On Dec 21st, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan put a stop on all attendance and activities of the women at the universities. Immediately the world reacted. All Western countries issued a joint statement condemning the decision. Influential Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and UAE also condemned the decision calling it “unislamic” and “inhumane”. Turkish and Saudi reaction questioned the Taliban officials and reminded them how important education in Islam was for all Muslims including women and girls and any such decision were unislamic and backwards. Several non-Muslim and Muslim media pundits, education experts, human rights activists and even Islamic scholars from around the world reacted on social media demanding an immediate reversal of this decision.

While the decision is getting a lot of media coverage there's hardly any reporting that  explains the reason of this decision by the Afghan government. Unfortunately to say this but even the vibrant Muslim media houses like Al Jazeera, TRT World, or Arab Media outlets, remain silent. Therefore its important to know why Taliban made this decision for girls and women. 

The Afghan media reported that when inquired about the decision, the acting Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadim said that some reforms planned by the Islamic Emirate were not implemented in the higher education sector over the past 16 months. Nadim outlined four reasons for the closure of universities for female students.
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1. He said the women from other provinces were traveling without male companions (mahram) and staying alone at dormitories at the universities.
2. There was a consistent lack of observation of hijab by female students.
3. Despite given guidelines there was mixing of male and females genders at the campuses.
4. Existence of some faculties for girls are in contrast with the “Islamic law and Afghan pride." “The current curriculum has at least 160 fields. There were some fields that were in contrast with the dignity and pride of women and Afghan culture. Engineering and Agriculture are part of them,” 

Since the takeover of the country the Taliban are struggling to replace the education system and syllabus of modern universities and schools in the country. The modern school system in Afghanistan was setup as a result of the secularization efforts by the colonial powers and their Afghan allies since 19th century. These institutes were the first to replace the historical traditional Islamic Madrassah system of Afghanistan. The main concern of Taliban comes from the fact that the modern universities and schools are setup within a secular framework and the Islamic studies come under that framework. For instance, the Department of Theology comes inside a secular university which they say is incorrect. They believe that the correct way is that all secular studies need to be setup under the traditional Islamic Madrassah. In such a setup the compulsory education will be Islamic, and the secular studies will only be optional.

The secularization of the Muslim world began after Europe colonized large parts of the Muslim world. Afghanistan was one of the few exceptions because Afghans fiercely resisted such efforts, first against Great Britain, then USSR and then US led Western countries. At this moment one of the greatest challenge for Taliban is to streamline the education system and syllabus in these institutes along Islamic lines. But they are finding it hard to restructure these institutions where hundreds and thousands attend every day especially amid international pressure mainly from the West. Their aim is a complete demolition of the current education system which is built along European model.

How did the Secularization Education Project begin?

In the 19th and 20th century Afghanistan was in the midst of the international rivalry of Great Britain versus Tsarist Russia first and then Soviet Russia. Called the Great Game both Britain and Russia tried to gain influence on the country’s elite in Kabul whose personal or national interests would at times ally them with one power against the other. This led the Kabul based rulers to be influenced by the socio-political systems of these powers who now tried to reform their own society based on their models. 

It was during Amanullah Khan’s rule that the first drive to modernize the state began and education system was also included in the list. The new education system for the first time, encouraged women to step outside the traditional way of life of the Islamic Afghan culture. Amanullah Khan ruled Afghanistan from 1926 to 1929 and during his tenure the first modern girls’ school was opened in the country. Amanullah announced drastic reforms to “update” Afghan culture. He declared Coeducation to be compulsory for children and foreign-run schools were to be established in all provinces. For the first time girls were also permitted to be sent to study abroad. These included the official holiday being shifted from the Friday to Thursday. Polygamy was to be abolished and blood money prohibited. He even ordered Western dress in parts of Kabul and elsewhere, discouraging the veiling and seclusion of women.

Amanullah’s reforms were met with fierce resistance from the religious tribal rural Afghanistan that eventually led towards him being ousted and exiled, and immediate reverse of all such anti-Islamic reforms. Nadir Khan replaced Amanullah, who also worked on modernization project but with a softer approach. Gradually Nadir succeeded in making primary schooling compulsory and foreigners could continue teaching in Afghan schools, but girls schools remained shut and girls were forbidden from study abroad. After Nader Khan's assasination, his son Muhammad Zahir Shah, became the King for the next 40 years of Afghanistan. He was a mild ruler compared to predecessors but he too continued pushing for modernization. Zahir Shah was educated in France and was only 19 when he ascended the throne in 1933 after his father was assassinated. Zahir Shah brought in foreign advisers, established the first modern university (Kabul University) in 1944, and pushed for cultural relations with Europe. He introduced Western democracy, elections, a parliament system and also pushed for more women rights and freedom on the footsteps of European culture. 

But despite all efforts by these rulers to bring the majority of the country into the modern setup they failed mainly because the religious and tribal sentiments of the country especially in the rural areas always resisted. Hence Afghanistan was unable to be fully or at least majority was never integrated into European model like other Muslim states after the abolishment of Osmania Khilafat. In 1973 Zahir Shah was replaced by Communist Afghans like Muhammad Taraki who came to power and adopted the same radical approach as Amanullah in bringing reforms. Introducing radical Marxist policies that challenged both traditional Afghan values and well-established traditional power structures in rural areas. Taraki introduced women to political life and legislated marriage laws challenging the traditional marriage system. Taraki launched an ambitious literacy campaign stressing modern education for both boys and girls. Popular resentment of Taraki's drastic policy changes triggered surging unrest throughout the country.

To support these unpopular Kabul allies USSR invaded Afghanistan and once again the resistance against the might of a secular power started. After soviets were defeated and withdrew in 1989, the Taliban movement emerged and in 1996 came to control majority of the country. They were strictly madrassah graduates with extremely low or almost no influence of modern universities and school. The Taliban were a generation who were descendants of those tribal and religious leaders of the country who had resisted Kabul’s modernization efforts for several decades.

They were adamant to bring about the change in the system of modern education institutes centered in major cities, whose system operates on a dichotomy of religious vs secular which results in a friction within the society. The Taliban were in control for about 6 years when 9/11 happened and this time US entered Afghanistan and replaced their Islamic Emirate and reinstated the democratic parliament system and constitution. The modern institutes were back in business and Taliban’s system was declared as religious extremism that was now the biggest target of the “free world”. Education and women rights and their free access to modern schools and universities was the greatest selling point of the US led occupation. The Taliban were the “terrorists" who disliked women and their access to education. 

For the next 20 years Taliban continued to resist from their bases in rural Afghanistan, the same region known to resist modernization efforts since Amanullah times! After defeat of the US led NATO alliance and their withdrawal the Taliban are now back in power and the greatest struggle that their facing is the restructuring of all those institutions based in major centers like Kabul, that are purely run on European models including the Education System, which is inherently unislamic and was always pushed by a secular minded elite on the Afghan society. Hence Taliban’s latest reaction to these education centers is because they function in a way that they will modernize and secularize the Afghan minds who will view Islam as secondary or outdated. So this is the story of Taliban’s latest suspension of schools and universities especially for women. They cannot tolerate and watch thousands of young minds men and women subtly indoctrinated in these institutions on daily basis. 

It is in this regards that Taliban’s Chief Justice Haqqani said that 'secular institutes spread immorality and irreligion, and rampant freemixing, schools are, amongst the greatest barriers between Muslims and Islam, and the greatest preventors of the teaching of the Quran, the rulings of the Sharia, and the moral uprightness of Muslims. It was only logical, therefore, for an Islamic government to abandon taqleed (blind imitation) of the West in its secular-religious distinction: the real cause for the Islamic world’s decline. It is important for an Islamic government,’ Haqqani elucidates, 'to not abandon secular education, but incorporate it within a broader religious education.’

How do Taliban plan to Islamize Education?

In May 2022, the Taliban released a 312-page manifesto titled “Al Imarat al Islamiah wa Nizamuha,” which translates as “The Islamic Emirate and Its Nizam” (“nizam” means administration, system, institutions, or order). About one-sixth of the book is about women and their place, rights, and responsibilities in an Islamic society. It declares that in the new education system Islamic education (madrassa education) is wajib (mandatory) for both men and women. Modern education (secular education), however, remains mubah (permitted) for both sexes. Islamic education should be given twice as much time as modern education. 

The document discusses the rights and roles of women and girls at some length. In terms of education, women and girls should study subjects deemed appropriate for their gender. These include anything related to the domestic realm, such as home sciences, elderly and child care, or embroidery. Women in the Islamic Emirate should only work in fields deemed necessary for them, such as medicine (to treat women) or education (only for girls). Women should not travel long distances without a mahram, a close male relative, nor should they take jobs or participate in educational activities that require them to travel for more than three days. Women cannot hold senior leadership positions, but they can work if they are separated from men in the workplace. Women must always wear the hijab (including full facial coverage).


References:
Taliban says women banned from universities in Afghanistan
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/20/taliban-says-women-banned-from-universities-in-afghanistan
Turkey, Saudi Arabia condemn Taliban’s university ban for women
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/22/turkey-saudi-arabia-condemn-talibans-university-ban-for-women 
Nadim Outlines Reasons for Closure of Universities for Women
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-181303 
Afghanistan’s Century of Politicised Education
By Ahmed-Waleed Kakar- 21 December 2022
https://afghaneye.org/2022/12/21/afghanistan-girls-education/ 
Profile: Ex-king Zahir Shah
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1573181.stm
History of education in Afghanistan
By Mir Hekmatullah Sadat
https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/history-education-afghanistan 
Do the Taliban Have Transnational Ambitions?
By Maryam Baryalay and Abdul Mateen Imran
July 29, 2022
https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/do-the-taliban-have-transnational-ambitions/ 

Is Israel gaining influence in the region?

Narrated Muadh ibn Jabal that the Prophet ﷺ said: "The flourishing state of Jerusalem will be when Yathrib (Madinah) is in ruins, the ruined state of Yathrib (Madinah) will be when the great war comes, the outbreak of the great war will be at the conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) and the conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) when the Dajjal (Antichrist) comes forth." He (the Prophet) struck his thigh or his shoulder with his hand and said: "This is as true as you are here or as you are sitting (meaning Muadh ibn Jabal)". (Sunan Abi Daud)

The history of the Muslims and the Roman Christians is filled with events of war and peace, truce and fighting. The relationship between the Muslims and the Romans of today i.e. the Europeans is not as stable; rather it alternates between peace and war. The Prophet ﷺ related to us that one of the signs of Akhiruz Zamaan (End of times) is a major war between the Muslims and the Romans which will occur during Imam Mahdi's time. The Prophet ﷺ  called it the great battle, in which the Muslims will be victorious, then they will go and conquer Constantinople (modern Istanbul), then the Dajjaal will appear. Many Islamic thinkers and scholars believe we are in that time now where "flourishing state of Jerusalem" is rapidly taking shape before our eyes, an indication of the influential role of Israel in the region and in the world. It was in 2018 Israel unilaterally declared Jerusalem, a disputed territory, to be its new capital and USA even moved their embassy to the city followed by some other countries. Despite Israel’s 70 years of illegal occupation of Palestine and Jerusalem many Arab states have gradually begun accepting its sovereignty thus making Israel even further stronger and influential.

The US brokered Abraham Accords, a joint peace declaration initially signed on September 15, 2020, officially normalized diplomatic relations between Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. In December 2020, Morocco followed suit and inked a normalization agreement with Israel, establishing full diplomatic relations. Then, in January 2021, Sudan signed also on to the accords, declaring its intention to advance normalization with Israel. But prior to these countries signing the accords it was in January 2020 Saudi Sheikh Mohammed al-Issa, a close associate of the Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, along with several Muslim religious leaders joined the American Jewish Committee, the most influential Jewish lobby group in US, on a landmark interfaith tour of the former Nazi extermination camps of Auschwitz, Poland. This Saudi backed interfaith meeting was symbolic in forming a path for other Muslim countries to begin normalization with Israel. And so it became clear that these accords could not have been realized without Saudi blessings! Being custodian of the two holy Islamic sites, Saudi Arabia under control of the ambitious Crown Prince, cannot directly normalize ties with Israel till it succeeds in getting other Muslims states to do so. 

How Pakistan is being pressured in to Israeli Recognition?

On 10th April, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted through passage of a no confidence vote in the parliament. After buying Khan's ruling party members through horse trading, the opposition was able to gain majority which was required to successfully oust him from premiership. The day the motion was passed Khan used his legal authority to dissolved the parliament. But quite strangely the Judiciary intervened and prevented him from doing so leading to successful passage of the motion resulting in his removal from the office. What came as a shock to the nation was the strange role of the judiciary and the silence of army leadership in the passage of this motion despite Khan's earlier claims that there was a US backed regime change conspiracy to oust him. The army has ruled almost half of the 70 years of Pakistan's existence and is known for its  intervention in the  remaining half when political parties have ruled. Hence, it was quite strange that despite their power and awareness of foreign conspiracy they acted completely neutral till the passage of the motion. 

