False Religious Leaders and Movements of North Africa and Egypt

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

اللهم صل وسلم على خاتم النبيين

A large number of Mahdi claimants have risen in this Ummah, causing disturbance and division. Ibn Tumart (1080-1130) was one of the more notorious such claimants. His deviation from normative, Sunni Islam lay in his false theology which may be described as neo-Mu’tazilite. Like the classical Mu’tazilah who preceded him, Ibn Tumart dissented from the rest of the Community on the problem of the Divine Attributes. Ibn Tumart also rejected the four established schools of Sunni jurisprudence in favor of the obscure and literalist Zahiri school. He is credited for founding the Almohad movement, which became a governing dynasty in Iberia and North Africa. The term Almohad is an Anglicization of al-Muwahhidun, meaning the ‘unitarians’. It is not unlike how the classical Mu’tazilah called themselves ahl al-Tawhid, or how even the heretical Druze of today consider themselves al-muwahhidun. Indeed, many wayward movements and sects in Islamic history have emerged creating dissension under the pretense of monotheism, and the Almohad movement of Ibn Tumart was no different. Centuries earlier, the false prophet Salih bin Tarif had risen in the same geographic location. A Berber like Ibn Tumart, Salih bin Tarif of the Berghouata founded a new religion altogether, declaring himself a prophet, and hence was an apostate. The rebellious nature of the Berbers against the Arab central administration based in the East meant they were often susceptible to unorthodox movements and sects, such as the Kharijites. The Sufri Kharijites in particular played a damaging role in taking away the Berbers from orthodox, normative, Sunni Islam. Even today, while most of the Muslims of North Africa profess Sunni Islam and adhere to the Maliki school, there is still a remnant of the Ibadi Kharijites coexisting among them. The attraction to Kharijism for the Berbers and other North African populations may be rooted in their pre-Islamic history of Donatism.

The presence of Judaism in the lands of North Africa and Iberia was another factor in the deviation of many Muslims there. It is speculated that Salih bin Tarif himself was of Judaic origin, like Ibn Saba, the Himyarite Jew who outwardly converted to Islam only to create dissension within the Community. Ibn Saba found Egypt to be the most fertile soil for his devilish machinations. Many Muslims in Egypt and North Africa were drawn to Jewish mystics and continue to venerate them. The Jewish rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira, also known as Abu Hasira, hailed from Morocco but died in Damanhur, Egypt, where his tomb has become a pilgrimage site. Incidentally, the Kabbalist known as Baba Sali was a grandson of Yaakov Abuhatzeira. The scions of this family are attributed with miraculous powers and as such may be understood as prototypes of the Dajjal. It is reported that Ka’b al-Ahbar, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

الدَّجَّالُ بَشَرٌ وَلَدَتْهُ امْرَأَةٌ وَلَمْ يَنْزِلْ شَأْنِهِ فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالْإِنْجِيلِ وَلَكِنْ ذُكِرَ فِي كُتُبِ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ يُولَدُ فِي قَرْيَةٍ بِمِصْرَ يُقَالُ لَهَا ‌قُوصُ

The Dajjal is a mortal human, born of a woman, and although he is not mentioned in the Torah or the Gospel, but there is mention of him in the Books of the Prophets. He will be born in a town in Egypt called Qus. (al-Fitan li-Nu’aym bin Hammad)

It appears likely that despite his Judaic origin, the Dajjal will be perceived as belonging to this Ummah or a section of it, at least at a cultural level, which will be a means for many Muslims to be duped by him and actually believe that he is a truthful religious figure of some kind.

Being on the periphery of the Muslim World, North Africa (or the Maghreb) has often been a place where dissident and heretical factions established breakaway emirates and dynasties. In the early days of Islam the Berbers proved resistant to Islamization and Arabization. Due to their previous associations with Donatism, a Christian heresy, they were easily swindled by Sufri and Ibadi Kharijite proselytism. The Ibadis established the Rustamid dynasty in the Maghreb which united rival Berber tribes under a Persian Kharijite named Abd al-Rahman bin Rustam. Likewise, the Idrisid dynasty was established in modern-day Morocco by Idris, son of Abd Allah al-Mahd, when Idris fled the Abbasids in the aftermath of the Battle of Fakhkh, a sort of Zaidi uprising, which would mean the Idrisids were probably upon the Zaidi doctrine.

