Bismillahi Al-Rahmani Al-Rahim
A Consumer Protection Report: Internet Recruiting Firm Iblis & Minions, Inc.
by Sidi Musa Furber
al-salamu `alaykum
One of the sunan that Allah Most High has decreed is that predators prey on the weak, not the strong. This sunnah of preying on the weak is one of the tactics used by Iblis in this war that he has declared against monotheists in general and the followers of Muhammad bin `Abd Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) in particular. But in stark contrast to the appetites of the predators from the animal kingdom which are limited enough that they rarely exhaust the entire population of weak prey, the appetite of Iblis & Minions, Inc. (Allah protect us from them) is unlimited, exceeding the population of weak Muslims. Since Iblis & Minions, Inc. has a weak grip at best over Muslims with strong, sounds beliefs, its employees must first weaken their intended prey before they can strike. Another stark contrast is that while the goal of animal predators is to recruit their prey to the dinner table, Iblis & Minions, Inc. has a two part goal: to recruit you to work for them in this life so you can take advantage of the Iblis & Minions, Inc. next life retirement policy: eternal damnation in the Hellfire. And as the wise saying goes: an once of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
In the case of Iblis & Minions, Inc., one of the best prevention is simply being aware of a few of the steps they use for recruiting Muslims to the Iblis & Minions, Inc. team. The following observations just barely scratch the surface.
Those missionary like salesmen from Iblis & Minions, Inc. typically go through the following steps when recruiting to their cause:
1. Picking the target
The first step is always picking a good target. Since the easiest targets are always the juiciest, they always look for Muslims who are looking to increase their knowledge of Islam. Their least favorite targets are Muslims with more knowledge of Islam, but sometimes they take the risk and invest the extra effort since there’s nothing that helps Iblis & Minions, Inc. like all the new targets this one will bring with him. One of the greatest proofs that these people work for Iblis is that they rarely set their sights on non-Muslims.
2. Infiltration and Probing
Once a target has been chosen, the next step is to infiltrate one of the Iblis & Minions, Inc. agents. Today, thanks to the Internet, their task has never been easier. It used to be that they had to hide themselves behind taqiya: showing outward agreement while concealing what they truly believe. Where they used to do this hiding behind lies and slinking in the shadows, now they just slink and tell lies. When their target has some knowledge, they use this stage to probe for weaknesses. An indication of this is a pattern of quick topics switches whenever the target has an answer to their questions; even if they do not succeed in recruiting one of these targets, they’re at least kept busy and worn down with an endless stream of questions.
3. Lowering the guard
Soon after infiltration they being the first stage of their plan by getting the target to lower their guard. Sometimes they pretend to be honest seekers of knowledge, perhaps just a bit confused about things or not totally committed. One of the best indications of this is when they throw out a question concerning some controversy and then claim that they are not looking for debate or argument.
And sometimes they are obvious about working for Iblis & Minions, Inc., claiming that they are secretly learning their ways so that they can jump ship and expose them. Anyone who has read the first few pages of Al-Baqara knows exactly for whom they really work.
They have a million cover stories they can use. Another favorite approach is to claim that they are working towards unity, bridging the gap, so to speak. But what they never tell you is that this bridge they’re building is one way: from us straight to Iblis & Minions, Inc. The late Muhibb Al-Din Al-Khatib (may Allah be merciful with him) has a few interesting stories of attempts to do this in Egypt this century.
The whole point is finding some way to get you to lower your guard. Being up front and announcing that they are on a mission to destroy your Iman, Islam and Ihsan is not in the best interest of the goals at Iblis & Minions, Inc.
4. Weakening the target
Once the guard has been lowered, the real work starts: getting the target weak enough so they finally succumb. They favorite tool here is to take advantage of ignorance by getting the target to question beliefs that he really has little detailed knowledge about, tricking him into thinking that his personal ignorance is not from his own shortcomings but because Ahl Al-Sunnah has no answer, and then filling the gap they have caused in victim’s Iman with Iblis & Minions, Inc. propaganda. At this point they present only some of the facts to the target, and conceal or outright lie about the things the target cannot accept.
