21th July 2006

This khutba has been composed in consultation with Deobandi and Berelwi ‘Ulama.
The events now unfolding in Lebanon and Iraq, which before the colonial era were two wilayas of the Osmanli Dawlat, Sham and Mosul, are a continuation of the Battle of the Camel, of Siffin and Kerbala.
It was as a result of these conflicts that the Shi‘a deviation first appeared and then developed into an independent religion. Important for our understanding of the present is the fact that this deviation itself split into two sects, the Isma’ili Shi‘as and the Isna Asharai Shi‘as. As Ibn Khaldun explains, the Isna Asharai Shi‘as recognise the son of the great grandson of Husayn as the seventh Imam, that is Musa al-Kadhim, the son of Ja’far as-Sadiq. They are the Twelvers because they stop with the so-called Twelfth Imam, the Mahdi, who, it is claimed, then went into occultation.
The Isma‘ilis assert that the Imamate was conferred on Isma‘il, the eldest son of Ja’far as-Sadiq who died before his father. It was the Isma‘ili Abu Muhammad ‘Ubaydullah who established the first Isma‘ili Khalifate in 297 Hijra, initially in the region of present day Tunis. He killed the leading ‘Ulama of the Qayrawan and imposed Shi‘ism as official doctrine. He named the state ‘Fatimid’ as a reminder that he was descended from Fatima az-Zahra and the Ahl al-Bayt. They were Mulhids and extreme Rafidites, as Ibn Khaldun tells us – in other words, deviationists who had left the Deen, and rejectionists who had rejected legitimate Abbasid authority. They were regarded as excessive, even by their fellow Twelver Shi’as.
Part of their ‘Aqida was to elevate their Imam-Khalifs to an almost Divine status on the basis of their ‘Alawi descent. Again, Ibn Khaldun tells us that such pretensions are to no avail if one’s actions are devoid of the Deen. He cites the Ayats of Allah ta’ala in which Sayyiduna Nuh calls to his son to join him on the Ark and leave the kafirun. Allah says in Surat Hud (11: 46):
He said, “Nuh, he is definitely not of your family.
He is someone whose action was not righteous.”
Ibn Khaldun cites too the Hadith of the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, to the effect that family ties alone, without the Deen are not enough:
O Fatima, act as you wish. I shall be of no help to you before Allah.
The Fatimids soon extended their rule eastwards to Egypt, Syria and Arabia, including the cities of Makka and Madinah, westwards to the Atlantic, and northwards to Sicily. In 567 hijra, after 270 years of Shi‘a-Isma‘ili rule, Salahuddin al-Ayyubi restored Islam to the Haramayn and the rest of the Fatimid territories. However, before the people were allowed to perform Salat in the Qayrawan, the ‘Ulama insisted that the floors and walls of all the areas frequented by the Fatimids be thoroughly purified with rose water.
Meanwhile, in 483 Hijra, a certain al-Hassan ibn as-Sabbah returned to his native land of Persia as a Da‘i to Isma‘ili Shi‘ism after studying in Fatimid Egypt. He gained possession of the mountain fortress of Hamut and started his ‘Da’wa Jadida’, his new call to Isma‘ili doctrine, a doctrine characterised by esotericism, disregard for the Shari’at, and the sending of his young men, the ‘Fida‘is’, as assassins to kill prominent figures. The assassins accepted in turn their own certain death in return for martyrdom and the paradise promised them. At the height of their power they occupied a chain of fortresses extending from Persia to Syria. Significantly, the present Agha Khan is descended from the last grand master of Alamut. Taxes from his numerous followers in Pakistan and India fund the nefarious Agha Khan Foundation whose principles are identical with those of the United Nations and the IMF. Through that foundation the Isma‘ilis present themselves as Muslims while propagating an insidious mix of charitable pluralism, humanism, and cultural education – in short, a deen which can interface with kufr at every level. Furthermore, the suicide attacks of the Palestinian and Iraqis are part of a current political Isma‘ili revival whose practice can be traced back to the suicidal missions of the Assassins of Alamut. Their Old Man of the Mountains has relocated to the territory bordering the Himalayas.