The conspiracy evidence claimed by Khan was a foreign diplomatic cable called cipher received by a Pakistani Ambassador in US who while presiding over a meeting was warned by US representative of South Asia Donald Lu that if the no confidence motion failed then Pakistan would face major difficulties at the global level but if it was successful then Pakistan can hope for good. After receiving the cipher Khan's government called a National Security meeting that included top civil military leaders, the army and intelligence chiefs. The cable was discussed and it was jointly agreed by all parties that this was blatant interference by a foreign power in Pakistan's internal affairs. Khan's government also sent the cipher to the Supreme court Chief Justice to conduct an investigation so the real culprits behind this whole process of regime change operation can be revealed. To this day no action has been taken by the court. 

Despite all the evidence of a threat from US to remove Khan from premiership, the army and judiciary, the 2 most powerful institutions in the country did nothing to prevent. What's interesting to note is that after Khan's removal it was revealed that the cipher was not addressed to Khan's government, it was in fact addressed to the Army Chief, most powerful person in the country. Hence it became absolutely evident that the removal of Khan could not have happened without the tacit approval of this institution and the man who runs it. 

After his removal from power Khan, a very popular leader compared to other politicians,  openly claimed during rallies that he was removed as a result of US backed regime change operation with the tacit approval of the country's armed forces. Knowing military's past role every one agrees with Khan on this. But if one investigates further we find more pieces to the puzzle which brought together form a bigger picture of this entire scenario. Unfortunately, it seems that this Pakistani crises is not detached from the ongoing US-Saudi efforts since 2020 to normalize ties of several Gulf and Arab States with Israel.

It was in 2020 that rumors in Pakistani media began circulating that the country may also normalize ties with Israel. In Pakistan this is a very sensitive issue. To placate these fears, Khan, then Prime Minister, admitted in an interview that his government faced pressure from another country to establish diplomatic ties with Israel. But despite pressure he clarified that there was "no second thought to recognize Israel unless there is a just settlement, which satisfies Palestinians," adding that the stance is motivated by the founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who was an adamant supporter of Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation. He refused to name the country or countries that have been pressuring him, saying: “There are things we cannot say. We have good relations with them.” When the interviewer again asked who is pressuring Pakistan, Khan said: “Let us stand on our own feet in terms of economy; then you may ask these questions.” Quite evident that his  reference was towards Saudi & UAE loans and oil on credit procured by his  government when it came to power to stabilize the balance of payment crises. Khan also said that the pressure was as a result of “Israel’s deep impact in the US,” in reference to Israeli lobby groups in US. Prominent Pakistani journalist Mubasher Lucman believed that Saudi Arabia was one of the countries pressuring Islamabad into recognizing Israel, he said in an interview with i24 News. Lucman said that Saudi Arabia has always looked at Pakistan as its "subordinate" country. 

Sami Hamid, a Middle East analyst explains that Crown Prince Bin Salman, who runs Kingdom affairs on behalf of old and ailing King Salman, is abandoning all commitment to Palestine and disengaging Saudi Arabia from wider Arab and Muslim causes in general. All this is in pursuit of one goal: US approval of his bid to become king which seems bleak since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He claims that normalization of ties with Israel is also part of this bid because Bin Salman realizes that Israelis are the most influential people in Washington. Hence, this explains the pressure from friendly countries and the influence of Israelis in US that Khan made reference to during that interview. Additionally its also the multibillion dollar investment required to fulfill Prince's Saudi 2030 vision which has been significantly impacted by the international media's backlash after the journalist's murder, which needs to be put back on track whose accomplishment will help modernize the Kingdom and secure the Prince's future kingship. 

In order to expedite the process of Pakistan's normalization with Israel, Khan was the major hurdle and had to be removed. The only person that Saudis believed can do the job was Army Chief General Bajwa. So it should not come as a surprise that the General was honored with the highest Saudi award, King Abdulaziz Medal by the Prince during his visit to kingdom just 2 months after Khan was removed from power. The Kingdom acknowledged that this was in appreciation of "his distinguished efforts in strengthening and developing Saudi-Pakistani relations."

Khan's friction with the Crown Prince

Pakistan's first diplomatic crises with Saudi Arabia happened when Imran Khan decided to attend the KL Summit on special invitation by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Muhammad. The topics of concern were Uighur detention, Yemen War, Islamophobia, the Kashmir & Palestine issue. Being a vocal opponent against Islamophobia, Khan also saw this as an opportunity to raise his voice also for Kashmir, whose autonomy was scrapped by the Modi's fascist BJP regime. This immediately resulted in Saudi backlash, Khan was prevented by the army from attending the summit and the Chief Bajwa had to visit Riyadh for damage control. This may also have been the first friction between army and Imran Khan. 

Another difficulty that Pakistan faced during Khan's leadership was that Muhammad Bin Salman has been pushing for stronger economic ties with India under fascist Modi. Any political instability in South Asia such as a conflict between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, is seen as a major hurdle by Saudis in strengthening those ties. This explained why Jeddah based OIC platform under Saudis ignored the plight of Kashmiri and avoid condemning India despite India scrapping of the autonomous status of Kashmir and detaining hundreds and thousands. On the insistence of Khan's government to Saudi Arabia and their persistent ignorance on Kashmir resulted in Khan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood threatening that if this attitude continued then they will be forced to call a session of all those Islamic countries that are ready to stand with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, “with or without” the Saudis. This resulted in another diplomatic friction and the army Chief Bajwa visited Riyadh once more for easing the row. 

Hence, it was after these diplomatic setbacks between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that may have pushed for Khan's removal. It is also important to mention that along with Saudi anger it must have been Israeli anger towards Khan's government that pushed for US backed regime change because Khan was always a vocal supporter for Palestinians. When Gaza was attacked by Israeli war planes in May 2021, Khan took to social media and demanded an immediate action by the international community to protect the Palestinian rights. Since becoming Prime Minister, many times Khan reiterated his support for the Palestinians unlike his predecessors who only chose lip service for the Palestinian cause. 

Is Pakistan heading towards normalization?

It is important to mention that during last days of Khan's government, Pakistan's naval forces along with Saudi Arabia and several others including Somalia, Djibouti, Yemen, conducted a joint exercise with Israel even though none of these nations have formally recognized it. Another major step towards normalization from Pakistani side happened soon after Khan's removal, a first ever visit to Israel by a Pakistani delegation that included Ahmed Quraishi, a state employee and a staunch supporter of the Pakistan's intelligence and military. These delegates were part of the Sharaka, an Israeli NGO that works closely with Bahrain & UAE to promote normalization between them. 

As President Biden makes his first trip to Middle East he made it abundantly clear before leaving on his trip that pushing for normalization between Israel and Arab countries – particularly Saudi Arabia – would be a top priority. It was during Biden's touchdown in Israel that Saudi Arabia announced to open its airspace to all air carriers, including Israeli planes which was hailed as historic by US and Israel. While Biden was not able to add new countries to the normalization agreements of Abraham Accords but he did push for regional economic and security integration that would include Israel. 

The picture is quite clear that US-Saudi-Israeli regime change in Pakistan is part of the bigger give and take that these countries would like to in order to achieve their domestic and regional goals. As Pakistan's military under Saudi influence moves the country towards normalization with Israel, former PM Khan is rallying the nation to remove the current regime who are now called "imported Government" because of their installation through a foreign regime change operation. Since his removal Khan's popularity graph continues to swell and he is demanding immediate elections across the country, which quite frankly most citizens also demand because they see him as a victim. His party just swept a by-elections in the country's most populous province of Punjab, which foretells that he will sweep if general elections happened in the country. Khan has threatened to do a long march towards the capital if his demand for elections are not met. As all this happens Khan's life may also be in danger.
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​It is wont be long before Saudi Arabia officially formalizes ties with Israel in which case Pakistan being a subordinate country will have to follow suit. Now it is only a matter of time. Time will tell if the army is able to prevent Khan from coming back to power or no. If Pakistan does formally normalizes ties with Israel then will Imran Khan be able to reverse it once he’s back in power? Time will tell if Pakistan under Imran Khan or any other government, permanently joins the club that will fulfill the prophecy of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ about “the flourishing state of Jerusalem”. 

George W Bush, the US President who invaded Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks in search of network that allegedly committed the attacks, said in his memoirs Decision Points: “Afghanistan was the ultimate nation building. We had liberated the country from a primitive dictatorship, and we had a moral obligation to leave behind something better. We also had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society” because “a democratic Afghanistan would be a hopeful alternative to the vision of extremists.”[1] Even though the immediate mission of US led military alliance was to eliminate the terrorist network inside Afghanistan, its quite clear that this war had a bigger and longer mission: Nation Building. This became absolutely clear in 2011 after the prime suspect behind the 9/11 attacks named Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan, the war in Afghanistan continued for another ten years. The nation building mission was to replace the Islamic values and culture that are strongly embedded in the Afghan social fabric with Western secular liberal values and culture. And so the reason why this war continued for so long and ultimately failed in this project was because Afghans are a nation whom can be destroyed physically but its almost impossible to get Islam out of their hearts and minds. In his book, “The American War in Afghanistan, A History,” Carter Malkasian, a former adviser to senior U.S. military leaders in Afghanistan and Washington, says one reason for the futility of the American effort was the influence of Islam and resistance to foreign occupation. Those were factors, he says, that were not well understood by the Americans.[2]

After Taliban victory and realizing the futility of its mission to socially engineer the Afghanistan, US under President Biden decided to end the longest war of its history. During the recent chaotic evacuation withdrawal Biden admits the failure of such efforts to rebuild nations when he declares an end to "remake other countries": “This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan, it’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries,” the president said.[3] 

With the departure of last US troops on Aug 31, 2021, the conflict that plagued Afghanistan for last 40 years also came to an end. The conflict began with the Soviet invasion and occupation in 1979 which ended after 10 years with their defeat at the hands of mujahideen resistance and the Russian withdrawal on Feb 15, 1989. The 1990s to 2001 was a period of 10 years civil war in which we saw emergence of Taliban movement which struggled against Northern Alliance, a force of former Soviet era commandeers backed by Western countries which resulted in Taliban establishing their Islamic rule in 1996 on 90% of Afghanistan. This Islamic government however ended after Sept 11, 2001 with invasion of US led Western military alliance of NATO. The US led NATO invasion has now ended with their defeat at the hands of Taliban mujahideen, after struggling and resistance of 20 years. This effort to socially engineer through military force on part of USSR or US empires may have been actually a blessing in disguise. While they attempted to remake Afghanistan on their own ideology it seems that the divine was doing its own nation building of the Afghans. As per Quran the forty years of struggle and resistance is a very significant time period for individuals and nation. Through the forty years of conflict and resistance against foreign invaders much stronger and advanced than themselves, the Afghans have become stronger and much tougher today.

