Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir: ‘the jurisprudence of blood’ and the ideology of ISIS

ABSTRACT

In this article, I argue that Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir and his book, ‘Issues in the jurisprudence of jihad’ (Masāʾil fī fiqh al-jihād), has likely been a major source of influence on the formation of the jurisprudential aspect of a new form of the Jihadi Salafi ideology which was epitomized by the practices of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the first place and of ISIS afterwards. I point out the similarities between al-Muhajir’s ideas and fatwas issued in his book and ISIS’s views and actions espoused and enacted later on in order to demonstrate how the book contributed to the making of the jurisprudential aspect of ISIS’s ideology. I pick three main themes, which I deemed to be representative of ISIS’s traits, to that purpose. The suicide attacks and civilian casualties that showed a dramatic rise after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 make up the first. The second one is the anti-Shia sentiment and attacks as they follow from it. The last one, maybe an ISIS signature among various intellectual lines and currents of Jihadi Salafism, consists of ‘savage’ or ‘brutal’ acts. Based on these three main themes, I aim to display the influence of al-Muhajir’s standpoints on ISIS’s ideology.

Acknowledgements

I extend my gratitude to Joas Wagemakers, who hosted me as a visiting scholar during my postdoctoral research at Utrecht University. The discussions we had greatly contributed to shaping this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The book was also known as ‘the jurisprudence of blood’ (fiqh al-dimāʾ) among the jihadist circles in Iraq, thus I carried it to the article’s title. Maysarah al-Gharīb, Min khafāyāʾ al-tārīkh: Mustaqāt min tajruba al-shaykh al-amīr Abī Muṣʿab al-Zarqāwī [Of the Mysteries of History: Material from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Experience], edited by Suhayl al-Yamānī (Fallujah: Shabaka al-Fallūja al-islāmiyya, 2007), p. 31. https://archive.org/details/ozaaloza_gmail_20131019_1057.

2 K. Jackson, ‘Abu Musʿab al-Zarqawi under Influence: One Mentor?’, May 15, 2012, https://alleyesonjihadism.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/abu-musab-al-zarqawi-under-influence-one-mentor/.

3 Hassan Abu Hanieh and Mohammad Abu Rumman, Tanẓīm ‘al-dawla al-islāmiyya’: al-azma al-sunniyya wa-al-ṣirāʿ ʿalā al-jihādiyya al-ʿālamiyya (Amman: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2015), p. 178, pp. 181–184. https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/amman/11262.pdf. [Idem, The ‘Islamic State’ Organization: The Sunni Crisis and the Struggle of Global Jihadism, transl. Banan Malkawi (Amman: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2015), pp. 237–238, 242–246. https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/amman/11458.pdf.]

4 C. Winter and A.K. al-Saud, ‘The Obscure Theologian Who Shaped ISIS’, December 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/12/isis-muhajir-syria/509399/.

5 For the extended discussion, see T. Hamming, ‘The Hardline Stream of Global Jihad: Revisiting the Ideological Origin of the Islamic State’, CTC Sentinel, 12:1 (January 2019), pp. 1–7, p. 2. https://ctc.westpoint.edu/hardline-stream-global-jihad-revisiting-ideological-origin-islamic-state/.

6 S. Al-Ansari and U. Hasan, ‘Tackling Terror: A Response to Takfiri Terrorist Theology’, Quilliam, 2018; E. Arpa, ‘El-Muhacir’in “Mesail min Fıkhi’l-Cihad” Kitabında Öngörülen Cihad Anlayışının Değerlendirilmesi [The Evaluation of the Concept of Jihad in Almuhajer’s Book of “Mesael Min Fiqh al-Jihad”]’, Diyanet İlmi Dergi, 54 (2018), pp. 167–208.

7 Kevin Jackson penned one of the earlier and fuller biographic accounts and states al-Muhajir’s real name as Muhammad Ibrahim al-Saghir. Idem, ‘Abu Musʿab al-Zarqawi under Influence’. This earlier supposition was replaced by a later consensus on the name Abdurrahman al-Ali, however, as Hamming notes. Idem, ‘The Hardline Stream of Global Jihad’, p. 2.