Allah ta’ala expressly forbids suicide when He commands in Surat al-Baqara (2: 194):
 […] Do not cast yourselves into destruction […]
The modern political Isma‘ilis recruit new suicide victims by setting up Martyr’s Memorial Gardens to inspire initiates into action. Suicide is outside the Shari’at. Allah ta’ala commands in the Qur’an (39: 50):
Say: “My slaves, you who have transgressed against yourselves,
do not despair of the mercy of Allah.
Truly Allah forgives all wrong actions.
He is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.”
Suicide is despair and as such the ultimate action against the belief that Allah can change a bad situation into a good one.
In 908 Hijra, the Safawids became Twelver Shi‘as and declared it to be the state of religion of Persia. This was essentially for political, nationalistic reasons as it effectively differentiated the Persians from the Arabs and afforded them a pretext for independence from Osmanli authority. It was during the Safawid period that the cursing of the first three Khalifs was institutionalised.
In 920 hijra, the forces of the Osmanli Sultan Salim I, son of Bayezid, defeated the Safawids at the Battle of Khalfivan and then Sultan Sulayman the Magnificent restored Islam to Tabriz by defeating Shah Tahmasp. However, the two and a half centuries of Safawid rule in Iran resulted in Shi‘ism taking root among the people, as well as at an official level. As a result of the Safawid inheritance, Shi‘ism has remained the official religion of Iran – and indeed will remain so, according to that country’s Constitution, until the appearance of their Mahdi.
When the Khomeinists took power some 25 years ago it marked a return to Shi‘a orthodoxy. Confusing and deceptive however was their claim to be an Islamic and not a Shi‘a government. Apart from such obvious differences as their three, rather than five Prayers, a closer study of Khomeini’s writings, beyond the international rhetoric directed at the Ummah in general, reveals the true nature of their deen. According to his ‘Kashfe Esrar’, the Shi‘a ‘Ulama are the representatives of the Imam until his return. He says, and I quote:
“The Imam enjoys such power over cause and effect that every particle of the universe bows before his authority. Among the essential beliefs of our deen is the conviction that our infallible Imams hold a station unattained by any favoured Angel, Prophet, or Messenger.”
In ‘Usul al-Kafi’, a work much quoted by Khomeini we read that:
“Among ten virtues of the deen, nine lie in Taqiyya. He who does not observe Taqiyya is devoid of Iman.”
This explains the practice here in Cape Town whereby the Shi‘a Da‘is approach people as Muslims and then only gradually – in accordance with the victim’s degree of receptivity, reveal the inner esoteric aspects of their deviation. It has become clear by their support of Hizbollah and the Palestinians that they have joined the Isma‘ilis in their doctrine of suicide bombing.
Another much quoted Shi‘a author, Allama Majlisi, writes in his ‘Haqq al-Yaqin’:
“When the Imam Mahdi appears, he will kill the Sunnis, starting with their ‘Ulama before killing the kuffar.”
Up to very recently, it was official Shi‘a policy to teach that the Qur’an had been altered – principally by Khalif ‘Uthman at the time it was collated and set down – and that all reference to the Imams had been removed. The apparent denial nowadays of the doctrine of alteration in the light of their practice of dissimulation, Taqiyya, cannot be believed, in particular because the older source works, from which all their Mujtahids derive their rulings, affirm this teaching.
There are many more assertions on their part which are simply too poisonous to mention, suffice it to say that the marriage alone of Umm Kulthum, the daughter of ‘Ali, karramullah wajhahu, to ‘Umar, is proof enough that the alleged hostility between the two Khalifs is an invention. It is Khomeini himself who has affirmed that they are Mulhid deviationalists. In Kashfe Esrar he speaks of “deen-i-Shi‘e”, “the Shi‘a deen” expressing unequivocally that it is something different from the Deen of Islam. In this point we should make Taqlid of him – we should imitate him in the use of this term.
We seek refuge with Allah from the Shi‘a Deen and take this opportunity to invite them to the Deen of Islam.