By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 26 November 2021

After the founder of the Islamic State movement, Ahmad al-Khalayleh, the infamous Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed on 7 June 2006, an open letter eulogising him was posted by his wife, known only as Umm Muhammad (“the Mother of Muhammad”). The letter dates, it seems, to 6 July 2006, about a month after Zarqawi’s demise.[1] The content is mostly boilerplate: celebrating “the Shaykh of the Slaughterers” for terrorising the Americans and others who wanted constitutional government in Iraq,[2] venomous sectarian incitement against Shi’is, declaring that jihadist victory is near and cannot be derailed by the “martyrdom” of one leader. What is perhaps most notable when reading the letter at this distance is, firstly, that it was published by an Al-Qaeda media outlet, and, secondly, how much space is devoted to praising Usama bin Laden, and declaring the undying fealty of Zarqawi and his men to Bin Laden. Because, of course, the IS movement was at this time nominally a subordinate component of Bin Laden’s network named Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (AQM). The Zarqawists’ overt breach with Al-Qaeda still eight years in the future.

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In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate,

Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings

A message from the wife of Shaykh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, may Allah have mercy on him, to the entire world

[Poetic] Profitable was the bargain, Abu Musab [/] You enraged them and exhausted them, alive and dead

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate,

Praise be to Allah, He who gives life and He who causes death, the one who commanded the believers to fight [knowing that] among them are many who will refuse and go astray while a few will remain steadfast.

And prayers and peace be upon the one who urged the seeking of martyrdom, making clear that ranks as an exalted station that none among the slaves [of Allah] shall attain except the sincere and reliable ones.

To proceed:

This is a message that I direct firstly to our shaykh, our emir, and our commanding guardian [or “governor of our affairs”: wali amrina], Shaykh Usama bin Laden, may Allah preserve him and watch over him and make him a bleeding thorn in the throats of his enemies:

May Allah magnify your reward and make good your consolation in our calamity through the martyrdom of the beloved dear one [al-habib al-ghali], the mujahid shaykh, the ferocious lion, the poised prince of the slaughterers [or “emir of the slaughterers” or “slaughtering emir”: al-emir al-dhabbah], Shaykh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, may Allah accept him and make his abode the highest garden in paradise [al-Firdaws al-a‘la].

Be patient and seek reward, our shaykh, for, by Allah, the mothers of the mujahideen among the people of Iraq especially, when news of the martyrdom of their sons reached them, would say: “So long as Shaykh Abu Musab is well, then our calamity over our sons becomes easier.”

And we say: “So long as our Shaykh Osama, our wali amrina and enrager of the kuffar, is well, then our calamity through [the loss of] our shaykh, our beloved, and our leader Abu Musab becomes easier, despite the greatness of the affliction, by Allah, and the severity of the calamity.”

But this, by Allah, was what your emir in the Land of the Two Rivers [or “Mesopotamia”: Bilad al-Rafidayn] wished: that he sacrifice everything he possessed for you. And, indeed, he, by Allah, loved you and was sincere to you, obedient to your commands, offering his soul and deeming it cheap, and longing for and striving toward meeting with you. We, by Allah, are in anticipation and longing for the coming epics [al-malahim] with which we were given glad tidings [or “good news”: bushr]. We ask Allah Most High that they not be except under your leadership, our noble emir, as a cause of rage to the enemies of Allah from among your enemies.

Shaykh Abu Musab was nothing but a soldier in the ranks of one of your armies, and the soldiers are many. All praise belongs to Allah, and all favour. With the killing of Abu Musab, the wombs of the women of this umma [Islamic community] will not become barren: they will give birth to those who are harsher upon the kuffar than Abu Musab, and they will join the ranks of your armies [as those] from among the people of al-ta’ifa al-mansura [the victorious faction], by permission of their Lord, whose last [generation] shall fight the Dajjal [“the Deceiver”, Antichrist].