Just a few examples of the term forty in the Quran helps us understand the importance of this topic. Great Prophet’s like Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and Prophet Musa (a.s) received prophethood at the age of forty. It was for forty days that Prophet Musa (a.s) fasted to receive revelation. The Quran brings our attention that an individual reaches their full intellectual and spiritual maturity when they reach the age of forty: (Al Quran 46:15) "…And so, when he attains to full maturity and reaches forty years...". The most significant Quranic parable that relates to the forty years of Afghan conflict are verses which mention Allah's punishments for Bani Israel as a result of their refusal to fight and take over the holy land when Allah ﷻ commanded them. They were destined to wander in the desert of Sinai peninsula for forty years: (Al Quran 5:26) Allah replied, “Then this land (the holy land) is forbidden to them for forty years, during which they will wander through the land. So do not grieve for the rebellious people.” This punishment was actually a blessing in disguise. Allah ﷻ had already destined for them to inhabit the holy land but was preparing them to face hardships and difficulties of a desert life so they regain their independent nature lost during Egyptian slavery. The forty years provided them the space to raise a generation that would be unlike those who had lived in Egypt and would not know slavishness. The forty years would produce the generation bred in desert conditions who would then have the strength and courage to face enemies greater than them and defeat them. ​

Ibn Khaldun explains that due to the slavery that Bani Israel underwent in Egypt for years under Pharaohs made them loose their courage and ability required to oppose and face enemies. Ibn Khaldun says that slavish conditions imposed on a nation makes them loose their independent nature, it destroys their vigor to free themselves from imposed obligations and humiliation by those who harsh handedly rule them. It was during their wandering in the desert that the weaker generation passed away and gave rise to a stronger generation with an independent nature. Along with tough desert life they also got used to facing enemies stronger than their own such as the Amalekites, the Amorites, the Edomites, the Midianites and the Moabites inhabiting the holy land and its surroundings. It was the new generation under leadership of Prophet Yusha (Joshua) that was able to fight and capture the holy land: (Al Quran 2:216) Fighting is enjoined upon you, while it is hard on you. And it could be that you dislike something, when it is good for you, and it could be that you like something when it is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know. - And so we can safely assume that just as the forty years of survival in the tough desert environment and facing stronger nations in battles made Bani Israel strong enough to conquer the holy land, the Afghan resistance of last forty years has made them resilient enough to insha'Allah become an independent nation with potential to also become a regional political power. This divine process of nation building of last forty years that Afghanistan underwent must be for Allah ﷻ may have chosen them to play a leadership role in the upcoming future of the Muslim ummah. After all our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ did indicate towards an unstoppable force that will emerge from the direction of ancient Khurasan where lies Afghanistan: "Black standards will come from Khurasan, nothing shall turn them back until they are planted in Jerusalem." [Jami at-Tirmidhi 2269] 


​References:

[1] Bush on Nation Building and Afghanistan, Foreign Policy, Paul D. Miller, NOVEMBER 17, 2010, https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/11/17/bush-on-nation-building-and-afghanistan/ 
[2] Analysis: How Afghan war showed limits of US military power, Associated Press, By ROBERT BURNS, July 17, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-us-withdrawal-biden-military-analysis-e6aea337670314041ce5a8837799bc73 
[3] Biden says the era of U.S. nation building is over as he marks the end of the Afghanistan war, CNBC, Amanda Macias, TUE, AUG 31, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/31/biden-addresses-the-end-of-the-us-war-in-afghanistan.html 

As the US and Western militaries are busy in Kabul evacuating thousands of their citizens and Afghanis and their families, who worked with them, there was this looming threat of an ISIS or ISIL attack on the airport targeting evacuation process and Taliban security forces. The Taliban are now in complete control of the capital Kabul whom ISIS considers an enemy. Today there was a bombing near the airport where scores were killed. The Taliban said that attack took place in an area under US security and blamed them for negligence while US blamed ISIS for the attack. The Taliban also told Russian media that they had already warned US and NATO of an imminent attack. But the question is what is the background of ISIS, its entry into Afghanistan and how did they become sworn enemies of the Taliban?

​ISIS is totally different from Taliban. They are more of a shadowy organization that suddenly emerged from Iraq and established their state on the border region of Iraq & Syria, which only lasted less than a year. ISIS carries a global ambition of establishing a Khilafat or Caliphate and demands that all Muslims around the world should pledge allegiance to its ideology. Its a bit hasty, irrational approach that they carry. How can you demand something from the entire Muslim world when you yourself are not established, when you yourself are at this time operating from underground cells, and your presence is only felt when you claim bombings which are also mostly targeting innocent Muslims? After entering Afghanistan they demanded Taliban’s allegiance but Taliban refused because they are local mujahideen who were fighting to liberate their country while these foreign scums came to interfere in their business. They were becoming a sort of an obstacle for Taliban to achieve their mission. But Allah ﷻ has finally helped the Taliban and they have today managed to win the entire Afghanistan in a miraculous victory and defeat all their opponents including ISIS.

Its important to note the big difference between deviants like ISIS and the mujahideen like Taliban. Taliban were always a local Afghan resistance movement that was started with the aim to bring peace to the lawlessness and chaos that was spread in the country as a result of Soviet withdrawal and no central government. Their aim was to implement Islamic law/Shariah and they did a pretty good job once they were able to establish their authority over 90% of the country from 1996–2001. They eliminated poppy growth within their own territory which impacted the global illegal drug business. They renamed their country as Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. But the emirate never aimed to spread their rule over entire Muslim world or around the globe, neither did they ever demand allegiance from all Muslims. However, after they were successful in establishing peace and security in late 90s, 9/11 happened and they were blamed for it. US and the West declared them as a terrorist organization, banned them and attacked them.

ISIS - The Modern Day Khawarij Prophesied by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ 

قُلۡ هَلۡ نُنَبِّئُكُم بِٱلۡأَخۡسَرِينَ أَعۡمَٰلًا
ٱلَّذِينَ ضَلَّ سَعۡيُهُمۡ فِي ٱلۡحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنۡيَا وَهُمۡ يَحۡسَبُونَ أَنَّهُمۡ يُحۡسِنُونَ صُنۡعًا
Say: "Shall We tell you the greatest losers in respect of (their) deeds. Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life while they thought that they were acquiring good by their deeds."
(Al Quran 18:103 - 104)

Called ISIS - Islamic State of Iraq & Syria or Daesh (in Arabic), is a major militant threat that appeared when large protests and uprisings gripped the Middle Eastern and North African region in 2011. They appeared on the border region of Iraq and Syria with the aim to establish a Khilafah (Caliphate) under the leadership of a mysterious figure called Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi,. He claimed himself as the Khalifa (Caliph) of all Muslims, vowed to establish a Khilafah in the entire world and demanded everyone's allegiance. His claims received immediate back lash from worldwide Islamic scholars especially when he and his army justified and indulged in the killings of innocent people in Iraq, Syria and other parts of the Muslim world, declaring those acts legal according to Islam.

Many Islamic scholars, foremost Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, very much likened them to the historical Khawarij, a group of dissenters in early Islam who interpreted the Quran according to their own wishes and declared that all Muslims who did not follow their interpretation have become disbelievers (kafirs) and apostates (murtad) which allows the spilling of their blood as legal. The khawarij indulged in assassination attempts and rebelled against the authority of Hazrat Ali (r.a), the fourth rightly guided successor of the Prophet ﷺ, and also Amir Muawiya, then governor of Syria, similar to the assassinations and suicide bombing tactics of Daesh against today's ruling authorities. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ prophesied their appearance after him when pointing to a man who disobeyed his authority: "There will arise a people from among the progeny of this man who will recite the Qur'aan, but it will not go beyond their throats; they will pass through the religion as an arrow passes through its target." (al-Bukhari and Muslim) And he also informed us “They will kill the Muslims and leave the pagans. If I were to be present when they appear, I would kill them as the killing of the nation of Ad.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari) Another unique characteristic of their that Prophet ﷺ informed us is that: "... if you compare your prayers with their prayers and your fasting with their fasting, you will look down upon your prayer and fasting, in comparison to theirs...." (Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim) Initially these people were part of the Shia (group) of Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s) when he was the Khalifa. About 12000 of them decided to leave his army after Battle of Siffin when Ali made a truce with Muawiya ending the battle. They declared Ali's decision wrong, declared him and Muawiya both as disbelievers and rebelling against them was legal. They deviated due to their extreme interpretation of Islam.

Thus, the Prophet ﷺ explained to us that these people will outwardly display extreme piety through their worship but in reality Islam will never reach their hearts. They will misinterpret the verses of Quran and those that apply towards the disbelievers they will apply them to the believers and declare spilling of their blood as legal. Their sign is that they will primarily kill and declare war on Muslims. Such characteristics were found in the Khawarij of the past and those that have appeared in our times like Daesh and its affiliates in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. The Prophet ﷺ went further and even prophesied their appearance in the end of times and their fighting on behalf of dajjal, the anti-Christ: "... They will not cease to appear until the last of them comes with Al-Masih Ad-Dajjal. So when you meet them, then kill them, they are the worst of created beings." (Sunan An Nisai) After defeating the historical khawarij group at the battle of Nahrawan, Ali (r.a) reiterated the above saying of the Prophet ﷺ when someone said: “Praise be to Allah Who has brought them (khawarij) down and relieved us from them.” Ali (r.a) replied: “Verily, by the One in Whose hand is my soul, some of them are still in the loins of men and they have not been born yet, and the last of them will fight on the side of the Antichrist.”

What's very important to note here is that Daesh appeared from Iraq just as historical khawarij also appeared from Iraq, rebelled against the authorities and spilled much innocent blood for their deviated cause. Daesh had no existence before US invasion of Iraq in 2003. In fact, most of the its leaders, 17 of the 25 most important ones, spent time in US run Iraqi prisons between 2004 and 2011, according to the Baghdad based analyst Hisham al-Hashimi. Some were transferred from American custody to Iraqi prisons, where a series of jailbreaks a decade ago allowed many senior leaders to escape and rejoin the ranks that made up the Daesh military hierachy.[1]

The Daesh Factor in Afghanistan

After the so-called Arab spring of 2011 ISIS under the acronym of ISIS-Khurasaan or Daesh Khurasaan started making inroads into Afghanistan with the aim to form their base and spread its tentacles in the region. The US backed Afghan govt failed to check the activities and movements of Daesh and its affiliates. Known for its corruption and weak governance, the Afghan govt even lost most of its territory (about 50%) to the Taliban after a decade of US invasion. While holding authority over half of the country it was the Taliban that proved much stronger in governance and providing justice, and even eliminating Daesh from its own territories, which made the regional states including Iran, Russia and China to rethink their Afghan policy. They decided to increase diplomatic relations with Taliban instead of the weak and corrupt US backed Kabul government. In the last 2 years even US admitted Taliban's success in eliminating Daesh's presence from several areas of Afghanistan. Last year a U.S. counterterrorism official told VOA “The Taliban’s campaign against ISIS-Khorasan in Kunar province is consistent with Taliban public statements to rout the group from Afghanistan. ISIS-Khorasan has continued to face pressure from the Taliban in Kunar province this year,” This was reported after statement from Taliban that “The entire province of Kunar was cleared of Daesh criminals and the people were rescued through this victory,”[2] VOA also reported in 2019 that U.S. Central Command’s General Kenneth McKenzie admitted that Taliban efforts against IS-Khorasan were proven effective: "We've watched the Taliban compress and crush ISIS’s presence on the ground in southern Nangarhar province. That's some of the worst terrain in the world. It was a bloody mess, but they did it."[3]

As the US and its allies complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of August there is a sudden barrage of propaganda push by Western corporate media that somehow Afghanistan is going to become a hotbed of groups like Daesh and its activities. The propaganda is actually aimed at Taliban, overlooking the fact that they eliminated Daesh bases from several areas as well as their commitments with US in Qatar to keep the country safe from such groups, and separately have also made commitments with Russia and China to maintain peace and security in the region. Daesh defeats at the hands of Taliban confirms for us a couple of things. First, that Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is in a better position to maintain the security of this region as opposed to corrupt democratic governments that failed and in some instances were even deliberately involved in the unfolding insecurity for the sake of political benefit. Such as the afghan government’s inability to defeat Daesh may have stemmed from the fact that they could use the group's presence to curtail the power of Taliban who faced attacks from Kabul government and Daesh forces simultaneously. This is the reason why we notice that countries like Russia and China, Iran, Pakistan and Central Asian states like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, have decided to accept Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan because of their strength and ability to eliminate terrorist threats and maintain peace and security of the region. 


References:

[1] Isis: the inside story, by Martin Chulov, Thurs 11 Dec, 2015, The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/-sp-isis-the-inside-story 
[2] US Admits Taliban Offensive Is Whittling IS's Grip on Afghanistan, by Jeff Seldin, VOA, March 20, 2020, https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/us-admits-taliban-offensive-whittling-iss-grip-afghanistan 
[3] Islamic State Staggers in Afghanistan, but Survives, by Jeff Seldin, VOA, November 21, 2019, https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/islamic-state-staggers-afghanistan-survives 

The tragedy of Karbala is observed in many parts of the Muslim world every year on the 10th of Muharram. The sorrowful event took place in 681 CE/61 AH. Every year Muslims commemorate the event by remembering the sacrifices of the Prophet's Ahl al-bayt (family), where his grandson Hussain ibn Ali (r.a) and his children remained steadfast in the face of oppression and laid down their lives but refused to submit to the army of Yazid. What led towards this tragic event was Hussain's challenge to Yazid's illegitimate authority. Yazid son of Amir Muawiyah succeeded his father to the caliph's seat initiating an era of family rulership in Islam, a dynasty. This was a break away from traditional setup of appointing Caliphs through consensus after Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. It caused a rebellion in certain parts of the Muslim world especially Hijaz and Iraq when famous persons and prophet’s companions like Abdullah ibn Zubayr (r.a) and Hussain ibn Ali (r.a) rose to challenge Yazid. However, the rebellions were suppressed, and both were martyred. But what made Hussain’s martyrdom historical and sacred, was him being the Prophet’s beloved grandson, his family and his descendant. Moreover, the martyrdom of Prophet’s family happened on the holy day of Ashura (10th Muharram) whose sanctity is associated with many events in humankind’s religious history such as: Allah ﷻ created the creation on this day, Hazrath Ibrahim (alaihi salaam) was born, Allah ﷻ saved him from the furnace on this day, Pharaoh was drowned, Allah ﷻ forgave the transgression Adam (alaihi salaam), Isa (alaihi salaam) was born on this day and the day of Reckoning will occur on this day.