8 Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Ḥasan, ‘“Fiqh al-dimāʾ” … man huwa al-rajul alladhī waḍaʿ dustūr al-tawaḥḥush al- Dāʿishī? [“The Jurisprudence of Blood”: Who’s the Man Who Laid the Ground Rules of ISIS Savagery?]’ November 7, 2018, https://hafryat.com/ar/blog/ فقه-الدماء-مَن -هو-الرّجل -الذي -وضع -دستور-التوحش -الداعشي؟ .

9 Ayman al-Ẓawāhirī, al-Tabriʾa (n.p.: as-Sahab Media, 2008), p. 46. https://archive.org/details/altabr2a001.

10 Jackson, op. cit.

11 Two of the books deal with basic themes of jihadist ideology, ‘sovereignty’ (ḥākimiyya) and ‘loyalty and disavowal’ (al-walāʾ wa-al-barāʾ). Another one is on the ‘Fall of the Western civilization’ (Suqūṭ al-ḥaḍāra al-gharbiyya). The booklet of a seventy-page tract on a problem of the jurisprudence of jihad is ‘The Judgment concerning strategic commitment to the hostile forces’ (Ḥukm al-intimāʾ li-juyūsh al-kufr mukhādaʿatan lahum). Finally, what appears under the title ‘Establishing the basis of the jihad rulings’ (Taʾṣīl aḥkām al-jihād) is an abridged version of the ‘Issues in the jurisprudence of jihad’. This abridged version, which was edited by an Abdurrahman b. Muhammad al-Khalil, probably aims to facilitate quick and smooth perusal for jihadist readership.

12 For al-Muhajir’s entire works, see https://archive.org/details/20201027_20201027_0459. It is possible that some of al-Muhajir’s ‘books’ are modified transcripts or reworkings of his lectures that can be found online.

13 ‘Introduction to the jurisprudence of jihad’. https://archive.org/details/FIFTH-SERISE-PRESENTAION-OF-FIQH-EL-JIHAD/Lesson-1.mp3.

14 Jackson, op. cit.

15 For a general overview on the Khalden camp, see Anne Stenersen, Al-Qaida in Afghanistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 50–51, 97–98, 125–127.

16 Mustafa Hamid and Leah Farrall, The Arabs at War in Afghanistan (London: Hurst & Co., 2015), p. 229, pp. 296–297. For an extended treatment of the circumstances and the matter of divergence, see T.R. Hamming, Polemical and Fratricidal Jihadists: A Historical Examination of Debates, Contestation and Infighting within the Sunni Jihadi Movement (London: ICSR, 2019), pp. 13–22. https://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ICSR-Report-Polemical-and-Fratricidal-Jihadists-A-Historical-Examination-of-Debates-Contestation-and-Infighting-Within-the-Sunni-Jihadi-Movement.pdf; On contemporary Salafi factions, see: N.S. Sheikh, ‘Making Sense of Salafism: Theological Foundations, Ideological Iterations, and Political Manifestations’, in Jeffrey Haynes (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology (London: Routledge, 2021), pp. 177–196.

17 Hamid and Farrall, op. cit., pp. 229–231; Jackson, op. cit.

18 Hamming, ‘The Hardline Stream of Global Jihad’, op. cit., p. 3.

19 al-Muhajir later on mended the frosty relations with Bin Laden and joined al-Qaida. Furthermore, it was conveyed that he took charge as the head of shariah council and was one of the names who issued a fatwa legitimizing early suicide attacks against US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam in 1998. Winter and Al-Saud, op. cit.; However, his later position-takings as in the improvement of relations with al-Qaida, in my opinion, does not alter the fact of his earlier contribution to the foundation of a new line of thought distinct from the mainstream religious radicalism.

