Kashmir: A Glimpse at the Atrocities

* Statistics of Atrocities of Indian Occupational Forces in Kashmir
* Rape En Masse - Ayesha Kagal
* Mubina's Story - Derek Brown, The Guardian
* Angry Voices from the Valley of Death
* The Rape of Loura
* Hospital Crackdowns - William W. Baker's treatise, "Kashmir, Happy Valley, Valley of Death"
* From Christopher Thomas' Article in "The Times"
* Organ Removal - the Black Market - William Baker, "Kashmir, Happy Valley, Valley of Death

DISCLAIMER: Please be warned that much of the following content is extremely graphic and disturbing.

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Atrocities of Indian Occupational Forces in Kashmir
from "The Army of Madinah in Kashmir" by 'Eesa al-Hindi

Since 1990 - Oct.1996

* 59 750 Murdered
* 49 000 Murdered by indiscriminate firing
* 550 Burnt alive
* 3 200 Bound and drowned in the River Jhelum
* 4 500 Murdered crossing the cease-fire line

Early 1990's estimate:

* 15 873 Rape cases (reported)
* 934 Women murdered in gang rapes
* 756 Rendered disabled
* 43 390 Men and women held in prison without trial
* 11 600 Youth in torture cells
* 97 654 Burnt houses and shops
* 250 678 Refugees (successfully crossed) in Pakistan (1)
* 30 Schools destroyed
* 189 Schools and hospitals bomb blasted
* 200 Primary school children burnt alive on October 1, 1990
* 358 Hospital Clinics destroyed
* 346 Mosques destroyed
* 358 Children died without treatment
* 66 094 Houses and shops burnt
* 1 480 Cattle burnt
* 1 225 Food burnt (worth in dollars)
* 1 123 Forest burnt (worth in millions of dollars)
* 848 Hospitals and schools burnt
* + Thousands of people dismissed from jobs

And the persecution is still continuing at an ever-increasing rate. In a land where even gatherings of more than four persons is prohibited, everyday is a nightmare; every place is a holocaust. Every family has suffered in one way or another.

How tormented could life become? Ask the MUSLIMS of KASHMIR...

(1) It is illegal for Kashmiri Muslims to emigrate anywhere other than India

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RAPE EN MASSE
Ayesha Kagal

On the 10th and 11th August 1990, the army soldiers, rank and file hovering around Pazi Pora, Bali Pora, Konun and others seemed to have been overtaken by vengeance, greed, lust and revenge. They would shoot anyone:- a passer by; a farmer; a teenage boy; an aged man; an old woman or a outh busy with his vocation. The jawans (Indian soldiers) were seen carrying bottles of liquor in their pockets and guns in their hands. More than a company descended on Pazi Pora and isolated forcily women folk from children and men, against the protests and weeping and wailing. Most of the cowmen had run for safety to the forest, but still 20 to 30 women were lodged in a spacious house. The army jawans got a scent of their presence, and pounced on them like vultures. All of them were brought out from their hiding place and 10-15 robust, attractive and healthy women were isolated between the age of seven years and fifty years. One group of lusty soldiers tore their clothes to shreds and rendered them nude. A bonfire was made of thier dresses and other garments at the edge of a field of rice. Committee members found the remnants of burnt clothes even after a week. Another group gulping liquor from bottles jumped over them and took them back to the same hiding place from where they were forced out, there they were raped. A seven-year old girl who was raped was still bleeding five days after the horrific ordeal. The group took their turns raping while crying slogans of "jai hind" and so on! [Reproduced "Kashmir Aflame", vol.1&2, Aug. 1990, Tahreek-e-Hurriyet-e-Kashmir].

Rapes and sodomy are very common. Soldiers rape young girls and young boys in the presence of family members. Leeches are often placed on genitals. Family members are woefully forced to rape other members of the family. To humiliate and disintegrate the person, soldiers will squeeze the breasts and genitals, insert metal rods and live cigarettes inside the vagina and rectum. Detainees are forced to perform oral sex on soldiers and to swallow the ejaculate.

In an army firing in Sonar bazaar, two lanes away in the mohalla, a bullet ripped through the face of Mushtaq Malik, a twenty-one year old first B.com student who also attended stenography classes. His family confirmed Mushtaq's death when they identified his wristwatch, after he had been buried. [Ayesha Kagal, Sunday Review Times of Indian, New Dehlis, April 29, 1990]

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MUBINA'S STORY
Derek Brown, the Guardian, May 26th 1990

Mubina Ghani is eighteen, and her face is dark with suffering. On May 18, on the way home from her wedding to her first night in her husband's home, she was shot and then gang-raped by Indian soldiers.

In the general hospital in Anantnag, fifty kilometres from the Kashmir capital, Srinagar, Mubina is squatting on a bad in a foetid general ward. Alongside is her husband. Without protests, she hobbles to the operating theatre, where there is a measure of privacy. Her pain is beyond understanding. As she softly speaks, the horror is almost unbearable.

After the wedding, she says through an interpreter, she boarded a bus with her husband and aunt, to her new home. The aunt was a chaperone-cum-companion.


The bus, which had twenty four passengers and two crew, was stopped by a contingent of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). There was no curfew in that area, but they had carried passes, just in case. They were allowed to proceed.

Some distance further on, there was a second roadblock, this time manned by the Border Security Forces (BSF).

"We started to get down but we were given no chance to show our passes. They opened fire without warning. They fired through the windows and from machine guns underneath their vehicle. We lay down under the seats and pretended to be dead. After the shooting, they came inside and started to beat everyone," said Mubina.

One passenger was dead. Many others had bullet wounds including Mubina and her husband, Abdul-Rashid. She went on, "All those who were not seriously wounded were told to stand in a row and ordered to raise their hands. The two ladies (Mubina and her aunt) were forcibly separated and ordered into a field."

While the bus was systematically looted - the plunder included some twelve thousand rupees (about four hundred pounds) given to the newly weds - Mubina and her aunt were stripped of their jewellery. Mubina, in Anantnag hospital, points to her unadorned ears and hands in shame. Even her wedding ring is missing.

She went on, "In the field, the soldiers first took off their clothes. I do not know how many there were. We were crying bitterly. I told them that I had not yet seen my husband, but they did not listen. They took off our clothes. They bit my chest and then I was raped. Between four to six Indian soldiers raped me, I think". Mubina's aunt is between forty and fifty years old. She was around seven months pregnant. Two days after being brought to the hospital, she left and has now disappeared without trace

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ANGRY VOICES FROM THE VALLEY OF DEATH

"I want to suck their blood but how can I do it?" (Ruksana, 16, resident of Baallipora)

"If you give me training, I will kill the men who raped me". (Shaila, 22, resident of Pazipora)

"Whenever I see an army man now I feel like jumping into my grave". (Rabia, 29, resident of Kupwara)


These are the bitter, angry outbursts of Kashmiri women who have been sexually assaulted. Ironically enough by the keeprs of law and order - the Indian army and security forces, stationed in the Valley. ["Kashmir Bleeds"]

"On 31st march a group of children of the age group 11-12 assembled at the house of a teacher to have tuition from their tutor in Vicharnag locality of Srinagar. The teacher was non-Muslim and all students except one were also non-Muslims. There was an incident in the vicinity and the BSF men burst into a house. The Border Security Force men asked the identity of the pupils with their names. Only the Muslim boy was shot and murdered". ["Situation in Kashmir", an Indian Report]

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THE RAPE OF LOURA
Weekly Takbeer, Srinagar, October 31st, 1990


She had arrived in Srinagar on October 7th, 1990, from a trip to Ladakh and was lodged in a houseboat on the banks of Dal Lake along with her three friends. Little did she know of the fate that awaited her in Srinagar.

Born in 1966, 24-year old Miss Loura Jane Lambie, a Canadian agricultural science student was on a stroll on October 11th on the boulevard in Srinagar when it was just getting towards darkness. Near the Centaur Hotel, she was having a chat with three local boys asking them about what was going on in Kashmir and was immediately waylaid by personnel of the Indian National Security Guards (MSG) travelling in a white Maruti van. They were armed with automatic weapons and were also carrying a walkie talkie with them. One of them, tall but slim, warned Loura not to get into conversation with local Muslim youths, "All of them are very dangerous terrorists and can also molest you at this desolate spot", he told her.

When the guards asked as to whom she was, she replied, "A Canadian". "You shall have to accompany us to the police station," and thus Loura was asked to board the vehicle. Instead of any police station, Loura was taken to the Oberoi Palace Hotel where the guards had a drink from their own bottles because the bar in the Hotel was closed. She did not drink though she was invited to do so. The guards then ordered her to go back to the houseboat at that late hour, for the Kashmiri militants could kill her at any spot. The guards also took away her purse. Loura was taken to a garden near chasma Shahi. It was 1am on October 12.

One of the guards directed loura to undress but she did not oblige. Her clothes were then torn and she was laid on the ground and gangraped. She cried under the open sky but there was no one to listen to her moans and shrieks except the sleeping state governor, Girish Saxena, in Raj Bhavan, which is situated only a few hundred yards from the scene of the incident. For a change, Loura was taken to another adjacent garden and the gangrape by five guards of the helpless victim continued. Finally, she fell unconscious.

A semi-conscious Loura was then dropped on the roadside, at a slight distnace away from where she had been picked up the previous evening. On being sighted by the locals, she was carried to the police station at Nehru Park where a case for kidnapping and rape was registered under sections 366 and 376 of the Ranbir Penal Code under First Information Report No. 90/40. The police officers at the station recommended a medical examination of the victim and Loura was taken to Lal Ded Women's hospital in Srinagar."All Indian men are scoundrels, I'll not permit you to examine me", - Loura shouted at the male doctor in the hospital. Two female doctors then examined her ascertaining that dead sperms were found in her uterus and in the passage leading to it. There were scratchs on her thighs, arms and breasts, which only testify that she resisted.

Loura Jane Lambie told pressmen that very day how brutally "security" guards raped her. The matter when brought to the higher authorities in the state and also when it was taken up with the government of India by the Canadian High Commission in New Dehli, the state police registered a case against the guards, arresting two of them whom Loura had conveniently identified in a batch of sixty-four guards paraded before her. She recognised them despite the fact that both of them had shaved off their beards.Loura was kept in protective custody by the state authorities and was allowed an interview with the state governor on October 13 who promised that stern action would be taken against the guards-turned-rapists.The authorities acted swiftly in view of the Canadhan government taking a serious notice of the incident and it was in a record time that an inquiry was conducted and culprits punished.

