al-Gharīb

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Al-Gharīb (Arabic: الغريب, DMG : al-ġarīb , plural: الغرباء, al-ġurabāʾ ; German : the stranger) is an Islamic concept with different meanings. The term goes back to a hadeeth .

Saying of Muhammad

In the work Saheeh Muslim by the Islamic scholar Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj , which is one of the al-Kutub as-sitta , there is the saying of the Prophet Muhammad , on which the principle of the foreign is based:

“Islam began as something alien and will return as alien, just as it began. And bliss belongs to the stranger. "( Badaʾa l-Islām ġarīban wa-sayaʿūdu ġarīban kamā badaʾa fa-ṭūbā li-l-ġurabāʾ. )

The Islamic scholar and constitutional protection officer Behnam T. Said notes in his dissertation "Hymns of Jihad" that the saying can also be found in Abū l-Fidāʾ, but that it does not speak of Islam, but of dīn .

According to the orientalist Franz Rosenthal, the exact meaning of the content is not known, nor is the context in which the statement is said to have been made. In the Islamic world, however, there are two versions of this meaning: on the one hand, it is understood to mean those Muslims who maintain the sunna , and on the other hand, the scholars describe themselves as foreigners, because as an elite they would preserve the necessary knowledge. In any case, the content has an eschatological undertone, as the preferred return of true Islam should come at the end of time. According to Ibn al-Athīr , in the end the Muslims are again in the minority, just as it was at the beginning of Islam. As for the "blessing on the stranger", he says that it is the promise that the strangers will go straight to Paradise as a reward for their steadfastness.

The term does not appear in the Koran .

The stranger in the Middle Ages

In his article, Rosenthal primarily describes travelers in the Islamic world. He argues that in the Middle Ages Islamic thought adopted ideas from antiquity , because it was assumed that it made no difference where you die: the process thereafter is the same everywhere. Sometimes death in a foreign country was even upgraded to martyrdom , which offered the dead the prospect of direct entry into paradise. However, Rosenthal also deals with Sufik , in which it is true that a true Muslim can only be at home in the immaterial world - in this world he is a stranger. Positive and negative character traits of a person would only come to light in this world of thought when they were abroad. The Sufis often regard life as a journey and so they recommend that one should always show oneself as a stranger.

But the scholar at-Tawheedī shaped the feeling of being a stranger even more. According to him, a stranger is someone who feels like a stranger even at home, whom no one believes and who are not given any answers to their questions. God is the only protection against other people. In this definition, the stranger becomes the one who dedicates his life only to God - and is thus the prototype for a good Muslim . The soul must free itself from this world and return to God again.

Ibn Qaiyim al-Jawzīya

The medieval Islamic scholar Ibn Qaiyim al-Jawzīya began to elaborate the concept of al-ġarīb in his work Madāriǧ as-sālikīn ("Stations of the Treaders of the Spiritual Path"). This work is a commentary on the Manāzil sāʾirīn ("all stations") of the Sufi scholar Abu Ismāʿil ʿAbdallāh al-Harawī al-Ansarī (died 1089). ʿAbdallāh al-Ansarī deals in his work with the 100 stations that a Sufi must go through on his journey before he can reach the highest level. Each of these 100 stations is in turn divided into three subcategories: the novice ( al-ʿāmma ), the elite ( al-chāssa ) and the elite of the elite ( chāssat al-chāssa ). The special thing about this work is the application of the Sufi tripartite division to each station.

Ibn Qaiyim al-Jawzīya comments on ʿAbdallāh al-Ansarīs work in order to refute his assumption that every station - including love for God - is flawed. The exception was the level of tawheed , which in ʿAbdallāh al-Ansarī does not represent Islamic monotheism as usual, but the annihilative union. ʿAbdallāh al-Ansarī referred to the destruction of one's own self, which then becomes one with God. Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya's most important message, on the other hand, is that God is an active medium who guides people through their lives and that the latter is not just a passive recipient of God's messages. As for the foreigner, you devote a whole chapter to Ibn Qaiyim al-Jawzīya.

Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya ties in with the medieval notion of the foreign in this world and quotes Muhammad, who is said to have asked Muslims to be like strangers in this world. However, according to Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya, this strangeness will come to a happy end.

Other works

Two other important works on this concept in the Middle Ages are the Kitāb al-ġurabāʾ ("The Book of Strangers") by the Shafiite scholar Abū Bakr Ayurī (died 970), which deals with the saying of the Prophet Muhammad, and the Kitāb adab al-ġurabāʾ ("Book of the literature of foreigners") by Abū l-Faraǧ al-Isfahānī (967), who describes a feeling of nostalgia in it.

The foreigners of the Shiites

Apart from Sunni Islam, there is also the concept of the foreign in the Shiite version . Here Husain and ʿAlī Rezā are referred to as gharīb al-ghurabāʾ (the stranger of strangers). The name is said to go back to Muhammad al-Mahdī , who is said to have applied it to Husain and ʿAlī Rezā.

