Prophet Muhammad Warned About ISIS Terrorists, Muslim Extremism

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From Saudi Arabia taking military action in Yemen to the Islamic State terrorist group killing people en masse in Iraq and Syria, these current-day developments of Muslims fighting against other Muslims should be viewed as a disgrace but not as a surprise.

Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, had warned 1,400 years ago that murders would become highly common throughout the Earth and that Muslims in Iraq would learn the Quran and then stray far against Islamic teachings.

The global chaos that plagues the Middle East and threatens the lands of America, Europe, and Australia is something that the Prophet of Islam had guaranteed would occur. While his statements indicate that Muslims, Christians, Jews, and people of other faith traditions would all play a part in the rise of violence, the Prophet of Islam had made clearly worded remarks that Muslims would definitely be at the forefront of the disorder we see today.

As human beings, we do not know what is inside another person’s heart, but we do know evil when we see it, because we have been blessed with the innate ability to discern right from wrong.

The violence that we see in the world, the widespread killings, all of that is a grave transgression that no one likes but that no one can stop. Violence begets more violence, and fighting fuels distrust. Everyone claims to be on the so-called Straight Path, but most of the people clearly do not take the truth into account when making sweeping judgments about others. As such, injustice flourishes and people become more full of hatred and rage.

From the Islamic perspective, Iraq was destined to become a problem, proven by the following authentic hadith narration from the earliest devout Muslims who had lived alongside the Prophet of Islam:

Yusair bin Amr had asked Sahl bin Hunaif, “Did you hear Prophet Muhammad (s) saying anything about Al-Khawarij?” Sahl bin Hunaif said, “I heard him saying while pointing his hand towards Iraq, ‘There will appear in it (I.e, Iraq) some people who will recite the Quran but it will not go beyond their throats, and they will go out from (leave) Islam as an arrow darts through the game’s body.'” — Source: Sahih al-Bukhari 6934

Leaving Islam does not necessarily mean a Muslim embraces another religion or becomes an atheist. A Muslim can leave Islam simply by doing acts of evil, such as murder, rape, and theft. Allah in the Quran advises Muslims to die not except in the state of Islam, which is to say that Muslims should always conduct themselves as doers of good.

We do not know when and where we will die, but we know death is inevitable, so when death comes calling for us, we would be wise to be upstanding human beings when that time comes.

Allah is the Arabic word for God, and Muslims believe in an eternal afterlife in which Allah will judge people according to the good and the bad deeds they have done from the cradle to the grave. In an authentic statement, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, had said the first person who will be thrown into the fire of Hell will be a jihadi Muslim who died on the battlefield.

That Muslim will claim he died as a martyr on a jihad mission for the sake of Allah. Allah will call that Muslim a liar and tell that Muslim that he only did battle in the name of Allah so that people would call him a brave man. Indeed, when that jihadi Muslim died, his allies had indeed bragged about how their comrade was a brave man who died in Allah’s cause.

The fighters in the Islamic State, ISIS, ISIL terrorist group have declared a jihad, thinking it will guarantee them Paradise. The truth of the matter is that those fighters are on shaky ground, and I fear they are running straight to the fire of Hell faster than a bull charges at a matador waving a red cape.

In Islam, it is required for Muslims to express appreciation for Prophet Muhammad, so we call upon Allah to honor him and grant him peace. Prophet Muhammad (s) had many enemies in his lifetime who harassed him and insulted him with the worst type of name-calling imaginable. The Prophet of Islam had practiced patience and ultimately had forgiven his enemies once he was drawn into an armed conflict that ended with him conquering Mecca.

Fast forward 1,400 years later, and we see that a faction of modern-day Muslims throw patience out of the window and immediately resort to unjustified tactics that involve killing and maiming when people mock the Prophet of Islam in the 21st century.

The problem is not Islam. Islam is the religion of patience and good conduct. The problem is there are Muslims who do things that go against the Quran, Islam’s holy book, and against the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.

In terms of the wider problems in the Middle East concerning the Muslim-fueled bloodshed over there, the Prophet of Islam had said that some of the people in his ummah Muslim community would kill one another or imprison one another in large numbers.

Prophet Muhammad (s) said the following eye-opening statement:

“I begged my Lord that my Ummah (Muslim community) should not be destroyed because of famine and He granted me this. And I begged my Lord that my Ummah (Muslim community) should not be destroyed by drowning (by deluge) and He granted me this. And I begged my Lord that there should be no bloodshed among the people of my Ummah (Muslim community), but He did not grant it.” — Source: Sahih Muslim 2890a

Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, did not call himself a Sunni or Shia; he called himself a Muslim. The Sunni and Shia paths have different interpretations on how the religion of Islam is best practiced, but they are all Muslims nonetheless.

Part of the problem today is some Muslims put on a cloak of extremism, throwing around big words like shirk and kufr while declaring themselves to be the only true Muslims in the world and accusing everyone else of being a hypocrite or disbeliever.

No one, especially Muslims, should be surprised by the world we live in today in which Cain’s tradition of murder has become a common practice worldwide. None of it even makes sense anymore, and even that is a sign that human civilization is overall becoming more decivilized as time unfolds. The following hadith narration, which is well-accepted by Muslims, puts it all in perspective:

Abu Huraira reported that Allah’s Messenger, Prophet Muhammad (s), as saying: The world would not come to an end until a day would come to the people on which the murderer would not know as to why he has killed and the slain would not know as to why he has been murdered. It would be said: Why would It happen? To which he replied: It would be because of general massacre and bloodshed. And the slaughterers and the slain would be in Fire. — Source: Sahih Muslim 2908b

Some of the barbarism that we see in the form of beheadings is no doubt shocking, but a simple glimpse into Islam’s sources of truth reveals that no one should be surprised these heinous acts are occurring in our lifetimes. May the Lord of the Worlds protect us from this savagery that looms at large. Ameen.

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman is the author of Under Siege: Black Muslim Down Under, which is available at https://www.amazon.com/author/sabdurr. Mr. Abdur-Rahman is a professional journalist who has long condemned terrorist attacks such as the one in 2007 that killed Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s former prime minister. An African-American citizen by birth and a devout Muslim, Mr. Abdur-Rahman’s interracial marriage had led him on a 10,000-mile journey from Philadelphia to Sydney, Australia. His intellectual appetite and international adventures have given him an insight into Islamic communities while increasing his appreciation for the United States as a multicultural land of opportunity and acceptance. Formerly employed by The Philadelphia Inquirer as a full-time staff writer, Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman’s high-profile journalism portfolio can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/sabdurr.