By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 4 June 2025
Muslim belief is that the Qur’an is “uncreated” (ghayr makhluq). While the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad over twenty-three years (610-32 AD), the “speech of God” (kalam Allah) in these revelations had existed co-eternally with God. This was once a point of serious dispute in Islamic theology, and the outcome of that debate was an important waymarker in the development of Islam.
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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