So cast them wherever you wish, our shaykh, for we, by Allah, continue upon the covenant [al-ahd], renewing our bay’a [oath of allegiance] to you, and our obedience to your commands in what is right. It is sufficient honour for Abu Musab—may Allah have mercy on him, accept him, and forgive him—that he was one of the men of this epic and one of those igniting its fuse, opening the gate of its fires against the enemies of the deen [lifeway, i.e., Islam], the Jews, Crusaders, Rafidites [derog. Shi’is, Iranians], and apostates [murtadeen].

So remain safe from every evil for your soldiers and your devotees. Upon you be peace from Allah.

Another message I direct to the righteous heroes of the umma and its mujahid men on the various fronts:

Those on the front lines, standing firm in the face of the artillery and beneath the fire of the bombers, and the mujahideen in the rear ranks standing behind them as support for their brothers, and the mujahideen in the rear guard, those working in secret whom Umar does not know but the Lord of Umar knows, so they await reward solely from the Lord of Umar:

To all of them I say: may Allah magnify your reward and make good your consolation regarding your leader, your beloved, and your slaughtering emir who killed the Romans [i.e., Westerners] in the worst way, and exposed the Rafidites and tore them apart in the worst way, I clasp your hands firmly and advise you to remain steadfast and determined upon right guidance. For Allah has opened for you a gate and, by Allah, it shall not be closed except through victory.

O slaves of Allah, remain steadfast, for you are not those who will be shaken by the martyrdom of an emir or the capture of a leader. Rather, your aqeeda [creed, doctrine] is stronger and firmer. That it is which causes your hatred for the dunya [temporal world] and your clinging to the hereafter. So vengeance, vengeance for your deen first, then for your blood, your honour, and your wealth—for all of that is from the gates of martyrdom toward which your Prophet urged you.

Jihad was not established, nor did the leaders proceed upon what they proceeded upon, nor did they achieve what they did of inflicting harm upon your enemy, enraging him and terrorising him, except through you. For you are their arms and you are their eyes, may Allah reward you greatly and upon Him alone is your righteousness.

So just as you honoured them [i.e., the jihadist leaders] in their lives, do not forsake them after their deaths, and continue upon the covenant. For your beloved shaykh, after the search campaigns had begun increasing against him in recent times, when America and its agents allocated thirty thousand soldiers and more for the single mission of searching for your shaykh, I said to him: “Will you not leave Iraq temporarily and direct your leaders from outside until that campaign calms and fails?” He looked at me angrily and disapprovingly, and said: “Me?! Me?! Would I be a traitor to my deen such that I depart outside Iraq?! No, by Allah, I shall never leave Iraq except through victory or martyrdom.”

This was your shaykh, who fulfilled [his covenant] with his Lord and with you, I consider him so though it is not for me too judge him before Allah. So, are you fulfilling [your covenant]? As our shaykh Usama, may Allah preserve him and watch over him, said: “Do not disgrace the umma after victory has drawn near, for the entire umma has attached its hopes to you. So what are you going to do?”

Another message I direct is to the family and relatives of our shaykh and slaughtering emir Abu Musab, may Allah accept him, have mercy on him, and forgive him:

I congratulate you upon the martyrdom of your son, who was dutiful to you and to his umma, truthful and resolute, strong and sincere. He never ceased speaking of you and supplicating for you, and how greatly, greatly he longed to see you and for the intimacy of gathering with you, to the extent that one day, after performing istikhara and consultation regarding releasing his video recording [showing his face, in April 2006]—something that made me fear greatly for him—he said to me: “Now my sisters and brothers and all my family will rejoice seeing me well.”

Although what was shown by the media outlets of the apostate collaborator [amila] Jordanian government saddened him—the statements by some individuals from his tribe disavowing him and what he was doing—nevertheless he wished all goodness for their sons and youth, and would supplicate for them.

So Allah, Allah concerning your deen, the youth of the tribe and its sons, may Allah magnify your reward and make good your consolation. Be patient upon your deen until you meet him in the Garden of Eternity in which there is no weariness nor fatigue.