The Iranian website mastoor.ir explores the question of why ʿAlī Rezā is called a stranger. At the beginning the author describes the two characteristics of a stranger:

  1. Someone who is far from his family, his home and his city.
  2. Someone who has few companions and friends.

From this description it can thus be determined that some imams are strangers while others are even stranger. However, no one would have been as foreign as ʿAlī Rezā, which is why he is the gharīb al-ghurabāʾ - the stranger of strangers. This foreignness had already been shown to him in his dreams. The other twelve emams would have known him as a stranger. ʿAlī Rezā himself is said to have said that the worst person of God wanted to make a Shahīd out of him with poison and wanted to bury him far from his home and friends in strange terrain. Why would anyone pilgrimage to him in this stranger, so by God with 100,000 Shahid -Taten, 100.000 friend's deeds 100,000 Hajj - and umra -Reisen, 100,000 Jihad posted -Teilnahmen. In addition, whoever undertook the pilgrimage abroad would become God's and ʿAlī Rezā's friend in Paradise. One reason he is called a stranger is because he said goodbye to Medina and Mecca and moved further and further away from his homeland. In his dreams he is said to have seen a time when he was forced to leave Medina in the direction of Khorāsān to cry aloud. According to his own statement, there he should want to become a Shahīd abroad. Before leaving, he is said to have told his family that he would not return.

Adaptation in Salafism

In the Salafist scene , the concept of the foreign is widespread, which is illustrated by a well-known naschīd . But also jihadists like Abū Musʿab az-Zarqāwī gave themselves the battle name "al-Gharīb". In addition to the active role of the stranger, which manifests itself in violence, some Salafists also propagate a passive role, which calls for enduring fate and willingness to make sacrifices. So being "foreign" is also an emotional state in the Salafist scene.

Nashid

One of the most famous naschīds of Salafist-oriented Islamists bears the name Ghuraba . Behnam T. Said analyzed this Naschīd in his dissertation on the "Hymns of Jihad". One finding of this is that the poem itself was "written in a dimetric Ramal" and thus "meets the requirements of classical poetry". A first video recording of a performance of the song was first found in the course of the trials of the terrorist group al-Jihād in the early 1990s following the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar as-Sādāt . According to Said, claims have been made in many forums on the Islamist scene that the Muslim Brother Sayyid Qutb wrote the text. This claim can neither be excluded nor confirmed. However, Said points to his correspondence with the Islamic scholar Bernard Haykel, who believes that what is important is what Islamists believe - namely that the text was written by Sayyid Qutb.

The Naschid's lecture was recorded on video and is available on YouTube with German subtitles. However, the video incorrectly states that the prisoner began to sing during the trials of the Muslim Brotherhood. Said was able to prove that this was widespread false information.

Said also analyzed the Naschīd in the use of the terrorist groups al-Qāʾida and Islamic Movement Uzbekistan . In both videos fighters are shown in their everyday life and fights are glorified. There is also a recording from a Moroccan prison , which Said considers to be authentic, and which was probably taken as part of a concrete protest with political demands. The well-known German jihadist Denis Cuspert also sang the Naschīd, which Said classifies as the worst of all versions.

Arab Afghans

The so-called Arab-Afghans, i.e. those Arab fighters who fought in Afghanistan during the war between the Mujahidūn and the USSR and who sometimes stayed there afterwards, often referred to themselves as foreigners. For a short time there was apparently even a unit called kātibat al-ġurabāʾ ("The Brigade of Strangers"), which was founded by ʿAbdallāh ʿAzzām in the 1980s . Abū Musʿab as-Surī, a well-known Syrian jihadist in Afghanistan, founded a training camp in the spring of 2000 called "The Camp of Strangers" ( muʿaskar al-ġurabāʾ ). According to the terrorism researcher Brynjar Lia, this is clearly about eschatological expectations, since in Salafism this is also associated with the term "the saved sect" ( al-firqa an-naǧīya ). The latter refers to the group of people who will be saved on Judgment Day. As-Surī himself describes the camp on the one hand with relations to the Talibān , on the other hand as a place of ideological, religious and political education and training camp , which in his eyes the Arab-Afghans have long been missing. The camp was located on the Kargha military base outside of Kabul . There were no more than 20-30 permanent fighters in the camp, the numbers always varying. Relations with Usāma ibn Lādin were not maintained.

Anwar al-ʿAwlaqī

The US-born al-Qaeda ideologist Anwar al-ʿAwlaqī further developed the idea of ​​the foreigner. He wrote that one had to reject everything but God and become a stranger in one's own familiar environment. Only then are you close to God. Anwar al-ʿAwlaqī translated part of the work of Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya. In the commentary to the translation, he writes that during his time in prison he needed steadfastness and therefore decided to read madāriǧ as-sālikīn . As soon as he received permission to read from the prison guards, he ordered this work. He notes that he could by no means adequately translate this "eloquent" Arabic of Ibn Qaiyim al-Jawziyah into good English.