Here lies the difference between the rape of a foreigner and that of a Muslim Kashmiri woman. The latter is treated as an allegation and passes off unnoticed and unwept.

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HOSPITAL CRACKDOWNS
From William W. Baker's treatise, "Kashmir, Happy Valley, Valley of Death".
The American author visited the Occupied territories in 1994:

"Hospital crackdowns occur at all three major hospitals as verified by doctors. These "crackdowns" amount to a shutdown of the hospitals and usually accuse the surgeons of "harbouring" illegal weapons and resistance fighters. While enduring these searches, the hospitals are totally shut down. The doctors and hospital staff are not allowed to care for their patients whle the search goes on. All staff are confiend to their quarters and offices, and as a result, many critically ill patients undergoing surgery were left to die on the operating tables!

"Under the guise of conducting a "security search" the authorities often physically abuse the patients, as was the case of Mrs. Parveena Sheikh, a forty-five year old cancer victim, who along with other patients suffering from severly painful afflictions, were rolled over and over in their beds while the soldiers, laughing, continued to ask, "where are the arms?". Their laughter was unable to cover up the screams of the victims as monitors, intravenous lines, and catheters were ripped from their veins.

Mr. 'Abdul-Rahim, thirty-five years of age, and suffering from a treatable liver abscess with metabolic acidosis and hypertension was on a life saving I/V line. As he was rolled over and over and the line ripped away, the physician on duty was prevented from restrating the I/V line for nearly an hour and as a result Mr. Rahim suffered a fatal cardiac arrest. I met six families at the hospital who had family members die while the security forces carried out their crackdowns. It is important to note that in all the crackdowns and searches of the hospital not a single weapon or "militant" was found, no had the doctos and staff ever knowingly hidden either arms or resistance fighters. "Suspected" Mujahideen were often taken fromthe hospital immediately after surgery and in some cases in the midst of emergency surgery! Many never returned , and those that were brought back to the hospital were near dead.

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From Christopher Thomas' article in The Times, London, 10 August, 1993



Students are targets in the streets of Kashmir as was the case of a twenty-year old man walking to school in the middle of the afternoon. An Indian army truck with a machine gune mounted in the back pulled alongside and soliders ordered him to look at them, and upon doing so he was shot through the throat. He was left where he fell until some other civilians took him to the hospital. A doctor explained that the bullet tore through the young man's trachea and oesophagus, finally crushing his spine. This handsome young Kashmiri was unable to speak, and the doctor continued to tell the effects of that single bullet, that this young man could not eat, could not breathe, could not even move and was only awaiting the peace and freedom of a hastening death. It was asked for the young man's prognosis; "He is going to die very, very soon", was the reply. Mercifully, this innocent youth died several days later.

Masroof Sultan, nineteen, takes off his shirt to reveal ten bullet wounds and the scars of torture by electric shocks. A doctor's report states that bullet injuries were sustained to the right thigh, left thigh, both arms, neck, chest and head. That he lived is embarassing to those who shot him; he is scared they will come back to complete the job. His story tells much about the tactics of Indian Security Forces in Kashmir.

The official version is that he was shot in "crossfire", which must be dismissed as nonsense by anybody who has seen Mr. Sultan's multiple wounds. According to him, he was put up against a tree by soliders from the Border Security Forces, a paramilitary group and shot by men with rifles. He said he was shot again when he was seen to be alive. A third wave of bullets smashed into him to make sure.

"An officer put his hand in front of my mouth to feel if I was breathing. I held my breath. I was semi-conscious", he said. He has had four operations so far, and doctors say he needs two more. He cannot walk properly because his thigh was broken and his knees were injured, he says, from being beaten with sticks during interrogation. The doctor's report, from the bone and joint hospital in Srinagar, is unequivocal in its prognosis: "permanent disability".

Until recently, before soldiers ordered him off a bus and decided he was a freedom fighter, he was a science sutdent. He was apparently singled out for interrogation because he came from an area of Srinagar with a reputation for resistance. He had not even been identified by "cats" - informants. They are called "cats" because only their eyes can be seen, i.e. they were a hood. "The cat has the power of life and death" [astaghfirullaah]. says Mufti Bahauddin Farooqi, former chief-justice of Jammu and Kashmir and now a human rights worker. "He can get anyone arrested and murdered just by pointing a finger"; cats usually turn informer because they are threatened or tortured; it is probable that some are paid.

Mr. Sultan's life changed forever, when, some hours after being taken off the bus, he was sent to an interrogation centre. He said there was a rope hanging from the ceiling, a big roller, - this heavy device is used for rolling over the legs and body, a common and well documented form of torture in Kashmir - and a piece of apparatus that turned out to be an electric shock system. He said bare wires were attached to his penis and big toes, then water thrown over him.

"I was given three shocks. I lost my senses. Blood came from my nose and mouth. They beat my knees with sticks".After the torture, he was taken away, and outside a building used by the Border Security Forces, he was shot. No young man in Kashmir is safe from the Security forces. That is why so many of them live in refugee camps on the Pakistan side of Kashmir. It is exceptionally hard to find anyone, young or old, in the Kashmir Valley who does not want Kashmir to secede from India.

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ORGAN REMOVAL AND THE BLACK MARKET
From William W. Baker's "Kashmir, Happy Valley, Valley of Death":

"Nothing could ever have prepared me for another encounter with a young Kashmiri victim of the occupation forces. Twenty year old Muhammad Rafiq Mir, son of Abdul-Ghani Mir from the area of Khomoh, Shutloo, Baramullah, was picked up by the security forces on January 1st of 1991 when he and twelve other Kashmiris were attempting to make their way to the freedom of Azad Kashmir (an outlawed and illegal emigration). I will let his own words, taken from a signed document, tell what happened next:

"We were taken to a place which looked like a hospital because some people were in green uniforms and masks and others in military uniforms. I was put on a table, blood was taken out from my arm. A wire was put from my groin and something was view on a screen. During this process, I felt heat in my body. After that, all I know is that I was feeling pain. One doctor told me that my left kidney had been removed".

The next day, the young man was taken along with others who had undergone surgery and thrown from the back of an army where he complained of severe pain. On the bottom portion of the testament of Rafiq Mir are the comments of the examining physicians who after careful examinations and x-rays conclude: "A twenty-year old male, Muhamamd Rafiq Mir is apparently in good health with a elft lumber scar. The scar is about eight inches in length well-healed. The pink colour of the scar indicates that it is a recent one. On questioning, he does not give history of any complaint referable to his urinary system. He has never had any hematuria, dysuria, obliqurea, or urinary colic. He had no pain in the region of the scar. He has never been told by a doctor that he had any problem with his kidneys. Upon examination, he does not reveal any clinical abnormality except the scar in the left lumber region. Further tests indicate the absence of his left kidney. It apepars a normally functioning leftr kidney and urethra have been surgically removed! The circumstances of his operation suggest his kidney has been used for a transplant and was removed against his will"

While in the Valley of Kashmir I learned of several other citizens who had likewise had healthy organs removed, although most of the others were found dead with kidneys, livers and other organs missing. I have the sworn testimony of Younis Khan of the Ganderbal District where I was staying, which testifies that his brother was taken off a bus along with twelve others by Border Security Forces. One month later his body was found and taken to the Institute of Medical Science whereupon the doctors determined that his brother, twenty-nine year old Bashir Khan, died of physical torture and one kidney was missing from the body. As incredible as this may seen, since returning to the United States there have been a number of special documentary programs on American television, especially on the "Discovery" channel, December 11, 1993, which exposed the huge black market in India for human organs!

Additionally various other vile torture methods are also brought into force. One other such instrument being a rolling pin with nails with jut out from the wood piece as described to us by an unfortunate victim who was subjected to this type of ordeal. This apparatus is rolled over various parts of the victim's body, the sequence of events being thus:

Firstly, the layer of the human skin tissues begins to peel off after which the inside tissue is penetrated which also starts to remove until finally the bone is reached. The examples are macabre and plentiful, and yet inspite of the perpetration of all this savage violence, the will of the Muslims from Kashmir remains well intact, unbroken.

The above mentioned victim, a young man, in fact following his torture ordeal still allowed us not only to secretly bath in his house but also granted us a fresh change of clothes. All this without even requesting a single penny of payment from us for all his efforts and material. Of a surety, the severe brutality of the Indian occupational forces has only served to strengthen relations between the civilians and the Mujahideen. It has caused a bond of some great magnitude to develop, one of mutual love, respect, appreciation and moreover, a heartfelt brotherhood united in their efforts.

Russian Camps Sadistic Torture of Chechens

Russia's filtration camp policy is 'to cripple Chechens for life'
http://www.independent.co.uk
Patrick Cockburn in Moscow
17 February 2000

Horrifying new evidence is emerging of systematic beatings and rape by Russian soldiers of Chechen civilians and suspected guerrillas who are being held prisoner in what Russia calls"filtration camps" in northern Chechnya.

Ruslan, a 21-year old man from Grozny, the Chechen capital, who does not want to give his family name, is one of the few prisoners to be freed. He has described how girls as young as 13 were raped by masked Russian soldiers.

Still bowed over in pain from being hit with a metal hammer on the back he says: "I thought nothing could be worse than the rubber sticks. Then I realised that the rubber sticks were nothing in comparison to the hammer." When Ruslan was first arrested he was stripped of his clothes and kept in a specially refrigerated room at the camp in Chernkozovo.

He was only released when his mother borrowed money to pay a large bribe. His experiences appear to be typical of the treatment received by those Chechens who have been arrested since a general mopping up operation started in Chechnya in mid-January. General Viktor Kazantsev, the Russian army commander in the north Caucasus, announced that all Chechen males between the ages of 10 and 60 would be considered as suspects.

Ruslan's story confirms the account given in a letter from a Russian soldier serving at Chernokozovo, published by The Independent last week, of merciless beatings and systematic rape of both men and women. Both Ruslan and the soldier say that almost none of the prisoners in the filtration camp have any connection with Chechen guerrillas. Most were arrested at the whim of Russian soldiers at checkpoints or during house-to-house searches. "They are literally being killed here, one just has to hear the cries of robust healthy guys whose bones are being broken," wrote the soldier.