A message I direct to the lagging ones, the stay-behinds [al-mutakhadhilin al-khawalif] who were content to sit back behind from the Messenger:

Sit with those who sit behind and fill your bellies with food and drink, for they shall be filled with dust and clay: you were satisfied with the worldly life over the hereafter, while the enjoyment of the worldly life compared to the hereafter is but little.

These are the processions and caravans of martyrs coming one after another, travelling to their Creator with the redness of blood and the fragrance of musk exuding from their bodies the scent of perfume, while your dead are from a traffic accident or death upon a soft bed, followed by odours that even the nose of a camel cannot bear to smell.

Woe to you, O cowards. You abandoned the glad tidings of your Lord for that against which He warns you, making excuses, apologising, and basing yourselves upon the statements of your misguiding ulema [scholars, theologians]. By the One in whose hand is my soul, you shall not be excused because you were imitating them. No, by Allah, you shall not be excused. You may imitate them in subsidiary matters of the deen. It is not for you to imitate them in the principal matters and foundations of the deen.

It is unanimously agreed that among al-nawaqid [the nullifiers (of Islam)] is allying with the kuffar, and this is what we most see apparent among the rulers and those in power [in the Muslim world]. The last of what is counted among the nullifiers is this: Turning away from the deen of Allah and neglecting learning it. This is what the common people have fallen into, and there is no excuse for it while the Book of Allah [i.e., the Qur’an] and His Sunna are preserved between your hands. Yet you abandoned them for the statements of those misguiding ones whom the Messenger of Allah feared for his umma more than he feared the Dajjal himself. [When Muhammad was asked why he bothered warning a people whom God was about to destroy, he replied:] “To be free of guilt before your Lord, and perhaps they may fear Allah” [Qur’an 7:164].

Another message to the dogs of the Romans and their rented donkeys:

We say to you: do not display joy and happiness at the killing of our shaykh and our slaughtering emir, nor pretend it before your peoples, because we, by Allah, know that his death enraged you greatly. Had you been truthful in monitoring his locations and tracking him for a month before his killing, it would have been more to your liking and more healing for your chests that you capture him. But such is the mendacity upon which you have always proceeded. So praise be to Allah who did not enable you to track him nor to seize him as a captive.

Thus Allah Most High made his death a source of rage for you, just as his life was. And indeed he, by Allah, constantly uttered supplication at every moment seeking martyrdom without ceasing. Previously, he supplicated to his Lord to prolong his life so that he could duel with you, until he saw victory with his own eyes and the might for this umma. In recent times, he would say: “Victory is inevitably coming, but I long for martyrdom.” Thus he sensed it and rejoiced in expectation of it, to the extent that he awaited it every day like one who has an appointed meeting with it. May Allah Most High have mercy on him, accept him, and forgive him.

I shall add for you another line of poetry, for indeed he [i.e., Zarqawi], by Allah, used to say: “I shall appear in the recording to the umma so that whoever is enraged by his disbelief may become enraged, and whoever is pleased through his iman [faith] may rejoice, and indeed I, by Allah, feel that martyrdom after it is my appointed meeting.” Allah spoke truthfully and made him truthful, I consider him so and I do not purify him before Allah. Thus the various forms of martyrdom came searching for him until they met him less than two months after his appearance before the umma, so that through your striking him he attained two martyrdoms, not one.

So praise be to Allah who granted him through your [i.e., America’s] hands and despite you his utmost wishes, and indeed it is, by Allah, a gift that you presented to him, whether you realise it or not. It is sufficient for him in might and honour, and sufficient for you in oppression and grief, that he opened upon you a gate that shall not be closed, namely slaughter [al-dhabh], which our Prophet, peace be upon him, established as a Sunna, and he renewed the opening of its gate against you to the extent that during the previous Eid al-Adha [30 December 2006 – 3 January 2007] I said to him: “Will you not offer a sacrifice?” And he, may Allah have mercy on him, accept him, and forgive him, said to me: “And from where would I get the money! I do not possess the price of a sacrificial animal, but perhaps Allah will provide me with an American ilj [infidel combatant, barbarian, non-Muslim foreigner] so that I may draw near to Allah by slaughtering him.”