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had predicted the types of rulership that would succeed him including the hereditary monarchial rule which started with Yazid. The Prophet ﷺ said “The period of Prophethood will remain among you so long as Allah wills, then He shall cause it to end. After that, there will be Khilafah among you on the pattern of Prophethood, and this will last as long as Allah wills, and then He shall cause it to end. After that, there will be a reign of oppressive monarchy, and this will also last as long as Allah wills, and then He shall cause it to end. After that there will be a period of enslavement, and this will last as long as Allah wills, then He shall cause it to end. Finally, there will again be Khilafah on the pattern of Prophethood.” (Musnad Ahmad) Prophethood ended with Prophet Muhammad’s death and "khilafah on the pattern of Prophethood" initiated with his first successor Abu Bakr (r.a). This period ended with the fourth successor Ali ibn Abi Talib (r.a), and in Islam this period is known as Rightly Guided Caliphate (Khilafate Rashida). The beginning of "oppressive monarchy" started with takeover of Yazid son of Amir Muawiyah. As per many Islamic scholars, currently the Muslim world is experiencing the "period of enslavement" which started with colonization during 19th century. Since colonization Muslims have been the weakest. There has been no central authority for Muslims, a Caliphate, and majority are dependent on the non-Muslim political powers like US, China, Russia and the West. But after this period once again there will return "khilafah on the pattern of Prophethood".

However before the restoration of original khilafah "on the pattern of prophethood" there will be a process and course of events which will lead towards it, and the prophecy of those events is found in a few other narrations. One of them is highly important because it clearly implies the tragedy of Karbala and the restoration of the original khilafah whose foundation will be laid by an Islamic revolution that will take place in the countries lying to the East of Arabia: "While we were with the Prophet, some young men from Banu Hashim approached us. When the Prophet saw them, his eyes filled with tears and the colour of his face changed. I said, 'We can see something has changed in your face, and it upsets us.' The Prophet ﷺ said, 'We are the people of Ahl al-Bayt for whom Allah has chosen the Hereafter rather than this world. The people of my Ahl al-Bayt will suffer a great deal after my death and will be persecuted until a people carrying black banners will come out of the east. They will instruct the people to do good (or ask for something good), but the people will refuse; they will fight until they are victorious, and the people will do as they asked, but they will not accept it from them until they hand over power to a man from my household. Then the earth will be filled with fairness, just as it had been filled with injustice. If any of you live to see this, you should go to him even if you have to crawl across ice.” (Al Bidayah wa al Nihayah, Ibn Kathir) In this hadith Prophet Muhammad ﷺ predicted the trials that his Ahl al-Bayt will experience which happened when Hussain ibn Ali’s and his children were martyred in Karbala. He then said a man from his Ahl al-Bayt like Hussain ibn Ali (r.a) will reign over the Muslims in the end of times who will be supported through an Islamic revolution that will occur in the east. As per Islamic scholars this man will be Imam Mahdi, a descendant of the Prophet ﷺ, as foretold in another related hadith: “Armies emerging from the East shall advance, and after conquering one country after another, they shall help and strengthen the authority of Mahdi.” (Ibn Majah). The exact center of this Eastern revolution is identified as Khurasaan in another hadith: “Black standards will come from Khurasan, nothing shall turn them back until they are planted in Jerusalem." (Jami Tirmidhi) Ancient Khurasaan today includes entire Afghanistan and Western parts of Pakistan & Eastern parts of Iran bordering Afghanistan. Afghanistan is where the greatest armies of the 20th and 21st century have suffered their most astonishing defeats. The British Empire suffered defeat in the three attempts during Ango-Afghan wars. After British, the USSR Soviet Union and USA/NATO, despite their technological superiority, have suffered defeat in the last 40 years by the resistance and struggle of the Afghans. Today, it is this land where Islamic Emirate of the Taliban movement is struggling for the establishment of a an Islamic government. (Al Quran 2:249) أَنَّهُم مُّلَٰقُواْ ٱللَّهِ كَم مِّن فِئَةٖ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتۡ فِئَةٗ كَثِيرَةَۢ بِإِذۡنِ ٱللَّهِۗ وَٱللَّهُ مَعَ ٱلصَّٰبِرِينَ - Allah, said: "How often, by Allah's will, Has a small force vanquished a big one? Allah is with those who steadfastly persevere."

Commenting on the above prophecies, Dr. Israr Ahmed (1932 - 2010) of Tanzeem e Islami, a renowned 20th & 21st Century Pakistani scholar and philosopher said that these imply there shall be in the future an Islamic state in areas which today comprise Afghanistan, and some parts bordering Afghanistan, so that armies from this part of the world will advance to towards Arabian peninsula to assist the Imam from the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt to establish khilafah on "the pattern of prophethood" as prophesied. The Taliban established their Islamic government in late 90s after ending the Afghan civil war. Dr. Israr Ahmed himself visited and witnessed their rule in the 90s. He was amazed that there was no injustice, only peace and stability was visible in the entire country due to strict enforcement of shariah, despite them being in poverty. He met several heads of states, government and military officials and shared the impression through these meetings that these people were very humble, without any trace of arrogance or pride. Late Dr. Javed Iqbal, one of the chief justices of Pakistan and son of Allama Iqbal, also visited Afghanistan during Taliban rule and upon his return shared his experience in Akora Khattak during a speech saying that he was certain that if the system, which is enforced in Afghanistan, is established in one or two other Islamic countries then the whole world will embrace Islam. 

After 6 years of rule the Taliban were overthrown after 9/11 by a united military alliance of Western countries led by US, the most technologically advanced military powers to have ever come together for a single conflict. Yet after 20 years of occupation Taliban successfully defeated that alliance and emerged even stronger. Today as the US led forces are withdrawing, the Taliban have entered Kabul and are in control of more territory than they did back in the 90s and have once again declared their will to restore Islamic rule. As the Taliban are now back in process of rebuilding their state, they are consistently being threatened by the Western countries of isolation from the international community which would results in their facing sanctions and bar them from having any diplomatic and economic relations with the world. This is to somehow prevent them from establishing their Islamic rule which the West refers to as a “backward medieval era rule” somehow relating it to their own dark ages of Europe experience in which the religious authority of Church kept the society backwards in many ways. Once the withdrawal of international forces is complete and Taliban with the help of Afghans are able to bring back Islamic government then we can expect that they will be cut off from the world. But if they are forcefully cut off and kept isolated within their own borders like an open prison, then we can expect a backlash from their side which would eventually lead towards the fulfillment of what the Prophet ﷺ foretold in the above hadith “….They will ask for something good, but the people will refuse; they will fight until they are victorious, and the people will do as they asked, but they will not accept it from them until they hand over power to a man from my household…” This implies that the Taliban revolution will not remain contained within the Afghan borders but will eventually force them to break the barriers of imposed international isolation and spread in the region and beyond. 

India uses Israeli Spyware 

A collaborative investigation by The Washington Post, The Guardian, Le Monde and other media outlets revealed last week that an Israel based security tech firm called NSO supplied its Pegasus spyware to several countries that are allies of Israel, including India, who attempted to hack tens of thousands of smartphone numbers of activists, journalists, business executives and politicians around the world. The investigation reported Saudi Arabia, UAE, Morocco, Bahrain and some others to also included among NSO’s clients. The targeted number list includes high profile contacts such as murdered Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan! 

Pegasus is a highly invasive spyware tool that can switch on a target’s phone camera and microphone, as well as access data on the device (photos, emails, messages), effectively turning a phone into a pocket spy. It can be installed on a target’s phone by tempting and deceiving them in to clicking on a link via SMS or email. In many cases it can even be installed without the need to trick them into clicking anything, your phone can just be hacked through a simple phone call! India has primarily used it to spy on its ministers, government officials, judges, journalists, human rights activists, especially those who are critics of PM Modi’s Hindu fascist authoritarian rule. The list of Indian targets includes hundreds of Pakistani numbers and those of journalists from Indian Occupied Kashmir, a Muslim majority state under Indian army occupation similar to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. 

Islam on Shayateen & Spying

The Quran warns us that satan and his devils spy on the believers to tempt and deceive them into a trap in order to harm them. The following ayah reminds us of Satan’s tempting Adam and Hawwa (alaihim us salaam) and once they were caught in his deceptive trap, he exposed all their privacy: (Al Quran 7:27) O children of Adam! Do not let Satan deceive you as he tempted your parents out of Paradise and caused their cover to be removed in order to expose their nakedness. Surely, he and his tribe (soldiers) watch you from where you cannot see them. We have made the devils (shayateen) allies of those who disbelieve.

Apart from the ability of shayateen to observe our actions from spiritual world, the ayah may also be a hint towards the ability of today’s shayateen to hack in to our lives and observe our private matters through technology. Satan’s tribe or soldiers includes evil jinn and humans. The term shayateen commonly called devils is not limited to the jinn but even humans who are evil are included in this term: (Al Quran 6:112) And so We have made for every prophet enemies--devilish humans and jinn—whispering to one another with elegant words of deception - The Prophet ﷺ was once asked, “Are there shayateen from among men?” - And he replied, “Yes, and they are eviler than the shayateen from among the al-jinn.” Hence, we can assume that the soldiers of satan are all those jinn and humans who collaborate in evil. To protect their evil interests, they oppose truth and justice and employ modern technology to spy and harm those who fight for truth and justice. 

The spyware provided by Zionist Israel to assist Hindu India establish its hegemony in South Asia over Muslim territories is part of that moral alliance that Quran brings our attention to that (Al Quran 5:82) “…most hostile people against the believers are the Jews and the Idol Worshipers…” A Jewish alliance with Idol worshipers has not taken place in entire Islamic history since the Prophet’s time when Jews of Madinah allied with pagans of Makkah against the believers. It is only now that a similar alliance has reappeared after 1400 yrs in the shape of Israeli-Indian nexus! Hence, this ayah is one of the miracles of Quran. 

Dajjal, a Jewish political leader, most likely a Zionist, is a major sign of the hour (end of times). He will have many advantages to his benefit that will assist him strengthen his rule, and modern technology is one of them. For instance Prophet Muhammad ﷺ mentioned "...He will be riding a donkey; the width between its ears will be forty cubits. He will say to the people: "I am your lord." (Musnad Ahmad) In another narration the Prophet ﷺ said "....like a cloud driven by the wind. He will come to the people and call them (to a false religion), and they will believe in him and respond to him. He will issue a command to the sky, and it will rain; and to the earth, and it will produce crops…” (Sahih Muslim 2937 a) Its quite evident that Dajjal’s “donkey” must be a reference to a modern aircraft, and the “forty cubits” distance between its “ears” a reference to the wings of the aircraft, quite wide apart from each other. His "command to the sky, and it will rain” is the now possibility to produce artificial rain and modify the weather conditions through cloud seeding practices. Hence we can imagine how dajjal and his devil soldiers from among humans will use technology to harm those who oppose him and his allies. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ also prophesied the technology of voice navigation GPS, (google) talking shoes and mobile phones as signs of the hour: “By the One in Whose Hand is my soul! The Hour will not be established until predators speak to people and until the tip of a man's whip and the straps on his sandal (shoes) speak to him, and his thigh informs him of what occurred with his family after him.” (Jami at-Tirmidhi 2181) The “tip of a man’s whip” and the “thigh informing” could be mobile devices, usually kept in thigh pockets, equipped with WatsApp and Skype that help chat with and see our family despite our absence from homes. So, we can imagine how human shayateen may hack these devices to also spy for dajjal. In the ahadith we are also informed that dajjal will have a spying system called al jassasah. In Sahih Muslim, jassasah is an agent of dajjal who could not be identified, the companions who saw him said his face was indistinguishable from his back. He spies and gathers sensitive information for dajjal. The term jassasah means ‘someone who searches for news and brings it’. Just as the "donkey" must be a symbolic reference to a modern aircraft, jassasah must be a symbolic reference to a sophisticated spying system. Dajjal will claim to know the unseen (al ghayb) and most likely use technology like spyware to learn and gather information on private affairs of masses. His access to sensitive information will allow him to falsely claim knowledge of al ghayb (unseen), the true knowledge of which belongs to Allah ﷻ alone. 

How do we protect ourselves?