The Sufri Kharijites established the Ifranid emirate of Tlemcen under Abu Qurrah. The Midrarid dynasty of Sijilmasa was another Sufri Kharijite state of Samgu bin Wasul al-Miknasi. The Barghawata (also spelled Berghouata) were another faction that rose during the Berber Revolt of 740 CE. They too were Kharijite in orientation established by Tarif al-Matghari. The son of this man, Salih bin Tarif, succeeded his father but was a false prophet who established a new religion. After the success of the Abbasids in toppling the Umayyads, the fugitive Abd al-Rahman bin Mu’awiya bin Hisham managed to flee to Andalusia (Spain) where he established a breakaway Umayyad emirate in Cordoba, where there would be a “counter-caliphate” to the Abbasids for nearly three centuries. The Aghlabids were a Mu’tazilite dynasty founded by Ibrahim bin al-Aghlab. A return to Sunni orthodoxy was marked by the rise of the Almoravids of Abd Allah bin Yasin. But the Almoravids were toppled by the Almohads, founded by the heretic Ibn Tumart, who claimed to be the Mahdi. These Almohads rebelled against the Shari’ah in rejecting the concept of dhimmah and attempted to coerce non-Muslims, including the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) into converting to Islam.

After the period of European colonialism, particularly by the French, much of the Maghreb was culturally secularized and Europeanized. Yet, Khariji extremism remained among a segment of the Maghrebis as was seen during the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s. That conflict saw the emergence of an extremist neo-Kharijite faction called the Armed Islamic Group or GIA. Influenced by Qutb’s thought, they engaged in mass-Takfir of the Muslim society and thereby justified indiscriminate killings of civilians.

Fanatical Nationalism and Racism Among the Turks Today

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

وصلى الله على سيدنا ونبينا محمد وبارك وسلم

The recent disturbances in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in which Pakistani medical students were severely thrashed by locals points to the disease of fanatical nationalism and racism that has infected the Muslims of Central Asia (Turkestan) for some time now.

This region of the world is nominally Muslim as most of its people profess Islam, that too the orthodox Sunni Hanafi tradition within it. But decades under Soviet, Russian rule, which was socialist and atheist, resulted in the tragic secularization of the society.

After the collapse of the evil Soviet Union, a truly divine blessing from Allah Most High, attempts were made by the rest of the Ummah to reintegrate the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia into Islamdom. The Saudis and other Gulf Arab governments and philanthropists contributed much to facilitating an Islamic revival in the region.

But the rulers and elites of these Turkic Republics, who are remnants of the Soviet era, feared an Islamic revival and became agents of Iblis in enacting steps to curtail it. External signs of Islam especially the veil were strongly discouraged or even outright proscribed. The preaching and teaching of Islam became highly regulated and controlled by the State. The Russian Federation, till this day, plays a Satanic role pressuring the Turkic Republics of Central Asia to maintain their political secularism and cultural secularity, especially considering there remain in these States a significant minority of ethnic Russians. Neighboring China likewise wishes to pull the Turkic Republics of Central Asia into its own sphere of geopolitical and economic influence and therefore views a potential Islamic revival as a threat to its nefarious agenda.

Within these repressive and tyrannical Republics Wahhabism is used as a term of fright and a scare tactic to describe the Islamic revival for the purpose of warding it off. What is intended by Wahhabism is not merely the particular interpretation of Islam that was exported from Saudi Arabia, but in fact any conservative and strict approach to Sunni Islam which emphasizes the necessity of adhering to the Shari’ah and the Sunnah; practices like offering Salah five times daily, observing veil for ladies, and learning to read and understand the Quran.

While the population of the Central Asia Republics profess Sunni Islam, in reality, much of their practice of Islam is infused with pre-Islamic pagan spirituality like shamanism. Many others in this part of the world have become apostates in that they openly profess atheism or agnosticism.

