By Shaykh Abdullah Azzam
(Rahimahullah)(1)
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Universe and Peace and Blessings be upon the
Leader of the Prophets and
the Commander of the
Mujahideen: Muhammad (Sal Allaho Alyhe Wasallaam) and
upon His Family, His
Companions and whoever
pursues their method,
follows their way and
wages Jihad until the Day of Judgment.
Indeed nations are only
brought to life by their
beliefs and their concepts
and they die only with
their desires and their
lusts. The extent to which righteous convictions and
correct beliefs spread
within a nation, is the
extent to which it plants
its roots in the depths of
the Earth and sends forth orchards of trunks with
their flourishing leaves so
that Man can take shade
by it from the troubles of
life, its financial fever and
from the flame of hatred, envy and competition for
cheap thrills and temporary
enjoyment.
As for the Muslim Ummah, it
does continue to exist in
the course of history of
humankind, except by a
divine ideology and the
blood which flows as a result of spreading this
divine ideology and
implanting it into the real
World. The life of the Muslim
Ummah is solely dependent
on the ink of its scholars
and the blood of its
martyrs. What is more
beautiful than the writing of the Ummah's history with
both the ink of a scholar
and his blood, such that
the map of Islamic history
becomes colored with two
lines: one of them black, and that is what the
scholar wrote with the ink
of his pen; and the other
one red, and that is what
the martyr wrote with his
blood. And something more beautiful than this is when
the blood is one and the
pen is one, so that the
hand of the scholar which
expends the ink and moves
the pen, is the same as the hand which expends its
blood and moves the
Ummah. The extent to
which the number of
martyred scholars
increases is the extent to which nations are delivered
from their slumber, rescued
from their decline and
awoken from their sleep. History does not write its
lines except with blood.
Glory does not build its loft
edifice except with skulls,
Honour and respect cannot
be established except on a foundation of cripples and
corpses. Empires,
distinguished peoples,
states and societies cannot
be established except with
examples. Indeed those who think that they can change
reality, or change societies,
without blood, sacrifices
and invalids, without pure,
innocent souls, then they
do not understand the essence of this Deen
(2)
and they do not know the
method of the best of the
Messengers (may Allah bless
him and grant him peace). As for those who build
nations, they are few in
number. Sometimes the
Ummah can be built by a
single individual who makes
a stand by means of which Allah rescues this Deen,
just like Abu Bakr (RA)
made a stand of the Day of
Apostasy
(3); and the day
when Imam Ahmad bin
Hanbal
(4) made a stand when the entire World was
speechless at the
innovation that the Quran
had been created, so Allah
saved the Ummah with him. A small group: they are the
ones who carry convictions
and ambitions. And an even
smaller group from this
small group, are the ones
who flee from the worldly life in order to spread and
act upon these ambitions.
And an even smaller group
from this elite group, are
the ones who sacrifice
their souls and their blood in order to bring victory to
these ambitions and
principles. So, they are the
cream of the cream of the
cream. It is not possible to
reach glory except by traversing this Path. It is
not possible for the
structures of this Deen to
be established, nor for its
banner to be raised, nor
for its vessel to be launched, except by
traversing this Path. This
Path is one. In fact, there
is no Paradise without this
Path: "Do you really think that
you will enter Paradise,
before Allah has decided
from amongst you, those
who fight in His Way and
those who are patient?" [Quran 3:142] Thus the founders of
nations and the architects
of glories are few. As for
the one who wants to
architecture glory, then he
must be prepared to ascend to the price of
glory upon seas of his
blood and his sweat, and
the blood of those around
him and upon the
disabilities of those under his authority, until he
reaches the price of glory.
And glory cannot be
architectured except by
traversing this Path: the
Path of the Blessed Jihad.
The Jihad on the land of
Afghanistan set its
foundations with a small
group: 14 youths from the
youths of the Taqwa Islamic
Movement inside Kabul(5) University. The decisive,
conclusive, solidification of
its foundations was the
necessity of using Jihad to
combat the leader of the
tyrants, Daud(6), who had resolved to wipe out the
sons of the Islamic
Movement. Until finally,
they arrived in Peshawar
(7), about 30 youths, who
decided to enter Afghanistan and start the
Jihad there.
The Jihad initially began as
a few drops, until Allah
decided to ignite the
sparks within this blessed
people and explode the
Jihad, blessing with it the land of Afghanistan and the
rest of the Muslims until its
good encompassed the
whole World. Some thought
that the Earth had become
devastated and that this Ummah had been drained of
the thirst for martyrdom.
Therefore, Allah exploded
the Jihad on the land of
Afghanistan and groups of
youths from the Islamic World marched forth to
Afghanistan in search of
Jihad and martyrdom. Indeed this small band of
Arabs, whose number did
not exceed a few hundred
individuals, changed the
tide of the battle, from an
Islamic battle of one country, to an Islamic World
Jihad movement, in which
all races participated and
all colours, languages and
cultures met; yet they
were one, their direction was one, their ranks were
one and the goal was one:
that the Word of Allah is
raised the highest and that
this Deen is made victorious
on the Earth. Indeed the involvement of
the Muslims in the battle,
from a variety of races,
woke up those that were
asleep and enlightened
those who were absent- minded.