There is growing evidence that the treatment inflicted on the Chechen prisoners by Russian soldiers is equal in brutality to that suffered by Bosnian Muslims in the early Nineties for which some of the perpetrators are now on trial for war crimes.

In an interview with Human Rights Watch in Nazran, the capital of Ingushetia, Ruslan described how he was arrested on 16 January at a checkpoint as he and his family were trying to leave Chechnya.

His mother and sister desperately tried to prevent him from being taken away but were told by the Russian soldiers that they would be shot unless they desisted.

Ruslan was among the first Chechens taken by van to Chernokozovo, an old Soviet prison on the Terek river in north-west Chechnya. He says: We were told by the soldiers 'don't even whisper to each other or we will shoot you'."

As the prisoners left the van they were forced to run between lines of soldiers who beat them with rubber batons. The Russian soldiers, who were always masked, worked in shifts of 12 to carry out the beatings. "I was like a ball between them", says Ruslan. The only Russian whom he saw unmasked was the official investigator. Ruslan said: "He knew I was a fighter."

When Ruslan denied that he knew any fighters he was beaten again. The beatings appear to be aimed at maiming young Chechens, breaking their ribs and fingers and bursting their eardrums. From 6pm to 11pm the prisoners were forced to stand with their arms raised. "He read out a decree that was on his desk." said Ruslan. "It said that 150,000 Chechens have to pass through the filtration camps." The official investigator added that the purpose of the camp was that those who survived would go out of it "crippled for the rest of their lives". Ruslan claims that thesoldiers who were guarding the prisoners were raping the detained women, including girls as young as 13. Confirming the account of the Russian soldier who served in Chernokozovo, Ruslan says the guards also raped the men.

Peter Bruckaert, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch, said the accounts of rape and mistreatment from the first prisoners coming out of the filtration camps are consistent with each other. He adds that there have been massive round-ups of Chechens over the last few weeks. He said Russian TV has shown pictures of young men in Grozny being tossed into the back of trucks like logs of wood.

Ruslan was only released on 5 February because a pro-Russian Chechen arranged for the release of two Russian soldiers held by the Chechen fighters and his mother borrowed money to pay a bribe.

There are signs that the Russian authorities intend to intensify the occupation of Chechnya by increasing the number of filtration camps. The Russian daily Commersant reported yesterday that a prison is to be first building rebuilt by Russia in Grozny. Most of the Chechen capital is in ruins as a result of prolonged bombardment by Russian artillery and aircraft and the prison will be given priority over providing shelter for either the Russian army or civilians.

* The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Mary Robinson, yesterday attacked Moscow for refusing her request to visit areas affected by the Chechen conflict. "The suffering caused by indiscriminate bombing and seeming disregard for civilians must not be compounded by the denial of the basic human rights of people in Chechnya." she said.

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From www.kavkaz.org
Thu, February 17th, 2000

Kavkaz-Tsentr reports:

More reports about mass atrocities and sadistic torture in the Russian concentration camp of Chernokozovo are being received. Prisoners, having miraculously escaped from the concentration camp, report things no ordinary human brain can imagine. The guards, having lost all human nature, are committing satanic ritual murders of the prisoners. Ibragim Vakhayev from Urus-Martan, an eye-witness to the bestial crimes of the Kremlin regime, reports that raping of victims tortured to death is a common and regular practice in Chernokozovo.

The rape of the corpses is practiced in full view of other prisoners. The guards wear black masks. After these acts of necrophilia the guards announce to the prisoners who the next victim is going to be.

Ibragim Vakhayev confirms that he witnessed the murder of a 10-year- old boy whose name hid doesn't know. The corpse was raped by five guards with black masks, cut to pieces afterwards and put into a plastic sack. The Prosecutor general of the ChRI has made it known that special inquiries about the mass atrocities in the concentration camp of Chernokozovo are made.

February 16th, 2000
Kavkaz-Tsentr reports:

More and more prisoners in the Russian concentration camp of Chernokozovo report satanic crimes committed by the Putinists and Kremlin mercenaries.

According to these eye-witnesses the guards of the concentration camp, while torturing the prisoners, frankly admit belonging to a satanic movement and that their task is the physical and moral destruction of Muslims. The higher-up guards, calling themselves officers, frankly admit that they were ordered by the Kremlin to physically destroy not less then 150 thousand Chechen young people and women.

Prisoners report that not less than 200 children, aged between 10 and 15, are kept in the camp and are subjected to maiming and satanic torture. The Russians have cut off the fingers, noses and ears of hundreds of prisoners. Many inmates's feet and hands are cut off - they die several days later.

According to Daud Rizvanov from Shali, a prisoner who escaped from the camp, the Russian guards, intoxicated by vodka and narcotics, even cut off pieces of the bodies of still living people, boil these pieces and eat them before the eyes of the other prisoners. They did this with the body the 17-year-old Aslan Supyanov from Maas. It is reported that the guards torture their victims to death by ramming empty sub-machine gun cartridges into their bodies. Afterwards they often rape the corpses.

Kosovo: Behold the New World Order

Behold the New World Order. Like most wars, the Kosovo war is about money


BIG MONEY. It has NOTHING to do with ethnic cleansing, genocide, or atrocities. It's all about money. FOLLOW THE MONEY. The NATO powers are making a bold power grab to control a mining complex in Kosovo. "Last May, Mytilinaios SA [a Greek mining company] signed a five-year contract worth $519 BILLION with the state-owned RMHK Trepca [located in Kosovo] and the Serbian agency of foreign trade, in which Mytilinaios will forward one third of the mineral production in the international market and lso upgrade mining equipment and facilities. Trepca mines are on the list of companies soon to be privatised, thus allowing the Greek company to buy stock."


Reference: <http://www.ana.gr/hermes/1998/feb/mining.htm>


The state-owned Trepca mining complex (Stari Trg) is worth about $5 billion as a piece of real estate. Earning potential, however, is a different matter. The mine has not been sold. The referenced $519 billion contract with Greece obligates the state-owned mining facility to deliver one third of the minerals it produces over five years to Mytilinaios SA, the Greek mining company.


This suggests that the remaining two thirds of minerals produced over five years could be sold at a comparable price to other mining companies. The grand total would be $1.56 TRILLION - paid to the owner of the mining complex - for minerals produced over five years. Keep in mind that $1.56 TRILLION would be wholesale cost. We haven't even discussed mark-up yet. Mining companies like Mytilinaios SA will sell minerals produced from the mine - lead, zinc, cadmium, gold, silver - to the international market at a marked-up price. If the mark-up is 200 percent, the net profit would be $1.56 TRILLION. This would be the net gain if NATO played by the rules and allowed countries to honor their agreements with Serbia. But what if NATO were to steal the mine?


If NATO takes over the mine in Kosovo, then the profit is potentially doubled. That would give NATO about 3 TRILLION over five years minus a few billion to cover labor and maintenance of the mining equipment. We're talking big bucks. And it will be divided among mining companies in NATO nations. Is it any wonder that U.S. politicians are foaming at the mouth? If NATO loses this war, certain politicians will think their pockets have been picked. "Russia is a basket case. They cannot do anything... We cannot be disuaded from proceeding to victory... The debate should not be about how or why we got involved..., that is academic now.

We must proceed to victory." -- Senator John McCain - 4/9/99 Behold the New World Order. Dave Sharp

The Deadly Legacy of Nato Strikes in Kosovo

AFTER INSISTING throughout its air bombardment of Yugoslavia that its use of depleted uranium munitions against Serb forces posed no hazard to human health, Nato officers in Kosovo now admit that particles from their shells may have contaminated soil near targets in Yugoslavia and could cause "inhalation" problems, especially for children.

There has been a growing outcry against munitions containing depleted uranium (DU) - a waste product of the nuclear industry - since it was used in armour-piercing projectiles in the 1991 Gulf war. In the eight years since, hundreds of Iraqis living near the battlefields have died from mysterious cancers and grossly deformed children have been born to Iraqi soldiers who fought in the war. British and American veterans suffering from Gulf war syndrome suspect that the use of DU weapons caused their own sickness and cancers.

In briefings to international aid workers in Pristina, one K-For officer has warned his audience of "contaminated dust" at the scene of DU munitions explosions and urged aid officials to stay 150 feet away from targets hit in Nato air strikes. But non-governmental organisations have been amazed to hear that Nato cannot - or will not - say where it used DU ordnance against Serb forces. "There is no releasable information about where it was used and when," a K-For spokesman told The Independent. He would give no reason for Nato's refusal to provide these details.

Officially, K-For warns aid workers to beware of all Kosovo battle sites - especially the danger posed by unexploded cluster bombs - but the records of one major aid organisation in Pristina show that on 13 and 20 August a K-For officer was twice asked by United Nations officials about the dangers of DU projectiles fired by American A-10 Warthog ground-attack aircraft. The officer - believed to have been British - spoke of "the danger of the spread of contaminated dust".

The Pentagon says that in the 1991 Gulf war, more than 860,000 DU rounds were fired by United States and - to a much lesser extent - British forces. In following years, doctors in southern Iraq were stunned to find an exponential increase in child cancers and deformities among families living near the old battlefields or close to targets hit by US forces. One Iraqi doctor's report in Basra last year recorded three babies born without heads in August along with four with abnormally large heads, six babies born with no heads in September and two with short limbs. In October 1998, another baby was born without a head and four with oversize heads.

Nor were DU munitions used in Kosovo only against armour, as Nato claimed. One aid worker found exploded DU rounds at a defence installation near Djakovica. "There were no vehicles there, but I found the tops of the rounds," he told me.

I'D LIKE TO BELIEVE NATO THAT DEPLETED URANIUM IS HARMLESS.
BUT I DON'T. AND THIS IS WHY...

TWO MILITARY voices on the use of depleted uranium bullets in Kosovo. First from a K-For cove - a spokesman, no less, in Pristina - who insisted that "there's more risk from striking a match than from depleted uranium." Quote of the week, Quote of the year, perhaps. Then there was the former Nato officer to whom I talked that same night, a weapons expert, former RAF, whose job is to wander Kosovo in search of unexploded (and exploded) weapons. "I'm definitely suspicious any time I hear the word uranium," he told me. "A weapon isn't there to do you any good. The boffins have come up with this weapon. People who use it - or are on the receiving end - know only part of the facts. I'm very suspicious whenever I hear the word uranium."