Shaykh-ul-Islam, Ibn Taymiyah, encountered this strange phenomenon with those of the Mongols who outwardly converted to Islam yet retained their pre-Islamic attitudes and some pre-Islamic pagan practices. His series of fatawa or legal opinions on those Mongols may certainly apply today to segments of the professing Muslims of Central Asia, particularly their rulers and elites who openly act contrary to the interest of Islam. Allah Most High described a similar situation with the early Bedouin converts to Islam:

قَالَتِ الۡاَعۡرَابُ اٰمَنَّا ؕ قُلۡ لَّمۡ تُؤۡمِنُوۡا وَلٰکِنۡ قُوۡلُوۡۤا اَسۡلَمۡنَا وَلَمَّا یَدۡخُلِ الۡاِیۡمَانُ فِیۡ قُلُوۡبِکُمۡ

The Arabs of the desert say: We have believed. Say to them: You have not believed yet, but say rather: We have submitted; for faith has not yet entered into your hearts

(Surah 49, Ayah 14)

And this explains why bands of Kyrgyz goons viciously assaulted Pakistani and other Muslim foreign guests present in their country for studies. These are a nation in whose hearts Faith has not yet entered in totality and with establishment, rather, they are merely Muslims in that they outwardly profess Islam.

I see the Taliban in Afghanistan as a ray of Light in this region that has the potential to spread the sincere understanding and practice of the Faith north of its borders, into a place that is presently wrapped in darkness and ignorance. The contrast between the Taliban, and the conservative and zealous Pashtun population they come out of, with the totally secularized and non-observant Turks of Central Asia is stark. One can even say that Allah has blessed the Pashtuns with an external beauty in contrast to the Turks, whom the Prophet, peace be upon him, described as having:

صِغَارَ الأَعْيُنِ حُمْرَ الْوُجُوهِ ذُلْفَ الأُنُوفِ كَأَنَّ وُجُوهَهُمُ الْمَجَانُّ الْمُطَرَّقَةُ

Small eyes, reddish faces, flat noses, as if their faces were hammered shields

The history of the Turks is a history of warlike aggression, bloodshed, plunder, destruction, barbarism and savagery. And sadly it cannot be said that these deplorable qualities were erased from them when they outwardly embraced Islam. But instead of being humbled by their black history the Turks today have been captivated by the arrogance of nationalistic and racial supremacism. Like the Hindus of India, they have created a mythology surrounding their ancient past for the purpose of inculcating notions of national pride.

Misguidance of Imran N. Hosein

 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

وصلى الله على سيدنا ونبينا محمد وبارك وسلم

In his podcast with brother Dilly Hussain, the antichrist known as Imran N. Hosein of Trinidad doubled down on his statements of kufr that the reading of the Ayah:

وَاِنَّہٗ لَعِلۡمٌ لِّلسَّاعَۃِ

And he (Jesus) is a knowledge for the Hour

(Surah 43, Ayah 61)

is a distortion of the Revelation and his refusal to make takfir of the Eastern Orthodox Church despite their confession of the polytheistic doctrines of the Trinity and the divine incarnation of Christ. This is certainly a man who has separated himself from the mainstream and orthodox Jama’ah of the Muslims, namely, the Sunnis, and gone his own way into the darkness of misguidance. The rise of these false and wayward religious leaders was accurately prophesied by the most holy Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم who said:

إِنَّمَا أَخَافُ عَلَى أُمَّتِي الأَئِمَّةَ الْمُضِلِّينَ

I fear for my Ummah the misguided Imams

(Sunan Abi Dawud)

Imran N. Hosein of Trinidad is undoubtedly among those misguided Imams concerning whom the most holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم warned. Apart from his damning heresies in denying a part of the Quran and holding the Eastern Orthodox Christians to be Believers, Imran N. Hosein is pushing a political agenda in the Ummah centered around taking the Russian Federation and its diabolical President, Putin, as our saviors. Clearly beholden to Russia, his obsession has led him to deny or else mitigate the atrocities that nation and its allies have perpetrated against the Muslims, specifically in Chechnya, the former Yugoslavia and Syria. His enmity toward Western civilization, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom, has led him to the extreme of conspiratorial thinking in seeing the hand of the CIA behind every movement of resistance among the Muslims toward the tyranny and barbarism of Russia and China. His mentality is a testament to the Ayah:

