AFGHANISTAN AND IRAN IN
LIGHT OF THE SIGNS
The narrations of the Prophet (Sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) prophesy of a
Muslim force from the East ("al-Mashriq"), possibly from the land of
"Khorasan" (Ahmad, Tirmithi, etc, Hasan/Da`eef, ikhtilaaf) which is
today Afghanistan, that will march towards the West conquering everything in
site and will remain undefeated until they reach Jerusalem (termed
"Eeliyaa'" in the Hadeeth). They and their Ameer will give bay`ah to
the Mahdi. However, in the path of this force from the East lies a powerful
behemoth called Iran from where the Prophet (Sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam)
said Dajjal will appear with a following of 70,000 Jews in Isfahaan (Abu Bakr,
raDee Allaahu `anhu, said this would be in the direction of Khorasan in the
city of Isfahan). Thus we can assume there will be a major war between the
forces of the Sunnah in the East and the Iranians and their "70,000
Jews" (SaHeeH Muslim) who lie in the path of Jerusalem. While there
remains difference of opinion regarding the authenticity of some of these
narrations, they seem to be taking shape in spite of the ikhtilaaf.
As is well known, Iran was the bastion of the Sunnah throughout much of Islam's
history since the Prophet (Sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam). The Prophet
(Sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) had said that knowledge would be carried by the
people of Salman al-Faarisi, ie the Persians (SaHeeH al-Bukhaari). This was
fulfilled in the fact that our Sunnah was recorded and preserved by the
greatest Imaams of Hadeeth such as Imaam al-Bukhari, Imaam Muslim, Imaam
at-Tirmithi, Imaam Abi Dawud, and others. This legacy continued until the
tragic conquest of Iran in the 16th century by the Azeri heretics called the
Safavids. Upon their conquest, Iran went from 90% Shaafi`ee to 90% Shi`i nearly
overnight.
"The shah is said to have threatened that death would be the penalty for
any opposition to his wishes with respect to religion. If anyone had thought
this an empty threat, they were soon to be disabused. As the Safawid forces
marched across Persia, Shi'ism was imposed at the point of the sword. Sunnis
who were reluctant to see the error of their ways were treated with great
brutality. Many were executed."
"But such opportunistic defectors from Sunnism, useful and indeed
essential as they were, could not provide the theological and legal backbone
for the new Shi'i establishment. No one in Persia could do this. Shah Isma'il
had to look elsewhere....Many of the leading theologians and lawyers of the
Safawid period were of 'Amili origin, including the most influential religious
figure of Isma'il's own time, al-Karak. The religious brain drain to Persia
long continued: it was not a merely temporary phenomenon." ["Shah
Isma`il and the Establishment of Shi`ism", Medieval Persia: 1040-1797, pp.
112-123, David Morgan]
The population had the choice to die or become Shi`ah. The entirety of the
`Ulamaa' were slaughtered and heretics from Lebanon brought in to create a new
breed of Shi`ism which had only been known by madmen in the hills of the
Caucasus and Amili in Lebanon. Since this event, Iran which was a center of
Islamic civilization turned into a chasm of darkness and doom for the past 400
years. Iran has been Shi`a for only last 3 centuries of its 12 centuries of its
Islamic history. In this time the Safavids moved the capital to Isfahan, the
place of Dajjal's emergence. So successful were the Safavids in thwarting the
Ottoman's incursions into Europe that the Austrians prayed for their victories
in their churches and its diplomats remarked, "Had it not been for the
(Safavid) Shah, we would be reading the Qur'an today like they do in Barbary
(North Africa)."
However, in this period only one people were able to present interlude to this
darkness. They were a tiny band of a few thousand Afghan tribesmen (mostly
Ghilzai Pashtoons) who crushed the Safavids in a series of battles and marched
towards their capital, Isfahan, and captured it in 1722. This small band of
tribesmen with no formal training in warfare did what the Ottomans could never
do, destroy the Safavid Empire. However, as has been the legacy of these fierce
tribesmen, no one has ever been able to defeat them, nor have they ever been
able to rule as statesmen. Thus, it was only shortly afterwards that they
rescinded back into their now independent Afghanistan leaving Iranian rule to
Nader Shah and a succession of short-lived dynasties overthrowing each other
until the emergence of the Pahlavis from whom the Shah of Iran who reigned in
the 70's drew his authority.
