The Shaykh’s commentary on a tape containing Sayyaf’s answer to a question posed to him: Was the battle that took place in Kunar between all the organizations and the Call to the Book and Sunnah Group, as some claim, or was it between two factions of the mujahideen?

The questioner : One of the mujahideen among them said: We will defeat the Russian planes with our donkeys.

The Shaykh : It is difficult to apply the rulings of the Shari'ah... Who is this?
Listening to the tape: "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow his guidance... everyone, and it caused questions, and we want to clarify your opinion within questions we direct to you.
The first question: Was the battle that took place in Kunar between all the organizations and the Call to the Book and Sunnah Group, as some claim, or was it between two factions of the mujahideen?
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, and may peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow his guidance. As for what follows, in truth, the events that took place in Kunar represented a hideous fitnah (trial, discord or temptation), and we are the lowest of them, and we still condemn what happened. We condemn it religiously and legally, and we consider it one of the greatest calamities for the jihad, especially in such a critical situation where the jihad is being fought from every side, and the enemies are shooting their arrows and directing them toward the jihad from a single bow. But the truth is more worthy of being followed, and more worthy of being spoken and defended. The truth is that this fitnah was between two factions of the mujahideen, and there was no collusion by the seven organizations specifically with the Call to the Book and Sunnah Group, as some claim. This is a false claim with no basis. Even if individuals from other groups were seen in this battle with one party or another, this is not considered evidence of the participation of the other organizations in this battle. In my capacity as the head of the Afghan Islamic Union organization, I did not merely refrain from participating in this fitnah, but I gathered the leaders under our command in Kunar province and ordered them to stay away from this fitnah. I told them: Do not approach it, because the policy of our organization has been established since the beginning of the jihad not to enter into the fitnah of internal fighting and skirmishes that occur among the mujahideen. This principle was stated byThe Shaykh : Jamil (may Allah have mercy on him) days before his martyrdom, and a number of members of the Shura of the Call to the Book and Sunnah Group informed me that they heard from the mouth ofThe Shaykh : Jamil (may Allah have mercy on him) that he told them that Sayyaf had prevented the mujahideen from participating in this fitnah. In addition to that, we have documents and proofs that the battle was between two groups of mujahideen, no more. Among them is a letter addressed byThe Shaykh : Jamil (may Allah have mercy on him) a week before his martyrdom to me, and another letter to my deputy, Engineer Ahmad Shah, in which he asks us to intervene to extinguish the fire of the battle and put it out, and to proceed to reconciliation. We actually proceeded to send a delegation, then a second delegation, to extinguish the fire of the battle. If this claim that is made, that the seven organizations were fighting the Call to the Book and Sunnah Group, how would its emir be pleased to ask those who are fighting him to intervene in extinguishing its fire? This document is in our possession in his handwriting and with his signature, in which he asks us...

The Shaykh : CommentaryThe Shaykh : Is it easy to stop the recorder? Stop it for a moment... In truth, we want to benefit from the discussion with complete objectivity, because they are all Muslims. He previously saidThe Shaykh : Sayyaf that the participation of some individuals is not evidence. This is sound speech. But what is the difference? Does he provide an explanation from his own speech first, or what proves the participation of non-individuals from the other side?

The questioner : From the Call to the Quran and Sunnah Group? I do not remember.

The Shaykh : You do not remember. The important thing now is that he denies that he admits that individuals from some parties participated.

The questioner : He is explaining now.

The Shaykh : But listen, he admits that some individuals from some parties participated, but he denies that this participation is evidence of the participation of a party from the parties, correct?

The questioner : Correct.

The Shaykh : That is enough, we do not want more than this. If you do not say it is correct, and I say it is correct, we want to discuss. But if we agree, we move on, correct?

The questioner : Correct.

The Shaykh : We move on, if?

The questioner : We move on.

The Shaykh : He mentioned lastly, and this is what made me question it, a place for stopping it, that he said Jamil al-Rahman (may Allah have mercy on him) wrote to Sayyaf asking him to intervene to extinguish the fitnah, so he took this as evidence to deny the participation of the parties in that fitnah, because he said how would he ask those who participated...

The questioner : His party, he said.

The Shaykh : His party. Repeat it for me, because I want to see.
Listening to the tape: "And there was no collusion by the seven organizations specifically with the Call to the Book and Sunnah Group, as some claim. This is a false claim with no basis. Even if individuals from other groups were seen in this battle with one party or another, this is not considered evidence of the participation of the other organizations in this battle. In my capacity as the head of the Afghan Islamic Union organization, I did not merely refrain from participating in this fitnah... but I gathered the leaders under our command in Kunar province and ordered them to stay away from this fitnah. I told them: Do not approach it, because the policy of the organization has been established since the beginning of the jihad not to enter into the fitnah of internal fighting and skirmishes that occur among the mujahideen. This principle was stated byThe Shaykh : Jamil (may Allah have mercy on him) days before his martyrdom, and a number of members of the Shura of the Call to the Book and Sunnah Group informed me that they heard from the mouth ofThe Shaykh : Jamil (may Allah have mercy on him) that he told them that Sayyaf had prevented the mujahideen from participating in this fitnah. In addition to that, we have documents and proofs that the battle was between two groups of mujahideen, no more. Among them is a letter addressed byThe Shaykh : Jamil (may Allah have mercy on him) a week before his martyrdom to me, and another letter to my deputy, Engineer Ahmad Shah, in which he asks us to intervene to extinguish the fire of the battle and put it out, and to proceed to reconciliation. We actually proceeded"

The Shaykh : CommentaryThe Shaykh : On the tape: Stop, here. We observe that Jamil al-Rahman’s (may Allah have mercy on him) letter asked Sayyaf directly, and did not ask Hakim Yar, but rather his deputy. What is the secret?

