Characteristics of the Victorious Party in the Foundation of the State of the Believers (The Land of Ash-Sham)

By Shaykh Abu Qatada al-Filistini

In this era in which the Muslims are living a life of humiliation and disgrace, they have lost the characteristics of guidance from within themselves, and the Rope of Allāh that He united them upon – the Rope of establishment and leadership - has been cut, so they have become insignificant in front of themselves and in front of their enemies. Falsehood prances around in their countries, and the trend of apostasy has become the strongest and the most dominant. And the ties of evil between [the people of] internal apostasy and [those of] outward Kufr have been fortified. The Muslims have become busy with entertainment and vanity, and the Islāmic parties and groups summon one another to the ideas of men and their Ijtihād, far away from the Source of Guidance and Light – the Book of Allāh and the Sunnah of His Messenger. And the [state] of Ghurbah (estrangement) has intensified for those who are holding fast to this Guidance, and their souls long for the coming Divine Promise – Victory or martyrdom.

In this time and this present-day Ghurbah – the Ghurbah of the Religion and its teachings, and the Ghurbah of the people of Truth and their trial – we offer the Muslims this treatise of ours. It calls you, O Muslim, to understand the Truth by way of it, and guides you to the Correct Path, and to our belief that we are not an innovation [in this] era, rather we are one group from the groups of this Party – the Party of Jihād and Truth. We promised ourselves – with the Help of Allāh and His Tawfīq – that we would hold fast to this Party so long as there remains within us a vein that pulsates, or a breath that stammers…

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