Just as there are digital firewalls like anti-virus installed on our systems to secure them from any sort of intrusion like viruses or online hackers we also require a spiritual firewall that protects us from the shayateen in the spiritual world. The spiritual firewall is built by much dhikr, ibadah, reciting and understanding Quran and remaining conscious of Allah ﷻ. Likewise to protect us from shayateen threats in the physical and online world we require a human firewall which is our own wisdom, knowledge and understanding that provides ability to sense threats and keep our lives and privacy secure. In this age of information and technology we require all three and following are a few guidelines on this.

8 Essential Digital Security Steps For Devices - Amnesty International

1. Don't ignore updates - Frequently update your devices
2. Use a Password Manager - It generates passwords that are hard to guess and stores them in encrypted form.
3. Double Up - Enable two-factor authentication if you can.
4. Get Organized - Delete account you no longer use. Review your privacy settings on sites like Google & Facebook.
5. Secure Your Phone - Choose a complex screen lock like an 8-digit pin or alphanumeric code. Make sure you can recover account if you loose your phone.
6. Use a VPN App - A VPN will help protect your online activities when accessing Wifi.
7. Choose Apps Carefully - Only download them from official app store.
8. Think Before You Click - SMS and email attachments could contain malware.

Spiritual Protection

Where Prophet Muhammad ﷺ warned us against the trials (fitnah) of dajjal, he also taught us how to protect ourselves against him. In several ahadith, he specifically advised to recite Surah Al Kahf (chapter 18) on Fridays and learn the first and last 10 ayahs for protection, such as: “if anyone learns the first ten verses of the Surah al-Kahf, he will be protected from the Dajjal.” (Sahih Muslim 809a) It is quite interesting to note that the first 10 ayahs mention the story of ashaab e kahf (young people of the cave) who were extremely careful in conducting their daily activities in a hostile environment where a spiritual virus of disbelief could have infected them just as spywares can infect our devices. To protect themselves they sought refuge in a cave, they were careful not to reveal their identity in public, careful of what they ate, they kept a dog for security and they prayed much to Allah for protection. Doing so Allah ﷻ saved them through His special grace (Al Quran 18:16) and they were able to escape that trial. Hence in this age of information and technology, as we get closer to dajjal's arrival, there is much to learn from the Quran and Prophet’s sunnah, as long as we are willing to pay attention towards it: (Al Quran 18:54) "THUS, INDEED, have We given in this Qur'an many facets to every kind of lesson [designed] for [the benefit of] mankind."

References:

Indian opposition says Modi used Israeli spyware on rival Gandhi, Al Jazeera, 19 Jul 2021
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/7/19/indian-opposition-says-modi-used-israeli-spyware-on-rival-gandhi 
India tried to hack PM Imran’s phone, The Express Tribune, July 19, 2021
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2311398/pm-imrans-number-among-those-targeted-by-israeli-spyware-report 
Al Jazeera journalists hacked using Israeli firm’s spyware, Al Jazeera, 21 Dec 2020
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/21/al-jazeera-journalists-hacked-by-spyware-sold-by-israeli-firm 
Pegasus scandal shows risk of Israel's spy-tech diplomacy: experts, The Express Tribune, July 19, 2021, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2311418/pegasus-scandal-shows-risk-of-israels-spy-tech-diplomacy-experts 
Kashmiri journalists among potential targets of Pegasus spyware
Published on: Jul 19, 2021, https://www.etvbharat.com/english/national/state/jammu-and-kashmir/kashmiri-journalists-among-potential-targets-of-pegasus-spyware/na20210719204420801 
Amnesty International - Twitter Official
Message of the Quran, Muhammad Asad
Sahih Muslim, Tirmidhi - Sunnah.com 

In the last few years defense and political ties between Israel and India have significantly grown. Today India has become  the largest Israeli arms buyer in the world. Delhi is a major purchaser of Israeli military hardware such as weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. Along with increased military hardware purchases there’s also been an increase in joint-commando exercises. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made history in July 2017 when he became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Jerusalem. Other high-ranking Indian officials also visited in 2017, including former air force chief Arup Raha and navy head Sunil Lanba. In May of the same year, three Indian Navy warships docked in Haifa’s port for a three-day visit aimed at strengthening the countries’ friendship. In fact, it was Israeli-made, GPS-guided SPICE bombs that Indian mirage jets dropped in Balakot, inside Pakistani territory that almost led to a war crisis in South Asia in 2019. The ever-increasing bilateral ties has become a necessity due to a couple of common factors shared by both regimes. 

Both are governed by far-right parties that pursue religious nationalism exploiting Islamophobia for their nationalist support while disguising themselves as democracies. Both are nuclear armed, commit the same level of war crimes against Muslim communities in occupied Palestine and occupied Kashmir, and human rights violations against minorities. In Israel the majority European (Ashkenaz) Jews discriminate against Mizrahi & Sephardic (black and Mid-Eastern) Jews, Christians and Muslims. In India, upper ruling classes of Brahmins and Kshatriyas (e.g. Rajputs), also discriminate against Sikhs, Christians, Sudras or Black Hindus, Dalits (untouchables) and severely discriminate and attack Muslims. Moreover, both are regional threats to their neighbors. Israel threatens the existence of Palestinians and wages wars against its neighbors: Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan. Likewise, India also fought wars with Pakistan, China, has border and territorial disputes with Bangladesh and Nepal. India also actively interferes in internal politics of Bangladesh and Afghanistan. India is the primary military threat in South Asia like Israel is in Middle East. This explains why defense and political ties between Israel and India have grown in the past few years. 

But that’s not it. There is much more that brings the 2 together.
​
After its independence from British, India has primarily been ruled by Indian National Congress for almost 6 decades, apparently a democratic political party dominated by liberal Brahmins. In the recent years we have noticed the rise of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a nationalist rightwing party, also Brahmin dominated, that draws its inspiration from a rightwing militant movement called Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, created in 1920s under British held India. RSS was highly inspired by Nazism and believes in the supremacy of ancient Hindu race called Aryans and Hindu teachings in the land of Bharat (ancient India) over all others. It believes in the formation of Akhand Bharat (Greater India) on the lands of modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and even Afghanistan. The ideology is based on Hindutva (Hinduness), a philosophy that teaches strengthening Hindus and Hinduism in the region. This is akin to Greater Israel concept of Zionists, a territory stretching from river Nile to Euphrates, which includes all Arab states. Zionism, a nationalist racist ideology also believes in sovereignty of their chosen Jewish Israeli race over all others especially in the holy land. During British raj (rule) Indian National Congress and RSS affiliated groups were famous for denying Muslim demands which resulted in formation of All India Muslim League party which struggled for a Muslim homeland that created Pakistan. Likewise, it was Britain that facilitated the unrestricted migration of European (Ashkenazi) Jews under British held Palestine who later terrorized, colonized and occupied Palestine. Interestingly, Zionist rightwing militias like the Stern Gang, Haganah and Lehi, who helped create Israel, were inspired by German Nazis and even conspired with them for their militant activities against indigenous Palestinians, the British authorities and even Jews. Like Zionist militias did not shy away from killing and harassing their own if necessary, it was an RSS member named Naturam Godse, who assassinated famous Hindu leader Mahatama Gandhi in 1948 who shared some lenient views towards Muslims. During the British raj RSS was banned due to their connections with the German Nazis and Italians Fascists. 

The Historical Link between Israelis & Hindus – The Sacred Cow

إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّخَذُواْ ٱلۡعِجۡلَ سَيَنَالُهُمۡ غَضَبٞ مِّن رَّبِّهِمۡ وَذِلَّةٞ فِي ٱلۡحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنۡيَاۚ وَكَذَٰلِكَ نَجۡزِي ٱلۡمُفۡتَرِينَ
(Al Quran 7:152) Indeed, those who took the calf [for worship] will obtain anger from their Lord and humiliation in the life of this world, and thus do We recompense the inventors [of falsehood].

Many Indologists and archaeologists such as Dr. Pran Nath (Benares University) and Dr. E.F Orton (Cambridge University) suggest that most of the Indo-Iranian (the term Iran comes from ancient Arya) or Indo-Aryans, an ancient people commonly called Aryans actually came through waves of migration through centuries to the valley of five rivers called Indus Valley which covers modern North East Afghanistan, most of Pakistan and North West India. Most of these settled in these lands and formed their habitat. Its suggested that they originated from the Babylonian and Sumerian civilization hence we see their remains in ancient towns of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in Pakistan today. The cradle of the Sumerian civilization was Babylonia, modern day Iraq. The Vedas is one of the oldest Hindu literature and source of Hindu philosophy written in archaic Sanskrit which came along with these light skin Aryan settlers and invaders. The original and indigenous people of India are called Dravidians, today mostly found in South India, the dark-skinned Tamils and the Malabari people. With the arrival of Aryans, the Dravidians were pushed down south and since then they have been there. 

In his book “Link with the Past Ages” Dr. E. F. Orton writes about a Great Trek, a large migration that took place between 717 to 700 BCE, where many Sumerian-Chaldian tribes from Mesopotamia (parts of Iraq, Syria, Kuwait & Turkey) under the oppression of Assyrians decided to migrate with their cattle and herds towards the land of Sindh in India, part of the Indus Valley then. He claims that the Brahman system was developed in Mesopotamia and then transferred to India by later Sumerian-Chaldean migrations who introduced the Sanskrit language there and developed the caste system. The Vedas, ancient Hindu religious texts, are nothing more less than an exact account of Sumerian history in Mesopotamia from their first king in 3378 BC until Great Trek into India in 717 BCE. The Sumerians memorized these accounts and translated them into Sanskrit, the Aryan dialect in India. 

Dr. Israr Ahmed, in his “Lessons from the History” notes that after the death of Israeli King Prophet Suleiman (alaihi salaam) the United Kingdom of Israel was divided in to two: Northern Kingdom Of Israel ruled by 10 tribes and Southern Kingdom of Judah ruled by 2 tribes. It was around 721 BC that Assyrian King Sargon attacked the Northern Kingdom and captured thousands of Israelis and deported them to the Eastern parts of Assyrian lands among Sumerian and Chaldean communities living under the Assyrian rule. These tribes came to be known as the Ten Lost Tribes. The primary reason for this divine punishment from Allah was their indulgence in idol-worship and paganism (Al Quran 17:05) something that Israelis were so attached to from their Egyptian captivity days. Due to cultural and political influence of the stronger regional powers like Assyrians, Israelis introduced paganism into their country. The Quran also rebuked their idolatry tendencies in several ayahs (Al Quran 2:51, 2:54). For instance, after being saved from Pharaoh they saw some people worshiping idols and requested Prophet Musa (a.s): (Al Quran 7:138) “…make for us a god as they have (their) gods”. In the absence of Musa (a.s) they even indulged in this practice: (Al Quran 7:148) “In the absence of Moses, his people made from their ˹golden˺ jewellery an idol of a calf that made a lowing sound.” This worship of calf was worship of Apis, a sacred bull common in ancient Egyptian society. Ancient societies adopted pagan culture from each other, therefore we can imagine how cow worship may have entered ancient India.

​Wahid Bakhsh Rabbani, a former Indian military officer, shares views of his Chishti Sufi teacher named Hazrat Zauqi Shah (1878–1951 CE) that the lost Israeli tribes captured by Assyrians were most hated nation, their name and history became a curse for them which made life unbearable. This humiliation was a result of divine punishment decreed in the Quran. They found a way out of agony. They decided to migrate to India where nobody knew them. Hence, we notice that high status of a chosen race, caste system, interest based monetary system, cow worship and idolatry, are historical crimes of Israelis and commonly found among Hindus. Brahmins, the highest priestly class considers itself divinely chosen to be on top of the Hindu hierarchy just as Israeli Jews consider themselves superior over all others, non-Jews whom they call gentiles. Zauqi Shah states that Brahmins of India consider themselves as children of God i.e. Brahma which is actually a reference to Prophet Ibrahim (a.s). His theory carries weight because “Brahman” or "Brahmin" was a priestly class that ruled during Ur Dynasty in Mesopotamia around 2200 BC, the same place where Prophet Ibrahim (a.s) received his prophethood and revelation. 

Anglo-Brahmin Alliance & The Caste System

To understand the social structure of the Indian society during colonial period the British conducted a census for which they resorted to the ancient Hindu texts for solution. The texts defined different castes. Since the language and interpretation of texts was under the aegis of priestly class of Brahmins, the British referred to them for understanding and establishing caste system to define the societal structure into various levels. Kevin Hobson, a Canadian historian of British Empire explains in his "Indian Caste System and the British" that unlike modern India, Brahmins were never dominant in pre-colonial India. A quick observation of any non-Muslim ruling families shows that majority were Kshatriyas, Vaishya and even lower groups. Hence “is not difficult to imagine a situation where, Brahmins, seeing the ascendancy of British power, allied themselves to this perceived new ruling class and attempted to gain influence through it. By establishing themselves as authorities on the caste system they could then tell the British what they believed the British wanted to hear and what would most enhance their own position. Therefore, the census information that was finally published was filled with conceptions that would seem to be downright deceitful to those about whom the information was written. The flood of petitions protesting caste rankings following the 1901 census would appear to bear witness to this.” Additionally, the British also employed the studies of phrenology and anthropology, very active in 19th century in Western academia, that took physical features and human physiology in to consideration to determine which caste was better, stronger in terms of race purity and how they could serve British interests. This resulted in a racist concept of Indian society which did not exist in pre-colonial times. 