Furthermore, it
shook the oppressors, for
indeed the enemies of Islam
were watching the arena
and counting the lives. The
involvement of non-Afghans in the battle was a great
source of alarm and dismay
to them, because this
stimulation of numerous
nations and the revival of
the people had reached the brink of desperation, until
these desperations set
root in the depths of their
souls, such that they
realised that they
themselves were on the verge of their own
destruction. Furthermore, the enemies
were also aware of the
volatile risks associated
with the burial of a foreign
volunteer fighter in the
soils of Afghanistan, as if to announce to the World:
that this Deen requires
millions of such sacrifices in
order to change its
situation, and that these
sacrifices must meet with this fighter, here in his
resting place, so that the
bullet alone is considered
to be the honour of this
Deen, the resistance of the
Muslims and the pride of the believers. And some deceived
modernist intellectuals
thought that these
sacrifices which had fallen
on this Path had gone to
waste and been rendered futile. However, it should
be known that the blood of
gutless martyrs is weighty
in the Scale of the Most
Gracious. It is sufficient for
us to remember one hadith (and the ahadith are
many), narrated by Imam
Ahmad and Tirmidhi with an
authentic chain of
narration that the
Messenger of Allah (Sal Allaho alyhe Wasallam) said:
"Indeed the martyr has
seven special favours from
Allah: all his sins are
forgiven at the first spurt
of his blood, he sees his place in Paradise as his
blood is shed (before his
soul leaves the body), he
tastes the sweetness of
Iman, he is married to 72 of
the Beautiful Maidens of Paradise, he is protected
from the Punishment of the
Grave, he is saved from the
Great Terror (on The Day
of Judgement), there is
placed upon his head a crown of honour a jewel of
which is better than the
whole world and everything
in it and he is granted
permission to intercede for
70 members of his household (to bring them
into Paradise and save
them from the Hell Fire)." Indeed, the manuscripts of
history are not scribed
except with the blood of
these martyrs, except with
the stories of these
martyrs, except with the examples of these martyrs.
By the likes of these
martyrs, nations are
established, convictions are
brought to life and
ideologies are made victorious. For this reason,
we have compiled a section
about the lives of martyrs:
Arab martyrs who fell on
the land of Afghanistan,
and present this very collection which is infront
of you. And it might seem to the
short-sighted eye and
narrow mind, and to the
individual besieged within
the bounds of era and
location, that it is a story that happened and finished.
The mouth of death opened
its mouth, swallowed these
martyrs and passed them
with its wheel that saves
neither old nor young. However, the clear-sighted
eye and the enlightened
heart knows that these
sacrifices are the
provisions of future
generations for distant civilizations to come. These
stories, these sacrifices
and these examples will
remain as supercilious
signposts upon the entire
journey of this Deen, for he who wishes to make this
journey from those
wayfarers, or follow in the
footsteps of this righteous
elite. "All these are the ones
whom Allah has guided, so
follow their
guidance…" [Quran 6:90] Indeed these exemplary
individuals from the
martyrs broke free from
the shackles and fetters of
this matter to reach
opulence and bliss, and they came to the land of
Afghanistan, living in the
mountains of Afghanistan,
until Allah (SWT) honoured
them with martyrdom. We ask Allah (Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala) to join us with them
in the Highest Part of
Paradise, with the
Prophets, the Truthful, the
Martyrs and the Righteous, and that he blesses us with
martyrdom in His Way, and
that he seals us with the
Seal of Happiness, O Noble
One. So, O' people of ambitions
and O' carriers of dawah,
do not be miserly with your
blood as regards this Deen.
If you really are serious
and sincere, then place your blood and souls before
the Lord of the Worlds who
granted them to you in the
first place and then
purchased them from you:
"Indeed Allah has purchased from the believers their
lives and their possessions
in return for Paradise.
They fight in the Way of
Allah, they kill and are
killed…" [Quran 9:111] O' youths! O' sons of Islam!
What will cleanse our sins?
What will purify our
mistakes? And what will
clean our dirt? It will not
be washed except with the blood of martyrdom, and
know that there is no path
except this Path. If not,
then the Accountability
(8)will be difficult, the Scale
(9) awaits, the Bridge (10) is ready and your time is
running out, so consider it… And Peace and Blessings be
upon our master,
Muhammad, and upon his
family and Companions
altogether. Extracts from the lectures
of Sheikh Abdullah Azzam
titled: 'Will of the Shaheed'
and 'A Message from the
Shaheed Sheikh to the
Scholars'.
(1) Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf
Azzam, assassinated in
Peshawar, 1989. Time
Magazine wrote about him:
"He was responsible for
reviving Jihad in the 20th Century."
(2) Islam
(3) When a group of Arabs
apostatised after the
death of the Prophet (Sal
Allaho Alyhe Wasallam) and refused to pay their Zakah
to Abu Bakr (RadhiAllahu
Anhu), so Abu Bakr
(RadhiAllahu Anhu) resolved
to fight them even though
the other Sahabah were initially opposed to this
idea.
(4) Died 241AH (851CE), the
founder of the Hanbali
school of thought
(5) The capital of Afghanistan
(6) Prince Muhammad Daud
Khan, President of
Afghanistan from July 1973
to April 1978.
(7) A city in Pakistan, the capital of the NWFP (North
West Frontier Province)
(8) Questioning on the Day
of Judgement
(9) Meezan: the Scale or
Balance upon which the good and bad deeds of the
people will be weighed on
the Day of Judgement
(10) The Bridge over the
Hell Fire as mentioned in
the Quran 19:71-72