So am I. On Wednesday, 14 April, Nato bombed a convoy of Kosovo Albanian refugees on the road between Djakovica and Prizren, saying - initially - that they may have been bombed by Serb aircraft. A day later, along with Julian Manyon of Channel 4, I found - beside the chopped-up corpses of the innocent dead - a series of craters in the soft earth beside the highway. "That's what the A-10 aircraft craters looked like in the Gulf," Manyon said. And - I prefer to forget the next bit - I dug with my bare hands into the craters to see if I could find any piece of ordnance that carried some trace of the weapon's manufacturer. I did. I found metal fragments with codes stamped on them. They were American.

And Nato then admitted that it had bombed the Albanians "in error", because it thought they were a convoy of Serb armour. But I put the pieces of shrapnel into a plastic bag, laid it on my hotel table in Belgrade. Small and burned they were, bright silver under my table lamp. Then I decided - too late, perhaps - that they might be depleted uranium rounds, and dumped them in my hotel rubbish bin. Did I carry U-238 in my schoolboy's shoulder-bag back to Belgrade that night, the detritus of nuclear fuel, the cause of all those cancerous tumours I saw breaking through the stomachs of Iraqi children less than a year before?

That question explains why I like to hear those K-For/Nato spokesmen telling me about the harmlessness - the absolute lack of hazard - of depleted uranium. I don't believe them. But I'd like them to be right. I don't think they are. Here's why.

After Britain began the test-firing of DU shells in Cumbria and south- west Scotland, radiation reports showed serious contamination near Eskmeals, Cumbria, and Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway. "Well above acceptable limits," the Ministry of Defence was to acknowledge later. At Eskmeals, they fire shells into a tunnel which is then washed out, the dust sealed in concrete containers. When a fire broke out at the Royal Ordnance Speciality Metals plant near Wolverhampton, where DU munitions are made, the National Radiological Protection Board said it had monitored "odd bits of DU".

In April, 1991, the UK Atomic Energy Authority expressed concern about DU contamination in Kuwait. "It would be unwise for people to stay close to large quantities of DU for long periods," it said. "There will be specific areas in which many rounds will have been fired where localised contamination of vehicles and the soil may exceed permissible limits and these could be hazardous to both clean up teams and the local population."

In Iraq in 1997, I discovered thousands of civilians dying of cancers, families never touched by cancer before, mothers giving birth to children with leukemia, monstrous births of deformed babies, old men who lived in thefarmlands south of Basra amid the very armoured wreckage which we, the Allies, had blasted with our uranium shells, who talked to me of sudden cancer deaths, of daughters with breast and liver cancer.

My favourite is a letter from the Ministry of Defence, sent almost word- for-word the same to several readers of The Independent. The author was Doug Henderson, then a Defence minister, famous for his patriotic speeches during the Kosovo bombardment. "The Government is aware of suggestions in the press, particularly by Robert Fisk of the Independent," he writes, "that there has been an increase in ill-health - including alleged deformities, cancers and birth defects - in southern Iraq, which some have attributed to the use of depleted uranium (DU) based ammunition by UK and US forces.... However, the Government has not seen any peer-reviewed epidemiological research data on this population to support these claims."

I really like that bit about the "peer-reviewed epidemiological research data". Indeed, Mr Henderson has seen none. Because the British have no intention of carrying out any such survey. The World Health Organisation (now in Pristina) was originally asked by the Iraqis to conduct just such a survey. It never materialised. So much for the "epidemiological research data". But let's just remember the massive fire at the US ammunition storage base at Doha in Kuwait in July, 1991, when 3,200 kilograms of DU in tank rounds exploded. "Uranium particles when breathed can be hazardous," the US Central Command stated later. "11ACR (the US command at Doha) has been informed to treat the area as though it were a chemical area, ie stay upwind and wear a protective mask in the vicinity."

And let's recall, too, the cleanup of DU contamination at the DU manufacturers in Concord, Massachusetts, and at Sandia National Laboratory and Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico (a test-firing range); the topsoil had to be removed, the US army stated. And the cost of cleaning just 500 acres of an Indiana DU proving ground has been estimated at around pounds 3bn. In the Gulf, the US Defense Department estimates 315 tons of DU was fired. And how much in Kosovo? We are not being told.

No details. No comment. No clean-up. Did the A-10s fire DU munitions around Pristina? Pec? Djakovica? Prizren? Mitrovica? And where did they fire these munitions in what we now like to call "Serbia proper"? "What we say about DU," K-For's spokesman told me, "is that it is harmful if you digest it, like any other heavy metal. The most dangerous period is 15 minutes after the explosion. Then it goes to the ground and sinks." Which is not true. The dust floats around, contaminates the air, almost certainly kills. I read to the spokesman an aid agency's warning about DU - the threat of contamination was very low, the warning said, but the residual dust "could pose an inhalation hazard. Children should not play on or near these vehicles. The minimum prescribed safe distance is no less than 50 metres." Yes, said the spokesman, "these are the official lines - I've seen this information in other briefings. There's nothing new in that, so to speak."

So to speak. Oddly enough, the K-For man had, without knowing it, captured the very essence of depleted uranium shells and bullets when he talked about the supposedly greater danger of lighting a match. For when they explode, DU rounds apply enormous kinetic energy over a small surface area of armour, igniting with a fire which veterans called "Dante's Inferno"; it burns and pulverises into a dust that soars into the sky in a heat column from a burning tank and drifts over the desert or fields. Over 90,000 US troops who served in the Gulf have reported medical problems. There is no legislation specifically outlawing DU. But Article 35 of Additional Protocol 1 of the 1977 Geneva Convention states that "it is prohibited to employ methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment." So is DU legal?

Doug Rokke was a US army doctor who went to the Gulf to help clean up the DU contamination after the 1991 Gulf War. But now his lungs are scarred, he has kidney damage and breathing difficulties, like some of the cancer sufferers in Iraq. The aim of the Kosovo war, he said after the conflict had ended, "is to enable the Kosovars to return home. But unless the uranium is cleaned up, those that survive the Serb atrocities and the Nato aerial attacks will have to return to a contaminated environment where they may become ill."

Nothing new in that, I suppose. So to speak. Strike a light.

WHY THE MILITARY USE `HEAVY METAL POISON' TO TARGET TANKS

THE MILITARY like depleted uranium shells because they have high penetrating power against the thick steel armour of a target. Uranium is the heaviest natural element on earth: 1 cubic cm weighs 18.95 grams. Depleted uranium is former nuclear fuel that has been "depleted" of most of its radiation. The residue has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. The DU is used as the tip of modern armour-piercing shells, its density slicing through armour more efficiently that any other metal.

DU is also a naturally pyrophoric material. After penetration, so much heat develops that the DU particles catch fire, destroying the target and crew. But the damage can spread. After the tank is hit it explodes, releasing highly toxic and radioactive material. When the shells impact, around 70 per cent of the round burns up. The remainder, often shrapnel, can contain radioactive particles which can be inhaled, or enter the body through wounds.

DU shells are mainly fired by tanks and by "tank-busting" aircraft. The British use 120mm DU "sabot" armour-piercing shells in their Challenger 2 main battletank. The latest version, known as the CHARM 3 round, entered service this year. The round is made by Royal Ordnance PLC. Special DU 20mm shells are also used by the Royal Navy for their shipborne Vulcan Phalanx close-in weapon system. DU emits alpha, beta, gamma and X-ray radiations and may present a hazard externally and internally. The British Government say DU presents a "very low level" of health risk and crews would have to be in a tank with a full DU-load for 1,500 hours before reaching the annual whole body dose limit (50mSv).

Mass production of DU ammunition began in 1977. In the US it is made by Honeywell and Aerojet among others. Britain and France also manufacture it and DU shells ar
e exported to other Nato countries, and Japan, Australia and New Zealand if required.

In August 1997, Margaret Papandreou, wife of the former Greek leader, led a delegation to the UN calling for the lifting of sanctions against Iraq and an investigation into Iraqi claims of increased cancer rates in the Basra region the Iraqis attribute to 300 tons of DU left behind by US and British forces. The UN subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities passed a resolution calling for a prohibition on the use of depleted uranium; only the US delegate voted against it.

Your Heart is the Pillar of Your Worship

“…the heart is the machine that drives all acts of worship. It is what moves the entire body! As long as the heart is alive, then the limbs will be alive, and the soul will open itself up to worship. However, if the heart becomes diseased, then worship will become too heavy on the soul, leading to it eventually disliking and hating - and we seek refuge with Allah from this - worship. Because of this, Allah - the Glorified and Exalted - said, regarding the prayer:

وَإِنَّهَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلاَّ عَلَى ٱلْخَاشِعِينَ
“…and truly, it is extremely heavy and hard except on those who are submissive…” [al-Baqarah; 45]

The prayer is heavy, because one’s legs and hands are not what get up for the prayer. What gets up for the prayer are the heart and the soul.

إِنَّ ٱلْمُنَافِقِينَ يُخَادِعُونَ ٱللَّهَ وَهُوَ خَادِعُهُمْ وَإِذَا قَامُوۤاْ إِلَى ٱلصَّلاَةِ قَامُواْ كُسَالَىٰ يُرَآءُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ وَلاَ يَذْكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً

“Verily, the hypocrites seek to deceive Allah, but it is He Who deceives them. And when they stand up for the prayer, they stand with laziness and to be seen of men, and they do not remember Allah but little.” [an-Nisa’; 142]

Because of this, it is the heart that stands up for worship. The limbs are simply slaves of this heart, carrying out what it commands them. If the heart is alive, then the soul will be alive, and worship will become beloved and sweetened to the hearts and the souls, and they will open up for it.

However, if the heart becomes diseased, then worship becomes too heavy on it. The heart is like the digestive system: right now, the most beloved thing to you is meat. However, if you develop an ulcer somewhere in your digestive system, then the meat - along with its fat and oil - becomes the most hated thing to it, since it is diseased. Sweets are also something that are beloved to the soul. For example, if you were fasting right now and were to break your fast on some desserts, then your soul would become satisfied with that, right? However, if one were to be stricken with diabetes, then he would not be able to handle these sugary foods, even if they were beloved to him.