In 1998 Iran protested the alleged murder of 10 of its diplomats who were
serving as spies in Afghanistan, supporting the Northern Alliance, during the
fall of Mazar-e-Sharif. They lined up 200,000 Iranian soldiers along the border
with Afghanistan to avenge the murder of their diplomats. The Taliban sent
15,000 soldiers to the border. The Iranians retreated and abandoned their plan
to invade Afghanistan. They claimed they were only there to have a parade.
Immediately afterwards a deal was struck to have the diplomats bodies flown to
Iran. It was a huge loss of face for Iran, a shock to the world and a
reverberating echo of history's lesson not forgotten by Iran: the Afghans are
their conquerors.
This threat has brought resounding international support for Iran and increased
Russian interest in making Iran a nuclear power in the region. Former foes are
now binding bonds of friendship with Iran in an attempt to thwart the dropping
of a domino in a line that ends in the Mediterranean Sea. However, now a new threat
exists for Iran. Increasing admiration for the Taliban and their style of rough
"no-politics" style of rule. Recently, in Iran pulpits resounded in
admiration for the Taliban during Friday Prayer.
"'The Taliban, which we always curse, have managed to restore security for
their people. Why cannot we do the same?' Qorbanali Dorri Najafabadi said
during Friday prayers in Tehran."
[http://asia.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/09/01/khatami.taliban.reut/index.html;
CNN, Sept. 2001]
The Iranian people's dissatisfaction for the darkness and lack of optimism
inherent with Shi`ite philosophy, which focuses on the martyrdom of historical
figures rather than faith, led them to rejoice in the secularism of the Shah.
When the Shah's regime produced increasing corruption and tyranny at the hands
of the SAVAC secret police, the Iranian revolutionaries began rallying for
support in Univeristies across Iran. They promised Islamic rule, freedom from
corruption, and restoration of cultural morality and tradition. In over 20 years
since the so-called "Islamic Revolution" this promise has proven a
lie. Prostitution and drug abuse are higher now in Iran than they have ever
been in its entire history, even during the Shah's secularist rule.
"The report says there are up to two-million drug addicts, some of them
schoolchildren, with an estimated five tonnes of narcotics consumed every day
in the capital, Tehran."
"'Drug addiction is the rage among schoolchildren, prostitution has
increased 635% among high school students and the (growth) rate of suicide in
the country has exceeded the record by 109%,' says the report."
"Mr Zam says the average age of prostitutes has dropped from 27 to 20
years over the past few years, with a growing but unspecified number of women
involved. Nearly all the young girls who run away from home end up as
prostitutes, he said."
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_822000/822312.stm
; BBC, July 2000]
This report was conducted by Mohammad Ali Zam, the head of Tehran's cultural
and artistic affairs. According to the report there are:
2,000,000 drug addicts 5 tons of opium used daily in Tehran alone (Iran's
capital) Drugs in schools and recreation centres Average age of prostitutes
fell to 20 90% (!) of schoolgirl runways lured into prostitution Suicide growth
rate doubles 12,000,000 people living in poverty. This conucopia of social ills
which have been increasing in Iranian society at an alarming rate, coupled with
the insistent denial of the current regime, have left the Iranian people and
even much of its regional government and clergy to admire their Sunni eastern
neighbours, the Taliban.
Afghanistan had similar social woes under the years of chaos which ensued
following the expulsion of the Soviets under Ahmad Shah Masood, Rabbani and the
others who make up the current "Northern Alliance" which has its
stronghold in Badakhshan, the remaining 5-10% not ruled by the Taliban. In
these years of constant war under the ousted Northern Alliance, Afghan girls
were kidnapped on their way to school and sold to wealthy land lords in
neighbouring Pakistan. Warlords, upon conquering a territory, albeit briefly,
would frequent the homes in search of young girls to use as sex slaves, some
far below the ages of puberty. Afghanistan was the world's leading producer of
Opium, with some 75% of the world's supply coming from within its borders.
