After a prolonged hiatus of around two years, Islamic State spokesman Abu Hudhayfa al-Ansari has issued a new speech to mark the occasion of the month of Ramadan. Given that the Islamic State announced its caliphate in Ramadan 1435 AH (summer 2014), the speech effectively marks a twelfth anniversary commemoration of the announcement of the caliphate since it is now Ramadan 1447 AH.
The main points of the speech are as follows:
- Greetings conveyed from the group’s leader Abu Hafs al-Hashimi, who is still alive.
- A clarification that while al-Furqan Media (the Islamic State’s official media outlet responsible for releasing speeches by the leader and spokesman) has been silent for a while, this silence in no way means the group’s leadership has abandoned its followers and supporters. Rather, it is sometimes necessary to be silent and sometimes necessary to speak when it is beneficial to do so. In the meantime, al-Furqan has lived on in the bullets of the group’s fighters and the explosive belts of its commando operatives.
The fall of the Assad regime is portrayed as Turkish theatrics engineered by the Americans, brought about because the ‘Crusaders’ and their allies consider al-Sharaa to be a better puppet serving their interests in waging war on Islam.
- Reiterating the denunciation of the new Syrian government under Ahmad al-Sharaa as an ‘apostate’ entity that must be fought. The fall of the Assad regime is portrayed as Turkish theatrics engineered by the Americans, brought about because the ‘Crusaders’ and their allies consider al-Sharaa to be a better puppet serving their interests in waging war on Islam. Fighting this new government is an obligation for the Islamic State’s fighters (since apostasy is considered worse than original disbelief). Although the spokesman refers to prisoners in Syria, he does not mention any Islamic State members escaping en masse with the recent debacle at al-Hol. While it is clear that sympathisers with families who were at the camp helped smuggle many of them out, Abu Hudhayfa would not necessarily regard those who were smuggled out with help from the old Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham networks as being prisoners who escaped. Rather, such people would be regarded as seeking refuge among the ‘apostates.’
- A renewed call to jihadists who put their trust in al-Sharaa but are now disappointed in the path he has taken that there is still an opportunity to repent and defect.
- The Muslims of Syria have made great sacrifices: they should not let those sacrifices go to waste in establishing a democratic, nationalist government that contradicts the rule of God’s law.
- Contrary to what the critics imagine, the Islamic State has been successful in spreading jihad and the correct methodology throughout the world and continuing the fight against its enemies. Attacks conducted around the world- including the Sydney attack in December 2025 and the New Orleans attack at the beginning of last year- are testament to the success of its global reach. The critics are also wrong to claim the Islamic State has not learned from prior experiences and mistakes.
- Praise for the Somalia affiliate of the Islamic State which has fought a prolonged campaign against an offensive waged by the Puntland Security Forces with American and Emirati support. The offensive is portrayed as a failure. Later on the spokesman notes that ‘muhajirin’ (i.e. foreigners who come to a particular field of jihad) have been the tip of the spear in fighting against the offensive. This corroborates media reports and the Islamic State’s prior propaganda about foreigners fighting for the Islamic State’s Somalia affiliate.
- Likewise the spokesman praises the other African affiliates of the Islamic State, in particular the Sahel affiliate and its recent attack on the airport in Niger’s capital, in which ‘muhajirin’ were also involved, according to the spokesman.
- A renewed call for Islamic State supporters to ‘migrate’ to the Islamic State’s provinces and ‘fields’ of jihad where possible.
- While the Islamic State’s affiliates in Africa are experiencing success on the battlefields, the group’s core in Iraq and Syria is admittedly facing hardship and tribulation. In this regard, while not mentioning any names, the spokesman confirms that a number of leading personnel for the organisation have been killed in Iraq and Syria over the past two years, partly corroborating periodic local reports about high-rank personnel being eliminated. In addition, media personnel for the organisation have been killed over the past two years. This might partly explain periodic disruptions to the group’s online communications.
The spokesman warns agains the risks of online ‘tazkiya’ (vouching for someone) where a person’s true identity can easily be concealed behind a screen.
- An address to the ‘munasirin’ (‘supporters’ of the Islamic State who disseminate official propaganda and create unofficial propaganda for the group), stressing the need for purification of ranks and sincerity in devoting time and effort to supporting the Islamic State through their media activity. This suggests that there may be issues with ideological purity among some of those who claim to be ‘munasirin.’