The heart is like this: it must be strong so that it can handle worship that is strong. The stronger your heart becomes, then throw as much worship upon it as you wish. You would get up to pray at night, and you would cherish this prayer and consider sleep to be your enemy:

تَتَجَافَىٰ جُنُوبُهُمْ عَنِ ٱلْمَضَاجِعِ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُمْ خَوْفاً وَطَمَعاً
“Their sides forsake their beds, to invoke their Lord in fear and hope…” [as-Sajdah; 16]

He begins to forsake it because an enmity develops between him and his bed. He prays behind the imam, and he says to himself: “If only he would make the prayer longer,” so that he would increase in his opening up to this worship, and his tasting of its sweetness.

At times, I would pray a normal prayer with the people behind me, so I would elongate the prayer. The youth would then come to me and say (the hadith): “Whoever leads the people in prayer should go easy on them,” - the youth! And there was an old man behind me who was between 90 and 100 years of age - his face filled with light - and he would say to me: “Keep making the prayer long and do not answer them.” A man of 90 years getting pleasure out of a long prayer, and a youth of 20, who probably practices karate and judo, cannot handle the same prayer.

Why?

If he went to the soccer field and spent two hours playing there without becoming bored, then why would he become bored from hearing the Qur’an for five minutes? The difference between a short prayer and a long prayer is simply five minutes, so why does he become bored from these five minutes of Qur’an, yet he does not become bored from two hours of soccer? Why does he not get bored from standing for two hours staring at an inflated piece of leather, his heart attached to it?

Because, what stands up to pray is the heart, and what stands up for sports are simply the body and muscles.”

-by ‘Abdullah ‘Azzam (may Allah have Mercy upon him)

Khansa’ (ra), Mother of the Martyrs

When Muthanna bin Haritha ash-Shaibani (ra) went Qadisiyya during the Caliphate of ‘Umar bin al-Khattab (ra), Khansa’ (ra) was with her four children that were accompanying the army on the day of battle and the night before it.

Khansa’ (ra) gathered her children to guide and incite them to fight with bravery. She warned them from wanting to flee from battle while reminding them of the merits and rewards of martyrdom in the way of Allaah (the Exalted).

She said them: “O my children, you have accepted Islaam in obedience and you have migrated by your own choice …..and you know of the plentiful reward that Allaah has prepared for believers for fighting those that do not believe. Know that the final adobe is better than this transient one.”

Allaah (the Exalted) says:

“O you who believe! Endure and be more patient (than your enemy), and guard your territory by stationing army units permanently at the places from where the enemy can attack you, and fear Allaah, so that you may be successful.” (Quran 3:200)

Khansa’s children went forth to fight with determination and firmness in Faith. They were all martyred, by Allaah’s will. Upon hearing this news, she uttered: “All praise is for Allaah, Who has honoured me with their martyrdom and I hope from my Lord that he unites me with them in their final destination, under His mercy.” .

May all our mothers emulate her example and willingly send forth their sons to sacrificing in Allaah’s path defending our elders, children, and daughters unleashing terror and rage upon the your enemy that is Allaah’s enemy- Ameen.

May Allaah bless all mothers with Khansa’s sacrificing, patient heart, and a mothers love for her offspring and above all her Rabb- Ameen.

Strangeness and the Strangers: Ibn Qayyim al Jawziyyah

"Islam began as something strange, and it shall return to being something strange, so give glad tidings to the strangers."

The Meaning of "Strangeness"

Many times in many situations the people that follow the religion of Allah feel a sense of not belonging, of being out of place, of not fitting in, and, in other words, of being strange. This feeling could occur in a gathering of non-Muslims, but, unfortunately, this feeling sometimes also occurs when one is with his fellow Muslims. A person sees his brothers and sisters doing acts that are contrary to Islam, or taking part in innovations that sometimes even border on kufr (apostasy), yet he feels that he does not have enough power or courage to stop them in these acts. Some brothers and sisters, especially if they do not have enough taqwa or Islamic knowledge, sometimes buckle under the pressure of their peers and join in these acts, knowing that this is not what Allah wants them to do. However, feeling helpless, since it seems that they are alone in their ideas and without any support to help them do what is right, they succumb to such pressures.

These brothers and sisters, may Allah have mercy on them, should take consolation in the verses of the Qur’an and the many statements of the Prophet (peace be upon him) describing this very situation of strangeness that they feel.

Why Have They Been Called "Strangers"?

Allah says in the Qur’an, "If only there had been, in the generations preceding you, people having wisdom, prohibiting others from evil in the earth; except a few of those whom we have saved from among them." (Hud 116).

This verse speaks of the few people on earth, the "strangers", who prohibit mankind from evil. These are the same people the Prophet (peace be upon him) spoke about when he said, "Islam began as something strange, and it shall return to being something strange, so give glad tidings [ar. Tooba. This is a tree in Paradise. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) is giving the good news of Paradise to these strangers.] to the strangers." It was asked, "Who are those strangers, O Messenger of Allah?" He replied, "Those that correct the people when they become corrupt." [Reported by Abu Amr al-Dani, from the hadith of ibn Masoud. It is authentic according to al-Albani. Another narration says, "Those that correct my sunnah which has been corrupted by the people after me."] In another narration he said in response to the same question, "They are a small group of people among a large evil population. Those who oppose them are more than those who follow them." [Reported by ibn Asaakir. It is authentic according to al-Albani.]

These praiseworthy people are called strangers since they are a small minority among mankind. Thus, Muslims are strangers among mankind; the true believers are strangers among Muslims; and the scholars are strangers among the true believers. And the followers of the Sunnah, those that clear themselves from all peoples of innovation, are likewise strangers.

In reality, however, their strangeness is only because they are the minority and it is not because their actions and beliefs are strange. This is what Allah says in surah al-Anaam, "And if you obey most of the people on Earth, they will lead you astray" (al-Anaam 116). Allah also says, "And most of mankind will not believe, even if you (O Muhammad) desire it eagerly" (Yusuf 103); "And truly, most of mankind are rebellious and disobedient (to Allah)." (al-Maidah 49); "But nay, most of mankind are ungrateful" (Yusuf 38). Therefore, Allah, the all-Knowing Creator, knows the most of mankind will not follow the truth. Instead, only a small group of people will be set apart that truly and correctly believe in Him, the strangers from among mankind.

The strangers in belief, however, and the strangers in character and actions are in reality the majority of mankind, for they are strange to Islam and to the laws that Allah has revealed. Thus we see that there are various types of strangeness, of which some are praiseworthy, some are blameworthy and some are neither praiseworthy or blameworthy. We will discuss these various categories separately below.

The Various Types of Strangeness

You should know, may Allah have mercy upon you, that strangeness is of three types:

The first type of strangeness is the strangeness of the "People of Allah and the People of His Messenger" (peace be upon him), which we mentioned previously. This strangeness is a praiseworthy strangeness, as it has been praised by Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him). Therefore, this kind of strangeness should be sought and its people must be supported. This strangeness occurs in different times, in different places, and among different peoples. These strangers, then, are the true "People of Allah" for they do not worship ought save Him, and they do not take support from any path except the path of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and they do not call to anything except that which has been brought by the Prophet (peace be upon him). These are the people who left mankind when they (the strangers) were in need of them the most. For, on the Day of Judgment, when all other groups will go with that which they used to worship, they will stay in their places. It will be said to them, "Will you not go as the other people have gone?" They will answer, "We had abandoned the people (in this life), and we were more in need of them then we are today, and we will wait for our Lord whom we used to worship." [Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Thus it is apparent that this strangeness does not cause its bearer any discontent. Rather it is a comforting strangeness, a solace to the believers. This is because he knows that his helpers are Allah, His Messenger and those who believe [This is a reference to verse 55 of surah al-Maidah], even if all of mankind left and abandoned him. These strangers are again described in a hadith narrated by Anas ibn Malik, in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "It is possible that a disheveled, dusty person, with not many belongings [Literally, "with two headdresses"], who is not noticed among the people, if he asks of Allah, Allah will fulfill his prayer." [Reported by at-Tirmidhi and al-Hakim. Al-Albani said it is authentic.] Al-Hasan al-Basri [a very famous Follower – tabi` - known for his piety, asceticism and knowledge] said, "A believer is a stranger in this world, he is never afraid of its humiliation, and he never competes for its glory. The people are in one situation and he is in a different situation. The people are content with him, yet he is in turmoil [Literally, "tired"] with himself."

From the characteristics of these strangers that the Prophet (peace be upon him) described is the holding on to the sunnah of the Messenger (peace be upon him), even if the people abandon it. They, the strangers, leave all the innovations that their people invent, even if such practices should be common among them. They also stick to tawheed, even if the people corrupt it with shirk. They do not ascribe themselves to anything besides Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon him); they do not, that is, ascribe themselves to a shaikh, tariqah, particular madhhab or a group of people. They are dedicated only to Allah, with their sincere worship of Him and Him alone, and to His Prophet (peace be upon him), by following the path that he followed. These are the people who grasp the glowing hot embers [A reference to the hadith that is to follow], even though most of mankind - nay, all of them - blame them for this. This is the meaning of the statements of the Prophet (peace be upon him) alluding to the fact that they stick to his sunnah, even if the people corrupt it.

Allah, all praise be to Him, sent His Prophet (peace be upon him) when mankind followed different religions, for there were those who worshipped rivers and trees, and there were those who worshipped idols, and there were Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians. Islam, when it first appeared among these people, was strange to them. If a person from among them accepted Islam and followed the call of Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon him), he would be shunned by his family and his tribe. He would live the life of a stranger among his people. Eventually, however, Islam spread far and wide. The Muslims became stronger and stronger, so much so that the strangers were those that did not accept the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

But, alas, Satan deceived mankind again. People took to the ways that their forefathers, who had accepted Islam, had abandoned until, finally, Islam became strange again, just like it had started and just like the Prophet (peace be upon him) had foretold. Nay, indeed, rather the true Islam - that which the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Companions were following [this is a reference to the reply that the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave when asked what the characteristics of the "Saved Group" were] has become even stranger to the people then when it initially appeared, even though its outward signs and external relics are well known and widespread. [This is what ibn al-Qayyim, wrote in the 8th Century of the Hijrah, wrote. Imagine our situations six centuries after him. May Allah protect us.]

How can it not be so, when these strangers are only one group among seventy-two others [the Prophet (peace be upon him) said in an authentic hadith that this Ummah would divide into seventy-three groups, all of which would go to Hell except the one Saved Group.], each of which follows its own desires and takes its passions as gods? Those are the groups that base their teachings on doubts and innovations and whose sole purpose is the gratification of their own desires. Thus, the group whose goal is to achieve the pleasure of Allah by following the path of His Messenger (peace be upon him) will be the strange one among all of the other groups.

