Early notes on the first issue of the jihadist magazine, Azan

May 7th, 2013 by Charles Cameron

Fourth, in a round-up of jihadist fronts from around the world, there are a few paragraphs devoted to the Ghazwah e-Hind, termed here “the Jihad of Hind” [pp. 15-16]:

As for the Jihad of Hind (present-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), it comes in a Hadith:

Abu Huraira (RA) narrates that, “The Prophet Muhammad promised us the Jihad of Hind. If I get a chance to be part of that then I would spend my whole wealth and life in that. Then if I’m martyred, I’ll become the best of martyrs and if I return alive, then I will be a free-from-hell Abu Huraira.” [Sunnan Al-Nisai]

“Thauban (RA) narrates in a Marfoo’ Hadith that the Messenger of Allah said that there are two Jama’ahs (groups) in my Ummah for whom Allah Has Decreed salvation from Hell. One of these Jama’ahs is the one that will wage Jihad in Hind and the second Jama’ah is the one that will wage Jihad with Isa (AS) after he descends during the last days.” [Tibrani Shareef]

With such glad tidings from the Messenger of Allah [saw], the Mujahideen of Pakistan have their firm sights on freeing both India and Pakistan from the rule of the disbelieving rulers and to establish Shariah in all these lands once more. May Allah Grant victory to them! Ameen!

**

And finally, there’s mention of the obligatory black banners of Khorasan [pp. 13-15]:

Black flags were unfurled from Khorasaan just as the Prophet Muhammad [saw] had foretold:

“Black flags will emerge from Khorasaan, and nothing will hold them back until they plant (their flags) in Eeliyah (Jerusalem).” [Sunnan At- Tirmidhi]

So, if indeed these Taliban are the flag bearers mentioned in the Hadith, then they shall inshAllah march forth to and conquer Jerusalem. And this is a note to the “powers” of today. In fact, the Shariah of the Taliban gained such acceptance with Allah The Exalted, that He Made the land of Afghanistan the base for the start of the global Jihad movement.

…

The black flags of Khorasaan became being unfurled all around and the sacred call to Tawheed (monotheism) was renewed.

**

There is plenty more, of course, and I’ve cherry-picked the bits that bear on specific themes I have been exploring here at ZP that have end times relevance.

Aaron Zelin has made a .pdf of the magazine available via Jihadology. Bahukutumbi Raman discusses it from an Indian intelligence perspective on his blog. Reuters looks at what the magazine has to say about drones. And no doubt others will be providing analysis from various other perspectives in the coming days.

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Posted in Aaron Zelin, Afghanistan, Apocalyptic, black banner, Charles Cameron, extremists, ghazwa, India, islamist, khorasan, Mahdist, media, pakistan, Uncategorized | 9 comments

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  1. Charles Cameron:

    May 7th, 2013 at 9:14 pm

    Nick Fielding at Circling the Lion’s Den characterizes the Dajjal article thus:

    Although it [ie Azan] is attempting to emulate the look and feel of Inspire, the al-Qaeda magazine once published by American zealot Anwar al-Awlaki in the Yemen, it is nowhere near as sophisticated or engaging. Long articles about the ‘End Times’ that read like Christian fundamentalist poppycock, and badly-researched articles on drones are not likely to impress.

    So there…

  2. Mr. X:

    May 8th, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    Witness this cognitive dissonance admitted by a premier neoconservative, Clifford May, in the pages of National Review:

    They say politics makes strange bedfellows. But even stranger are the bedfellows that national-security policy makes.
    Andrew C. McCarthy, a friend and colleague, provides a stunning example. He points out that by proposing American support for Syrians who are attempting to overthrow Bashar Assad, Mitt Romney and “the McCain wing of the Republican party, and the rest of Washington’s progressive, Islamophilic clerisy” are aligning with “al-Qaeda emir Ayman al-Zawahiri and Muslim Brotherhood icon Yusuf al-Qaradawi.”
    Of course, it would be equally correct to point out that wings of the Republican party opposing efforts to facilitate regime change in Syria are aligning with MoveOn.org, Vladimir Putin, and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
    Within the loose coalition fighting Assad, there are freedom fighters — I’m personally acquainted with some. But, yes, Islamists are in the mix as well. Should Assad fall, who will end up on top? 