20 Hamming, ‘The Hardline Stream of Global Jihad’, op. cit., p. 1.

21 The main source of al-Zarqawi’s testimony that commentators turn to when speaking of the relation between al-Zarqawi and al-Muhajir is what Maysarah al-Gharib, who was in the close circle around al-Zarqawi during his time in Iraq, conveyed in writing. Al-Gharib was in charge of media office at the ‘Group of Monotheism and Jihad’, (Jamāʿa al-tawḥīd wa-al-jihād) the first organization that al-Zarqawi founded in Iraq, and later on a member of the committee on faith at al-Qaida of Iraq. He penned a tract titled ‘Of the Mysteries of History’ after al-Zarqawi’s death and recounted anecdotes from al-Zarqawi’s life in the section titled ‘al-Zarqawi as I knew him’ (al-Zarqāwī kamā ʿaraftuhu), which also provided material for al-Zarqawi-al-Muhajir connection. For instance, on al-Zarqawi’s admiration of al-Muhajir, see al-Gharīb, op. cit, p. 31.

22 Winter and Al-Saud, op. cit.; Jackson, op. cit.

23 Apparently al-Muhajir drafted out his major work in the course of his Herat days. So al-Zarqawi acted as an interlocutor for discussing the main themes of the book while al-Muhajir wrote up sections of the book. Indeed, al-Gharib mentions al-Zarqawi to state that he was trained under al-Muhajir for four years, ‘if [his] memory serves [him] right’. Idem, op. cit., p. 31.

24 Al-Maqdisi is a Jordanian-Palestinian jihadi ideologue. For a general overview on him, see Joas Wagemakers, A Quietist Jihadi: The Ideology and Influence of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

25 Abū Muṣʿab al-Zarqāwī, ‘Bayān wa-tawḍīḥ limā athārahu al-shaykh al-Maqdisī fī fī liqāʾihi maʿ qanāt al-Jazīra [Statement and Clarification on What Shaikh al-Maqdisi Raised in His Interview with al-Jazeera Channel]’, in al-Arshīf al-jāmiʿ li-kalimāt wa khiṭābāt amīr al-istishhādiyīn [Collected statements and addresses of the martyred chief] (n.p.: Warshah ʿamal shabakat al-burāq al-islāmiyyah, 2006), pp. 326–340, p. 329. https://archive.org/details/zarqawee_201505.

26 ‘Azmi Bishara, Tanzīm al-dawla al-mukannā “Dāesh”: itār ʿām wa musāhama naqdiyya fī fikr al zāhira [The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Daesh): A General Framework and Critical Contribution to Understanding the Phenomenon] (Bayrut: The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, 2018), p. 151; Winter and Al-Saud, op. cit.; Jackson, op. cit.

27 https://jihadology.net/2015/02/19/new-video-message-from-the-islamic-state-blood-of-the-jihad-4-wilayat-ninawa/.

28 H. Saʿīd, ‘Daesh: al-bunya al-khitābiyya bayna al-inkhirāt fī al-mahallī al-watanī wa al-buʿd al-islāmī al-kawnī [The Discursive Structure Between Involvement in the National Local and the Global Islamic Dimension]’, in ‘Azmi Bishāra (ed.) Tanzīm al-dawla al-mukannā “Dāesh”:al-tashakkul wa al-khitāb wa al-mumārasa [The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Daesh): Formation, Discourse and Practice] (Bayrut: The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, 2018), p. 413, 418; C. Kadivar, ‘Daesh and the Power of Media and Message’, Arab Media & Society, Issue 30 (Summer/Fall, 2020), pp. 1–28, 8–9.

29 Ziyad al-Zaʿtari conveyed in a piece written in 2012 that he witnessed the book’s dissemination even in regions of northern Lebanon like Tripoli besides its distribution in Iraq and Syria. Also he claimed that the book or excerpts from it were disseminated in social media with this title: ‘The bombshell gift: to our fighting brothers in general and Syrian fighters in particular. An eminent series’ (Al-Hadiyyat al-qunbulah … ilā ikhwāninā al-mujāhidīn ʿāmmatan wa ilā al-mujāhidīn fī bilād al-Shām khāṣṣatan. Silsila muhimma jiddan). Idem, ‘“Fiqh al-dimāʾ” fī al-shimāl: ‘quṭaʿ al-ruʾūs maḥbūb lillāh [The Jurisprudence of Blood in the North: Rolling Heads is God’s Favorite]’ September 10, 2012. https://al-akhbar.com/Politics/75340.