The Taliban eradicated crime in Afghanistan to nearly 0% overnight. They
eliminated all opium production in Afghanistan overnight, thereby, receiving
lukewarm and reluctant praise from the United States for their elimination of
75% of the world's opium supply. Upon my recent visit to Medina I asked several
Afghans visiting from Afghanistan about the situation. When I asked one Uzbek
shop owner about the current situation in Afghanistan, he
replied, "There is still fighting.." I asked him what he thought
about the Taliban, being an Uzbek minority. He remarked, "Uzbek, Pashtoon,
Tajik. This has nothing to do with it. What matters is that I can watch my
daughter walk from one end of the street to the next and not worry. Whether I
like them or not makes no difference." I asked one nomad from Gardes, who
was a Pashtoon, in the Masjid an-Nabawi what he thought about the situation in
Afghanistan.
He told me with great enthusiasm, "Its very good. We have the Taliban now
and we feel safe." I met one Shaykh in the Haram at Makkah and immediately
recognized him as an Persian (Dari) speaking Afghan. When I asked him if he was
Afghan he replied, "Tajik astum" ("I am a Tajik"). So I
remarked, "I see. So you are from Tajikistan?" He replied tersely,
"No, I am Tajik from Afghanistan". His refusal to acknowledge himself
as an Afghan struck me as odd. It turned out he was a Shaykh of Hanafi fiqh in
the Haram at Makkah of incredible knowledge and a very excellent Muslim, maa
shaa' Allaah. He mentioned that he did not trust any of the parties involved in
the fighting and that they must sit at the table and create a multi-ethnic
broad based government. He continued, that it seems nobody wants this and that
they simply want to kill each other. However, he concluded that Afghanistan is
now completely rid of crime and this is something he can not ignore in spite of
his differences with the Taliban.
Being someone with extensive personal experiences with the Afghans and constant
interaction and contact with them, I find these frequent media reports of
brutality under the Taliban as laughable at best, and maliciously false at
worst. Anyone familiar with the Afghan languages of Dari and Pashto will note
the dubious over-dubbed translations of the civilians' words.
Likewise, recent photographs provided by RAWA (feminist group of former
Communists, who openly reject Hijab) of alleged Hazara mass graves in a recent
CNN special on Taliban "brutality" reveal corpses with Indo-European
features common amongst the Tajiks and Pashtoons, whereas the Hazaras are an
ethnic group descended from Mongol and Chinese mercenaries who are distinctly
Oriental in appearance. One wonders that in spite of all this
alleged Taliban "brutality" and supposed "suppression of
media", they allow these malicious journalists to wander the country
filming completely unharmed. The equation doesn't add up to any sum of logic
other than journalistic fabrication and political propaganda which the world
has been so familiar with since World War II in swaying political opinion
towards government foreign policies.
The current world opinion against the Taliban is directly related to the threat
they pose as an Islamic expansionist force in Central Asia. Unlike the Iranian
Revolution of 1979, the Taliban's ideology is spreading like wildfire all
throughout Central Asia much to the chagrin of the Russians and former
Communist bosses who rule the Central Asian Turkic republics. This popularity
has forged many revolutionary groups who are serious threats to their ruling
governments throughout the Turkic republics. It has even spread to the Xing
Kiang province of Northwest China with whom lie the origins of the Turkic
peoples. Now that the Capitalist world has won its war against Communism, a new
threat exists to their democracy": Shari`ah. For the first time in 100
years this threat exists again to the Western World and their allies in Asia
such as Russia, India and China. The re-emergence of this threat can be
credited to none other than the Taliban. The Taliban's uneasy relationship with
its Northern neighbours of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as well as its constant
policy of hostility to its Western neighbor, Iran, fortell a cycle of events
that could lead to the very end of the world according to the Prophet's
(Sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) narrations. Afghanistan emerging as the
flowerbed of Jihad in the late 20th and now 21st centuries is no coincidence at
all. This makes Iran incredibly nervous.
"'Such people who took the podium in Friday's prayers suggesting envy for
the Taliban have insulted the late imam (Ayatollah Rohullah Khomeini), and
their stance is unacceptable,' the official IRNA news agency quoted Khatami as
telling a news conference limited to Iranian journalists."