Professor Uthaya Naidu in his “Bible of the Aryan Invasions” says that administration in the British Indian Empire was mainly cornered by the Brahmins. British rule led to increasing Brahmin dominance. Brahmins entered the British administration and newly created urban professions in disproportionately large numbers. Naidu says that William Jones (1746 – 1794) the foremost Indologists of his time was a great admirer of the Indo-Aryan history in the Indian subcontinent, especially the lasting ethnic division in India between descendants of indigenous Indians (Dravidians) and those of the Aryans. Jones, a judge at the Supreme Court in British India, also a philologist was well versed in Sanskrit and ancient Hindu texts of Vedas and Manusmriti, the 2 Indo-Aryan Vedic period texts (1750-500 BCE) that explain the Varna (caste) system officially added in to Vedic teachings by the Aryan Brahmins to stay on top of the hierarchy. Manusmriti, regarded as authoritative book on Hindu law acknowledges and justifies the Varna (caste) system. The Varna divides Hindus into four main categories - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras. Later a fifth group was formed; although not officially considered a Varna, the Chalandalas or “untouchables”, considered even lower than humans. It was Jones’s ideas taken up by colonial administrators such as the Herbert Hope Risley who enforced this system in India. During pre-colonial times, under Muslims, Varna was never practiced as a social class system, it was more of a spiritual status within karma belief (reincarnation) and provided opportunity for lower caste persons to rise through actions. But the formal enforcement of this belief system by British pushed and classified the tribes and peoples into permanent socio-economic spaces resulting in racist culture. 

By formally enforcing the caste system, the British divided the diverse culture of India into a rigid system of groups and races. The most unfortunate part about the enforcement was that hundreds of tribes opposed to British or carried the potential to, were categorized into a certain caste that made their life miserable. Tribes such as Gujjars or Chamars were placed into the Criminal Tribes Act which declared them criminal by birth and assigned them to certain area of concentration and restricted their movement. To avoid such designations many tribes sought to be included in upper castes of Aryan Brahmins and Rajputs (Kshatriyas) who were considered to be in the good books of the British. This resulted in loyalty to the British and assisted them to maintain authority through divide and rule principle. As Kevin states “In and of itself, this definitely shows that the actions of the British in classifying and enumerating castes within the census had heightened indigenous awareness of the caste system and had added an economic aspect that the Indian people were willing and anxious to exploit.”

Theosophy, Nazism and Rise of Hindutva Nationalism

In India the due credit for independence from British usually goes to Hindu reformist movements and their leaders but very seldom Muslims are credited for their earlier and greater role of armed Jihad (struggle). Muslims participation in freedom struggle was much more, in proportion to their small percentage of the total Indian population. Muslims were less yet their armed Jihad against British started in early 1800s whence there was no sign of Brahmin led Hindu movements. The toughest resistance to British was by Muslim Kingdom of Mysore during Anglo-Mysore wars. Brave mujahideen leaders like Begum Hazrat Mahal, Barkat Ahmad, Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah, whom even British were forced to praise, are not given due credit by Brahmin dominated education system of India. Hindu reform movements primary led by Hindu Brahmins only started in late 19th century. These were no threat really to British because there was already a social alliance that British shared with Brahmins. In fact, the British were even responsible for intellectual development of the Hindu Brahmins and their followers through their education system. 

The Europeans had such a great admiration for their Aryan cousins in India that Aryan Religions (Aryan Hinduism, Aryan Buddhism and Aryan Jainism) spread like wildfire in Europe. The Theosophical Society of Europe was the primary medium of that spread. Theosophy, a form of a Western esotericism or Spiritualism, was started by Helena Blavatsky, a Russian-German philosopher. She and her partner Henry Olcott (1832 – 1907), a retired US military officer, established their Theosophical mission in British held India after officially converting to Buddhism. Blavatsky started Theosophy by incorporating many beliefs of the ancient oriental religions, primarily Hinduism and Buddhism and revived them into a new era philosophy. Blavatsky’s concept of a “fifth root race” is her interpretation of ancient human history where this race called Aryans were the best race in today’s world and it is this race from which evolved the Hindus and their ancient scripture Vedas. She somehow categorized them in to two types: The Hindus and the Europeans, were descended from the Aryan race. She also claimed that Germans were evolved from Aryans. 

Theosophy focused on reviving old teachings and religions which inspired German thinkers like Guido Von List (1848 – 1919 CE) and others to revive old German paganism and tradition which led towards the formation of Thule society and resulted in Ariosophy, a philosophy of supremacy of German Aryan race and eventual formation of Nazi party that was led by Hitler. Much of Nazi ideology and imagery came from the symbols and history of ancient India such as the Swastika which is common in Hinduism also. 

The Theosophical society was instrumental in revival of Buddhism and Hinduism philosophy and education system in British held Sri Lanka & India. In Sri Lanka within 50 years the society increased number of schools from 3 to 429! After independence from British, Sri Lanka was taken over by Sinhalese Buddhists who believe in supremacy of their Aryan roots and religion over all others on the footsteps of Hindu Aryan nationalism. In India, Blavatsky and Henry also made an alliance with Hindu reform movements such as Arya Samaj, started by a Brahmin named Dayanand Saraswati. The Arya Samaj aim was proselytization of Hinduism among all non-Hindu cultures of India, in particular Muslims who ruled over Hindus for several centuries before British. An Arya Samaj activist Swami Shraddhanand, a Khatri, an upper-class Hindu Kshatriya, started the Shuddhi (purification) movement whose aim was also the conversion of other religious communities to Hinduism. Annie Besant, a British activist and educationist and ardent supporter and member of Theosophical Society worked on a revival of Hindu teachings in India through establishment of many Hindu colleges and universities. Annie Besant received collaboration for her revival of Hindu teachings from Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, a Brahmin and another Hindu reformist leader whose organization called Hindu Mahasaba believes in Hindu Rashtra (Supremacy) over all others and conversion of Muslims and Christians whom they believed were converted from Hinduism in the past. Malaviya opposed to any separate legislature for Muslims in the future government setup in India and also prevented Hindus to participate with Muslims in the Khilafat movement which opposed British policies in the Middle East. Today Hindu Mahasaba is allied with ruling BJP regime and their pro RSS Hindutva mission that actively targets Muslim and Islam in India. 

It’s quite interesting to note that Besant, a British woman, allied with Brahmins became leader of the Indian National Congress, the party that led the Independence Movement in India against British! The Indian National Congress was founded by a British named Allan Octavian Hume (1829-1912), an imperial officer and friend of Lord Ripon, British viceroy of India. A Viceroy ruled India on behalf of Britain. The party was dominated by Brahmin Hindus, the group that supported the racist caste system established by British. Jawaharlal Nehru, a Kashmiri Brahmin, another Congress Leader who also led the independence movement, and became the first Prime Minister of modern India, was actually in a not so secret love relationship with the British viceroy’s Lord Mountbatten’s wife. 

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, an independence movement leader and another Brahmin, served as president of Hindu Mahasaba. He authored Hindutva (1923), which means Hinduness. His ideology was adopted by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar who started the RSS organization, an extreme right-wing militant Hindu organization that believed in supremacy of Hindus on the footsteps of Nazi Germans. Hedgewar was also an upper-class Brahmin.  Savarkar had also praised Zionism and their illegal colonial settlement: “If the Zionists’ dreams are ever realized – if Palestine becomes a Jewish state – it will gladden us almost as much as our Jewish friends.” Savarkar was against Indian delegation in UN supporting idea of a 2 nation states for Jews and Palestinians. He favored a larger Jewish homeland and smaller Arab state. M. S. Golwalkar, another prominent RSS member, drew parallels from the Zionist movement’s essentials of “country, race, religion, culture and language” for their Hindutva ideology. On the other hand Savarkar also heaped praises on Hitler and his treatment of Jews (this was before Holocaust). He admired the anti-Jewish legislation by Nazis, a way to assimilate the minority into German white majority, suggesting a similar fate for Muslims In India living under majority Hindus.

Another interesting character was Savitri Devi, born Maximiani Julia Portas, to a French father and English mother. She was foremost European admirers of Hitler and Indo-Aryan culture. She moved to India, adopted Hinduism and married Asit Krishna Mukherji, a Brahmin, and admired especially the Aryan suppression of non-Aryans through caste system. Savitri’s major work A Son of God: The Life and Philosophy of Akhnaton, King of Egypt was published by the Theosophical Society. Mukherji was a writer and supported Nazi Germany and Aryan Racism and even became the mediator between Nazis and Hindu nationalist leader, a Brahmin named Subhash Chandra Bose. 

Conquest of India or Ghazwa E Hind?  - An Islamic Prophecy

With India’s ever increasing extremist nationalism and bilateral ties with Zionist Israel and their collaborative threat to Muslims within their own borders and beyond, we can understand why and how the conquest of Hind, that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ prophesied in the end of times will take place. The Quran speaks about an alliance of “Jews and Idol worshipers” in the following verse: (Al Quran 5:82) "Certainly you will find the most violent of people in enmity for those who believe (to be) the Jews and those who are Idol Worshipers…" The only time that Jews and Idol Worshipers allied in hostility towards Muslims was during Prophet’s time and since then we have never noticed this happen in Islamic history till modern times! Hence this ayah is a clear prophecy of the Hindutva and Zionist alliance against Islam and Muslims.

If this nexus continues to persecute Muslims within their own territory and also attack and occupy regional Muslim countries then we can expect the fulfillment of following prophecy in which Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: “There are two groups of my Ummah whom Allah will free from the Fire: The group that invades al-Hind (India), and the group that will be with 'Isa bin Maryam, peace be upon him.'" (Sunan An Nasai – Kitab Al Jihad 3175) Keeping in mind other ahadith related to the subject such as Isa ibn Maryam (alaihi salaam) descending and fighting Dajjal, a strong Jewish leader, most likely a Zionist Israeli leader, we can get an idea about that “group that will be with Isa ibn Maryam”. In order to identify that group we need to refer to another hadith that clearly states conquest of Jerusalem: “Black banners shall emerge from Khurasaan, and no force will be able to stop them until they are inserted in Aelia (Jerusalem).” (Jami at-Tirmidhi 2269) It’s quite evident that Israel has unilaterally declared Occupied East Jerusalem as its capital, an illegal move and continues demolition of Palestinian homes for Zionist Jewish settlers. Hence we can imagine that by the time Isa (alaihi salaam) descends Jerusalem would be the capital of Israel which explains why that army will conquer Jerusalem. Khurasaan is the historic land between modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan but its heart is Afghanistan, the place where Taliban are struggling to form their Islamic Emirate and have recently defeated US and its allies, staunchest supporters of Zionist Israel. 2ndly the prophecy about “a group that invades al-Hind (India)” must be allies with the group that will assist Isa (alaihi salaam) for no other reason that India must be conspiring with Dajjal and his Zionist state for some time against Islam and Muslim, which is very evident with the modern Islamophobic alliance between Israel & India. The Islamic scholars refer to the end of times conquest of India as Ghazwa e Hind i.e. Campaign or Expedition of India, when an Islamic army will conquer India. 