وَلَا یَجۡرِمَنَّکُمۡ شَنَاٰنُ قَوۡمٍ عَلٰۤی اَلَّا تَعۡدِلُوۡا

Let not a people’s enmity towards you incite you to act contrary to justice

(Surah 5, Ayah 8)

In the narrative of this evil man, Imran N. Hosein, Russia and the Muslims are destined to form an alliance against Western civilization, based on the Hadith:

ثُمَّ هُدْنَةٌ تَكُونُ بَيْنَكُمْ وَبَيْنَ بَنِي الأَصْفَرِ

Then there will be a truce between you and Bani al-Asfar

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

*Bani al-Asfar is understood as referring to the Romans. Rome itself is recognized as a reference to European Christendom.

Imran N. Hosein insists that references to Rome in the Quran and Hadith apply only to the Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantines, who were based in Byzantium or Constantinople, and today it is Russia which is the proper heir of that legacy. Therefore, according to him, the prophecy of the Muslims having a truce with Rome means an alliance with Russia, the pre-eminent power in the world of Eastern Christendom. Whatever the merits of this interpretation, it is concerning that Imran N. Hosein dismisses the second part of the prophecy which states:

فَيَغْدِرُونَ فَيَأْتُونَكُمْ تَحْتَ ثَمَانِينَ غَايَةً تَحْتَ كُلِّ غَايَةٍ اثْنَا عَشَرَ أَلْفًا

They will betray you and come to you under eighty banners, under each banner twelve thousand (soldiers)

(ibid)

So if, for the sake of argument, the Muslims are destined to form an alliance with Russia, it is Russia that shall thereafter betray the Muslims and attack them with a massive force of nearly a million soldiers! This apocalyptic war, which is known as Armageddon or the Great Malhamah, shall closely precede the emergence of the False Messiah, the Dajjal.

How Quran Differs from Bible in Some Historical Details

 بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

In light of contemporary discoveries in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, and other modern sciences, aspects of the Biblical narrative have been called into question. As a consequence, many Christians and Jews have forsaken the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy. We Muslims acknowledge that the Biblical text as it appears today has not been protected from interpolation and corruption. This issue is only problematic for us if it can be decisively demonstrated that the Scripture we believe in, the Quran, which we hold to be inerrant, divine Words of God, repeats the apparent errors in the Bible.

According to Biblical chronology humanity is not older than six thousand years. If it is objectively false it cannot be used to taint the Quran which does not give, either explicitly or implicitly, a chronology of human history in terms of years. On the contrary, and interestingly, according to a Hadith Qudsi, King David is from the latter portion of Adam’s progeny:

هَذَا رَجُلٌ مِنْ آخِرِ الأُمَمِ مِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِكَ يُقَالُ لَهُ دَاوُدُ

This is a man from the latter nations of your offspring, he is called David (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi; #3076)

Now according to the Biblical timeline King David reigned approximately three thousand years ago. If humanity is merely six thousand years it would be a stretch to describe King David as a man from the latter portion or toward the end of Adam’s progeny.

When it comes to the historicity of the Exodus, virtually all historians reject it as presented in the Bible. The Bible claims that about six hundred thousand men, alongside a presumably equal or larger number of women and children, ventured out of Egypt (Exodus 12:37)

Simply put, the idea of over a million people suddenly being liberated and moving out of Egypt toward the Holy Land, for which it is necessary to cross the Sinai Peninsula, has no archaeological evidence whatsoever.

Now the Quran confirms the event of the Exodus, but apparently differs from the Bible in that it describes those who went with Moses as being less in number:

اِنَّ ہٰۤؤُلَآءِ لَشِرۡذِمَۃٌ قَلِیۡلُوۡنَ

These are a small party

(Surah 26, Ayah 54)