The list gives just some of their favorite bait:
Allegation: You contradict the Majestic Qur’an
Their favorite evidence for this is their claim that our practice of washing our feet when making wudu contradicts order in the the Qur’an that they should be wiped. A response is that the verse concerning wudu has come to us through seven canonical recitations that are mutawatir [related in such great numbers at each point of their chain that it is impossible that the narrators simultaneously agreed upon a lie] — just like all other verses in the Qur’an. These seven recitations, upon which the Ummah has consensus, transmit two variations: one where arjul (feet) is a direct object governed by a verb and has a fatha on it, and the other where it is government by a preposition and has a kasra underneath it. All Muslims agree upon both of these recitations. Principles of jurisprudence dictate that the significance of both recitations must be taken into account. One way of doing this is to say that one recitation indicates washing the feet and the other indicates wiping over khuff. This is supported by the hadiths transmitted to us by the Companions in general (Allah be pleased with them), including Ahl Al-Bayt (Peace be upon them). The Shayatin claim to have other examples of this, but they all end up being false claims.
Allegation: You pull rulings out of thin air using analogical reasoning, ignoring evidence and making up the religion as you see fit.
An answer to this is that analogical reasoning is found with the Companions (Allah be pleased with them), including those from Ahl Al-Bayt (Peace be upon them). So this allegation is really an attach on Ahl Al-Bayt (peace be upon them).
Allegation: We are rightly guided because we have less numbers and are more downtrodden. Allah Most High has said, And how few they are! (Qur’an) and Few of My servants are thankful (Qur’an)
An obvious answer is that this is a distortion of what Allah Most High said. Allah Most High has said concerning the people of the right (ashab al-yamin), Droves from the first and droves from the last (Qur’an) and so the verse they mention has nothing to do with supporting one group over the other. Rather, the verse has to with the small number of those who are truly thankful compared to those who are not. And similarly the other verse concerns those who perform all possible pious acts compared to those who do not.
Allegation: Your leaders have corrupted the Qur’an, removing many verses concerning the superiority of Ahl Al-Bayt (Peace be upon them), the imperative to follow them and the prohibition of disagreeing with them, it being obligatory to love them, and the names of their enemies - all to protect their self interest.
As evidence for this they claim we removed a verse And we make Ali your son in law from A lam nashrah (Qur'an), a verse which would indicate thatAli (Peace be upon him) was the son in law of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) at the exclusion of `Uthman (Allah be pleased with him).
They even claim that we removed an entire chapter from the Qur’an (surat al-wilayah) in which the superiority of `Ali of and Ahl Al-Bayt (peace be upon him) is mentioned. How convenient it is that they have managed to preserve these chapter, as shown here.
An answer to this is that this allegation defies what Allah Most High has promised us in the Qur’an: Verily, We have revealed the Remembrance [the Qur’an] and surely We are protective of it! (Qur’an).
Allegation: The Sunni scholar so-and-so agreed with us.
The answer is that while the named scholar may have said what they claim, it was not one of our scholars. The truth is that they search through the names of our scholars, and whenever they find one that matches the name of someone working at Iblis & Minions, Inc. they forge hadiths under his name and give him the Employee Of the Month award and take him out for a quick something or other. Abd Allah bin Qutayba was one of their agents whileAbd Allah bin Muslim bin Qutayba was a trusted narrator. And there are two people name Al-Sudi: Al-Sudi Al-Kabir was one a trusted narrator, while Al-Sudi Al-Saghir was a lying hadith fabricator.
Today they love to mention hadiths and then falsely attribute them to Bukhari, Muslim or some other source well known to the average Muslim. Sometimes they even polish the chrome a bit with a volume and page number. They do this knowing that their target is unlikely to be able to verify their claim, and even if able will not do so.