This is why the true Muslims - those that adamantly cling to the Sunnah - will have the reward of fifty Companions. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) was asked about the verse, "O you who believe! Take care of your own selves. If you follow right guidance, no harm can come to you from those who err" (al-Maidah 105), he said, "Nay indeed, order good and forbid evil until you see stinginess being obeyed, and desires being followed, and this world preferred [over the next], and each person being deluded by his own opinions. Then take care of yourself and leave the common people. For indeed, after you there will be days of patience, where patience will be like holding on to glowing embers. Whoever is able to do this will have the reward of fifty people that do like him." They asked, "O Messenger of Allah, the reward of fifty of them?" He replied, "The reward of fifty of you" [Recorded by al-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud with a weak chain but it has supporting evidence. Al-Albani calls it sahih. See al-Sahiha, #957]. This reward is due to his strangeness among the people.

So, if the believer whom Allah has blessed with wisdom and knowledge wants to tread upon this path, the path of Allah, then let him be prepared to resign himself to the life of a stranger among his people, just like his predecessors who accepted Islam were treated by the people. For indeed, he will be a stranger in his beliefs, because his people have corrupted their beliefs. He will be a stranger in his religion, due to what the people have done to it. He will be a stranger in his manner of praying, because the people are ignorant of the prayer of the Prophet (peace be upon him). He will be a stranger in his ordering of good and prohibiting evil, for the people have taken what is evil as good and they have abandoned what is good as evil. In short, then, he will be a stranger in all his matters of this world and the Hereafter, calling to the path of Allah and withstanding the harm of all those that go against him.

As for the second type of strangeness, then know, O reader, that this strangeness is the blameworthy strangeness, for its people are the evil sinners, the ignorant and the arrogant of mankind. Their strangeness is due to their refusal to follow the correct and straight path of Allah. This strangeness is the strangeness of not conforming to the religion of Islam and, as such, it will remain strange even if its followers are numerous, its power is strong and its existence is widespread. These are the strangers to Allah. May Allah keep us from becoming one of them.

The third category of strangeness is, in essence, neither praiseworthy or blameworthy. It is the strangeness that a traveler experiences when he travels to a different country, like a person who lives in a place for a short period of time, knowing that he has to move on. One aspect of this strangeness is that all of us, whether we realize it or not, are strangers in this world, for we will all go one day to our permanent abode in the Hereafter. This is the meaning of the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) when he told Abdullah ibn Umar, "Live in this world as though you are a stranger or a wayfarer." Thus, this category of strangeness has the potential to become a praiseworthy strangeness if we realize the meaning of this statement of Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him).

We pray that Allah bless us to be Muslims, knowledgeable and pious, and that He forgive us our sins and bless us with His Mercy.

Glorified be your Lord, the Lord of Honor and Power! (He is free) from what they attribute to Him And Peace be on the Messengers. And all Praise and thanks be to the Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.

Martyrs: The Building Blocks of Nations by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam

Sheikh Abdullah Azzam

News -- Martyrs: The Building Blocks of Nations by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam

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 (SAWS) and upon His Family, His Companions and whoever pursues their method, follows their way and wages Jihad until the Day of Judgement.

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 idology 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 coloured 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 Deen2 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 Apostasy3; and the day when Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal4 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 University.

The decisive, conclusive, solidification of its foundations was the necessity of using Jihad to combat the leader of the tyrants, Daud6, who had resolved to wipe out the sons of the Islamic Movement. Until finally, they arrived in Peshawar, 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 (SAWS) 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 (SWT) 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 Accountability8 will be difficult, the Scale9 awaits, the Bridge10 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 (SAWS) and refused to pay their Zakah to Abu Bakr (RA), so Abu Bakr 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

AL-GHURABAA (STRANGERS)

The Messenger Muhammad (saw) said:

"Islam began as something strange; and it will return as something strange.Paradise is for the strangers." His companions(ra) then asked:"who are the strangers, oh Rasool-Allah?" He replied:Those who forbid the evil when the people become corrupted."

Our ultimate aim of pleasing Allah (swt) and entering Paradise (in the form of green birds – as promised for the martyrs) can only be accomplished when we forbid the evil and stand firm on the right path in a time when people become completely corrupted. In regards to the same narration, Imaam Ahmad said: "They (the Strangers) are the ones who increase (their eemaan) when the people decrease (their eemaan)."

In the same hadeeth but narrated by 'Abdullah bin Mas’ood (ra) the Messenger Muhammad (saw) was asked:

"‘Oh Rasool-Allah who are they (the Strangers)?’ He (saw) replied: 'an-Nuzzaa' min al-Qabaa-il (those who withdraw themselves from their people).'"

An-Nuzzaa’ (those who withdraw) has two meanings:

Those who completely withdraw themselves from their own tribes and family customs and traditions

Those who leave their countries or place of residence in order to perform Jihaad (fighting against the enemies of Allah)

The Messenger Muhammad (saw) praised an-Nuzzaa’ as they are the ones who leave all forms of corruption, nationalism, free-mixing, customs and traditions etc. purely for the sake of Allah, never fearing from the blame of the blamers. They are people who will be a minority and seem as strangers due to their uncompromising love to Allah and His Messenger (saw). An-Nuzzaa’ is from the word an-Naza’ (to withdraw) and is used in regards to the moment when the soul is extracted from the body by the Angel of Death. An-Nuzzaa’ are the people of paradise, who give up their own tribes, livelihood, culture, careers and customs. You see them regularly travelling across the Kingdom of Allah (making hijrah), forbidding evil and fighting those who do not believe in Allah and the Hereafter.

In another narration Abdullah bin ‘Amr bin al-‘Aas (ra) said:

"When we were with him (saw) and he said ‘toobaa lil-Ghurabaa' (Paradise is for the Strangers)', we asked: 'who are they?' He (saw) replied: ‘They are the good people and are very few in number compared to the majority.’" (All the above mentioned ahaadeeth can be found in Saheeh Muslim, Ibn Maajah, Musnad Imaam Ahmad, al-Bukhaari and at-Tirmidhi)

The Messenger Muhammad (saw) also said: "Be in the dunyaa (world) like a stranger or someone passing by." Whoever lives in this world as a passer-by will be Ghareeb (singular for Ghurabaa'). The Ghurabaa' have unique beliefs and characteristics; always fulfilling what Allah (swt) and His Messenger has ordered them to do, whilst keeping away from that which has been made forbidden.

It is also reported in at-Tirmidhi and Abu Daawood that the Messenger Muhammad (saw) said:

"A time will come in the near future when to stand firm in the Deen will be like holding fire in your hands. The one who stands firm will get the reward of fifty men." His companions then asked: ‘will they get the reward of fifty men from among us or from among them?’ He (saw) replied: 'the reward of fifty men from among you.'"

The Companions of Rasool-Ullah (saw) did not face the problems we face today, such as verifying ahaadeeth to be saheeh (authentic), as they could just ask him (saw) directly. Neither did they have the problem of very few 'Ulamaa, as they had the Nabi (saw) to teach them the Deen. Definitely to follow the Messenger Muhammad (saw) without to see him is far more difficult than to have him with you in person, where you have the opportunity to learn from him directly. Therefore we can earn much more reward due to the hardship we face of not having the Messenger (saw) with us.

So who are the Ghurabaa'?

The Ghurabaa' are those who submit to Allah (swt) exclusively, and follow the Sharee’ah in every aspect of their life. They worship, obey and follow none but Allah, whilst associating no man, woman or object with Him. Their example to follow is the Messenger (saw) and his companions (ra). Tawheed is their attribute as they offer their ritual acts to none but almighty Allah:


“Say: 'Verily, my Salaat (prayer), my sacrifice, my living, and my dying are for Allah, the Lord of the 'Aalameen (mankind, jinns and all that exists).'” (EMQ al-An’aam, 6: 162)

They are far away from the majority, acting upon the divine information Allah has sent to mankind:

“And if you obey most of those on earth, they will mislead you far away from Allah's Path. They follow nothing but conjectures, and they do nothing but lie.” (EMQ al-An’aam, 6: 116)

The real Ghurabaa' do not miss any corruption, culture or tradition (the way many people miss their previous corrupted lifestyles). The Ghurabaa' hate all of that which they used to do and any jaahiliyyah they come across, hence you never see them voting for man-made law, calling for Freedom, Secularism, Democracy, swearing allegiance to the president and its nation or committing any form of kufr or shirk.

To be from this minority we must always keep rejecting anything that is alien to Islam such as the customs of the people: Easter, Valentines Day, Christmas and New-Years, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Birthdays and any other forms of celebrations or anniversaries that are not from Islam. An-Nuzzaa’ reject all of this corruption and innovation, and the consequence they will face is sever attack by all people, the so-called "Muslims" (Munaafiqeen and Faasiqeen) and non-Muslims.

They engage in the true intellectual & political struggle and are the people of Haq (truth), Tawheed, al-Walaa’ wal-Baraa’ (love for the believers and hatred towards the disbelievers) and people who forbid the munkar (what the Sharee'ah defines to be evil), are blunt about it, and never compromise. Allah (swt) says:


“As for those who strive hard in our cause, we will surely guide them to our paths (i.e. the straight path). And verily, Allah is with the Muhsinoon (good doers)." (EMQ al-‘Ankaboot, 29: 69)

May Allah make us be from this minority Saved Sect (Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah) and save us from following the desires of the corrupted majority, Aameen.

Ramadan

Brother and sister Muslims, may the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you. I send you this message filled with love and greetings. I send it to you from a heart that loves you for the sake of Allah and I ask Him to bring us together in the abode of His Benedictions and Mercy. On the occasion of the blessed month of Ramadan, I extend to you this advise as a humble gift which I hope you will accept with an open mind and that in turn, you advise me. May Allah protect you and takecare of you.

How do we receive the blessed month of Ramadan? Allah the Almighty says, "You who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you asit was prescribed for those before you that you may attain piety" [Qur'an 2:183].

My esteemed brother and sister, Allah has distinguished Ramadan from other months with many merits and virtues which include:

The bad breath from the mouth of a fasting person is sweeter to Allah than the fragrance of musk.

The angels ask forgiveness for those fasting until they break their fast.

Allah beautifies His Paradise each day and says, "My righteous servants are about to be spared suffering and harm, then they will be sent to you."

