Part 5
Osama Nahzat
Throughout the history of Islam, there have consistently emerged groups that, by distorting the objectives of Sharia and misusing sacred religious concepts, inflicted their most devastating harm not upon the enemies of Islam, but upon the Muslim Ummah itself. Among the most infamous of these in modern times is Daesh, the ideological and operational heir of the historical Khawarij.
Appearing under banners such as “jihad against the disbelievers” and “establishing the Caliphate,” the Daeshi Khawarij deceived thousands of young, impressionable Muslims. Cloaked in slogans of piety and sacrifice, they led these youths down a path of destruction, using them as pawns in pursuit of their corrupt and deviant objectives.
These extremists portray themselves as the inheritors of the swords of the noble Companions (Sahabah), yet the reality of their actions reveals a stark contrast. The primary victims of their brutality, through suicide attacks, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and mass executions, have overwhelmingly been Muslims. In Iraq, Syria, and other Muslim lands, countless worshippers were slaughtered within mosques during Friday prayers, in classrooms, and in hospital wards.
While Daesh’s leaders repeatedly claimed to be at the forefront of the fight against disbelievers, their actions tell a different story. They carried out no meaningful operations against the Zionist regime or the occupying forces of the West. Instead, they directed their cruelty toward the very Ummah they professed to defend. Markets, homes, clinics, and places of worship were drenched in Muslim blood. Among the thousands who fell victim were respected scholars, mosque imams, teachers, children, and defenseless women, martyrs not of war, but of treachery.
The roots of this violent deviation lie in the same ideological poison that plagued the earliest Khawarij, those who, with rigid extremism, branded any Muslim who did not conform to their false interpretation of Islam as a disbeliever and declared their blood lawful to shed. In this manner, the Daeshis followed a legacy not of reform or revival, but of rebellion and ruin.
Even more grievously, they abandoned the legitimate jihad against foreign occupiers and aggressors, an obligation governed by the conditions of Islamic law, and instead unleashed a wave of internal chaos, turning their fury inward. Their aim, it seemed, was not the repulsion of external enemies, but the weakening of Muslim strength from within.
When the noble claim of jihad becomes a tool for fitna and destruction, it becomes more dangerous than any external force. As the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) forewarned regarding such people:
“They kill the people of Islam and spare the idol worshipers.” (Sahih al-Bukhari)
Today, the group known as Daesh represents the modern continuation of that same corrupt ideology, one that weaponizes sacred terminology to spread horror. The people they claimed to defend have, in truth, become their primary victims. Real jihad, as established by the Sharia, is a collective duty that must be guided by righteous scholars, conducted under the banner of the Ummah’s unity, and grounded in the foremost condition: the protection of Muslim lives and property.
In conclusion, Daesh’s gravest betrayal lies not only in their massacres, but in their deliberate distortion of the noble concept of jihad, a duty that is the source of honor for the Ummah. Through their actions, this sacred duty was perverted into a symbol of division and terror. Yet this stain will never erase the truth. The Muslim Ummah, with unity and awareness, will preserve the essence of true jihad, one that confronts foreign aggression, not one that sheds the blood of the innocent.
