March 2014

The second testimony by one of Jabhat an-Nusra's senior members. Abū Firās as-Sūrī

Translation:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Al-Baseera Media Productions Presents English Translation & Transcript of:

"Silsalah al-Shahada: Chain of Testimonies"

Shaykh Abu Firas al-Suri
May Allah Preserve Him

قُلْ هَٰذِهِ سَبِيلِي أَدْعُو إِلَى اللَّهِ ۚ عَلَىٰ بَصِيرَةٍ أَنَا وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِي ۖ وَسُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ
{Say: "This is my way; I invite to Allah with insight, I and those who follow me. And exalted is Allah; and I am not of those who associate others with Him."}
[Qur'an; 12:108]

Important points mentioned by the Shaykh in his testimony:

• His witness on the threats of Jamaat Al-Dawla to kill Abu Khalid al-Suri.

• His witness on that Jamaat Al-Dawla makes Takfeer upon the people based on what is not a sin, but a righteous deed.

A Brief Biography of Shaykh Abu Firas al-Suri:

Shaykh Abu Firas was born in 1369H. (1949) in the countryside of Damascus. He attended the Military University and graduated as an officer attaining the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Due to his Islamic views, his military service ceased in 1979 after the incident which happened in the Artillery School.

He was a trainer between 1977-1980 to the Mujahideen in At-Tali'a Al-Muqatila and he participated in many operations against the [Syrian] regime between the years of 1979-1980. In 1980 he moved to Jordan and the following year he left for Afghanistan where he trained the Mujahideen in several military sciences at various training camps in Khorasaan.

While in Afghanistan, Shaykh Abu Firas met the two Shaykhs, Shaykh Abdullah ‘Azzam and Shaykh ‘Usamah ibn Ladin (in 1983), he continued to train the Mujahideen in specially prepared camps to carry out operations in; India, Indonesia, Burma and Iran.

Shaykh Abu Firas participated in military operations in Khost and Jalaabad and he was active in participating in the Shura charged with reconciling the differences among the Mujahideen of Afghanistan.

He was an envoy of Shaykh ‘Usmah bin Ladin to call the people of Pakistan to perform Jihad, and he met a delegation of the leaders of Jihad in Pakistan such as Sami'a al-Haq the leader of the Haqani University where most of the Afghani and Taliban scholars graduated from.

He was key in convincing Jama'at Ahl al-Hadith to form a Jihadi group and met some of their leadership. Further, some were persuaded by him to form a new group called: Jamat al-Dawa and another militant group Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, which Shaykh Abu Firas trained while the finance came from Shaykh ‘Usama and was led by Zaik al-Rahman.

Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Iraqi, along with Shaykh Abu Firas formed rapid response force for Hekmatyar. Abu Firas and Shaykh Abu ‘Ubaida al-Binshiri and Shaykh Abu Hafs al-Misri formed the Masada Military Shura Council. He had also met Shaykh Abu Musa'ab al-Zarqawi and coordinated together to start efforts in Bilad al-Sham.
During the American invasion, he worked in securing the families of the Pakistani Mujahideen.

In 2003, he immigrated to Yemen and stayed there until he returned to Bilad al-Sham in 2013 when the conflict between Jabhat al Nusra and Jama'at al-Dawla took place. Where he desperately tried along with Shaykh Abu Khalid al-Suri al-Suri to address the issues, however his attempts failed due of the arrogance of Jama'at al-Dawla. He eventually joined the ranks of Tandheem Qaidat al-Jihad's representative in al-Sham, Jabhat al-Nusra, where he is today.

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[Beginning of Testimony audio video available upon request]

All Praise is due to Allah and may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet, the Messengers and upon his household and his companions all.

I never thought about talking about Ad-Dawla and about the crimes that have been committed by them against the Islamic Umma, and against Islam, [until after] the speech of al-Adnani, which was full of awful transgressions, and wherein he accused our brother Abu Abdullah al-Shami of lying and invited him to do Mubahala.

And I will talk about two points: firstly the issue of threatening Abu Khalid al-Suri; and secondly the issue that they [Dawla] make Takfeer based upon righteous deeds:

As for the Takfeer of Abu Khalid al-Suri:

In this very place, I met Shaykh Abu Khalid al-Suri (rahimahullah) hours before he died, and he said to me:"They [Dawla] put me [Shaykh Abu Khalid al-Suri] on their ‘black list' and they want to assassinate me."

I smiled at him and said: "Life is in the Hand of Allah." [The time of your death is already Decreed.]

He replied: "And you be careful because you are a target as well".

I didn't comment on that too much and said to him;"We don't care, our lives are in The Hand of Allah." but he didn't like my nonchalance, and insisted on me to be careful and said that we are targets and at the top of the list."

I said to him: "Depend on Allah and take care of yourself."

And he approved that and said:"Many threats reached me from them [Dawla]. I don't say this based upon suspicion. I received many threats on my life and they warned me about it."

On the next day, after only a few hours, I was informed of his martyrdom, may Allah be merciful with him.

As for the second point, which is that they make Takfeer based upon righteous deeds:

Since the conflict began between them and the other groups and since the first day that we tried to bring them all to reconciliation and sort all the problems out, we went to Jamaat al-Dowla to strive to reconcile and to solve the issue, and during that first meeting, Abu Ali al-Anabari said: "What do you want?"