- An address to the Islamic State’s fighters in general: an acknowledgement that the Islamic State today remains in a difficult position, but with endurance and steadfastness comes eventual success (a message the group has repeated ad nauseam in its propaganda). The group’s fighters are urged to be mild and gentle towards fellow Muslims, and also to have knowledge and take proper care in the process of vouching for others who might wish to join the ranks of the Islamic State. In particular, the spokesman warns agains the risks of online ‘tazkiya’ (vouching for someone) where a person’s true identity can easily be concealed behind a screen.
Below is the speech translated in full with notes.
Guidance has become clearly distinguished from error
Praise be to God as is due from those who are thankful and patient, a praise that befits the majesty of His face and the greatness of His authority. To him is praise first and last, in adversity and ease, in hardship and relief. Through His bounty are just deeds brought about, and through His existence, acts of mercy are bestowed. And prayers and peace be upon the prophet of the mujahidin who man the fronts, and on His family and honourable and blessed companions, and those who follow them with ihsan until the Day of Judgement.
As for what follows: on the authority of Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him): that the Messenger of God (SAWS) said: ‘Those who fast in Ramadan out of faith and expectation will be forgiven for their prior sins. Those who rise to pray on the Night of Power out of faith and expectation will be forgiven for their prior sins.’
And SAWS said: ‘Whoso rises in Ramadan by night to pray out of faith and expectation will be forgiven for prior sins.’
On the authority of Sahl bin Sa‘ad al-Sa‘adi (may God be pleased with him): that the Messenger of God (SAWS) said: ‘Manning the fronts for a day in the path of God is better than the world and what is upon it, and the space of a whip for one of you in Paradise is better than the world and what is upon it, and the servant who comes out in the path of God in the day or morning is better than the world and what is upon it.’
To our Muslim brothers, foremost among them the blessed soldiers of the Caliphate: we convey to you the greetings of the Amir al-Mu’minin, the mujahid Shaykh Abu Hafs al-Hashimi (may God Almighty protect him).
We transmit to you his sincere greetings on the advent of the month of forgiveness, in which he urges you to make efforts and take up the best provision, and he counsels you to seize upon this month by expending wealth and lives in the path of God, and reviving its nights by rising to pray on the frontlines and in the mihrabs [3], for it is a valuable opportunity to combine these two noble acts of rising in the most noble of times and fields.
Our Muslim brothers, we address you after two years filled with bloodshed and corpses, with the address of those who are steadfast despite the hardship of life, and the address of those who are patient in difficulties and adversity, for there is might amid the fields of the epic battle and the paths of the confrontation.
We have received news of the sufferings of those who love us and the call of distress from those who await. We have also received news of the disbelievers’ delusions and the hopes of the hypocrites.
To the loved ones we say: we have never been absent from you for one hour of the day, but rather we are silent when silence is deliverance, and we speak when speaking is beneficial.
And if al-Furqan is silent, its guns have not fallen silent, nor have its epic battles ended. And from the breaking of its echo, it comes out from the barrels of the mujahidin’s rifles and the belts of the inghimasis [1], calling upon you through the throats of the readied fighters, whispering in your ears via the pulpits of the compassionate preachers. It remains a furqan [2] between truth and falsehood, being guided and being astray, and guidance and error.
To the hypocrites and disbelievers who have become engrossed in their analyses and have mixed their delusions with their hopes, we say: this is the voice of al-Furqan, striking your ears, disturbing your life and shattering your delusions. So die in your rage. For God Almighty has preserved it to make war on you, expose your error, and destroy your falsehood.
Oh Ummah of Islam, tribulations and events have come in succession upon the land of the Muslims, among the most prominent and clearest of them being what the circumstances in captive al-Sham have come to after the expulsion of Iranian influence from it, and what followed from the fall of the Nusayri [4] regime’s formal leader and his rapid replacement with a regime subject to American influence, for which they have appointed a new formal leader who has been enticed by the devils of the Turks and West, and has been made a Taghut [5] by the idols and tyrants of the Arabs.
Here the guidance has become clearly distinguished from error in the events of al-Sham, and it has become clear to those who possess reason that our disagreement with the fronts and commissions years ago was a matter of creeds and not policies, between Tawhid and idolatry, and the state of Shari‘a and the state of man-made law.
Indeed there is no principle, derivative, transmission or matter of reason in our religion that permits for the apostate violator to get away with his actions in waging war on the people of faith and siding with the people of idols.
The Truth (Blessed and Almighty is He) has said: ‘And whoso defies the Messenger after the guidance has been made clear to him, and follows a path besides that of the believers, We will let him have what he has sided with, and We will convey him to Hell. Wretched it is as a fate.’