Allegation: Many of their scholars first busied themselves with hadith and its sciences, and some of our best scholars transmitted this from them.
The answer to this is that just as Allah Most High has given specific protection to each verse of the Qur’an, He has given a general protection the Sunnah of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). This general protection has been by Allah blessed the Muslims with scholars who can sift out the authentic, the weak and the fabricated - even when only a single word has been inserted into a long hadith.
Allegation: Your so-and-so agreed with us in one of his books
This is a variation of (5). The truth is that they pen books under the names of our scholars, putting words in their mouth. One example of this is Sirr Al-Alimin which they ascribed to Imam Al-Ghazali. In the introduction, the author begs that the book be kept secret, and that what it contains is his true beliefs.
Another recent example of this is Al-Murajaat, which is supposed to be an exchange of letters between an agent of Iblis & Minions, Inc. and an Azhari scholar. This work has been decisively shown to be a fabrication, just one more example of their genre of fictitious conversion literature.
They cite opinions from scholars from the Mu`talizah and the Zaydiyah, claiming that the scholar is one of our zealous supporters. They then knock down this false opinion that they claim to be ours and bring evidence and proofs that support the creed of Iblis & Minions, Inc.
Allegation: Your so-and-so permitted such-and-such vile act!
This is just another variation of (5). Once again, the Iblis & Minions, Inc. fiction department is busy penning books in fiqh and then attributing them to one of our Imams, mentioning vile and disgusting lies to cause criticism. One example of this is a book named Al-Mukhtasr which they ascribed to Imam Malik (Allah be pleased with him) which includes an opinion that a slave owner may engage in sodomy with his slave. Imam Malik (Allah be pleased with him) did not say this.
Allegation: The great poet so-and-so was really one of us.
Once again: a variation of (5). The truth is that they take our poems and add stanzas to them to delude people into thinking that the author was part of the Iblis & Minions, Inc. team. They did this with the poetry of Al-Hafiz Al-Shirazi, Rumi, Shams Al-Din Al-Tabrizi, Imam Al-Shafi`i and others.
Allegation: The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said such-and-such
Yet another variation of (5), only with most dire consequences. The truth is that they fabricate hadiths and ascribe them to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). Once of them is that on Judgment day the Iblis & Minions, Inc. staff will not be asked about a single sin since their sins will be turned into good deeds. Even worse than this is a hadith in which they have fabricated something and attributed it to Allah (!) in claiming that that Allah Most High says that He will not harm a single person who made `Ali (Peace be upon him) his Imam - even if that person disobeyed Allah, and many other things. We all know that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said in a mutawatir hadith that whoever intentionally ascribes a lie to him will descend into the fire. May Allah protect us!
Allegation: Since the merits of Ali and Ahl Al-Bayt (Peace be upon them) are agreed upon by while the merits of Abu Bakr,Omar and `Uthman (Allah be pleased with them) are not, rationality demands that we take what is agreed upon and abandon what is disagreed about.
The answer is that this is just a variation of what some Jews and Christians have said: since Musa and Isa are agreed upon, we should all just stick with them. Besides, the merits of Abu Bakr,Omar and `Uthman (Allah be pleased with them one and all) have come to use with chains of transmission, so there is no need to leave them behind based purely on flimsy logic.
Allegation: `Ali (Peace be upon him) did such-and-such.
Once again, old number (5). The truth is that they ascribe all sorts of things to `Ali (Peace be upon him), some of them outright fabrications and others based on authentic texts with everything removed that disagrees with Iblis & Minions, Inc., something demonstrated in Nahj Al-Balagha.
Allegation: We have amnesty from the Hellfire on Judgment day. The threats and punishments mentioned in the Qur’an are for everyone else.