    So it would seem many neocons would rather side with the occasional Islamist/wandering jihadi than the hated Vlad the Bad.

    Again, it is the thicket of unanswered and awkward questions for our government — and the stupidity of a press that tries as hard as it can to deny reality in certain cases, including the DHS mass bullets order — that gives folks like Jones and Beck their profitable niche. 

  3. Mr. X:

    May 8th, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    http://www.cliffordmay.org/11817/battle-of-syria Here’s the Scripps Howard op-ed article link

  4. Curtis Gale Weeks:

    May 8th, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    As with similar Christian prophecy, I’m always amazed by the utilization of skepticism to reinforce a dogma.  Prediction of the power of propaganda, confusion over true words and false words or true prophets and false prophets—these always suggest that the false ones will be so very f-ing effective, people will be mislead in large numbers.  And those hearing these warnings treat the warnings with reverence:  effective warnings.  They have no thought that these warnings might mislead, that these prophets yelling Beware! might be the false prophets, the propagandists.
    .

    At least the Christian version includes a note about the Return’s being an entirely unexpected event, that no one would know for sure when and where it would happen.   (A paradox, I know, given that such a claim when paired with the book of Revelations is ironic as hell.  Or Heaven.) 

  5. Charles Cameron:

    May 8th, 2013 at 4:39 pm

    Hi Curtis:
    .
    Compare Matthew 24. 36-42:

    But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

    with

    Lo! the Hour is surely coming. But I will to keep it hidden, that every soul may be rewarded for that which it striveth (to achieve) 
    .
    Qur’an 20.15
    .
    Men ask you of the Hour. Say: The knowledge of it is with Allah only. What can convey (the knowledge) unto thee? It may be that the Hour is nigh. 
    .
    Qur’an 33:63

  6. Curtis Gale Weeks:

    May 8th, 2013 at 4:43 pm

    Ah, so Islam also says that prediction of the End is impossible for any human.   

  7. Charles Cameron:

    May 8th, 2013 at 4:51 pm

    And neither scripture prevents people from trying.  Sheikh al-Hawali, for instance, poses the question in full knowledge of these texts:

    The final, difficult question remains to be answered: when will the Day of Wrath come? When will Allah destroy the abomination of desolation? When will the chains of Jerusalem be broken, and its rights returned?

    and then responds to himself:

    Therefore the end – or the beginning of the end – will be 1967 + 45 = 2012, or in lunar years 1387 + 45 = 1433. 
    .
    This is what we hope will happen, but we do not declare it to be absolutely certain, but if the fundamentalists would like to bet with us, as Quraysh did with Abu Bakr concerning the Qur’anic prophecy concerning the Romans, then without doubt they will lose, although we cannot guarantee that it will be that exact year! 

  8. Curtis Gale Weeks:

    May 8th, 2013 at 5:13 pm

    I suppose that the effort to make the End seem imminent results from a desire to utilize those now alive and hearing the warning.  “Now, if we are getting close to those times, you really don’t want to be sitting on the sidelines and lose out on all of this reward in this Golden Era…” —after all, if the time and place are entirely unpredictable, sitting around or doing other things with your life might be more appealing, especially if those other things are naturally appealing.

    .

    There is another potential motivation at work:  the attempt to hasten the End.
    .

    —which, to me, seems rather presumptuous.      

  9. Charles Cameron:

    May 8th, 2013 at 6:54 pm

    Stephen O’Leary has the rhetorical force of imminence covered in his book, Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric, and Damian Thompson shows how members of a congregation may pay lip service to the idea but carry on pretty much regardless in his Waiting for Antichrist: Charisma and Apocalypse in a Pentecostal Church.
    .
    As for hastening the apocalypse — that’s something I’ve been trying to keep an eye on [1, 2, 3, 4 and probably elsewhere], but really need to work up into a full-scale comparative survey, time permitting, insha’allah and the creek don’t rise.