We said to him we propose three points as one [solution];

Firstly: to cease firing [stop the fighting],
Secondly:exchange the prisoners,
Thirdly:establish Islamic courts to judge in all the cases of the conflicts.

But he [al-Anbari] rejected this offer.

And that was in front of the committee which was formed of four from Jabht al-Nusra, Abu Hasan Taftanasi, myself, Abu Hammam al-Shami , and Abu ‘Ubaida al-Tunisi, the Shari in the military office (of Jabhat Al-Nusra).

Also present was Abu Abdullah from Al-Farouq , and brother Mansor from Ajnad al-Aqsa ,and Shaykh Abdullah al-Mohaisni.

He [Abu ‘Ali al-Anbari] reprimanded us for reconciling between them and the ‘murtadeen' [apostates].

We said: "We do not consider them murtadeen"

He said: "This is a disagreement between us and you." [meaning the ruling as to whether they were Muslim or murtad.] and he insisted that we shouldn't be mediators between them and the "murtadeen."

After a long discussion about this matter he said: "Let me consult [my superiors]". Then he came back after an hour and a half, he said:"We will tell you our decision on the morning." The next morning, we came to him, and they [Dawla] had announced that they had killed Abu Saa'ad al-Hadrimi, the Amir o fal-Raqqa from Jabhat al-Nusra.

But we let it pass [this transgression] and did not discuss it, in order that we could focus on the reconciliation, but he [Abu ‘Ali al-Anbari] asked to meet the members of Jabht al-Nusra alone, so we went into another room, he said: "What did you do?"

We said: "What?"

He said: "What are you doing? Don't you know what you are doing?"

We said: "What did we do? You tell us."

He said: "How dare you raise your flag over our base in Darit Azza?"

We said: "We raised our flag over your residence in Darit Azza to protect your soldiers because the FSA was about to raid the base and imprison all your members there or kill them, but the Amir of Jabhat al-Nusra in that area entered and prevented the FSA from doing that.And took the brothers [the soldiers from Jamat al-Dawla] and sent them to you safely with all respect and good manners."

He said: "We don't accept [this], even if they [the soldiers from Dawla] all died, we don't need your mediation, and raising your flag over our base is not acceptable."

We said: "They are your brothers, do you sacrifice your soldiers for not hoisting a flag over your residence? We can now lower the flag down, and you send back your soldiers."

Then I said: "The situation requires wisdom"

He said: "We don't care, either we eliminate them or they eliminate us."

I said: "Ya Shaykh, the situation needs to be handled with wisdom. I am asking you a question, is it wise to announce that you killed Abu Saa'ad al-Hadrami the Amir of Jabht al-Nusra in al-Raqqa?"

He said: "We don't care. It's not important to us."

I said: "Leave it aside if it's important or unimportant to you.I am asking you is it wise to announce that you killed him?"

He said: "We don't care."

Then brother Abu ‘Ubaida al-Tunisi asked him: "Why did you kill him?"

He [Abu ‘Ali al-Anbari] said: "Because he is a murtad, and admitted that he is a murtad."

Abu ‘Ubaida replied: "What made you consider him a murtad?"

He [al-Anbari] said: "He is taking the Baya'a from the FSA."

I said: "Ya Abu Ali! Is taking the Bya'a from the FSA considered as Rida? He is bringing the people to Jihad, it is a righteous [praiseworthy] thing."

He [al-Anbari] said: "Yes he is a murtad for taking the Baya'a from the FSA."

This Takfeer is not based on minor or major sins. This Takfeer is based upon righteous deeds!

And he said that in front of Abu ‘Ubaida al-Tunisi, Abu al-Hassan Taftnaz, and me.

And I swear on this, and I'm ready to bear witness on this in front of Allah and all of His creations.

All that I mentioned regarding our brother Abu Khalid (Rahimahullah) and our brother Abu Saa'ad al-Hadirimi, and how they killed him for taking Bay'a from the FSA , I swear on it, and I emphasise and swear to Allah that they said that, and I heard that by my [own] ears what each of Abu Khalid and al-Anbari said. I swear to Allah about this!

And may peace and blessing be upon the prophet Muhammad and upon his family and companions.

[End of Testimony]

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Audio clip from part of the speech from Shaykh Abu Abdullah al-Shaami, may Allah preserve him, about the Takfeer of Jama'at al-Dawla:

"And the Khawarij used to make Takfeer on the Major sins, but such is the extremism in Takfeer of Jamat al-Dawla, today, [that they] are now making Takfeer regarding what is less than the major sins, even regarding what is not [even considered] a sin, even [making Takfeer] on the permissible maters, and even upon righteous deeds!"

And Abu Abdullah al-Shaami said:

"As an example of their Takfeer depending on righteous deeds [is their] making Takfeer upon Shaykh Saa'ad al-Hadrami, when al-Baghdadi's vice was asked about the reasons of the apostasy of Shaykh al-Hadrami, may Allah accept him, he said: ‘He was taking Baiya't from the Free Syrian Army (FSA)". But is taking Bay'a from FSA is Rida'a (apostasy). "What is more extremism after this matter?"