This is just what the Jews claim. And the Allah Most High rejects this idea in the Qur’an, such as in the verse where He says that Whoever does a bad deed will be recompensed for it (Qur’an).
Allegation: You prefer the schools of Abu Hanifa, Al-Shafi`i, Malik and Ahmad, and give them precedence over the school of the Pure Imams of Ahl Al-Bayt (peace be upon them) even though they have more right to be followed. Ahl Al-Bayt have more right to be followed because they were raised in the household of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the people of a household are most knowledgeable of what it contains.
One answer to this is that we do follow the scholars of Ahl Al-Bayt (peace be upon them) in particular, just as follow the Companions (Allah be pleased with them all) in general.
Allegation: History agrees with us.
The answer is that in historical accounts they mention fictitious stories to support their corrupt beliefs. One example of this is a story between Halima Al-Sa`diyyah, the wet-nurse of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), and Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf Al-Thaqafi; Halima (Allah be pleased with her) passed away long before Al-Hajjaj’s time.
Allegation: Your scholars relate hadiths that diminish the station of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). For example, they relate hadiths showing his neglect to order the right and forbid the wrong and not being protective of his wives (Allah be pleased with them). They even related that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) allowed `A’ishah (Allah be pleased with her) to watch the Habashis demonstrate their martial skills in the masjid, leaving the Habashis and others to look at his wife (Allah bless him and his entire household and give them peace). And they even relate that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) urinated standing up!
There are many answers to this, but the first one goes back to putting hadiths back in their proper context. So one response to the first hadith is that this event took place before the verses concerning covering the head, and there is no admonishment for things done before something is declared unlawful. Everyone agrees on the famous event where the Chief of the Martyrs Hamza, Abu Talha and other companions (Allah be pleased with them one and all) drank wine and became drunk and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) saw them in this state and remained silent without admonishing them.
Another answer is that authenticity is determined by careful examination of the chain of transmission, not by our own intellectual whims. So one response to the second hadith is that it is authentic, in Bukhari no less.
And amazing how they accuse us of reducing the station of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) by mentioning hadiths such as the above, yet they remain silent about the things their own scholars claim to relate from the pristine Imams of Ahl Al-Bayt (peace be upon them); things to make the skin crawl. In one of these hadiths that they consider authentic, they claim that Abu Abd Allah (peace be upon him) said to his companions and partisans (shiatihi) “Our bonds women’s service is for us, and their private parts are lawful for you [to use].” And in Kanz Al-`Irfan, their great exegesis of the Qur’an, the author explains the verse These are my daughters if you [must] do it (Qur’an) saying that Lut (peace be upon him) meant was using his daughters for unnatural sex acts.
5. Entrapment
And once the target has weakened and the target begins to agree with them on some issues, they move on to outright entrapment by getting the target to behave like the staff at Iblis & Minions, Inc. One of the favorite ways is by temporary marriage, since they know that this clearly is a point no return. Many times they get two targets at the same stage to engage in this, killing two bird with one stone.
6. Infection
After the target has been entrapped and thinks he has no chance of escaping, they start revealing the things they previously kept hidden about Iblis & Minions, Inc. At this point the target may start to wake up to the deception, but whatever they did to trap the target is all that holds them back. Here it is important to note that is most cases the entrapment is purely psychological: it is the fear of rejection that prevents the target from trying to leave Iblis & Minions, Inc., not an actual instance of rejection.
In sha Allah these observations are enough protect us from one of the ways Iblis & Minions, Inc. wages war on Muslims. And may Allah protect us. Lest someone feel that I have been overly harsh, ask yourself: is it a friend of Allah who uses lies and deceptions or a friend of Iblis? is it a friend of Allah who intentionally causes people to have doubts about their beliefs or a friend of Iblis? and isn’t there a difference between the janitors at Iblis & Minions, Inc. who are simply misguided and those working in their missionary recruitment department who intentionally misguide?
And Allah knows best.
wa al-salamu `alaykum
—musa
