Omar Siddiqui Mateen obeyed Allah

[siddiq: a man of truth, the siddiq is the one who believes in Allah and His Messenger by the statement of the one who reports it, not from any proof except the light of belief which he experiences in his heart, and which prevents him from hesitating, or any doubt entering him, about the word of the Messenger who reported. ¹

The Siddiqin (the constantly true) are those who acquire spiritual perfection, and thus – attain the highest rank among the followers of a prophet. In common parlance, they are called Men of Allah, or saints.²]

Intro

(OD) Orlando Police Dispatcher

(OM) Omar Mateen

OD: Emergency 911, this is being recorded.

OM: In the name of God the Merciful, the beneficent [(said in) Arabic]

OD: What?

OM: Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God [(said in) Arabic]. I wanna let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings.

OD: What’s your name?

OM: My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.

OD: Ok, What’s your name?

OM: I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may God protect him [said in Arabic], on behalf of the Islamic State.

OD: Alright, where are you at?

OM: In Orlando.

OD: Where in Orlando?

[End of call] ³

“Words and deeds”

Step with me now, away from that phone call. 

Away, for a spell, from Orlando Pulse nightclub and the carnage there that fateful 12 June early morning, and step with me into the pages of the “words of Allah,” as recorded in the Qur’an, and into the pages providing the details of the words and deeds of the man Islam presents as “Allah’s Messenger.”

Step with me into the pages of tafsir, provided to us by the toils, discipline, dedication of scholars to master the Arabic language, in their efforts to correctly understand the tenets of the Qur’an.  Thus, to serve that end, master not only Arabic but also master “vast and deep knowledge of syntax, etymology, rhetoric, and literature of the Arabic language, as well as, that of prophetic Traditions, principles governing jurisprudence and exegesis, doctrinal articles of belief and scholastics.” ⁴

“Tafsir,” the scholars of Islam provide, interpreted, is “‘to open’ or to explain, interpret or comment. Technically, the science of tafsir is a branch of knowledge in which the meanings of the Qur’an are explained and its injunctions and wisdoms are described openly and clearly.” ⁵

As the Qur’an bears out, as we will in time herein arrive at, the first tafsir—explainer, discloser—of the intended “Divine” meaning of the Qur’anic verses was none other than the one Islam calls “the Messenger of Allah,” Muhammad, “the Prophet of Islam” himself.

Though, herein, I will speak at length to that Islamic tenet, my aim in this post is by no means to do so “exhaustively.”

My aim in addressing that topic in this post is to provide the reader with information, with which, once I speak to Omar Siddiqui Mateen’s obedience to Allah, as showcased 12 June 2016, “Orlando,” the reader will have that necessary to value the works and statements of tafsir then cited. In short. I assure you, much more confirming the tenet of “Muhammad, the living tafsir,” one can provide and add to it from the Islamic authoritative texts. However, though I will speak to it repeatedly throughout the lion’s share of this write-up, that tenet is deserving of a “chapter” of its own.

That said, according to Islamic doctrine, Allah, dispatched Muhammad to this world for the express purpose of explaining, in and by his [Muhammad’s] words and deeds, the intended “Divine” meanings of the Qur’anic verses. Hence, “And We sent down the Message (adh-dhikr: The Qur’an) so that you explain to the people what has been revealed for them and so that they may ponder. ” (Surah Al-Nahl : 16:44, Ma’ariful Qur’an Translation.)

For such reasons, from the men of knowledge in Islam, exegesis such as this:

“The explanatory role of the Sunnah in relation to the Qur’an has been determined by the Qur’an itself, where we read in an address to the Prophet in sura al-Nahl (16:44): ‘We have sent down to you the Remembrance so that you may explain to the people what has been revealed to them.” ⁶

For such reasons, “Alif, Lam, Ra. This is a book We have sent down to you, that you may take the people out of (all sorts of) darkness into the light…” (Surah Ibrahim: 14: 1) and this tafsir on it: “… only that sense or interpretation of the Holy Qur’an is trustworthy which has been communicated to us by the Holy Prophet through his word and deed. Any interpretation contrary to it is not reliable.” ⁷

Thus we read this narration from al-Miqdam bin Ma ‘di Yakrib: “The Messenger of Allah said: ‘Verily, I have been given the Book and something like it with it.” (Sahih) ⁸ That “something like it with it” is his life, his Sunnah, his living tafsir.

Speaking to the same, “And Allah has surely conferred favor on the believers when He raised in their midst a messenger from among themselves who recited to them His verses and makes them pure and teaches them the Book and the Wisdom…” (Surah ‘Al-‘Imran 3:164.)

From that explanation lived, “the Book and the Wisdom” taught by living example, witnessed by the “noble Sahabah (Companions),” the intended “divine” meaning of those verses was understood and, only then, transmitted therefrom on to the next generation that followed them, that of the “Successors (Tabi ‘in).”  And from there forward.