References:

1. India largest purchaser of Israel arms in 2017, MEMO Middle East Monitor, May 4, 2018 - https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180504-india-largest-purchaser-of-israel-arms-in-2017/ 
2. Indian special forces in Israel to train with the IDF's most elite units, Defense ties between Israel and India have grown in the past few years, with Delhi becoming a major purchaser of Israeli military hardware, The Jerusalem Post, By ANNA AHRONHEIM, NOVEMBER 10, 2017, https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/India-Israel/Indian-special-forces-in-Israel-to-train-with-the-IDFs-most-elite-units-513820 
3. How India and Israel collaborate as oppressors-in-arms, TRT World, AMAR DIWAKAR 11 MAR 2019 - https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/how-india-and-israel-collaborate-as-oppressors-in-arms-24847 
4. Links With Past Ages, by E. F. Horton, Published 1935, W. Heffer & Sons Ltd, Cambridge England - https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.281727/page/n1/mode/2up 
5. The Last Prophet and Messenger Muhammad (PBUH) in the Hindu Scriptures, by A.H. Vidyarthi, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - http://neurotherapy-of-christian-brain.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-prophet-in-hindu-scriptures-part-1.html 
6. Lessons from History, Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of Two Muslim Communities, By Dr. Israr Ahmed, Markazi Anjuman Khuddam-ul-Qur’an Lahore
http://data.quranacademy.com/BOOKS/Tarajim/Lessons_From_History.pdf 
7. The Magnificent Power Potential of Pakistan (Pakistan ki Azim-ush-Shan Difai Quwwat), Chapter 15, Hindu Religion and The Old Tribes of India, pg. 319, Wahih Bakhsh Rabbani, Translated by Brig. Muhammad Asghar, Published 2000.
8. The Indian Caste System and The British, Ethnographic Mapping and the Construction
of the British Census in India, By Kevin Hobson, Canadian British Historian - https://www.britishempire.co.uk/article/castesystem.htm 
9. The Bible of Aryan Invasions 1500 BC - 1000 AD, Prof. Uthaya Naidu,  Published by Sudrastan Books, Jabalpur, 1999 - https://www.islamawareness.net/Hinduism/AryanInvasion.pdf 
10. Viewpoint: How the British reshaped India's caste system, BBC World, By Sanjoy Chakravorty, Philadelphia, 19 June 2019 - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48619734
11. Blavatsky, the witch who binds the Nazis and Hindus, by World Hindu News, Posted  April 19, 2017 - https://www.worldhindunews.com/blavatsky-the-witch-who-binds-the-nazis-and-hindus/ 
12. The Occult History of the Third Reich, Occult Influence on the Nazi Party, by Charles Spratley, May 13, 2020, Haunted Orange County - https://hauntedoc.com/the-occult-history-of-the-third-reich/ 
13. Hindu Nationalist’s Historical Links to Nazism and Fascism, International Business Times, By Palash Ghosh, 03/06/12, Opinion - https://www.ibtimes.com/hindu-nationalists-historical-links-nazism-fascism-214222
14. 1. Here’s why Hindu nationalists aspire to Israel’s “ethnic democracy”, Quartz India, By Sumantra Bose, Published February 15, 2019 - https://qz.com/india/1551356/what-explains-modis-bonhomie-with-israels-netanyahu/ 
15. Woman Against Time: Remembering Savitri Devi’s 100th Birthday, by R.G. Fowler, Savitri Devi Archive - https://www.savitridevi.org/article-woman.html 
16. Sunnah.com - Online Hadith Database
17. The End of Zionist Israel in Surah Bani Israel, Rizqan Kareem (Most Excellent Sustenance), Commentaries - Selected Surahs & Ayaats, by Zaid Shah - https://www.rizqankareem.com/commentaries---selected-surahs--ayaats/the-end-of-zionist-israel-in-surah-bani-israel 

Investigating The Roots of Zionism

Zionist Israel – A European Jewish Project

Since its creation in 1948, Israel continues to expand its occupation by allowing the illegal Jewish settlement on the occupied Palestinian territories. Killing and evicting Palestinians, razing and destroying their homes and property with the aim of building new construction for Jewish settlers in clear contravention of international law has been ongoing for several decades. The origin of this occupation began with the idea of Nationalist Ideology called Zionism which emerged in Europe in the late 19th century. The ideology’s aim was to establish a nation state for Jews. The official announcement of this project was made at the First Congress in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland by an Austrian Jew and Journalist named Theodor Herzl. The target location was Palestine or Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. A Jewish National Fund was setup to buy agriculture lands in Palestine. The drumming up of support for the project was however ongoing several years prior to this announcement (e.g. Lovers of Zion in Russia). With the rise of modern secular nation states in Europe, the Jews were hoping for the end to persecution experienced at the hands of European Christians for centuries. But with discrimination against them continuing Theodor was able to successfully argue in his writing for the idea of a secular nation state. What’s important to note is that the concept of a secular state is contrary to the traditional Judaic belief that all Jews would not come together to form a political state until the advent of the Messiah who would restore the Kingdom of Israel. In fact, when the plan to form a homeland in Palestine was spearheaded by European Jews such as Theodor Herzl, the Jews living under Ottomans and rest of the Muslim world did not agree to a homeland in Palestine but somewhere else within Ottoman lands. Ottoman Jews were reluctant to leave the places in which their ancestors had lived for centuries and partly due to the fact they had not suffered the persecution that their coreligionists had experienced in Europe. The migration to new homeland started before world war 1 but stopped during the war by Ottoman authorities at the request of the Palestinians who saw the increase in Jewish migration as imbalance of demographics in their territories. After Britain captured Palestine from Ottoman empire, the UN mandate permitted Britain to allow unrestricted Jewish migration to the holy land. Since much of the Jewish migration to holy land was done under the cover of British imperialism against the will of majority Arab Muslims residing in the holy land for generations, such was bound to result in a conflict the impact of which we see still today. With military and financial support for Zionist occupation from imperialist USA like its British predecessor has emboldened the Israelis to wage wars not only against Palestinians but also neighboring states. 

Zionist Justification for Illegal Occupation 

After 70 years of occupation Israel continues to justify its illegal actions through various means. Since holy land and Kingdom of Israel are primary beliefs in traditional Judaism, Zionist Israel supports its illegal claim by using religion. Such as, firstly, that they are the original Semites in lieu of their descent from Prophet Ibrahim (alaihi salaam), a Hebrew (descendants of ancient Arabs). Secondly, Judaism existed in the holy land prior to Islam and Christianity. Thirdly, as per Torah this is their land as promised to them by God, they are chosen, hence their right to live in the holy land is more than anyone else. These arguments are very important to note because a bit of investigation into these claims negates Zionist Israel and majority of its population’s connection to any of the above. 

The claim of majority of European Jews to be Semites (or Semitic) who sponsored and colonized the holy land is false. There are three main types of Jews in the world today: Mizrahi, Sephardim & Ashkenazi. The Mizrahi commonly understood as the Black/Arabic Jews historically belong to the Middle Eastern & North African region. Sephardim are Jews that come from Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal etc.). Sepharad is a term also found in the Bible and refers to the land of Iberian Peninsula hence the Jews from there are called Sephardim. There is no other difference between Sephardim & Mizrahi except their belonging to different lands. Sephardim & Mizrahi have a historical lineage linking them to one of the children of Israeli tribes and are original Semites or Semitic. The majority bulk of modern Jewry does not belong to the Mizrahi or Sephardim. The majority belong to Ashkenazi or Ashkenazim race. The Ashkenazi Jews make up most Jews today and have ancestry in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. According to several estimates Ashkenazis form more than 70 – 75 percent of the Jews in the world. Before 1933 Ashkenazis made up 90% of the world's Jews, but now the figure is nearer to 80%. Sephardim & Mizrahi: Jews of Spanish or Arabic descent, make up roughly 20% of modern Jewry. These facts are extremely important to note before understand why Zionist Israel behaves in such a way. 

The Ashkenazis - Who are they?

Ashkenazi is derived from Ashkenaz. Prophet Noah (alaihi salaam) had three sons, Japheth, Sem (Shem), and Ham. Ashkenazi Jews are not Semites, but are named after Japheths grandson, Ashkenaz. According to Bible the people of Ashkenaz lived in the Central Asian area of the Black and Caspian Seas, part of the the Slavic lands. These descendants of Ashkenaz were called the Khazar inhabiting the north of Caucuses Mountain region between Black and Caspian Sea (also called Bahr e Khazar i.e. Sea of Khazar in Arabic, Persian). These people formed their kingdom around 630 CE which lasted till around 1000 CE. Originally the Khazars were part of the many wild tribes of Central Asia and South Eastern Europe that inhabited the region. Traditionally this land was famously called as Land of Gog & Magog (Yajuj wa Majuj), wild tribes descended from Japheth. The Quran in Surah Kahf (18:93-99) mentions the story of Dhul Qarnayn, a pious King who built a wall against destructive Gog & Magog forces at the request of nation that was exposed to their attacks. As per Islamic Scholars this wall was built between Derbent and Daryal, two cities of Daghestan in the Caucasus, the land between the Black Sea and the Caspian. There are high mountains between the Black Sea and Daryal having deep gorges (mountain passes) which cannot allow large armies to pass through them. During the Khilafat of Umar ibn al Khattab (r.a) when the Islamic army reached the land of Armenia, Shehrbaz the ruler of the land provided information on the Walls in Derbent to Abdur Rehman bin Rabiah, the vanguard of the force. Ibn Jarir Tabari, Ibn Kathir have recorded the event, also Yaqut in his famous encyclopedia Mujam Al Buldan. Yaqut has further mentioned that after 200 years Abbasid Caliphs Wathiq and Muqtadar-Billah also sent delegations, one of them being under Ahmad ibn Fadlan, the famous traveler and officer at Baghdad court, that reached Derbent and studied the wall. This clearly shows that even up till the third century of Hijrah the Muslim scholars regarded this wall of the Caucasus as the wall of Dhul Qarnayn and the land belonging to Gog and Magog. 

History informs us that The Khazar Khagan (or Khan) named Bulan abandoned paganism and accepted the Jewish faith in the second half of the 9th century. His successor Obadiah established the religion further by building synagogues and Judaic schools in their territory. The ruling royal family of Khazar Empire were called Bulanids named after their ancestor King Bulan. A letter exists from the 9th Century from Hasdai ibn Shaprut, the grand vizier under Caliph Abdul Rahman III of Islamic Spain, a Sephardim Jew himself, to the King Joseph of Khazar Empire inquiring about his lineage and details of their Jewish faith. King Joseph was king of the Khazars during the 950s and 960s CE. He was son of Aaron II, also a Khazar ruler. King Joseph replied to Hasdai ibn Shaprut describing details of his ancestry, people and conversion story in the famously recorded Khazar Correspondence. In that letter he acknowledged that they had no link with the original Semitic tribes of Israel. The letter has been acknowledged by author and journalist Arthur Koestler, a Hungarian Jew himself, in his famous work on the history of Khazars called 'The 13th Tribe'
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​After the breakup of the Khazar Empire, this large bulk of Jews migrated to the adjacent lands of what is today Hungary, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, etc. and from there to other parts of Eastern and Western Europe. Additionally, there is also evidence from medieval Islamic Geographers that confirm Khazar Empire’s conversion to Judaism. Such as Ibn al-Faqih, Persian historian, ibn Rustah a 10th Century Persian Scholar, Ibn Fadlan a 10th-century Arab Muslim traveler. All confirm the Judaization of Khazar nation. 

Non-Semitic Origin of the Modern Hebrew

Language is a way to investigate the roots of any culture. This is exactly what Paul Wexler did, an American-born Israeli linguist, and Professor Emeritus of linguistics at Tel Aviv University. His research fields include historical linguistics, bilingualism, Slavic linguistics, creole linguistics, Romani (Gypsy) and Jewish languages. According to him there is a big disconnection between the original Hebrew and the modern Hebrew and that Yiddish, the language that has its origin in the Eastern European/Central Asian Turkic cultures, has made significant impact on the modern Hebrew. This is correct because one of the goals of Zionism was to revive Hebrew as a spoken language among the European Jewish settlers who only spoke Yiddish. Wexler has argued that Yiddish comes from the Slavic lands, and the East European Jews hail from Persia via the Caucasus and the Khazar steppe. He claims that the modern Israeli Hebrew is not a “revived” form of Old Hebrew, as is commonly maintained. Rather it is a derivative of Yiddish, and thus is also a Slavic language. Since the “linguistic revival” is impossible, modern Israeli Hebrew cannot be considered a “revived” form of Biblical Hebrew because it utilizes the syntactic and phonological systems of Yiddish, with only the vocabulary being of mainly Biblical Hebrew. It must be this reason why Asad (formerly Leopold Weiss, a Polish Jew) after his conversion to Islam realized that the Bedouin Arab was closer to the Hebrew characters he had studied as a boy in the Old Testament than a modern European Jew. Hence modern Israeli Hebrew and its genetic parent Yiddish must be defined as Slavic languages. Based on his linguistic expertise Paul concluded that “it is incorrect to view the contemporary Jews as descendants of the ancient Palestinian Jews or contemporary Jewish religious expression and folkways as uninterrupted evolutions of Palestinian talmudic Judaism and folkways. All contemporary forms of Judaism and Jewish culture are relatively recently ‘Judaized’ non-Jewish constructs rather than direct evolutions of Old Palestinian Judaism and Jewish culture.” 