30 According to al-Gharib’s testimony, al-Zarqawi recommended teaching al-Muhajir’s ‘The Signs of the Sunna expressed in the attributes of the victorious sect’ to al-Gharib himself in addition to his ‘The Issues in the jurisprudence of blood’. He acted duly, he recounts, making copies of the relevant texts for instruction. Idem, op. cit., p. 31.

31 Ibid., pp. 31–32.

32 al-Zarqāwī, ‘Bayān wa-tawḍīḥ’, op. cit., pp. 331–334.

33 Quoted in Jackson, op. cit.

34 Ibid.

35 Hamming, ‘The Hardline Stream of Global Jihad’, op. cit., p. 4.

36 A study estimates 1779 attacks in Iraq between 2003 and 2010. K.R. Seifert and C. McCauley, ‘Suicide Bombers in Iraq, 2003–2010: Disaggregating Targets Can Reveal Insurgent Motives and Priorities’, Terrorism and Political Violence, 16:5 (2014), pp. 803–820, p. 809. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2013.778198; Bishara, op. cit., p. 95.

37 R.A. Pape, A.A. Rivas, and A.C. Chinchilla, ‘Introducing the New CPOST Dataset on Suicide Attacks’, Journal of Peace Research, 58:4 (2021), pp. 826–838, 832–833. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343320978260.

38 Aimen Dean, Paul Cruickshank, and Tim Lister, Nine Lives: My Time as MI6’s Top Spy Inside al-Qaeda (Oneworld Publications Limited, 2018), p. 250. I could not corroborate this view with another source, suggesting that Al-Muhajir was one of the individuals issuing fatwas for embassy attacks.

39 Abū Muṣʿab al-Zarqāwī, ‘Wa ʿāda ahfadu Ibn al-ʿAlqamī [The Descendants of Ibn Al-Alqami Returned]’, in al-Arshīf al-jāmiʿ li-kalimāt wa khiṭābāt amīr al-istishhādiyyīn [Collected Statements and Addresses of the Martyred Chief] (n.p.: Warshat ʿamal shabakat al-burāq al-islāmiyyah, 2006), pp. 237–265, 239–252. https://archive.org/details/zarqawee_201505.

40 For the extended discussion on suicide attacks, see Nathan S. French, And God Knows the Martyrs: Martyrdom and Violence in Jihadi-Salafism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), pp. 106–181.

41 The expression means the intentional cutting into enemy lines during combat, forsaking life in order to aggravate enemy casualties. It was topical for traditional scholarship and al-Muhajir argued that majority views accepted its permissibility.

42 Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Muhājir, Masāʾil min fiqh al-jihād (n.p.: n.p., 2004), pp. 86–99. https://archive.org/details/20201027_20201027_0459/ مسائل في فقه الجهاد /.