They have indeed only begun to attack the legacy of the late Ayatollah Khomeini
and his curses upon the Companions and Wives of the Prophet (Sallallaahu
`alayhi wa sallam). The only choice for Iran to face this threat is to join
hands with their enemy's greatest foes, primarily the U.S, Europe, Russia and
India. Thus, they have sealed their membership amongst the disbelieving world
and inevitable partisanship of the False Messiah, ad-Dajjaal.
Then, of course, this scenario threatens the current puppet Arab regimes and
has their despots quivering in fear. Naturally, an image of wild Afghans
nearing their borders demanding bay`ah to a Messianic figure and adherence to
Shari`ah would certainly bring a close to the trips to Las Vegas and the long
yacht parties. Perhaps some members of the Saudi family might risk losing their
majority shares in Euro-Disney. So their solution has been to utilize the most
efficient weapon they have in fighting any revivalist movements in the Muslim
world: their scholars. Saudi Arabia's own home grown indigenous Muslim
scholarship has successfully placed a sound muzzle upon the Muslim world
convincing it that revolution is "fitnah". Of course, they didn't
think it was fitnah when they revolted against the Ottoman Empire, thereby,
robbing the Muslim world of its last dignified stronghold all at the behest of
the British. Thus, utilizing this effective tool, the Saudi scholars have been
working overtime to convince the Muslim world that all references to
"black flags from the East" are fabrications. I did check into one of
these Hadeeth and its "isnaad" or chain of narration. The Hadeeth is
as follows:
"Thawbaan reported that the Prophet (Sallallaahu `alayhi wa
sallam) said, 'Three will fight for the your treasure (of the Ka`bah), each of
them the son of a 'Khaleefah', it will be rendered to none of them. Then from
the direction of the East will emerge black flags. Then they will fight you
like they have fought none before.' Then some words were spoken which I did not
remember. He then said, 'If you see him, give bay`ah to him even if you must
crawl over ice. For, verily, he is the 'Khaleefah' of Allah (Khaleefatullaah),
the Mahdi". This Hadeeth is found in Ibn Maajah, Ahmad's Musnad, al-Haakim's
Mustadrak and others. Now when analyzing the chain of narration found in Ibn
Maajah's Sunan I found the narrators to be the following:
1) Reported to Ibn Maajah by both Muhammad bin Yahya and Ahmad bin Yusuf - Both
reliable; Imam Muslim has said about Ahmad bin Yusuf, "He is reliable
(thiqqah)." an-Nasaa'i has said, "There is no problem in him."
ad-DaraaquTni has said, "Reliable and noble (thiqqah nabeel)."
2) `Abdur-Razzaq bin Hammaam as-San`aani - Reliable. Ahmad bin Hanbal was asked
about him, "Have you seen anyone better in Hadeeth than
`Abdur-Razzaaq?" He replied, "No".
3) Sufyaan ath-Thawri - Too reputable to record his merits. Very reliable.
Shu`bah, Sufyaan bin `Uyaynah, Abu `AaSim an-Nabeel and YaHya ibn Ma`een among
others said: "Sufyaan is the 'Ameer al-Mu'mineen" of Hadeeth"!
4) Khaalid bin Mahraan al-Hathaa' - Reliable. Ahmad bin Hanbal has said,
"Trustworthy (thabt)." Ibn Ma`een and an-Nasaa'i have both said,
"Reliable (thiqqah)."
5) Abi Qulaaba Abdullaah bin Zayd al-Harrami - Reliable. Muhammad bin Sa`d has
said in his "at-Tabaqah ath-Thaaniyah min Ahl al-Basrah" about him,
"He was reliable (thiqqah)."
6) Abu Asmaa' `Amroo bin Marthad ar-RaHabi - Reliable. al-`Ijly has said about
him, "Shaami, Tabi`ee, Reliable (thiqqah)."
7) Thawbaan - Companion and servant of the Prophet (Sallallaahu `alayhi wa
sallam).