The devils are chained during the month.

The doors of Paradise are opened while those of Hell are locked.

The night, Laylat al-Qadr, which is better than a thousand months occurs in this month. Whoever is deprived of the good of this night has indeed been deprived of goodness altogether.

Those fasting receive forgiveness on the last night of Ramadan.

Allah saves people from Hellfire during each night of Ramadan.

My esteemed brother and sister: How then do we receive the month containing these merits and virtues? Is it by occupying ourselves with playfulness and spending our nights with non-beneficial things? Or do we feel burdened and panic at its arrival? We seek refuge with Allah from such attitudes. The righteous servants of Allah welcome it with repentance and true determination to reap its benefits and fully utilize its precious time. They ask Allah to help them perform their acts of worship in the best manner. I therefore present to you my dear brothers and sisters, the righteous deeds that are stressed during Ramadan.

1. Fasting (Sawm):

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, "Every good deed of the son of Adam will be multiplied. He will receive ten-fold to seven-hundred-fold reward for a good deed. Allah the Glorious and Majestic has said 'but fasting is exceptional, for it is done for Me and I will give reward for it, since one abandons his passion and food for My sake. There are two occasions of joy for one who fasts, joy when he breaks it and joy when he meets his Lord; and the breath (of an observer of fast) is sweeter to Allah than the fragrance of musk." [Related by AI-Bukhari and Muslim].

Undoubtedly, this great reward will not be for those who only abstain from food and drink, but as the Prophet (pbuh) said, "Whoever does not abandon obscene speech and evil action, Allah does not need his refraining from eating and drinking." [Related by Al-Bukharij. The Prophet (pbuh) also said, "Fasting is a shield. When anyone of you is fasting on a day, he should neither indulge in obscene language, nor raise his voice; rather if anyone reviles him or quarrels with him, he should say, 'I am fasting."' [Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Therefore when you fast, servant of Allah, let your hearing, sight, tongue and all your limbs fast, so that your fasting and non-fasting days are not the same.

2. Praying Qiyam Al-Layl:

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh.) said, "He who observes the fast of the month of Ramadan with sincere faith and hope for the reward of Allah will have his past sins forgiven." [Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim]. Also, Allah says, "And the servants of Allah most gracious are those who walk on the earth with humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say (Peace); Those who spend the night in adoration of their Lord prostrating and standing" [Qur'an 63-64]. Thus, waking up in the night to pray qiyam al-layl i.e. performing prayer in the middle of the night, was a regular act of the Prophet (pbuh) and his Companions. Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said, "Do not abandon qiyam al-layl, forthe Messenger of Allah (pbuh) never left it. If he as not well or he felt heavy, he prayed sitting."

Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, used to pray at night what he wished, until it was in the middle of the night, when he would wake up his family to pray; then he would say to them "prayer.. prayer", and would recite this verse of the Qur'an, "Enjoin prayer on your people, and be constant therein. We ask you not to provide sustenance: We provide it for you. But the fruit of the Hereafter is for righteousness" [Qur'an 20:132].

Ibn Umar used to recite, "Is one who worships devoutly during the hours of the night, prostrating himself or standing (in adoration), who takes heed of the Hereafter, and who places his hope in the Mercy of his Lord like one who does not?" [Qur'an 39:9]. He said that was referring to Uthman Ibn Affan (may Allah be pleased with him). Ibn Abi Hatim said Ibn Umar said that it was due to the length of the prayer of the commander of the faithful, Uthman, at night and his recitation to the extent that he may have recited the entire Qur an in one rak'ah.

Alqamah Ibn Qays narrated, "I slept with Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) one night. He woke up in the early part of the night and began to pray. He recited with a recitation similar to that of the neighborhood imam with a medium regular pace. Those around him could hear him and he continued until what remained of the night's darkness was equal to the time between the adhan (call) for maghrib prayer and the end of the maghrib prayer time, i.e. a short time before daybreak. He then performed witr prayer.

Furthermore, Al-Sa'ib Ibn Zayd narrated in a hadith that the reciter would recite (the Qur'an) with hundreds of verses such that we supported ourselves with staves due to the lengthiness of the prayer and did not leave until the time of fair (dawn prayer).

Caution: Brother Muslim, you have to complete the tarawih prayer with the imam in order to be reckoned as one of those who stood (the night) in prayer. The Prophet (pbuh) said, "Whoever stays with his imam until he completes the prayer, will have the night written for him as one who performed qiyam al-layl, i.e. one who stood the night in prayer." [Related by compilers of sunan books].

3. Charity (Sadaqah):

The Prophet (pbuh) was the most generous of people, and he was most generous during Ramadan. He was more generous with good deeds than the blowing wind. The Messenger of Allah also said, "The best charity is one given during Ramadan." [Related by Al-Tirmidhi from Anas].

Zayd Ibn Aslam narrated from his father as saying, "I heard Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) say, 'The Messenger of Allah ~buh) commanded us to donate to charity, so I gave some of my wealth. Then I said, 'Today I will compete with Abu Bakr if I can ever do so.' Then I donated half of my wealth. The Messenger of Allah ~buh) asked me, 'What did you leave for your family?' He said, 'I said the same as what I gave out.' But Abu Bakr brought all of his wealth and the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) asked him, 'What did you leave for your family?' He replied, 'I left them with Allah and His Messenger,' I said, 'I will never compete with you for anything again.

Talha Ibn Yahya Ibn Talha narrated, "My grandmother Sa'da bint Awf AI-Mariyah who was the wife of Talha Ibn Ubaydullah related to me, 'Talha came to me one day disconcerted. So I asked him, 'Why is it that I see you with a gloomy face? What is the matter with you? Is there anything that I can help you with?" He said, "No, you are a faithful Muslim wife." I said, "Then what is the matter?" He said, "The wealth that I have has increased and that disturbs me." I said, "Don't worry, distribute it." She said, 'He divided it until not even a single diniam was left." Talha Ibn Yahya said: "I asked the custodian of Talha's property how much the amount was." He said, 'Four hundred thousand."'

Therefore dear brother, charity during Ramadan has special significance, so hasten to give it out according to your means. Charity takes many forms.

Feeding the Needy:

Allah the Almighty says, "And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive, (saying), 'We feed you for the sake of Allah Alone. No rewards do we desire from you, nor thanks. We only fear a Day of frowning and stress from the side of our Lord.' But Allah will deliver them from the evil of that day, and will spread over them brightness and a (blissful) joy. And because they were patient and constant, He will reward them with a garden (and garments of) silk" [Qur'an 76:8-12]. The Salaf used to ensure feeding others and they placed it before many acts of worship, and it is equally rewarded whether you feed a hungry person or a good Muslim brother of yours. Hence, poverty is not a condition for feeding a person.

The Messenger of Allah (')buh) said, "When a believer feeds a hungry believer, Allah will feed him from the fruits of Paradise. And when he quenches the thirst of a believer, Allah will make him drink from the pure sealed wine of Paradise." [Related by Al-Tirmidhi with a good chain of narration].

Some of our pious predecessors said, "For me to invite ten of my friends and feed them with a meal that they like is better for me then freeing ten of the descendants of (Prophet) Isma'il." Many among the Salaf used to leave their food for breaking the fast for others. They included Abdullah Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), Dawud Al-Ta'i, Malik Ibn Dinar and Ahmad Ibn Hanbal. Ibn Umar did not break his fast except with the orphans and the needy. Sometimes, if he learned that his family had turned back the orphans and the needy, he would not break the fast that night. Also among the Salaf were those who fed their brother Muslims while they still continued to fast. They also served them and attended to their well-being. Among them were AI-Hassan Al-Basri and Abdullah Ibn Al-Mubarak.

Abu Al-Sawar Al-'Adwi said, "Some men from Banu Adiy tribe used to pray in the mosque. None of them ever broke the fast alone with his food. If he found someone to share with, he ate with him, if not, he would take it to the mosque, so that others ate with him and he ate with others. Feeding other people is an act of worship which triggers many other acts of worship. Ties of love and brotherliness are strengthened between you and the person you feed and that may lead you to Paradise." The Prophet (pbuh) said, "You will not enter Paradise until you believe and you will not believe until you love one another." This deed will keep you close to righteous people and Allah will reward you as the food you provide helps them with their acts of obedience (to Allah).

Providing Food to Break the Fast:

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, "Whoever feeds a fasting person will have a reward equal to that of the fasting person, without any reduction in his reward." [Related by Ahmad and Al-Nasai. Also verified by Al-Albani as sahih]. In a hadith narrated by Salman Al-Farisi, the Prophet (pbuh) said, "Whoever feeds a fasting person, will be recompensed with forgiveness of sins and salvation from Hell.

He will receive the same reward as the fasting person without causing him any reduction (in his reward). (The Companions) said, 'Messenger of Allah, not all of us can find something to feed a fasting person.' The Prophet (pbuh) said, 'Allah will give this reward to he who feeds a fasting person with a sip of milk or a piece of dates, or a sip of water. And Allah will make him who quenches the thirst of a fasting person to drink from my cistern a drink that he will never feel thirsty until he enters Paradise (where there is no thirst)."

4. Intensifying the Recitation of the Qur'an:

I will remind you dear brother of two actions of the pious Salaf of this Ummah:

Undertaking Much Recitation of the Qur'an:

The month of Ramadan is the month of the Qur'an. The Muslim must therefore recite the Qur'an a great deal. The Salaf used to pay particular attention to the Book of Allah, and angel Jibril (Gabriel) used to study the Qur'an with the Prophet (pbuh) during Ramadan. Uthman Ibn Affan used to complete reciting the Qur'an once each day. Some of the Salaf also completed the Quran in their qiyam prayer every three nights. Others completed it every seven days, while some others completed it every ten nights. They used to recite the Qur'an during prayers and at other times. During Ramadan, Al-Shafi'i used to complete reciting the Qur'an sixty times, excluding prayer times. AI-Aswad used to complete reciting the Qur'an every two nights. Qatada regularly completed the Qur'an within seven nights, while during Ramadan, he completed it every three nights, but in the last ten days of Ramadan, he completed it every night. When Ramadan came, Al-Zuhri left studying the hadith and study circles with scholars and he concentrated on reciting the Qur'an from the book (i.e. not from memory).

Also, when Ramadan came,Sufyan Al-Thawn left all other acts of worship and concentrated on the Qur'an.