This is our aqeeda and the Sunna of our Prophet, which had become extinct, so he revived it for you before he bid us farewell. The curse of Abu Musab upon you [i.e., the West] shall pursue you until you are annihilated through slaughter in defeat.

As for you, Rafidites [lit. “rejectors”] of the communal creed [al-milla] and the deen [i.e., Iraqi Shi’is], you are too contemptible and humiliated for me to direct a message to you. You are the laughingstock of the communities [al-umam] and peoples, O people of self-flagellation and writhing [ahl al-latm wal-raqs],[3] sons of mut’a [temporary marriage], brothers of the Jews, and followers of the Dajjal.

Here is the buffoon, [Iraqi National Security Advisor] Muwaffaq al-Rubay’i, who cannot distinguish alif from ba’ nor males from females, emerging in his stupidity to repeat during a television interview on the collaborator [or agent: al-amila] channel Al-Arabiya that they were awaiting the results of the “seminal acid” to identify the dead. What a scandal: seminal acid! That is what this pretender uttered. He cannot distinguish between the word “nucleic” [nawawi, i.e., DNA] and “seminal” [manawi]. They altered the deen of Allah and substituted it, so He stamped upon their hearts and sealed their mouths. Thus praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. Yes, by Allah, praise be to Allah who made your exposure, O Rafidites, brothers of the Jews and followers of the Dajjal, occur at the hands of the beloved Abu Musab.

Praise be to Allah that Abu Musab, may Allah have mercy on him, accept him, and forgive him, did not depart from this fleeting world until he had opened—rather, flung wide open—against you not merely one gate but multiple gates that had been closed against you. What he has done in opening them ensures that such wars against you will continue, with killing and exemplary torment [al-qatl wal-tankil].

Praise be to Allah that days before his death he specifically addressed you in a special series of his lectures in which he reminded the umma of your black history, clarified to it your crimes and treacheries, and clarified the ruling of Allah Most High concerning you—that the mujahideen had not innovated anything unprecedented when they fought you.

So die in your rage.[4] The shaykh was martyred, yet his shu’m [bad omen] upon you remains until you perish, soon by Allah’s permission.

As for the other clown, Nouri al-Maliki, he truly believes himself to be a person of rank [or holder of office: sahib mansib] and a Prime Minister. Yes, by Allah, a Prime Minister over a government of the spider’s house [i.e., a feeble one].[5] He comes before us, mimicking the appearances of his politicians, having been coached on the manner and method of announcing the news of the martyrdom of our beloved shaykh, Abu Musab, may Allah have mercy on him and accept him, proclaiming that this marked the beginning of a new stage characterised by calm and stability in Iraq. May you fail and lose, O renegade.[6] Could your politicians not find anyone better than you, O dullard!

At the very time when the liar of the White House [i.e., George W. Bush] and the thief of Britain [i.e., Tony Blair] were coming out announcing the news, while nevertheless all of them were declaring that this “does not mean the cessation of the jihadist operations nor necessarily the stabilisation of Iraq”, along comes this dim-witted pupil to say the opposite of what they said and what they instructed him to say. What stupidity.

May the faces be disfigured. May the faces be disfigured. But I say this as a decisive statement, not, by Allah, in jest: Do not rejoice too greatly at the martyrdom of Al-Zarqawi, for the great slaughter is coming—I bring you glad tidings of it—and not one out of every hundred shall survive. If you wish, consult the hadiths of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and contemplate them, then, if you wish, take heed of them, or leave them.

And in conclusion, I say: Congratulations to you, my shaykh, my beloved, my emir, and the joy of my eyes. Congratulations to you, for how greatly you desired martyrdom in the path of Allah [fi sabil Allah], and how greatly you longed for it. I consider, and Allah is your Reckoner, that you attained it twice: Martyrdom in the path of Allah, and the martyrdom of the one killed beneath a collapse [sahib al-hadm]. For Al-Bukhari related in his Sahih: “On the authority of Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), the Messenger of Allah (the peace and blessings of Allah upon him) said: ‘The martyrs are five: the one struck by plague, the one afflicted [by disease] in the abdomen, the drowned one, the one killed beneath a collapse, and the martyr in the path of Allah’.” O Allah, grant him [i.e., Zarqawi] his reward twice. O Allah, grant him his reward twice.

