MESOP SPECIAL Islamic State Training Camp Textbook: Excerpt & Analysis

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi • Jun 29, 2015 – As mentioned in my previous post on Islamic State [IS] training camps and military divisions, the work Muqarrar fi al-Tawhid (Course/Stipulations in Tawhid [Monotheism]) is a book written by IS cleric Turki Binali- issued in the name of the Diwan al-Eftaa wa al-Buhuth that also deals with IS fatwas- and is the key textbook for Shari’a education for recruits to the training camps, who must memorize and understand the book.

Below is a translation of the first lesson in the book. Note in particular the extensive quotation of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabi trend in Islam, as well as the appeals to more classical theology and jurisprudence in the citations of the likes of Ibn al-Qayyim and Imam al-Ajurri.

Introduction

Praise be to God the Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and all his family and companions, and on the followers and whoso has followed them with ihsan till the Day of Judgment. As for what follows:

Indeed the principle of religion, and its basis and foundation are faith in God and disbelief in taghut. Man cannot be organised in the cadre of Islam and live in its protection and enjoy the blessing of its rule without the principle of religion and implementing it.

For tawheed is the principle of religion, its essence and foundation on which all religion is based, and faith cannot be sound and implementing cannot be accepted without realizing it and disavowing what is against it.

The people of disbelief and hypocrisy have tried to destroy the features of religion and distort its understandings so that the people of Islam may be far removed from the source of their power and unity. And they have entrusted to their idolatrous tyrant overlords the task of distorting the religion and banishing the Muslims, so they have used their authority in shutting out the voice of truth in prison and liquidating the truth-telling ‘ulama, and they have cooperated with the munafiqeen and ‘ulama of error in spreading doctrinal and program error and deviation, until the features of truth have been wiped out. But God has sent to the Ummah of Islam one who should renew its religion and revive its doctrine, for they have come out openly with the truth, established the ritual of jihad, and fought against the people of disbelief and apostasy, until God realized for them the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate, ruling by God’s law and reviving what had been effaced from the features of tawheed.

Today by God’s favour we live in the shade of this lucky, blessed Caliphate. And to preserve it and its functioning, we have had to spread truth and call to it, that a monotheist, truth-telling generation may be established in whose hands God may revive the glories of our Ummah. And this is a summary in the principle of religion that we have prepared for the Shari’a military camps, asking God to benefit us through it and our Muslim brothers in general and the mujahideen in particular.

Faith among the Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jamaat

The Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jamaat: they are the ones upon whom what has similarly been upon the Prophet (God’s peace and blessings be upon him: SAWS) and His companions, and they are the ones who adhere to the Sunna of the Prophet (SAWS) and they are the companions, the followers, the Imams of guidance who followed them, and they are the ones who have been right in following, and have rejected innovation in any time and place, remaining victorious till the Day of Judgment.

Thus they are called for their adherence to the Sunna of the Prophet (SAWS) and their gathering/consensus on taking it up outwardly and inwardly, in word, deed and conviction.

Faith as a word: believing to be true and confirmation.

In law: saying by tongue, believing in the heart and working with the limbs, for more or less.

Imam al-Ajuri (may God have mercy on him) said: “Faith is believing in the heart, confirming with the tongue, and working with the limbs, and one cannot be a believer until these three qualities are gathered in him.” http://www.aymennjawad.org/2015/06/islamic-state-training-camp-textbook-excerpt