Nonetheless, he has translated a part of the comments: the stations of repentance, fear, Firasa (visual acuity, perception and insight), calm, Muraqaba (the knowledge that God guards everyone), Tauba , love of God, the recall of human fate in the Beyond, the inevitable obstacle and strangeness. However, one would only become a stranger in one's own society, since one would dedicate one's own life entirely to God. One would live among unbelievers as one who would still keep God's commandments upright. This strangeness, however, by no means results in loneliness for those who are strangers. On the contrary, since this person would be more in touch with God, he would be happy.

Global Islamic Media Front

The publication organ GIMF (Global Islamic Media Front) of the terrorist organization Millatu Ibrahim used the term "al-Ghuraba '" with remarkable frequency. Mohamed Mahmoud (who himself uses the pseudonym Abu Usama Al-Gharib) published a pamphlet entitled "Who are the al-Ghurabaʾ?". In it he describes the strangers as those who hate everything that deviates from Islam and whose opponents are non-Muslims and "so-called Muslims" - who are vilified as munāfiqūn and fāsiqūn . True Muslims, on the other hand, are people of haqq (truth), tauhīd (monotheism) and al-walāʾ wa-l-barāʾ (loyalty and defection). A stranger would have to renounce everything else except Islam.

There is also a video by Mohamed Mahmoud on the Internet in which he talks about the principle of the "foreign" and which is also underlaid with the naschīd. At the beginning of the lecture Mahmoud claims that Muhammad was initially perceived as a hate preacher in Mecca as well. Many people just could not understand why Muhammad continued to spread his message despite the torture. He also criticizes all people who do not understand those like him. All those who are currently declaring rulers Muslims are crazy. Accordingly, there are hardly any true Muslims in the world. In the end, he calls God to destroy the US and any allies with it. This also shows one's own perception as a stranger in a world that has strayed from God's way. True Muslims are in the minority - so Islam is foreign.

IS organization

The Al Ghuraba Media media office of the terrorist organization 'Islamic State' regularly publishes Arabic pamphlets, which are often translated into German.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Behnam T. Said: Hymns of Jihad . Ergon Verlag, Würzburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-95650-125-8 , pp. 186, footnote 105 .
  2. ^ Franz Rosenthal: The Stranger in Medieval Islam . In: Arabica T. 44, Fasc. 1 (Jan. 1997), pp. 35-75 . S. 61-62 .
  3. ↑ Rosenthal: The Stranger in Medieval Islam , pp. 62–63.
  4. ↑ Rosenthal: The Stranger in Medieval Islam , p. 38.
  5. ^ Rosenthal: The Stranger in Medieval Islam , p. 53.
  6. ^ Rosenthal: The Stranger in Medieval Islam , p. 42.
  7. ^ Rosenthal: The Stranger in Medieval Islam , p. 54.
  8. ↑ Rosenthal: The Stranger in Medieval Islam , pp. 57-59.
  9. ↑ Ovamir Anjum: Steps of the Seekers (Madarij al-salikin) | Translator's Introduction. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original ; accessed on July 20, 2016 .
  10. ^ Rosenthal: The Stranger in Medieval Islam , p. 59.
  11. ↑ Benno Köpfter: Ghuraba ʾ - the concept of foreigners in Salafist currents. From the name of a terror camp to a subcultural lifestyle. Ed .: Behnam T. Said, Hazim Fouad . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2014, p. 447-448 .
  12. ↑ Unknown: čerā emām Rezā rā gharīb al-ghurabāʾ mī nāmand? (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 27, 2017 ; Retrieved July 20, 2016 (farsi).
  13. ↑ Köpfer: Ghurabaʾ , p. 444.
  14. ↑ Köpfer: Ghurabaʾ , p. 465.
  15. ↑ Said: Hymns of Jihad , p. 189.
  16. ↑ Said: Hymns of Jihad , pp. 184-185.
  17. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAUHqoi2HW8 Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  18. ↑ Said: Hymns of Jihad , pp. 184-185.
  19. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcpekijE_8g Accessed July 20, 2016.
  20. ↑ Available online: http://web.archive.org/web/20170627070639/http://mp3pn.biz/song/48734362/Abu_Talha_Al-Almani_-_Ghuraba/ , number 3. Accessed on August 18, 2016.
  21. ↑ Said: Hymns of Jihad , pp. 187–189.
  22. ^ Brynjar Lia: Architect of global jihad the life of al-Qaida strategist Abu Mus'ab al-Suri . Hurst, London 2007, pp. Footnote 65, pp. 250-251 .
  23. ^ Lia: Architect of Jihad , pp. 250-252.
  24. ↑ Lia: Architect of Jihad , pp. 252-253.
  25. ↑ Anwar al-Awlaki: Book Review 2: Madarij al Salikeen by Ibn al Qayim. Retrieved July 20, 2016 .
  26. ↑ Ibid. , Pp. 20-22. [20. July 2016].
  27. ↑ Köpfer: Ghurabaʾ , pp. 461–464.
  28. ↑ Abu Usama al-Gharib: Strange to those [sic!] Whose insight Allah has blinded. Retrieved July 20, 2016 .
  29. ↑ Köpfer: Ghurabaʾ , p. 445.