43 Ibid., pp. 80–83, 100.

44 Ibid., pp. 101–102.

45 Meaning ‘to shield’, from the root shield (turs), the notion refers to the fatwa given by some jurists in classical Islamic jurisprudence that if the enemy at war uses civilian Muslims as shields or if there are Muslims in the place where the enemy is to be attacked with catapults, Muslims can be killed there for the sake of the Islamic army. Although many jihadist pioneers have referred to this fatwa in relation to the deaths of Muslim civilians, Abu Yahya al-Lībī, one of al-Qaeda’s most prominent ideologues, wrote a separate treatise on this issue in 2006, which is considered highly authoritative within the jihadist movement, in which he tried to prove the applicability of this classical fatwa in the modern era. Abū Yaḥyā al-Lībī, al-Tatarrus fī al-jihād al-muʿāṣir (n.p.: n.p., 2006), https://ia600306.us.archive.org/29/items/kotobmohemmah/tatross.pdf; also, Ayman al-Ẓawāhirī reserved a chapter each at his books al-Tabriʾah and Shifāʾ. Idem, al-Tabriʾa (n.p.: as-Sahab Media, 2008), pp. 123–129. https://archive.org/details/altabr2a001; idem, Shifāʾ ṣudūr al-muʾminīn (n.p.: Minbar al-tawḥīd wa-al-jihād, 1996), pp. 49–62. https://www.ilmway.com/site/maqdis/MS_13066.html. For another work on the topic, J. Barclay, ‘At-Tatarrus: al-Qaeda’s Justification for Killing Muslim Civilians’, Terrorism Monitor, 8:34 (2010), pp. 6–9.

46 Ibid., pp. 114–115.

47 Seifert and McCauley, ‘Suicide Bombers in Iraq, 2003–2010’, op. cit., pp. 812–813.

48 Ahmed S. Hashim, The Caliphate at War: Operational Realities and Innovations of the Islamic State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 192.

49 al-Muhājir, Masāʾil, op. cit., pp. 139–141.

50 Ibid., p. 167.

51 Ibid., p. 157.

52 ‘Amān’ is the Islamic law concept of guaranteeing the security of a person or a group of people for a limited time.

53 Ibid., pp. 29–30, 46.

54 Ibid., pp. 43–44.

55 Ibid., p. 56.

56 Ibid., p. 66.

57 Ibid., pp. 77–78.

58 Ibid., p. 64.

59 Ibid., pp. 189–192.

60 Ibid., p. 196, pp. 202–203.

61 B. Haykel, ‘On the Nature of Salafi Thought and Action’, in Roel Meijer (ed.) Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), p. 42.

62 Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger, ISIS: The State of Terror (New York: Ecco, 2015), pp. 30–35.

63 Abū Muṣʿab al-Zarqāwī, ‘Risāla min Abī Muṣʿab al-Zarqāwī ilā al-shaykh Usāma bin Lādin [Letter from al-Zarqawi to Bin Laden]’, in al-Arshīf al-jāmiʿ li-kalimāt wa khiṭābāt amīr al-istishhādiyīn (n.p.: Warshah ʿamal shabakat al-burāq al-islāmiyyah, 2006), pp. 58–75, 63–64. https://archive.org/details/zarqawee_201505.

64 Ibid., p. 61.

65 al-Muhājir, Masāʾil, op. cit., p. 353.

66 Abū Muṣʿab al-Zarqāwī, ‘Silsilah muḥāḍarāt hal atāka ḥadīth al-rāfiḍah [Talk Series: Have You Heard of the Renegade Story?]’, in al-Arshīf al-jāmiʿ li-kalimāt wa khiṭābāt amīr al-istishhādiyīn (n.p.: Warshah ʿamal shabakat al-burāq al-islāmiyyah, 2006), pp. 521–615, p. 605. https://archive.org/details/zarqawee_201505.

67 al-Muhājir, Masāʾil, op. cit., p. 351.

68 Ibid., p. 362, pp. 364–365.

69 Ibid., pp. 351–353.

70 al-Zarqāwī, ‘Risāla’, op. cit., pp. 63–66. Al-Zarqawi makes extensive use of ‘Shiite treason’ presenting numerous examples across Islamic ages in his three-part talk series. See idem, ‘Silsila muḥāḍarāt hal atāka ḥadīth al-rāfiḍa’, pp. 525–595.

71 Ibid., p. 602.

72 al-Muhājir, Masāʾil, op. cit., pp. 353–354, p. 360.

73 al-Zarqāwī, ‘Risāla’, op. cit., pp. 63–64, 73–74.

74 Nibras Kazimi, ‘Zarqawi’s anti-Shia Legacy: Original or Borrowed?’, Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, 4 (2006), pp. 53–72, p. 55, pp. 66–67.