8) The Prophet (Sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam). ["Tahtheeb al-Kamaal"
of al-Mizzi and "Tahtheeb at-Tahtheeb" of Ibn Hajar were referenced
for verification of the Narrators]
In this chain of narrators, weakness is nowhere in sight. Thus, focus has been
taken away from the chain of narration and placed upon the term
"Khaleefatullaah" for the Mahdi. They have said that Allah can't have
a Khaleefah, since the word refers to a successor upon one's death, wa
`eeyaathu billaah. Of course Allah is the Everlasting who can never die. Though
they are correct that many of the scholars of objected linguistically (such as
al-Maawardi in "aHkaam al-SulTaaniyah" while acknowledging a
difference of opinion) remarking this is not a permissible term for the Pious
Caliphs (citing Abu Bakr's and `Umar's objection to it), they have ignored the
fact that the scholars of Tafseer have given this term legitimacy by exception.
Imam al-Qurtubi states in his tafseer of the verse in which Allah's says about
the creation of Adam (`alayhis-salaam), "Inny jaa`ilun fi-l arDee
khaleefah.." ("verily, I will place in the earth a
'khaleefah'"): "And Adam, `alayhis-salaam, is the 'Khaleefatullaah'
in the execution of his laws and orders. For verily he was the first of the
Messengers. But there was none in the earth with him? It is said he was a
Messenger to his progeny..." So hear Imam al-Qurtubi has found no fault in
using the term Khaleefatullaah" in reference to Adam (`alayhis-salaam)
about whom Allah said himself, "Inny jaa`ilun fi-l arDee khaleefah.."
(al-Baqarah). In volume 6 of "FatH al-Baari SharH SaHeeH
al-Bukhaari", Imaam ibn Hajar also uses the term in reference to the above
mentioned verse
about Adam (`alayhis-salaam) in the chapter, "Kitaab Ahaadeethi-l
Ambiyaa', Baab Khalqi Aadam". So based on this Hadeeth's impeccable chain
of narration, and no concensus forbidding the use of
"Khaleefatullaah" specifically for the coming Mahdi, it is plausible
to conclude that there may exist a particular bias against the subject of this
Hadeeth by certain scholars from a certain part of the world. Those who have
studied Hadeeth know that more leeway has been given for far weaker narrations
with more questionable content.
CONCLUSION
Little did the Russians know as they chose to occupy Afghanistan on their way
to Pakistan's warm water ports in Sindh that they were to spark perhaps the
final Islamic revival the world would know before the descent of `Eesaa ibn Maryam
(`alayhis-salaam). For from that struggle, and from that Jihaad, were to sprout
the fruits of a global movement which would envelop the entire disbelieving
world in terror. A terror they had not felt since the Sultan's soldiers
besieged the walls of Vienna. The disbelievers have found a brief respite and
relief in the imbicility of the Muslim world's vocal modernist,
occidentalist/occidentopheliac element which rushes to fight the movements for
Islamic expansion at its every turn. However, the voices of the modernist
movements are growing more and more faint as the disgruntled Muslims grow
increasingly louder in their demand for freedom from the oppressive rulers that
have been beleaguered at the behest of their American and European masters
since the turn of the 20th century. Now at the turn
of the 21st century, for the first time in 100 years a country has, regardless
of anyone's question of sincerity, proclaimed its law the Book of Allah and the
Sunnah of His Messenger (Sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) without any compromise.
For the first time in over 100 years the Soldiers of Allah are fighting the
Russians on Russian soil. For the first time in nearly 100 years, Kashgar is
broiling with Islamic revival and demands for an independent Shari`ah based state.
The Muslims from Morrocco to Afghanistan flooded into the Balkans and defeated
the Eastern Orthodox Chrisitans within their own borders. All of this from one
small rocky country in Central Asia, once called Khorasan, now called
Afghanistan where the most noble and brave Muslims of the Arab Mujaahideen
gathered to join their Afghan counterparts. A brotherhood destined to shake the
Earth. The Afghans have always been insurmountable and unstoppable fighters,
but never statesmen. The Arabs, when under the banner of Islam, have a grand
history of diplomatic prowess. This combination will surely spell the end of
Islam's great sleep, and the beginning of a resounding globally concordant
Athaan.
Say Inshaa' Allaah...
w-Allaahu A`lam...
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I
suggest the Muslims who still hate the Taliban open their eyes and come onto the
other side of the fence where the breeze of Shahaadah flows.