Islamic State Editorial on the War Between the U.S./Israel and Iran

Unsurprisingly, this week’s editorial in the Islamic State’s al-Naba’ newsletter comments on the ongoing war between the U.S. and Israel on one side and Iran on the other. For those familiar with the Islamic State’s thinking, the broad editorial line is rather predictable: namely, the group considers both sides to be disbelievers and the true Muslim does not side with either of them.

More specific points raised in the editorial are as follows:

• Whereas the two sides were previously united in fighting the Islamic State, God has now sowed division and enmity between them.
• The death of Ayatollah Khamane’i is to be celebrated, for he was a leading figure of the Shia and a leader in the war against the mujahidin, beginning from the earliest days of the jihad in Iraq that made clear the Shia are disbelievers.
• The fighting between the two sides is an example of God’s cosmic law of “mutual repulsion”: i.e. whereby He sets the disbelievers against each other in order to reduce the harm to the believers.
• Those who profess to be Sunnis and mourn the likes of Khamane’i have a doctrinal problem in that they have not given proper place to Islamic monotheism and its requirement to reject disbelief and disbelievers.
• While there is an abundance of evidence to support rejoicing in the demise of Khamane’i and the Shia pose a greater danger to the Ummah in how many Sunnis are deceived by them, it should not mean siding with the U.S.-Israel alliance against Iran.
• Muslims should seize the opportunity presented by the chaos to reinvigorate the jihad.
• Iran’s attacks on the Gulf states may increase the trend towards normalisation with Israel.

Below is the editorial fully translated by me with annotations for context.

The believers in the regions of the world rejoiced in the demise of the disbelievers’ guide and exemplar and the imams¹ of disbelief with him, at the hands of the same aircraft that protected their backs in the battles of Mosul, Aleppo and elsewhere in the Muslims’ land against which the Crusader and Rafidite invasion united to wage war for years, before God sowed division among their hearts and planted enmity between them, and repelled their evil from Islam through each other.

The Rafidite who perished, an imam of disbelief, was tyrannical and oppressive, and the leader of a sect that was thirsty for our blood just like the Jews, but indeed even more so. And God Almighty destroyed him through His plotting and scheming at the hands of those who imposed him over our necks for decades, and fought with him against the mujahidin, especially in Iraq. And what will make you know what Iraq is? It was the cradle of separation and the spear of Tawhid², and its mujahidin set the precedent and were unique in declaring takfir³ on the Rafidites⁴ and fighting them as a matter of religious profession and not politics. Had the Iraqi jihad only destroyed the idol of rejectionism⁵, that would have sufficed, and it destroyed that idol at a time when people were carrying images of the Rafidites’ imams as though they were the imams of Islam. It also destroyed that idol at a time when people thought rejectionism was one of the madhhabs⁶ of Islam. So may God’s mercy be on the imams of the Iraqi jihad, their companions and their soldiers so long as night and day follow each other.

We recall these particular Iraqi qualities while we examine and treat this great corruption in the beliefs of the people who are the Rafidites’ followers and pawns, mourn their imams, legitimise their disbelief, and incline to their ranks on the pretext of resisting the American project, being blind to a firm truth (namely, that the Iranian project was one of the stages of the American project in the war on Islam), before the forces of mutual repulsion should assail them.

For the war today between the Iranian axis and the American-Jewish axis and its results and the losses of the sides therein all come within the context of the cosmic law of mutual repulsion that the Wise and Knowing (Exalted is He) has decreed, as a mercy and relief for the believers, and a scheme and allurement for the disbelievers. By mutual repulsion, we mean here that which occurs between the disbelievers, per the Almighty’s words: “And likewise We set the oppressors against each other in what they earned.” Al-Tabari and al-Qurtubi and others have said: “We impose some of the oppressors against each other.” Ibn Kathir said: “Were He not repelling from one people with another people, and removing the evil of people from others besides them through reasons He creates and decrees, the earth would be corrupted.”

Among the benefits of this mutual repulsion between these two disbelieving enemies is the increase of distinction and filtering out in the ranks of the people of the qibla⁷, so that the one who has perished should perish upon evidence. This is what we see today when contingents of them join the two sides: one sides with the Rafidites, another with the Jews and the Crusaders. Both of them have vile justifications for doing so, and both of them come under the same ruling. As for the Muslim, his stance is firm and well-known. He does not take the side of one or the other, but rather he rejects the two sides and declares takfir on them, is hostile to them and disavows them. He sides with God’s party: the believers. The Almighty has said: “And those who side with God, His Messenger and those who have believed, surely God’s party [are] those who overcome.”

The perishing of the imams of disbelief and the enemies of Islam is among the bounties that require giving thanks and praise, regardless of how they have perished, whether they have perished through a torment from God or at our hands, or at each other’s hands. Our scholars have cited the Almighty’s words as evidence for this: “And the people who have committed wrong have been put to flight, and praise be to God the Lord of the World-Dwellers.” Imam al-Baghawi said regarding the verse: “God praised Himself for routing them, because it is a bounty for the messengers, and thus He invoked praise be to God in order to teach them and those who have believed in them, that they should praise God for His warding off the evil of the wrongdoers.” Imam al-Nisa’i entitled one of the sections of his Sunan: “The section of respite from the disbelievers.” Under it he included the well-known hadith about the funeral procession⁸, and the books of the predecessors have been filled with examples of showing joy at the demise of the imams of disbelief. And who doesn’t rejoice in that?