75 al-Zarqāwī, ‘Risāla’, op. cit., p. 62; al-Zarqawi quoted in Cole Bunzel, ‘From Paper State to Caliphate: The Ideology of the Islamic State’, Analysis Paper, no. 19 (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2015), p. 14. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/The-ideology-of-the-Islamic-State.pdf.

76 al-Zarqāwī, ‘Silsila muḥāḍarāt hal atāka ḥadīth al-rāfiḍa’, op. cit.

77 al-Zarqāwī, ‘Bayān wa-tawḍīḥ’, op. cit., pp. 331–332.

78 Hashim, op. cit., pp. 193–194.

79 ‘The Rafidah: From Ibn Saba’ to the Dajjal’, Dabiq Magazine, 13 (2016).

80 Direct quotations from al-Zarqawi’s letter to Bin Laden, as cited above, and several speeches by him are prevalent in the magazine issue. Ibid., pp. 41–42.

81 For greater scope, see E. Hawley, ‘ISIS Crimes Against the Shia: The Islamic State’s Genocide Against Shia Muslims’, Genocide Studies International, 11:2 (2017), pp. 160–181, pp. 167–168. https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi.11.2.02.

82 F.A. Gerges, ‘ISIS and the Third Wave of Jihadism’, Current History, 113:767 (2014), pp. 339–343, p. 340. https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.2014.113.767.339.

83 Abū Bakr Nājī, Idāra al-tawaḥḥush: akhṭar marḥala satamurru bihā al-umma [The Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage the Nation of Islam Will Go Through] (n.p.: Markaz al-dirāsāt wa-al-buḥūth al-islāmiyyah, 2004), p. 30. https://archive.org/details/setsuko_20151213.

84 For more information, see H. Hassan, ‘Isis has Reached New Depths of Depravity. But There is a Brutal Logic Behind It’, February 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/isis-islamic-state-ideology-sharia-syria-iraq-jordan-pilot; See also the following article on the debate among Jihadi Salafi ideologues over the act of ‘burning’, which is important in showing that such brutal actions are a distinguishing feature of ISIS: M. Ghyoot, ‘“Nay, We Obeyed God When We Burned Him”: Debating Immolation (Taḥrīq) Between the Islamic State and Al-Qāʿida’, in Mustafa Baig and Robert Gleave (eds) Violence in Islamic Thought from European Imperialism to the Post-Colonial Era (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2021), pp. 249–290; Abdel Bari Atwan, Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate (Oakland, University of California Press, 2015), pp. 153–164.

85 French, And God Knows the Martyrs, op. cit., p. 195.

86 ‘Prepare against them what you [believers] can of [military] power and cavalry to deter Allah’s enemies and your enemies as well as other enemies unknown to you but known to Allah. Whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be paid to you in full and you will not be wronged’ (Quran 8:60), https://quran.com/8/60.

87 al-Muhājir, Masāʾil, op. cit., pp. 163–166.

88 Ibid., 269–271.

89 For his extended argument, see ibid., pp. 271–283.

90 Ibid., pp. 171–173, p. 181.

91 Ibid., pp. 183–184, 187–188.

92 ‘Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and spread mischief in the land is death, crucifixion, cutting off their hands and feet on opposite sides, or exile from the land. This [penalty] is a disgrace for them in this world, and they will suffer a tremendous punishment in the Hereafter’. (Quran 5:33), https://quran.com/5/33.

93 For the extended argument, see al-Muhājir, Masāʾil, op. cit., pp. 254–268.

94 Ibid., pp. 223–225, 232–233.

95 Ibid., pp. 226–227.

96 Ibid., pp. 234–237.

Additional information

Funding

This article is part of my postdoctoral project that has received funding from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK).

Notes on contributors

Nurullah Cakmaktas

Nurullah Cakmaktas is an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology department at the Institute of Middle East and Islamic Countries Studies at Marmara University. He is interested in the relationship between religion and politics in the Middle East in general and the religious radical thought in particular. His research has concentrated on modern Islamic political thought, Salafism, and particularly Jihadi Salafi ideology.