[Begin Arabic poetry]

Farewell, Abu Musab, farewell [/] to the lofty gardens on high.

You left my eyes overflowing, [/] their tears pouring endlessly in abundance.

My heart has bled from grief for you, [/] and my chest has overflowed with anguish.

O Lord, unite me with my beloved swiftly, [/] so that I may swiftly accompany him.

A companionship that will not bid me farewell and depart, [/] leaving me frightened and alone in the desert.

No, by Allah, no eyes ever tired of seeing him, [/] nor arms ever had enough of embracing him.

So grant me again the sweetness of his whispered words [/] in the eternal abode, an everlasting delight.

You came to Iraq when it had been overwhelmed [/] by the dogs of Rome, who turned it into a battleground.

And you were for it, what a noble son, [/] charging fiercely against their strongholds.

You slaughtered infidels, when you slaughtered among them [/] uluj [pl. ilj] whom the rabble followed.

Your deeds terrified them, O my emir [/] with a knife you repaid them measure for measure!

And against the Rafidites you established the shari‘a, [/] clarifying the proof, so there remained no dispute.

Through you Allah granted might to Islam as a deen, [/] and through it you stood mighty and unafraid.

Iraq shall weep for you and every inch [of land] [/] upon whose soil your feet once trod shall crumble [in grief].

And the Land of the Two Rivers, you were its support [/] for a long age, yet today that feels like but an hour.

So live eternally in the green garden [al-janna al-khadra, i.e., paradise], [/] for there is there neither sorrow nor disturbance [or “fear”: irtiy’a].

O Lord, join me to my beloved swiftly, [/] so that I may swiftly embrace him once more.

[End of Arabic poetry]

Your wife, the lover of the prince of the slaughterers.

Umm Muhammad

The one who was falsely accused [al-muftara alayha]

[Published by:]

The Media Committee of the Mujahideen Shura Council in Iraq [Al-Hay’a al-I’lamiyya li-Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen fi al-Iraq].

Source: Al-Fajr Media Centre

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FOOTNOTES

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[1] I found the letter on a jihadist forum and it was referred to as a new release in a post of that date, with multiple responses from the same day writing as if it was new. I could not track down the original release directly from Al-Qaeda’s media outlets, however, so I cannot be completely certain.

[2] Though Umm Muhammad does not actually used that phrase, Shaykh al-Dhabbahin (شيخ الذبّاحين), preferring instead “Emir of the Slaughterers”.

[3] “Writhing” is from raqs (رقص), which is literally “dancing”. “Self-flagellation” is translated from al-latm (اللطم), which is literally “chest-beating” or possibly “face-slapping”. It is a sectarian taunt referring to the lamentation festival of Ashura. The rhymed insult is popular in the Middle East and al-latm featured in a prominent one directed by Sunni supremacists at the Shi’is after the fall of Saddam Husayn: Lana al-hukm; wa lakum al-latm (لانا الحكم؛ و لكم اللطم), “For us, political power; for you, self-flagellation” (al-hukm could also be given as “rule” or “governance”).

[4] The phrase, “So, die in your rage” (Fa mutu bi-ghayzikum (فموتوا بغيظكم)), would become much more prominent later on in Islamic State propaganda, associated specifically with the Spokesman during the height of the caliphate era, Taha Falaha (Abu Muhammad al-Adnani).

[5] The reference is to Qur’an 29:41: “The parable of those who take protectors other than Allah is that of the spider who builds a house. Truly, the flimsiest of houses is the spider’s house; if they but knew.”

[6] “Renegade” is from al-mariq, which has a historic association with the Khawarij or Kharijites, agreed by all Muslims—even the Islamic State movement—to be extremists beyond the bounds of the faith. In the 2010s, ISIS would be called “Khawarij” by many Muslims and Islamists in Islamdom as a way of attacking its Islamic credentials.