The Exalted has also said: ‘Those who have purchased disbelief in exchange for faith will not harm God at all, and for them is a painful torment.’
Here we pause for a moment where we recall those who sided with him in waging war on us and emboldened him to attack us and depicted him as the descendant of the conquerors and charged us with being renegade Khawarij, and fattened him and thus became the first ones he mangled. And consider God’s justice applied to them: how He made the memory of them go to perdition, as though they previously did not exist.
As for the claims of liberation and bringing down the regime in the days of ‘The Aggression has Returned’,[6] they are Turkish theatrics with openly exposed American production.
For al-Sham today is ruled by the Crusaders after they appointed over it a puppet without a soul, which they move in front of the curtain and not behind it.
They have supposed that they have closed the page of jihad in al-Sham, but what are they thinking? al-Sham has actually entered a new chapter of the chapters of resistance, and the convoy of jihad and confrontation will pass through the Sham of epic battles until the rise of the Hour, [7] and will not come to a halt except in Dabiq and at the White Minaret.[8]
And the new Taghut will not obtain the satisfaction of the Christians and Jews until he follows their path and thus becomes a Christian or a Jew.
Besides this, no matter how much he sinks into the abysses of apostasy, his fate will not better than that of his Kurdish predecessor or Nusayri predecessor, for the latter guarded the Jews’ borders for decades and then they got rid of him overnight.
The new Syrian regime in its secularist government and its nationalist army are apostate disbelievers. There is no obligation greater than fighting them are faith itself, so that al-Sham can be freed from their filth.
The soldiers of al-Sham must intensely strive to fight them and make that their priority, while marshalling all their capabilities for that. In this fighting al-Sham will eject its evil, its ranks will be distinguished and its first path will return.
As for you, remnants of the groups in al-Sham, so often did the Islamic State’s amirs advise you but you rejected. They told you the truth and you rejected it, and you have only woken up today to the daggers of the traitor at your side.
Here we call on you again, thereby excusing ourselves to your Lord: repent to Him and join the glorious convoy of light. The truth has become manifest and guidance has become distinguished from error.
Know that the parties and groups are astray without guidance in most of the fields. Cleanse yourselves of the filth of partisanship, and go down the middle of the road to guidance.
On the subject of advice also, we address our Muslim people in al-Sham: oh people, your sacrifices have been great so do not waste them on the mirage of nationalism, and do not let them go to the winds of democracy, and do not accept any price for them besides the rule of the divine Shari‘a.
Oh people, do not make your blood an international bridge for making new Tawaghit, reviving within you the Assad era, for your loss will be great and your grief will last long.
Oh people, rule only belongs to God- who has ordered you to worship only Him. That is the authentic religion.
For the One you turn to worship orders you to resort to His arbitration, not to the Syrian constitution. So follow the call of the Messengers, and not the calf of al-Samiri,[9] for revelation is revelation and salvation is salvation. Oh God, have we conveyed? Oh God, bear witness.
We have also heard of the attacks on the Islamic State- in its pure prisoners- by those who have made fools of themselves from among Trump’s lackeys and disbelieving allies. How strange! Do those through whom the Crusader Coalition has constituted its ninetieth constituent member have no shame in attacking the patient monotheists? Oh lackeys of the Crusaders, rearers of their pigs, and their guard dogs, this is what you are. So know your fate.
As for the mujahidin, they are those who subdued the global alliance, wore it out, made it bleed, confounded it and thwarted it, such that they had no strategy to wage war on us left in their pocket except recruiting you to fight us, you wretches.
So bury your heads in the sand, and keep your dwarfs away from the giants of the mountains.
Have you lived long enough to rebuke them? Tell me, when did you quickly adopt a crown? I don’t see it, oh pawn.[10]
As for you, our prisoner brothers, how excellent you are. The countries fear you and the armies are frightened of you.
The Crusader circles with his aircraft and mobilises his forces because of you. The Rafidite mobilises his gangs along the borders in fear you will escape. The Syrian Taghut competes with the Kurdish one to besiege you.
So who are you? What is the secret of your strength? Why has the world rallied against you and become frightened even of your children? Oh unique ones of your age and pearl of your time, they have vented their rage against you because of your faith.
Yes, they have vented their rage against you because of your faith. All the arrows of falsehood have been directed at you. The red person and the black person [11] have gathered to wage war on you.
Had you flattered them or become lax in your creed as others besides you have done, your crisis would have ended a decade ago, but it is the religion of God Almighty and His precious commodity. Upon this have you and we pledged allegiance.
