Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Does ISIS Have Their Mahdi?

A reader directed my attention to this alert from The Threat Journal indicating that ISIS had already selected a new leader. From the alert:
The terror group has also named Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi as the new "caliph" and "emir of the believers." The name Qurayshi suggests the new leader, like Baghdadi, claims a lineage to Muhammad's tribe of Quraysh. Little else is known about this individual outside of ISIS circles.
Of course, ISIS threatens revenge on the United States in a video. The Threat Journal notes the following key passage from the video:
"Do not rejoice so much, America

The person who will punish you has come

You will feel that Baghdadi's days were a blessing."
The reason that the claim of lineage is important is because the Muslim's "messiah," or Mahdi, is reported in various hadiths to be of the lineage of Mohammad, with some even stating that the Mahdi will be a direct descendant of Mohammad through his daughter, Fatimah. Like most religions when it comes to eschatology, there is considerable debate among Muslim theologians about the nature of the Mahdi, or even if he is supposed to be real person. But the arguments of theologians are of less importance than what is believed by the rank-and-file, and what I've read suggests that most Muslims believe that the Mahdi will be a real figure that will come to lead Islam to victory over other faiths.

    One of the interesting points is that Mohammad is said to have stated about the Mahdi: "His name will be my name, and his father's name my father's name." Mohammad's father's full name was:
ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim ('Amr) ibn Abd Manāf (al-Mughīra) ibn Qusayy (Zayd) ibn Kilāb ibn Murra ibn Ka`b ibn Sûf^iyāń ibn Lu'ayy ibn Ghālib ibn Fahr (Quraysh) ibn Mālik ibn an-Naḑr (Qays) ibn Kinānah ibn Khuzaymah ibn Mudrikah ('Āmir) ibn Ilyās ibn Muḑar ibn Nizār ibn Ma'ād ibn 'Adnān
Obviously "Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi" does not incorporate Mohammad, nor does it seem to match up with Mohammad's father. But little is known about the new ISIS leader. Wikipedia states:
Al-Hashimi's name is believed to be a nom de guerre and his real name is unknown. There is some speculation that al-Hashimi is Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal Rahman al-Mawla, who is also known as Hajji 'Abdallah.
 If the latter speculation is correct, then Al-Hashimi's name would meet the criteria of either being named after Mohammad or bearing the same name as Mohammad's father.

2 comments:

  1. "Do not rejoice so much, America.The person who will punish you has come. You will feel that Baghdadi's days were a blessing."

    Ohhh...I'm just a quakin in my boots 😊

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our most effective defense against terrorists has been their overall low IQ, poor technical capabilities, and tribalism. Unless their new leader, Sashimi or whatever it is, can overcome these difficulties, ISIS will only ever be a threat to its co-religionists in Asia and Africa. Quantity has a quaility all its own, but ISIS doesn't even have that. Sure the terrorists sometimes get lucky and pull off something spectacular, but frankly more people in the US die from drowning in hot tubs each year than from terrorism, and even 9/11 didn't match up to the number that drown in swimming pools each year. Your local health departments are more important to saving American lives than the post 9/11 security apparatus will ever be.

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