to show the inevitability of this test. And it is especially true for those who say and call to something from Allah’s Religion, because He said: “O you who believe! Why do you say that which you do not do?”[5] And every time when you begin to call to perform Jihad, or narrate about the times of the companions and their attitude to it, then know that the test is approaching. And Allah will put a person in such a situation, when he will have to make his choice of whether he will be a Mujahid, then whether he will demonstrate patience in Jihad, and is it true what is said about him, and whom he is considered. And wee see from this clear Ayah, that anyone can be tested with Jihad, and therefore the Messenger of Allah called on us to prepare ourselves for it, even if there is no Jihad of liberation or offensive one, saying: “One who did not fight and did not call his soul to it, has died on a portion of the parts of hypocrisy” (al-Bukhari and Muslim). And the Messenger of Allah used verb “ghaza” in the text of this hadith, which can be translated only as “to carry out a fight”, so that nobody could interpret it as a struggle against one’s desires, against shaytan etc.

This test came at a time when I was prepared, but not enough to reply right away, when I received the letter from the Amir of Caucasus with the offer to join the Mujahideen. I took that letter into my hands, and felt as if my entire life flashed in front of my eyes, and it became clear that it was the moment about which `Abdullah Ibn Mas`ud said: “If Allah tests His slave by putting him in a position when he will have to say something for the sake of Allah, and he will say nothing, then he will never return to the degree of Iman which he had before that.”In such moment you begin to realize that if you decline, you will never be able to leave humiliation about which the Messenger of Allah said: “If you will begin to be engaged in usurious trade and grab a hold of cows’ tails, limit yourselves to farming and abandon Jihad, Allah will send upon you humiliation, from which you will not be delivered until you return to your Religion”(al-Bukhari and Muslim). But if you will make a choice in favor of Jihad, it will change your life so much, that you will lose everything, both your family and property, and Allah said about it: “And certainly, We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth and lives.”[6]

I was standing, and it seemed to me as if years had passed before I replied, although I was sure beforehand that I would be able to say it, but only with support from Allah the Most High, because He said in the Qur’an: “Allah will keep firm those who believe, with the word that stands firm in this world, and in the Hereafter.”[7] And this “firm word” comes when you must say something only for the sake of Allah, and in my case it was the positive answer. “Tell the brothers that I will arrive”, I said it, and it felt as if a heavy burden fell from myself, because after those words the path was marked, and it is one of crucial moments in a person’s life, when he will never be able to return back after he had made his choice. Allah said: “And shown him the two ways” [8], and although Allah knows beforehand what the person will do, because He is his Creator, He grants people the right to choose.

I told a lot about Jihad of the companions, about the battles of the age of Tabi`in, about the campaigns of liberation during the times of the Caliphate, and now the time came to go through this test for myself. Two months later after that event, I arrived to the territory of the Emirate of Caucasus and saw our Mujahideen brothers with my own eyes.

Of course, I always had a lot of questions remaining, regarding what in fact was happening with Jihad in Caucasus, maybe it was really a provocation by the FSB and army generals, who realized that if military actions would end, then their benefits and allowances would stop? Because it is a widely known fact that a State keeps certain structures only on condition that they are really important for it, but as soon as the sphere of their actions seize to exist, as, for example, suppression of an armed conflict, then there is also no need for such a structure anymore. There are also enough examples for it: during the Second World War, guards of GULAG by all means tried to show their significance in suppressing possible actions of “the fifth column” in the rear of USSR, and therefore Stalin decided not to mobilize several hundred thousand servicemen. But to what extent this situation could now repeat in Caucasus? On the one hand we see a lot of advocates of this version, but those are people who not only had nothing to do with Jihad, but also are far from Islam. Most of them are those who reside in Europe after receiving a refugee status, and don’t plan to return back. They will allege and even swear that everything what is happening is just a great conspiracy by security services who are interested in continuing the war, and this is the reason why commanders of Mujahideen are alive. They will tell about how small is the territory of Chechnya and Ingushetia to allow existence of several hundred Mujahideen, and that the wooded part could be easily combed by reconnaissance groups. They can also tell that federal troops allegedly themselves supply Mujahideen with weapons, so that they only continue to perform military actions against them, and even deliver provisions to forest tracts by helicopters. If you continue to listen to advocates of the version about the development of Jihad under the aegis of FSB and GRU, then they will not fail to inform you that Basayev, Gelayev, and, of course, Umarov, are all, undoubtedly, persons recruited by the FSB as well, and they will cite different stories that confirm, in their opinion, this theory. Someone will certainly add that Dokku Umarov became renowned for being a racketeer in Russia prior to the first war in Chechnya, and a kidnapper after the war. “This person used to kill without hesitation, just for one word he didn’t like”, and they will keep trying to convince you so hard, that almost anyone can believe it.

And although everything sounded smooth, I still had questions remaining: is it possible that the Mujahideen are so foolish that they receive assistance from kuffar, and at the same time fight against them? Is it possible that they want to be pawns in dirty games of the FSB? And if people see it, then why they don’t leave the woods? Why more and more brothers join Jihad? Because if a normal Muslim would see corruption of Mujahideen leadership, that they were FSB agents, if he would see artificiality of what was happening, then wouldn’t he leave it lest he becomes cannon fodder in someone else’s games? And since there were no precedents for this, for me personally it threw doubt on the arguments of the first side. And even what Allah said in the Qur’an: “O you who believe! If a rebellious evil person comes to you with a news, verify it, lest you harm people in ignorance, and afterwards you become regretful to what you have done”[9], should make you realize that it is necessary to verify what is said about Jihad in Caucasus, and not to take different rumors on trust.

To be continued, insha’Allah.

Notes
1.Surat al-A`raf, 7:176.
2.Surat al-Duha, 93:11.
3.Surat Muhammad, 47:31.
4.Lam and Nun of emphasis.
5.Surat al-Saff, 61:2.
6.Surat al-Baqarah, 2:155.
7.Surat Ibrahim, 14:27.
8.Surat al-Balad, 90:10.
9.Surat al-Hujurat, 49:6.

Translated by the Caucasus Blog