Ibn Ishaq narrated in the Sira:
‘When they gathered for the allegiance pledge- that is, the second allegiance pledge of al-‘Aqaba [12]- al-Abbas bin Ubada said: ‘Do you know upon what you are pledging allegiance to this man?’ They replied: ‘Yes.’ He said: ‘You are pledging allegiance to him on the basis of waging war on the red person and black person among the people, so if you think that you should hand him over if your wealth runs out in calamity and your noble ones are killed, from now on, by God, if you do such a thing, it will be the ruin of this world and the Hereafter. And if you consider that you are fulfilling what you have invited him to on the basis of your wealth running out and your noble ones being killed, then seize upon it, for by God it is the best of this world and the Hereafter.’ They replied: ‘We are seizing upon it on the basis of calamity for our wealth and the killing of our noble ones, so what do we get in return oh Messenger of God if we fulfil our promise?’ He said: ‘Paradise.’ They replied: ‘Stretch forth your hand.’ So he stretched forth his hand and so they pledged allegiance to him.
Consider, our brothers, God’s address to the believers before you, from among those who were afflicted with what afflicted you, for in this are consolation and glad tidings for you and us: ‘So their Lord responded to them: ‘I will not let the work of a doer of good among you go to waste- whether male or female (you belong to each other). For those who have migrated and been evicted from their abodes and been harmed in My path and fight and are killed, I will purify them of their evil deeds and bring them into Paradise, under which rivers flow as a reward from God. And to God belongs the good reward.’
Whenever the stages of war and tribulation grow intense for us, they lacerate us with iron tongues, meagre as they are for us, and they attempt to evaluate our jihad with pen and paper on the chairs of luxury and delusion.
In peace-time they become harsh and crude oxen, and in war they become like weak, contemptible women of battles?[13]
To these people and others we say: the Islamic State has been overwhelmingly successful by virtue of its Lord, its standard being the Book and the Sunna, not your standards and accounts.
It has succeeded in expanding the jihad to the ends of the Earth, and conveying it to the Arabs and non-Arabs, and facilitating its paths and destroying the conditions of its impediment devised by the shaykhs of the Taghut, joined by some of those who claim to advocate jihad and have deviated in path and a long time has passed over them.
It has succeeded in the field of da‘wa on the Prophetic methodology, for the mujahidin have been spreading Islam with the spears and proof, just as was the case in the best centuries. For guidance goes with jihad. The Exalted has said: ‘We will surely guide to Our paths those who have waged jihad for Our sake.’
Look around you. Did the features of Tawhid, the path of Ibrahim, loyalty and disavowal and disbelief in the Taghut, the Shari‘a, the Caliphate, migration, coming together and separation spread and reach what they have reached today in the Islamic State’s time?
In addition, the Islamic State has succeeded and taken the initiative to protect the course of the jihad from the deviations that have invaded the fields. The one who has patched up and sewn is not like the one whose garment is correct.
We also recall a portion of that for those who did not witness the Islamic State since its eagle flew high in Iraq, the day when God illuminated its insight and thus it implemented the ruling of Islam against the Rafidites at a time when the jihadists were engrossed in theorising and rejectionist polarisation.
The Islamic State would broadcast to the Ummah the methodology of separation, whereas others would issue frivolous methodologies that oozed Jahili [14] monsters with jihadist tints, like the secular administration, the nationalist emirate and other similar concepts that would strive for that same end.
After two decades of war against it since it arose in defiant Iraq, and more than a decade since the war began against it under the leadership of the 90-member alliance, here is the Islamic State, continuing and remaining by the grace of God Almighty, a thorn in the sides of the disbelievers and a sword imposed on their necks, exposing their falsehood with proof and argument, and repelling their aggression with the sword and spear.
Here it is striking in every place through the way that is appropriate to the circumstance and place, as though its knights have written on the wall of time: ‘The Islamic State passed by here’; while inscribing on Gemini’s cheek: ‘We are for it, we are for it.’
Ask the corpses of the Jews in Sydney, the Christians in [New] Orleans. Ask the Russians in Moscow and their lackeys in the Caucasus. Ask the temples of the Rafidites in Kerman [15] and Oman, and ask them in Khorasan and Pakistan. Ask every region of this world about the heroic acts of our soldiers and the strikes of our lions.
Here one should pause and consider the heroes of the trans-continental attacks. Our brothers, you have struck and inflicted pain, and you have seen the fruit of your craftsmanship and the amount of terror, worry and mobilisation that has come upon the states of the disbelieving West, as they fear your attacks and strikes.