But know that addressing “those who mourn Khamane’i” and his allies from the non-Rafidites is not done through expounding evidence about the legitimacy of rejoicing in the demise of the Tawaghit⁹. For that is easy. Rather, you should address them through the lines of evidence of the principles of the religion and loyalty and disavowal, for it is the field of their downfall. For the positions of these people have gone beyond necessity and interest to loyalty and complete affiliation. For so long the “Islamists”- and their jihadist brothers- have rebuked the mujahidin for characterising the matters in this way, until it has become proven today in sense and experience. Many of these people regrettably don’t learn except by experience at a time when the verses and texts are set aside and disregarded. The problem of those who mourn the imams of the Rafidites is doctrinal par excellence and gets to the core of Tawhid. For had these people glorified the position of Tawhid, they would not have found a place in their hearts to glorify “Khamane’i” and his ilk from among the immoral disbelievers who are not lesser than “Netanyahu and Trump” in disbelief and criminality. Had these people glorified God Almighty and believed in Him per the right of faith owed to Him, they would not have mourned the demise of one of His greatest enemies. But how do these people act when they see allies, partners, martyrs and Muslim brothers in the Rafidites and their leaders?

Among the wondrous aspects of our age that do not cease is that those who have continued to rejoice in the victory of each sect of disbelief, invoking as justification the joy of the disbelievers when the Romans overcame the Persians. Today it has only been possible for them to stand with the Persians. And they have rejoiced in the Persians’ affliction out of standing with the Romans. It is as though we are in a Rajab¹⁰ that no longer has space for wonder. The Muslim should rejoice in the two sides’ affliction and ask God to increase the war, destruction and demise among them.

And to those who insist on distinguishing between the two disbelieving axes and making us choose between two fires, we say: in the routing of the Rafidites and the breaking of their might, there is good for the Muslims in this stage, which might be greater than what is in the routing of the accursed Jews, for a reason that is clear as possible, namely: the Ummah is protected to a certain extent from the fitna¹¹ of the Jews, but it is not protected from the fitna of the Rafidites and being deceived by their axis, the evidence being these masses of scum who flock to the Rafidites and mourn the imams of their disbelief and the heads of their madhhab.

The obligation is to mobilise the generations of the Muslims exclusively behind the banner of Tawhid and the prophetic methodology, and cut all their links, connections and inclination to any of the Jahili¹² camps that are fighting each other, and narrow the concept of what they call “convergence of interests,” because many of the groups of arbitrary whims have expanded this concept such that they have stood in the camp of falsehood on the pretext of “convergence of interests” when in fact it is merely “convergence of programs” whether you like it or not, for the truth is clearer and falsehood is stammering.

In the field, the obligation on the monotheists is to strive with earnestness and awareness to exploit these great changes in order to support the jihad, nourish it and renew its arteries, for this temporary chaos - whether it calms or escalates - has consequences that will last and endure, and seizing these opportunities is a matter of both astuteness and wisdom, whether for the mujahidin in the wilayas¹³ or the lone mujahidin in every place. Know that this is an aspect of taking up reasons and the completeness of putting reliance on God Almighty.

Politically, the Iranian step in bombing the Gulf statelets lays the ground for completing the “pretexts of public normalisation” with the Jews, not at the level of the rulers, but rather at the level of portions of the societies, and the inclination of some to the Iranian missiles will be met by the inclination of others to the Crusader and Jewish aircraft. And the distinction will grow until we come to two camps: a camp of faith in which there is no disbelief, and a camp of disbelief in which there is no faith.

As such, we warn the Muslims about the appearance of Jahili banners that each of the sides is trying to export to the field so that the banners should absorb blows for them: one in the name of bringing down the Iranian regime, another in the name of resisting the Crusader campaign. For resisting the Crusader campaign is not done under Rafidite wings, and repelling the Rafidites’ evil is not done under Crusader wings: so distinguish yourselves, oh people, for this self-distinction has its ramifications.

¹ In the sense of leaders, political and/or religious.
² Islamic monotheism.
³ Declaring people to be disbelievers, even if they profess affiliation with Islam.
⁴ “Rejectionists”: derogatory term for the Shia.
⁵ Shia doctrine.
⁶ Schools of thought.
⁷ Referring to the direction of prayer toward Mecca in Islam: those who profess affiliation with Islam.
⁸ Referring to the hadith that the death of an evil person gives people respite from him.
⁹ Idolatrous tyrants.
¹⁰ A month of the Islamic calendar; the phrasing plays on the Arabic words Rajab and ‘ajab (“wonder”).
¹¹ Trial, tribulation, or temptation.
¹² Referring to pre-Islamic ignorance: a common Islamic State designation for all things non-Islamic.
¹³ Provinces of the Islamic State.

Published originally on March 4, 2026.