Criminal Zionist Attempt to Semitize Ashkenazis

An investigation report published by Al Jazeera TV exposed the criminal attempts by the Zionist Israeli Govt in 1940s & 1950s to kidnap & sell thousands of newborn babies of Mizrahi & Sephardim migrant parents for adoption to the majority European Ashkenazi families living in Israel. The parents were informed their children died immediately after birth. It’s clearly evident that this attempt must have been made to justify and prove the existence of Semitic origin of the Ashkenazi families with the aim to establish their religiously validate their claim to holy land. Yael Tzadok, an Israeli journalist who has spent 20 years investigating cases of children who disappeared, told Al Jazeera: "This is Israel's darkest secret. Jews kidnapped other Jews, Jews who were coming to a state that had been created as a refuge in the immediate wake of the Holocaust. Bringing the truth into the daylight risks causing an earthquake." Israeli Jews who originate from Arab countries are known in Israel as Mizrahim, in contrast to those of European heritage, who are called Ashkenazim. Tzadok said the evidence suggested that most of the missing children - from Mizrahi families - were taken by hospital staff and sold or given away to European Jews, both in Israel and abroad. Unfortunately, it is these missing babies carrying Semitic blood that have grown up, mixing in Ashkenazi families, in Israel and abroad, who are, most likely and ofcourse deceivingly, used as evidence to prove the false theory that Ashkenazi Jews also carry Semitic blood.

Zionist Clandestine Operations that Brought Jews to Holy Land

As the establishment of Zionist Israel has been primarily European owned and led project the Jews living in the Islamic world, initially, were not big supporters of this project. Hence there was much plotting required by European Zionist Jews to somehow uproot the Semite Jews and force their migration to the holy land. It was not going to be an easy task to uproot those who had been peacefully coexisting with Muslims for generations. The charge for this plan was taken up by Zionist militant and terrorist groups: Haganah, Irgun (Etzel), The Stern Gang (by Avraham Stern, who advocated for a land from river Nile to Euphrates), The Lehi, formed during UN British mandate. Their philosophy justified violence and terrorism as a tool for creation of their state. They were famous for carrying out assassinations, bomb explosions and massacres against Palestinians, British army officers, UN representatives and even Jews who disagreed with them. For instance, the Irgun carried Al Quds massacre in 1937 and Haifa massacre in 1938, attacked British Officer’s club killing 17 soldiers. Stern Gang’s assassination of Count Bernadotte, the UN peace mediator, also the famous Deir Yassin massacre where 120 Palestinian villagers were killed. The primary aim of these terror campaigns were the mass displacement and migration of indigenous Palestinians to make more room for Jewish settlers. The other aim was to displace and force migration of Middle Eastern Jews to the holy land. For this they resorted to stirring conflict between those Jews and the Muslims in various parts of North Africa and Middle East. 

Some examples of their activities are 1950–1951 Baghdad bombings, a series of bombings of Jewish targets in Baghdad, between April 1950 and June 1951 carried to encourage Iraqi Jews to migrate to Israel. The Zionist Jewish soldiers serving under British army in Libya were instrumental in stimulating the local Jewish population to emigrate to Israel. The underground Israeli intelligence activity in Algeria that allowed former Irgun members and Mossad to train Jews in Oran and Constantine who played a role in the Algerian War against Muslims, generating animosity between Jews and Muslims. The Jewish Agency of Israel setup an office in Tripoli, Libya, under British, which according to Harvey E. Goldberg, was behind the 1945 Muslim-Jewish riots, given that the riots helped them achieve their goal of Jewish migration to holy land. After the establishment of Israel, nearly all of Libya’s approximately 31,000 Jews made to migrate. In other cases, Zionists made agreements with authorities in Morocco, Yemen and Egypt, through the French and British by allowing them to make contacts and connections with local Jews and stimulate their migration to Israel. Famous military operations also expatriated thousands of Jews: Operation Magic Carpet (Yemen), Operation Yachin (Morocco) and Operation Ezra & Nehemiah (Iraq). 

It must have been these actions of Zionists that some Islamic luminaries with insight found prophesied in the Quran: (Al Quran 21:95-96): “But there is a ban on a town which We have destroyed: that they (the people of the town) shall not return (to reclaim that town as their own); until Gog and Magog are let through (their barrier), and they swiftly spread out in every direction.” Scholars like the great poet of the East Dr. Muhammad Iqbal and Sheikh Imran Hosein, the modern expert on Islamic eschatology, claim that the “town” in the verse is Jerusalem and the people that have returned are the Jews, after 2000 years, by the assistance of Gog and Magog forces. It was this verse on which Dr. Muhammad Iqbal said in his poetry: 

Khul gaay Yajuj aur Majuj kay lashkar tamaam,
Chashmay Muslim dekh lay tafsiray harfay yansiloon! 

“Set loose are all the hordes of Gog and Magog;
To the Muslim eye manifest is the meaning of the word yansiloon” (i.e. the
two verses of the Quran, al-Anbiyah, 21:95-6, which end with the word
yansiloon”) - [Bang-e-Dara ─ Zarifana:23]

It was these terrorist groups that later transformed into mainstream political parties such as Irgun becoming Herut and Lehi becoming Modelet, a party which continues to advocate ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from occupied territories. Their leading members joined Israeli political-military nexus with the founding of Israel in 1948 and, many even served as Prime Ministers such as David Ben Gurion (1955 - 1963), a former Haganah member, Menachem Begin (Likud party), an Irgun chief, Shamir (1983–1984 and 1986–1992), former Lehi leader. 

References:

Encyclopedia of The Ottoman Empire, Gabor Agoston and Bruce Masters, Zionism, pg. 608, Jerusalem, pg. 299
Here are four lies Israel kept telling the world, TRT World, Videos, 
https://www.trtworld.com/video/social-videos/here-are-four-lies-israel-kept-telling-the-world/60a3e6d53b0f87001e8e65d1 
Ashkenazi Demographics Sources: Demographie - Demokratie - Geschichte, Encyclopedia Britannica, Sephardic Jewry and Mizrahi Jews, Peter Medding
Towards Understanding the Quran - Tafheem Ul Quran, Tafheem.net, Sayyid Abu Ala Maududi, Surah Al Kahf, Islamic Foundation UK, 
http://www.islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php?sura=18&verse=83&to=101 
The Thirteenth Tribe, Arthur Koestler, CHAPTER ONE, Part 2 Conversion, Pg. 25                        http://www.fantompowa.info/13th%20Tribe.pdf 
​The Non-Semitic Origins of Contemporary Jews, pg. 10, 
https://www.indstate.edu/cas/sites/arts.indstate.edu/files/Faculty/melyassini/NSOCJ.PDF
Where Did Yiddish Come From?, TABLET MAGAZINE, Arts & Letters, An explosive debate  erupts from footnotes suggesting that Ashkenazi Jews are Europeans, BY CHERIE  WOODWORTH 
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/yiddish-ashkenazi-woodworth 
Muhammad Asad: a Jewish convert who devoted his life to serve Islam, TRT World, Opinion, Saad Hasan, 23 APR 2021,
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/muhammad-asad-a-jewish-convert-who-devoted-his-life-to-serve-islam-46155 
The shocking story of Israel’s disappeared babies, New information has come to light about thousands of mostly Yemeni children believed to have been abducted in the 1950s, by Jonathan Cook, 5 Aug 2016 
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/05/the-shocking-story-of-israels-disappeared-babies/ 
CJPME, Jewish Terrorism Under British Mandate, Factsheet Series No. 23, March 2007, https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/cjpme/pages/2211/attachments/original/1471975203/23-En-Jewish-Terrorism-under-British-Mandate.pdf?1471975203
Jewish Terrorism, History News Network, Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, by Judith Apter Klinghoffer, http://hnn.us/articles/832.html 
The A to Z of Zionism, Rafael Medoff & Chaim I. Waxman, The A to Z Guide Series, No. 102, ​The Scarecrow Press, Inc 
https://azm.org/wp-content/uploads/The_A_to_Z_of_Zionism.pdf
Jewish Life in Muslim Libya, Rivals and Relatives, De Harvey E. Goldberg
A Contingent Nationhood: the Jewish Question and the Palestinian Cause within the Algerian Independence Movement, Nedjib Sidi Moussa, Journal of Judaic & Islamic Studies
https://doi.org/10.4000/hamsa.580
1950–1951 Baghdad bombings, 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950%E2%80%931951_Baghdad_bombings
Islamic View of Gog and Magog in the Modern World, Imran N. Hosein, Ansari Memorial Series, Surah Al Kahf Quartet
http://imranhosein.org/inhmedia/books/ivgmmw.pdf

What is Ash-Shaam? Ash-Shaam includes the lands of modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan including occupied territories of Palestine. It is this land and its people that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ highly praised due to the sacrifices they will display in the end of times because of trials and tribulations that they will face at the hands of oppressors from among some Muslims and non-Muslims. The ongoing suffering of Palestinians at the hands of Zionist Israelis is part of the greater divine plan that Allah ﷻ has for Muslims of this region. Just as Sheikh Yasir Qadhi said in one his lectures on the Palestinian suffering "respect and honor that some enjoy due to political power and wealth in this world does not mean respect in the sight of Allah ﷻ." Many times the fortunate in the sight of Allah ﷻ ​are actually the oppressed and persecuted in this world. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ once made dua, "O Allah! Bless our Sham and our Yemen." People said, "Our Najd as well." The Prophet ﷺ again said, "O Allah! Bless our Sham and Yemen." They said again, "Our Najd as well." On that the Prophet (ﷺ) said, "There will appear earthquakes and afflictions, and from there (Najd) will come out the side of the head of Satan." (Sahih al-Bukhari 1037) – It seems that the rulership of Saudi Arabia (that hails from Najd) will be directly and indirectly responsible for the destruction of Yemen and Ash-Shaam which will cause those people to face troubles. People of Ash-Shaam and Yemen are currently facing severe food crises, medicine and basic necessities shortages due to land, sea and air blockade imposed on them by Saudi/UAE, Israel and Western countries. It is in this regards that the Prophet ﷺ informed Jabir ibn Abdullah (r.a) who used to say “it may happen that the people of Iraq may not send their qafiz and dirhams (their measures of food stuff and their money). We said: “Who would be responsible for it? He said: “The non-Arabs (ajam) would prevent them.” He again said “There is the possibility that the people of ash-shaam may not send their dinars and mudds." We said, “Who would be responsible for it?” He said, “this prevention would be made by the Romans.” (Sahih Muslim 2913a) The war in Syria, the tight land, sea and air blockade of Gaza, the increasing poverty in Lebanon where it’s becoming difficult to even buy groceries are either due to economic or military interference from the West (Romans) and its regional allies. 

Once Prophet ﷺ was inquired by a companion as to which land is best and where to go in times of strife to which Prophet ﷺ replied “Go to shaam, for it is Allah's chosen land, to which his best servants will be gathered, but if you are unwilling, go to your Yemen, and draw water from your tanks, for Allah has on my account taken special charge of shaam and its people.” (Sunan Abi Dawud 2483) Despite the noticeable suffering, people of Ash-Shaam are under Allah’s special attention, and no one can destroy ones who are under His protection. The people of shaam were mentioned in the presence of `Ali bin Abi Talib (رضي الله عنه) when he was in Iraq. They said: “Curse them, O Ameer al-Mu`mineen.” He said: “No, I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: “The abdal (people who are close to Allah) will be in shaam, and they will be forty men. Every time one of them dies, Allah will replace him with another man. By virtue of them rain is sent and through them victory is achieved against the enemy and punishment is warded off from the people of Syria.” (Musnad Ahmad 896) These saintly beings called abdals have been gifted to the people of Ash-Shaam, they live among them and Allah ﷻ changes the course of events through their prayers and supplications. The future of the entire ummah is dependent on people of Ash-Shaam as the Prophet ﷺ is also reported to have said “If the people of Shaam are corrupted, there will be no good in you (ummah).” (Nuaym ibn Hammad, Kitab Al Fitan, pg. 244) – Hard times make stronger men and easy times and luxuries potentially corrupt people. As long as people of Ash-Shaam are faithful and steadfast in the face of suffering, strong in resistance against their enemies, they will be undefeatable and divinely assisted and will become hope for the remaining ummah. After all Dajjal, one of the greatest trials of humanity, his army will be defeated and he will be killed at the hands of Isa ibn Maryam (alaihi salaam) in the land of Ash-Shaam with assistance of its people in which truth will finally triumph over falsehood. ​
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Hence what we are seeing, the Palestinians experiencing oppression at the hands of Zionist Israelis and their sacrifices are an honor that has been gifted to them by Allah ﷻ. Despite our hearts are sad and bleed at the suffering we see in Palestine, Yemen and modern-day Syria, all of this is a blessing in disguise for the ummah, just as the Quran reminds us: (Al Quran 2:216) …. it may well be that you hate a thing the while it is good for you, and it may well be that you love a thing the while it is bad for you: and God knows, whereas you do not know.