There is sufficient evidence for this in the great losses Crusader Europe has faced this year to secure their festivals, and how their streets have turned into fields of war. You were the heroes of this war and its kindlers through your arrows, bullets and vans.
So keep going, oh heroic lions, in your attacks against the Crusader and Jewish targets in every place. Seek help for them in secrecy and silence, and prepare for them the force of faith and the force of bodies. Do not distinguish in any of these two things and know that responsibility ultimately lies with the first of the two.[16]
Among the things that the iron-tongues have lacerated us for is the notion that we have not benefited from our experiences and not learned from our mistakes. Who told you that?
We have learned that there is nothing that should deviate the direction of Tawhid and so we have insisted upon it. We have learned that no guidance modifies the Shari‘a, and there is no error like democracy, and so we have come to believe more in the former and reject the latter more.
We have learned from our experiences that there is no path to save the Ummah besides the path of jihad, but it is filled with hardships and difficulties, so we have willingly gone upon it and accept the torment therein.
We have also learned from our experiences that the path of truth is one and the paths of falsehood are many. So we have followed the path and abandoned the other paths in response to the advice of our Lord who says: ‘This is My path, straight as it is, so follow it, and do not follow the other paths that will deviate you from His path. He has counselled you as such, that you might be God-fearing.’
We have also learned from our experiences that methodological deviation begins small and grows big with time, so we have suppressed the first signs of it and not been negligent in dealing with it, whether it is extremism or laxity.
We have also come to know for sure that the soundness of doctrines is not modified by him, so let this entire world perish and our doctrines be saved for us, through which we may meet our Lord and they may intercede for us on the day when the registers are confounded and the earth is replaced with something besides the earth and the heavens.
They have rebuked us for patience where one should be patient, and disliked its signs and become impatient with them: yes, impatient with them. They have rebuked us for steadfastness in the places of trials and said: this is an incinerator. They have rebuked us for coming forward where one should be zealous and said: this is perdition.
They have rebuked us in adversity and envied us in success. They have believed in the conquest and rejected the trench.
If we rule the land through domination and subjugation, they say: ‘It’s a conspiracy.’ If we are tested by the parties, they say: ‘This is a defeat.’ If we take consolation in the verses of patience, they say: ‘They are offering justifications.’ If we take glad tidings in the verses of victory, they say: ‘They are delusional.’
If we preach Tawhid, they say: ‘They are extremists.’ If we are silent, they say: ‘They are absent.’ And thus are the hypocrites. The jihad does not go on a way without their going on a way that is its opposite, like Satan and al-Furqan. The two do not meet.
The reality is that these people don’t care one bit about the soundness of the religion, for they have weighed matters on the balance of material substance, and thus they have considered any loss for that material substance a loss and any gain for it a victory, even at the expense of the religion. So they have not given guidance its due consideration.
This is the truth their tongues deny and their deeds pronounce.
Leaving aside the ways of the hypocrites, have you received news of the epic battle of Somalia, the nursery of men and fortress of heroes?
For more than a year they have been fighting the Crusader campaign led by America and the Emirates and the armies of Puntland on the ground, so what was the result after their campaign exceeded its timeline?
Their ranks have split, and their most prominent leaders and hundreds of their soldiers have been killed, and so the Miskaad mountains [17] have become filled with their slain, and the IEDs have wreaked havoc on their convoys, and the vanguards of the inghimasis have sprung upon them and thus scattered their forces.
And so they sought help against these men through aircraft which only exhausted them more and did not benefit them. Today they have emerged without an end-goal. Will they announce the end of the campaign with a defeat that cannot be concealed, or will they continue it with even more severe losses than initially?
Blessed be your efforts, oh soldiers of Somalia, and thank the Lord for His grace that strengthens you.
And from the epic battles in east Africa to its west, where the camps in which the Nigerian army has sought protection are burned and its nose is ground into the soil, and it has gone on the defensive and is prey for the knights of the assaults.
But if they decide to attack, the knights of martyrdom greet them with explosive-rigged vehicles. So don’t ask about their terror at that moment: ‘They are like frightened donkeys, fleeing from a lion.’
Fierce when the eagle of their banner flies on high, the hearts of death have continued to palpitate in fear of them.
