Sunday, June 4, 2017

Alstair Crooke on Saudi Arabia, ISIS and Wahhabism


In this two part series, Alstair Crooke provides the background for understanding Saudi Arabia and ISIS in terms of Wahhabism.

The World Post
You Can’t Understand ISIS If You Don’t Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia

Middle East Time Bomb: The Real Aim of ISIS Is to Replace the Saud Family as the New Emirs of Arabia
Alstair Crooke

See also

The article cites a hadith (traditional saying attributed to Muhammad).
Its ironic that Prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali seemed to warn against the rise of extremism in Kitab Al Fitan – a compilation of hadiths (Islamic tradition) relating to the end of times, put together by prominent scholar Nuyam bin Hammad in 229 AH.
In it Imam Ali recalled the Prophet saying:
“If you see the black flags, then hold your ground and do not move your hands or your feet. A people will come forth who are weak and have no capability, their hearts are like blocks of iron. They are the people of the State (literally the people of Al Dawla), they do not keep a promise or a treaty.

"They call to the truth but they are not its people. Their names are (nicknames like Abu Mohammed) and their last names (are the names of town and cities, like Al Halabi [and now al-Baghdadi]) and their hair is loose like women’s hair. (Leave them) until they fight among themselves, then Allah will bring the truth from whoever He wills.”

10 comments:

Kaivey said...

Good article from the Telegraph. So some of the Western media does recognise where the main source of global terrorism comes from.

Peter Pan said...

Are Shiites allowed to complete their pilgrimage to Mecca?

Tom Hickey said...

Yes.

MRW said...

A hadith according to Colonel Lang is a tradition of the early Muslims based on their interpretation of a passage from the Koran, which are, of course, considered the words of Mohammad.

Islam, as I have often said, is a religion of laymen.  It has no hierarchy, no clergy, no sacraments.  There are only groups of Muslims of varying size who agree on what Islam and most especially what Islamic religious law (sharia) is.  This process of forming consensus (ijma') groups is endless and inevitable. […] Therefore, for one group of Muslims, however large, to say that the consensus of some other group of Muslims is invalid or "un-Islamic" is merely vanity on a grand scale.  That is particularly true if the smaller, armed and violent jihad inclined group of Muslims are willing to fight, kill and die for their views.

See this, republished today. Lang has written a lot over the past few years correcting Americans’ knowledge of what Islam is. I know Tom knows, but for those of you who don't, Colonel Lang was the first to introduce Arabic courses at West Point and another war college in the early 70s, taught Arabic and the study of Islam. He was the military Middle East Liaison for something like 10 years, stationed in Yemen, other Arabic countries, as well as Israel. He speaks, reads, and writes Arabic fluently. He is Roman Catholic himself.
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2017/06/the-jihadi-war-will-last-forever.html

MRW said...

These Crooke articles are fascinating.

Peter Pan said...

Can jihadism be defeated?
There are some in the West and in "secular" regimes who believe that jihad can be forced into submission. It's only a question of how many bombs and how many killings are required. Those who would defeat jihadism in this manner are no better than jihadists.

Peter Pan said...

Only a Roman Catholic would believe that the lack of a central authority is a recipe for war and destruction. Only a European would believe that non-western cultures are warlike and barbaric. Only people like this can see in others what their own history demonstrates in spades.

Tom Hickey said...

A hadith according to Colonel Lang is a tradition of the early Muslims based on their interpretation of a passage from the Koran, which are, of course, considered the words of Mohammad.

The Qur'an is considered by Muslims to be the very words of Allah, not Muhammad: The words were relayed to the Prophet of Allah by the Angel Gabriel. and Muhammad transmitted them to the Faithful.

Muslims believe that the Quran was verbally revealed by God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel (Jibril),[6][7] gradually over a period of approximately 23 years, beginning on 22 December 609 CE,[8] when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632, the year of his death.[1][9][10] Muslims regard the Quran as the most important miracle of Muhammad, a proof of his prophethood,[11] and the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with the messages revealed to Adam and ended with Muhammad.Wikipedia/Quran

Muhammad prohibited making images of himself and forbade writing down his own speech during his lifetime. The sayings and stories of his life were collected later from the memories of the Companions and recorded. This is the core of the Sunnah.

Sunnah (sunnah, سنة, Arabic: [sunna], plural سنن sunan [sunan]) is the verbally transmitted record of the teachings, deeds and sayings, silent permissions (or disapprovals) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as various reports about Muhammad's companions.[1][2] The Quran (the holy book of Islam) and the Sunnah make up the two primary sources of Islamic theology and law.[1][3] The Sunnah is also defined as "a path, a way, a manner of life"; "all the traditions and practices" of the Islamic prophet that "have become models to be followed" by Muslims.[4]Wikipedia/Sunnah

The basis of Islam is the Qur'an (scripture) and the Sunnah (tradition). Islamic law (shari'a) and its interpretation (fish) are based on the scripture and tradition.

Fiqh (/fɪk/; Arabic: فقه‎‎ [fɪqh]) is Islamic jurisprudence.[1] While Sharia is believed by Muslims to represent divine law as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah (the teachings and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), fiqh is the human understanding of the Sharia[2]—sharia expanded and developed by interpretation (ijtihad) of the Quran and Sunnah by Islamic jurists (Ulama)[2] and implemented by the rulings (Fatwa) of jurists on questions presented to them.

Note: The apostrophe "a" indicates the guttural "a" sound in Arabic. It is very difficult for non-native speakers to correctly pronounce.

Tom Hickey said...

"Fish" should ofc be "fiqh." Auto-correct strikes again.

John said...

Tom: "The sayings and stories of his life were collected later from the memories of the Companions and recorded."

But only after a time lapse of 230-250 years (the earliest collection) to 400 years (the last collection) after Muhammad's death, via the kind of hearsay that no kangaroo court would countenance over so many generations that it is impossible for even one word to be accurate let alone paragraphs.

But the case gets stranger still. Not only did Muhammad ban the recording of his comments and actions, lest they be confused with the Quranic revelation, the first four Caliphs also burned any hadiths they could get their hands on and warned the faithful that no alleged reports of Muhammad should be recorded, because they understood that they were forgeries. And the case gets stranger still because the Quran itself repeatedly admonishes any other source of law other than itself.

The Abbasids and other warring empires that resulted from the Islamic expansion saw every reason to collect knowingly fabricated hadiths and they themselves created a huge hadith industry in order to justify their actions, which according to the Quran would guarantee a deserved place in eternal hell.

Over time, however, the hadiths have become central to the Islamic faith, and I would say that they have supplanted the Quran. At the same time, a gigantic clergy has arisen to control the minds and actions of the faithful. Although it is true that a clergy is illegal according to the Quran, that is of no matter. Islam now has a clergy that would rival any Christian church. With the hadiths to hand the clergy have created a concept of Sharia law, which is not found in the Quran, and then gone on to create a gigantic edifice of fiqh (jurisprudence) on it. As an outsider looking in, the whole thing is utterly amazing. I found the Quran exceptionally interesting, but, quite frankly, I found the hadiths, the sunnah, the sharia and the fiqh to be ludicrous and stupid at best and contemptible madness at worst. I've never quite understood the fascination of 1.6 billion Muslims abandoning the Quran for a manifestly fraudulent and grotesque system of sharia and fiqh diametrically opposed to their alleged holy text. Worse yet, most Muslims are unaware of all this. Why, because their clergy warn them off from coming to any conclusions not permitted by the high priesthood. It's funny that a godless scoundrel like me knows more about the Quran than every Muslim I've ever met!