The questioner : The fighting was between Jamil al-Rahman’s group (may Allah have mercy on him) and Hakim Yar’s group.

The Shaykh : The fighting?

The questioner : Between the Islamic Party and the Call to the Quran and Sunnah Group, andThe Shaykh : Sayyaf was not participating; he represents an organization.

The Shaykh : I understand. My question wasThe Shaykh : He stated that Jamil al-Rahman wrote to him or asked him to intervene to extinguish the fitnah, and he also wrote to Hakim Yar’s deputy.

The questioner : To Sayyaf’s own deputy, Ahmad Shah Masood.

The Shaykh : Okay, repeat the last line of his speech.
Listening to the tape: "... a week before his martyrdom to me, and another letter to my deputy, Engineer Ahmad Shah, in which he asks us..."

The Shaykh : CommentaryThe Shaykh : Deputy of whom?

The questioner : ... .
Listening to the tape: "... us to intervene to extinguish the fire of the battle and put it out, and to proceed to reconciliation. We actually proceeded to send a delegation, then a second delegation, to extinguish the fire of the battle. If this claim that is made, that the seven organizations were fighting the Call to the Book and Sunnah Group, how would its emir be pleased to ask those who are fighting him to intervene in extinguishing its fire?"

The Shaykh : CommentaryThe Shaykh : He is talking about the seven parties. We say his party was not fighting, but the fact that he wrote or asked Jamil al-Rahman to intervene in the reconciliation does not mean that a party other than his party was not fighting Jamil al-Rahman.

The questioner : He says it this way.

The Shaykh : No, he says: How would he write to him after saying that if the claim is that some of the seven parties are fighting Jamil al-Rahman, how would he ask him? He asks him in his capacity as representing his party, and Jamil al-Rahman did not claim that his party was fighting. Therefore, it is said here that the evidence is more specific than the claim. Do you understand this speech?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : So I hope you repeat it now so that you pay attention to this speech as you hear it, but do not go back too much.
Listening to the tape: "And this document is in his handwriting and signature, and we have it that he asks us to mediate in ending this... And more than this, a council is being formed..."

The Shaykh : This is what comes after this statement.
Listening to the tape: "To extinguish the fire of the battle, if this claim is made that the seven organizations were fighting the group of Da'wah to the Book and the Sunnah, how can their leader be satisfied to ask those who are fighting him?"

The Shaykh : CommentThe Shaykh : The answer now is that the request to Jamil al-Rahman, who was fighting, was actually a request to someone who was not fighting, and that was Siyaf. So what is said now about this statement? It contains a fallacy. Either it is said to be intentional, which is what we do not hope for, or we say it is unintentional, which is what we think. Therefore, I said that one of the most difficult things now is that a person can reach the truth, because an announcement like this from this honorable man, most people take his words as accepted without discussion. And out of millions, one person might sit and scrutinize. And this is what is in the millions, or in the million, or half a million, or in the thousand. What do they want to verify? To verify so that they can reach the truth as clear as the sun at noon. So stay away from evil and let us go. They say we have in the cursing... so this is a note on the one who walks, and I intended from it the precision of the matter, and that it is not easy for a person to say these people attacked before these people, or the exact opposite. May Allah protect us from the evil of trials, what is apparent of them and what is hidden. Bring the rest so we can see.
Listening to the tape: "... the group of Da'wah to the Book and the Sunnah also, and the governor of Peshawar province also participated in this council, and those representing the Ministry of the Interior also participated, and a decision was made to send a delegation to end this problem. And after the time was set in the same decision, the two parties, meaning the group of Da'wah to the Book and the Sunnah and the Islamic Party, committed to abide by the decisions of this delegation, which indicates that the issue was between them and no one else..."

The Shaykh : CommentThe Shaykh : It was between them?

The questioner : No one else.
Listening to the tape: "From the other organizations, so it is possible based on logical and individual motives..."

The Shaykh : CommentThe Shaykh : Logical motives?

The questioner : Individual, for example, the mujahid's house or his center.

The Shaykh : CommentThe Shaykh : I mean, not logic in the sense of intellect?
Listening to the tape: "Because it was occupied and destroyed as a result of this conflict and what happened before it, so it is possible that some people as individuals participated. And Allah knows that until now I have no certain and definitive knowledge that people from our group participated in this battle. As for leaders, as I told you before, those belonging to us, no... three times I told them to definitely stay away from this fitnah and not enter into it. Those who publish announcements or claim that the organizations, like organizations or as a decision from the organizations, participated in this battle against one group, this claim in itself is a fitnah. And these people do not want reform, but they want corruption and want to cause new fitnahs in the arena. And we ask Allah to guide them to the right path."