And when the hawks of the Sahel saw the works of their brothers, they got up and took the initiative. For the noble soldiers have come out encircling the land and their armies have not stopped except in the middle of the bases of the Malian and Nigerien armies, wiping out those in them. And they were not content or satisfied until they brought joy to the believers through the Niamey airport raid on the day when the Tawaghit of Niger held their breath. And because of how great a shock it was, they thought the matter was a new military coup, and when the morning revealed the truth, they immediately began to cover it up with lying, but all the sieves of Africa were of no use to them.
The strangers of Central Africa and Mozambique were content with no less than that, and so they intensified their attacks on the Crusader armies, burned their camps and barracks, and stole their weapons and equipment, in a notable development and commendable effort that has surpassed the massacres of the warring Christians, moving beyond that to incinerating their weak armies.
And thus wherever your eyes turn in the African field, you see the edifice of Islam being built and the edifices of disbelief crumbling.
The knights of Africa have revived the glories and restored the paths of their ancestors ‘Uqba, Musa and Ibn Ziyad. [18]
Africa has protected the trust of the Caliphate and born its banner in the darkest of circumstances, and has fought on its behalf against the armies of the Romans and their Abyssinians, and has become the refuge of the honest ones and the qibla [19] of the muhajirin, and it has become a source of dispersal and bleeding of the Crusader campaign that attacked Iraq and al-Sham.
Thus has Africa rallied for the Caliphate, supporting, aiding and defending it with lives and souls in a glorious picture of the brotherhood of faith and a ripe fruit of the fruits of the group.
And just as the fruit of Iraq and al-Sham ripened in Africa, let the Crusaders await where the fruit of Africa will ripen. By God we ask that it should be in the depth of the Crusaders’ abode.
So be zealous, knights of Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, for the one who takes the initiative is not like the one who is in the rearguard.
Oh Muslims, Islam was not victorious initially except through migration and jihad, and it will only be victorious in the final age through these means.
Thus did the Prophet (SAWS) give glad tidings that migration and jihad continue until the rise of the Hour, for he said: ‘Migration is not cut off so long as the disbelievers are fought.’
Ibn Kathir said regarding the Almighty and Exalted’s words: ‘And whoso migrates in the path of God will find many safe refuges in the land and space’- ‘This is an encouragement to migrate and an incitement to separate from the idolaters.’
And in implementing the texts of revelation, we encourage the Muslim youth to migrate to the Islamic State’s provinces. So come on, hurry and expend your energies in building the edifice of the Shari‘a instead of wasting them in the edifices of the Tawaghit.
Fear God for your own sakes and adhere to your Lord’s command: ‘Go forth, lightly and heavily armed, and wage jihad with your wealth and lives in the path of God. That is good for you if you know.’
And know that the one who seeks to migrate will only find it through honesty and prayer, for he is penetrating the veil of the land and sky.
In this context, we reveal to the world that the muhajirin were the tip of the spear in the epic battles of Somalia and the arrows of the bow in the airport expedition.
We announce this in order to encourage the believers and enrage the disbelievers who seek to defy God Almighty’s promise that migration will continue until the rise of the Hour, so die in your rage, for migration continues and the muhajirin are coming, even if the disbelievers hate it.
And if the land of Africa is experiencing Badr and conquest, the land of Iraq and al-Sham is experiencing Uhud and the Trench. [20]
Just as the soldiers of Africa have waged battles inflicting havoc and damage, the soldiers of Iraq and al-Sham wage battles of manning the fronts and fighting. May God accept the jihad of all of them.
In the field of sacrifice and martyrdom, we announce to the Ummah of Tawhid the death of a contingent of the heroes and cadres of jihad who were killed in a series of Crusader raids and epic clashes on the soil of Iraq and al-Sham during the past two years, wherein the Crusader Alliance was preoccupied above all with pursuing and chasing them.
They departed steadfast on the path and did not alter or go back, nor did they surrender to their enemy or exchange this world for their religion. They refused to flee even while the weapons were at their throats.
Nor did they the climb the ladder our of fear of death, and even if they had fled, they would have been dignified, but they saw patience in death as more dignified.
On the same path have proceeded a group of the media knights and messengers of conveyance, thus did they fulfil their pledge to God and proved the truth of their words through their blood.
They departed in awe-inspiring silence. They lived in the curtains of the shade, offering the Ummah of Islam all good and warning it against all evil. They engaged in self-denial and dedicated their life, time and flower of their youth to supporting the Shari‘a, until they passed away with reverence surrounding them in garments of lights.
We bear witness that they fulfilled their allegiance pledge and carried out what they had to do and protected the field of media and prolonged its life as a lamp of guidance to the truth and a mercy to creation. We reckon them as such and God is their reckoner:
As they gave themselves to their fates of death. It is as though there was kinship between the fates of death and themselves.