Ibn Rajab said that it was reported from the Prophet (pbuh) that the Qur'an may not be completed in less than three days by those who recite it constantly. As for the blessed times such as Ramadan, especially during the nights of expecting laylat al-Qadr or when in holy places such as Makkah for those not inhabiting it, it is recommended that the recitation of the Qur'an be increased in order to benefit from the blessings of the time and the place. This is the opinion of Ahmad, Ishaq and others among the distinguished scholars. As we indicated earlier, the actions of other scholars also support this view.

Weeping During the Recitation of the Qur'an:

It was not reported from the Salaf that they chanted the Qur'an like poetry without pondering and understanding (its meanings); rather, they were moved by the Words of Allah, and they in turn changed the hearts of others with it. In a hadith in AI-Bukhari, Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, 'Recite (the Qur'an) to me.' Then I said, 'How can I recite to you when it was revealed to you?' The Prophet (pbuh) said, 'I like to hear it from someone else."' Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud said, "I recited the Qur'an from Surah Al-Nisa' until I reached the verse that says, 'How will it be then, when We bring from every nation a witness and bring you to witness over all of them"' [Qur'an 4:41]. The Prophet (pbuh) said, 'That is enough.' I turned to the Prophet (pbuh) and found his eyes flooding with tears."'

Al-Bayhaqi related from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet (pbuh) said, "When the verse of the Qur'an that says 'Do you then wonder at this recital (the Qur'an) and you laugh at it and weep not.' [Qur'an 53:59-60] was revealed, the Companions residing in the Suffah, (the courtyard of the Prophet's mosque) wept until tears began to trickle down their cheeks." When the Prophet (pbuh) heard their weeping, he wept with them and his weeping made us weep. The Messenger of Allah said, "The person who weeps in humility to Allah will not enter Hell."

Ibn Umar read surah Al-Mutaffifin until he reached '...the Day when (all) mankind will stand before the Lord of the Worlds...' [Qur'an 83:6]. He wept to such an extent that he fell to the ground and could not move on to the next verses. Furthermore, Muzahim Ibn Zafar related, "Sufyan Al-Thawn lead us in maghrib prayer, and when he reached 'You (Alone) do we worship and You (Alone) do we ask for help' [Qur'an 1:5], he began to weep so that his recitation was disrupted. So he started from Alhamdulillah again."

It has been reported that Ibrahim Al-Ash'ath said, "One night, I heard Fudhayl Ibn Ayadh reciting this verse of the Qur'an, repeatedly as he wept, 'And We shall try you until We test those among you who strive their utmost and persevere in patience, and We shall test your facts (whether true or false)' [Qur'an 47:31] But he kept on saying the words of Allah, 'And We shall test your facts', then he would say, 'And You will test our facts? If You test our facts, You will disgrace us and expose our secrets. Indeed ifYou do that, You will destroy us and punish us,' and he would continue crying.

5. Sitting in the Mosque Until Sunrise:

"When the Prophet (pbuh) prayed fair prayer, he sat in his prayer place until sunrise." [Related by Muslim].

AI-Tirmidhi narrated from Anas that the Prophet (pbuh) said, "Whoever prays fair in the congregation and remains seated, remembering Allah until sunrise, then performs two rak"at; it will be for him as the reward of complete...complete...complete Hajj and Umrah."

This is the reward promised for everyday, so how will it be for Ramadan?

Dear brother, may Allah protect you, have a good sleep at night to assist you in getting this great reward. Also, emulate righteous people and train your soul to strive for the pleasure of Allah. Have high aspirations to reach the highest of the grades of Paradise.

6. Observing I'tikaf:

The Prophet (pbuh) used to observe I'tikaf during ten days of Ramadan. But in the year of his death, he stayed in I'tikaf for twenty days." [Related by Al-Bukhari). Thus, I'tikaf which means staying in the mosque continuously for a certain period of time, is an act of worship that embraces many acts of bedience to Allah, such as reciting the Qur'an, praying, remembering Allah, supplicating, etc.

The person who has not experienced it might think that is difficult to bear, but it is easy for whomever Allah makes it easy. Thus, whoever arms himself with good intentions and true determination, Allah helps him undertake the task with ease. I'tikaf is stressed more during the last ten days of Ramadan in anticipation of laylat al-Qadr. It is a permissible form of seclusion as the person observing it holds himself in seclusion out of obedience to Allah and His remembrance. He also cuts himself off from anything that would distract him from the observance of I'tikaf His heart is set on all deeds that draw him closer to Allah and the only desire he has is to do what pleases Allah.

7. Performing Umrah During Ramadan:

It has been established that the Prophet (pbuh) said, "An Umrah performed in Ramadan is equal in reward to Hajj." [Related by AlBukhari and Muslim). In another version the Prophet (pbuh) said, "The same (reward) as performing Hajj with me." So, congratulations to you my brother (who succeeds) in performing a pilgrimage with the Prophet (pbuh).

8. Anticipating Laylat Al-Qadr:

Allah the Almighty says, "We have indeed revealed this (Message) in the Night of Power. And what will explain to you what the Night of Power is? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months" [Qur'an 97:1-3). The Prophet (pbuh) said, "He who observes laylat al-Qadr with sincere faith and hope for the reward of Allah will have his past sins forgiven." [Related by AI-Bukhari and Muslim). The Prophet (pbuh) used to look out for laylat al-Qadr and commanded his Companions also to look out for it. He used to wake up his family members during the last ten nights in the hope that they would succeed in meeting the blessed night (in worship).

It is related in Musnad Ahmad from Ubada that the Prophet (pbuh said, "Whoever stays awake in anticipation of laylat al-Qadr, and succeeds in getting it, will have all of his sins both past and future forgiven." [AlNasai reported a similar hadith, while Al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar said that its chain meets the conditions for authenticity].

It has been reported that some of our predecessors among the Companions and their successors took a complete bath and used perfume during the last ten nights (of Ramadan) in anticipation of laylat al-Qadr, which has been highly honored by Allah.

So those of you who have wasted their time with nothing beneficial, make up for what you have missed by observing the night of laylat atQadr, as it is reckoned from your age. Good deeds undertaken in this night are better than (the deeds of) a thousand months, and whoever is deprived of its benefits has indeed been much deprived.

9. Remembering Allah, Supplicating and Seeking Forgiveness

Dear brother, the days and nights of Ramadan are distinguished times, so seize the opportunity by increasing your remembrance of Allah, and making supplications, especially during the chosen periods when they are more acceptable to Allah. These include:

When breaking the fast, since the fasting person's supplications are not rejected.

The last third of the night, when our Lord descends and says, "Is there anyone asking that I may give;is there anyone seeking forgiveness that I may forgive?"

Asking for forgiveness at dawn, as Allah says, "And in the hours of early dawn, they (were found) praying for forgiveness" [Qur'an 51:18].

Looking out for the chosen hour on Friday when supplications are answered. This hour is most likely to be the last hour of Friday (before sunset).

Finally, dear brother: After this round in the garden of Paradise, under the shade of righteous deeds, I would like to draw your attention to an important issue. Do you know what that is? It is sincerity. Yes, sincerity. How so many are the people who fast but benefit nothing other than hunger and thirst from their fast. And how so many are the people who stay awake in worship but get nothing other than sleeplessness and fatigue. May Allah save you and me from that kind of outcome. Consequently, we find the Prophet (pbuh) stressing this matter when he said, "(Fasting) with full faith and hoping for a reward from Allah." The Salaf therefore used to do their righteous deeds secretly in fear of falling into showing off.

Hence, we find this great Tabi'i, i.e. from the generation succeeding the Companions of the Prophet, Ayyoub Al-Sakhtiyani, about whom Hamad Ibn Zayd said, "Sometimes, when studying hadith, Ayyoub would be so moved and he would turn (away) to blow his nose. Then he would say, 'How severe this cold is! Pretending to be having a cold to hide his weeping."

It has been reported that Muhammad Ibn Wasi' said, "I have known men among whom there is one whose head would be placed beside that of his wife on the same pillow, so that the part of the pillow under his cheek would become wet from tears without his wife noticing it. I have also known men, who while in the row for prayer, tears would pour down their cheeks and the one next to them would not notice it. Ayyoub AlSakhtiyani used to remain awake for the entire night (in worship) yet he would hide it. So when morning came, he raised his voice as if he had woken up that instant. Ibn Adiy related that Dawud Ibn Abi Hind fasted for forty years without his family knowing about it. His occupation was embroidery, so he would take his lunch along with him (to work) but donate it to charity on the way. When he returned at night, he would brake his fast with the family and they did not know that he was fasting."

Sufyan Al-Thawn said, "The servant of Allah would do his deeds secretly, and the devil would persist in tempting him until he convinces him to do it openly. The devil would then continue to insist until the person wants to be thanked for the deed. So, it will be converted from a deed done openly to one done for showing off."

10. Amusement During Ramadan:

Dear brother, I think I have prolonged my admonition to you to seize this opportunity. I have taken some of your time, but let us look together at a very critical phenomenon that we all fall into, especially during Ramadan. It is the phenomenon of wasting time and spending it in ways other than obedience to Allah. This indeed means a lack of awareness and amounts to turning away from the Mercy and Bounty of Allah Who says, "But whosoever turns away from My Message, verily for him is a life narroweddown, and We shall raise Him up blind on the Day of Judgment. He will say, 'My Lord, why have You raised me up blind while I had sight (before)?' Allah will say, 'Thus did you, when our signs came upon you, forget them; so will you be this day forgotten. And thus do we recompense him who transgresses beyond bounds and believes not in the signs of his Lord. And the chastisement of the Hereafter is far more grievous and enduring" [Qur'an 20:124-127]. One feels so much pain in his heart and is so much dismayed to find Muslim youth filling the sidewalks and playgrounds during the most virtuous nights of Ramadan.

How so many are the sins and forbidden acts committed during the nights of Ramadan! Yes, the Muslim must be truly concerned about the manner in which Muslims spend their time. He must also be disturbed to find Muslim youth spending their time in ways that are not pleasing to Allah. But do not worry. The path to your happiness and that of your Muslim brothers is to call them to apply Islamic teachings (i.e. doing da 'wah) and to make supplications for them. Yes, da'wah to those Muslims who have become unaware of their Islamic duties, and guiding them to the Straight Path. Also, make supplications for them in their absence that Allah may accept it from you and that they do not become among those deprived of guidance.