So be heroic, oh knights of the media, and fill their place on the frontline. Bear their banner and continue their path and protect their trust and implement their counsel. Take inspiration from their blood and be filled with determination because of their sacrifices. Be the best successors to the best predecessors.
In addition to all this, we address our munasirin brothers in the supporting media. We tell them that testing, sifting and making distinctions are the power of jihad in all its fields. For testing has come upon the field of support, and the essences of the truthful ones have become forth, and they have sparkled amid the ranks despite their small numbers in a time when there is much smoke. A little bit of what is pure is better than a lot of what is contaminated.
So be keen to be among this small few who have understood the meaning of pledging allegiance, have accorded it its place and have expended the best of their times for Tawhid, and not as a mere past-time.
And consider at length the Almighty’s words: ‘And whoso wages jihad is waging jihad for himself. Indeed God has no need for the world-dwellers.’
So make efforts to support the mujahidin and be an aide to them, not a burden for them. And be stripped of pleasures and arbitrary whims. Set aside nicknames and promotions and bring forth zeal and determination.
The munasirin before you were deeds, not names. So support your state and convey its message without distortion or deficiency. So whoso accepts its methodology, let him continue, and whoso wants to mix with something besides it from delusions and arbitrary whims, let him make do with the frivolous groups and diluted methodologies, for there he can find what he wants.
For the Islamic State did not expend all these sacrifices and did not wage wars of dissociation in order to make its methodology hostage to tastes and moods. Its methodology is the Prophetic Methodology, and guidance has become more distinguished from error than on any previous occasion.
Before concluding, we address the soldiers of the Caliphate with these counsels. Oh mujahidin, today we are in a difficult spot. We don’t conceal it or minimise it. For God has decreed it for us on account of some wisdom He has inscribes in His Book and the Sunna of His Prophet.
So be steadfast in your servitude during this stage, for the reward therein is proportionate to the hardship.
This is the servitude of confrontation that Ibn al-Qayyim meant and whose necessity he clarified when he said: ‘The one who shows worship of God by confronting His enemy has taken an abundant share of honesty, and in proportion with the servant’s love for his Lord and his loyalty to Him and hostility to His enemy will his lot from this confrontation be.’
So it stands out in the places of jihad, migration and dissociation on account of the Almighty’s words: ‘And whoso migrates in the path of God will find many safe refuges in the land and space.’
And know, oh mujahidin, that the zeal and determination may falter because of the repeated calamities and successive disasters, but the believer mends them and rectified them with certainty and acceptance of God’s promise to His servants and what He has prepared for the patient in the abode of His dignity.
The bane of our age is the weakness of certainty. And the believers differ in the ranks of certainty, and it befits the mujahid to possess the highest of its ranks.
The mujahid must also educate himself in an ethical way that adorns his jihad, for the mujahidin are the most pious of people in terms of their hearts, the most honest of them in tongue, and the best of them in manners.
So oh mujahidin, preserve your manners in the time of foolishness, and it is befitting that the one at the pinnacle should not fall to the level of the people in quagmires.
So be proud without being arrogant, and be humble without being lowly, and get a sense of the people’s bitterness in manners and nurture them with the sweetness of your manners. In this regard embrace the guidance of your Prophet (SAWS), for he was mild and merciful to the believers.
Do not let the harshness of circumstances make you harsh by nature, for the believers are merciful to each other.
We also remind the mujahidin of the importance of knowledge in the fields of jihad, for between knowledge and jihad are kinship and relation.
When have the two come together? When the gates of good and chapters of success have come together. And when have the two separated? When success has retreated on that basis, and the jihad has become without insight.
And the scholars who do good are the reins of safety for the jihad. They lead it towards its objectives and bring it to its objectives.
Ibn al-Qayyim said: ‘Chivalry is of two kinds: the chivalry of knowledge and clarification, and the chivalry of shooting and stabbing. When the Companions of the Prophet (SAWS) were the best of creation in these two kinds of chivalry, they conquered hearts with argument and proof, and the land with the sword and spear. And people are only of these two sorts.’
Only the blood of martyrs equals the ink of the scholars.
In addition, the need today for security training is growing intense, for you, oh soldier of the Caliphate, are a target for all the intelligence services of the world.
If you do not understand their methods and scheming, you fall into their traps, and whenever you let down your guard or drop your defences, their arrows strike you.
And among the things connected to security: the principles of documentation and tazkiya. It is appropriate for the mujahidin to review them and be very patient before granting tazkiya to those who deserve it.
This includes tazkiya online via the Internet. It cannot be relied upon and does not remove uncertainty about the one who has it. So focus and get close. And do not be lax in the balances of injury and modification in the time when hypocrisy and betrayal are dominant.
And what the mujahid must nurture in his personality is bravery and boldness, for boldness is protection, and cowardice what leads to being killed. Boldness does not bring forward one’s fate, nor does cowardice delay it. So embrace the risk of death, for most of the damage in this time is only realised through inghimas, and the inghimas are the pearl of the crown in the fields of jihad.
And the summation of counsels in the first and last: fear of God Almighty in private and public, and patience over adversities and tribulations.
When these two things come together in you, God repels the enemies’ scheme from you, and He promises you conquest and victory. The Wise and Knowing has said: ‘If you are patient and fear God, their scheme will not harm you at all. Indeed God is aware of what they do.’
So increase remembrance of the Almighty and renew repentance towards Him, and prostrate yourselves at the Exalted’s threshold, and be insisted upon Him in His names and qualities.
Then await from God while you are in a state of hardship, and thank the Almighty for the bounty He has bestowed on you. For these are the days of patience, and after them come deliverance and victory by the permission of God Almighty.
So support God and He will support you. Fear His place and His threat, and He will grant you the land of your enemy. Be patient and steadfast, and endure, and fear God. Perhaps You will be successful.
And God is predominant over His affair but most of the people do not know it.
Notes
[1]- Referring to operatives who ‘plunge’ into the ranks of the enemy, clashing with them and inflicting maximum damage. Islamic State ‘inghimasis’ wear suicide belts that they are allowed to detonate if they cannot retreat after inflicting the necessary damage.
[2]- ‘Criterion of distinction’- a play of course on the Islamic State media outlet’s name.
[3]- Recesses in the mosque that indicate the direction of prayer.
[4]- Derogatory term for Alawite. Likewise ‘Rafidite’ is a derogatory term for Shi‘a.
[5]- Idolatrous tyrant (pl. Tawaghit).
[6]- Derisive reference to the ‘Deterring the Aggression’ operations that ultimately culminated in the Assad regime’s fall.
[7]- i.e. The end-times.
[8]- Both locations in Syria associated with the end-times. Dabiq in particular is well-known from Islamic State propaganda. ‘The White Minaret’ was the name of the propaganda outlet for Jabhat al-Nusra (which was led by Ahmad al-Sharaa and originated as an Islamic State affiliate and split off from it in 2013).
[9]- A figure in the Qur’an who misleads Israelites away from worshipping God.
[10]- A line of poetry, it is meant as a form of mockery, comparing the person addressed to a pawn in chess that suddenly becomes a more significant piece on the board by adopting a crown.
[11]- i.e. The entire world of disbelievers and apostates.
[12]- An incident in the traditional narrative of the Prophet Muhammad’s life. It is used here by Islamic State (as it has done on other occasions) to emphasise the importance of steadfastness upon the path despite hardships: that is, just as those who gave allegiance to the Prophet back then knew what they were getting into, so the believer today should know that fighting for the truth necessarily entails hardships.
[13]- Another line of poetry, intended to deride the critics as vicious with their tongue but cowards who cannot come to the battlefield or prove themselves to be disgraceful in the field.
[14]- Pre-Islamic ignorance.
[15]- A location in Iran where the Islamic State conducted suicide bombings at the turn of 2024.
[16]- i.e. It is not enough simply to attack the infidels. The attack has to be based on the correct motives and doctrine of faith.
[17]- Located in northern Somalia. The mountains became a stronghold for the Islamic State after dislodging al-Qa‘ida-affiliate al-Shabaab.
[18]- The references are to ‘Uqba bin Nafi‘, Tariq bin Ziyad and Musa bin Nusayr. ‘Uqba was a key figure in the Muslim conquests of North Africa, Tariq and Musa in the conquest of Spain (with the invasion force proceeding out of North Africa).
[19]- i.e. Where the foreigners head to in order to fight. Qibla normally refers to the direction of prayer towards Mecca.
[20]- The references are to the Battle of Badr, the conquest of Mecca and the battles of Uhud and the Trench- which took place during the Prophet’s lifetime. Badr symbolises great victory despite being outnumbered, the conquest the ultimate triumph of Islam in Arabia. Uhud represents a setback for the Muslims, while the Trench represents holding out amid a siege imposed by a confederation of the disbelievers.
Published originally on February 22, 2026.