In all those cases, accuracy of the meaning was crucial. To pass on an unintended meaning of the Qur’anic verses was to pass on falsehood with respect to the words and deeds of “Allah’s Messenger,” because as stated above, as provided in the Qur’an, his life explained in perfection the intended meaning of Qur’anic verses.  Thus, to pass on unintended meanings, a wrong or perverted meaning of any part of those verses was to do so at the threat of the sword to ones “pharynx.” (per Abu Hurayra, Bakhari.)

For such reasons, the Islamic record provides, “on some occasions, the revered Companions had to devote years together in learning a single Surah.” ⁹ Because, asserts the said record, they not only learned and put to memory the words of the Qur’an verses, which they learned directly from the “prophet,” Muhammad, but along with the learning of those words they also learned from him [Muhammad] the detailed explanation of each verse.

Hence this report from the Sahabah: “There were people among us when they learnt ten verses, they would not go further unless they knew their meanings properly and acted upon them.  Thus we learnt the Qur’an and based all our actions on it.” ¹⁰

Hence, this summation from the revered scholar just-cited above, ‘Abdur Rahman I. Doi, on the above Islamic tenet and on it summarized in the verse, “Whatever the Messenger brought to you take hold of it, and whatever he forbids you of, abstain from it.” ¹¹ (“Qur’an ch. 59:7”):

In reality, the entire life of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.), whatever he did or said, was according to the teachings of the Qur’an and hence, if all the events of his life and teachings are taken together with all the authentic Ahadith, we get a complete Tafsir of the Qur’an put into practice by the Messenger Of Allah himself, the bearer of the Divine Revelations. ¹²

And on account of that which was “sent down,” according to Islamic doctrine, on account of that which was “communicated to us by the Holy Prophet,”  taught through the medium of his [“Allah’s Messenger’s"] words and deeds,  “Allah” had this to state on it: “We ourselves, have sent down the Dhikr (the Qur’an), and We are there to protect it.” [15:9] And regarded tafsir provides this clarity on the just-cited promise, under the sub heading, “The Promise to Protect the Qur’an Includes the Protection of Hadith”:

As a matter of principle, all learned people agree that the Qur’an is neither the name of the words of the Qur’an alone, nor that of its meanings alone, instead, a combination of both is called the Qur’an….This tells us that the Qur’an is the exclusive name of the particular Divinely revealed Book the words and meanings of which are simultaneously protected. ¹³

And from the same, this, under the heading, “Hadith is Necessary to Understand Qur’an: The Rejection of Hadith is Really the Rejection of the Qur’an”:

“And We sent down the Message (adh-dhikr: The Qur’an) so that you explain to the people,” means, by consensus, the Holy Qur’an—and, in this verse, the Holy Prophet has been given the assignment of explaining the meaning of verses revealed to him before people. Herein lies an open proof that the correct understanding of the realities, insights and injunctions of the Holy Qur’an depends on the statement of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad al-Mustafa. ¹⁴

The author follows that asserting “if everyone, by simply acquiring the knowledge of Arabic language and literature, were to become capable of understanding the injunctions of the Qur’an as Divinely intended, then, the mission of explaining assigned to the Holy Prophet,” as spoken to above, “ would have been rendered meaningless.”¹⁵

Buttressing his assertions thereto, he adds as follows:

In Al-Muwafqat, Allamah Shatibi has provided detailed proof that the Sunnah of the Prophet, the whole of it, is the explanation of the Book of Allah because the Qur’an has said about the Holy Prophet , (And surely you are at the height of a sublime nature—68:4) and which was explained by Sayyidah ‘A’ishah by saying: (The Qur’an was his sublime nature). Thus, the outcome is that every word and deed which provenly [sic] issued forth from the Holy Prophet is nothing but what was said by the Qur’an…. They [the mentioned words and deed] are …  based on some kind of revelation, though it was not made part of the Holy Qur’an. Thus, that too, in a certain way, comes under the operative purview of the Qur’an itself. ¹⁶

Why is that that under the purview—that which is part of “the full scope or compass of any document, statement, subject, book, etc. [dictionary.com]--of the Qur’an is included therein “every word and deed which provenly [sic] issued forth from the Holy Prophet”?

I’ll let the scholars answer that for us: “…because according to the clarification of the Qur’an nothing that he says is prompted by his personal desire, instead of which, it is a Wahy (revelation) from Allah Ta ‘ala: (and nor does he talk from desire. It is nothing but a revelation revealed – 53:3-4).” ¹⁷

The revered Islamic scholar and author of those lines follows that affirming, “This tells us that all acts of worship, dealings with people, personal morals and habits of the Holy Prophet were, all of them,  through Divine revelation and have the same authority as that of the Qur’an.” ¹⁸

Summing it up he then adds what I stated in the opening lines of this post, “…this verse declares that the purpose for which the Holy Prophet was sent is the explaining of the Qur’an.” ¹⁹  

Indeed, explaining the Qur’an through the medium of his “sayings and doings,” those word and deeds of “the Holy Prophet” known as Hadith.

What’s more, the above-cited author then closes that section addressing this tenet of Islam with this declaration—heads up, all fools who assert the Islamic text IS, Al-Qaeda, and all “Extremist” live by are those twisted and perverted:

If today a person calls this treasure of Hadith unreliable under one or the other pretext or artifice, it plainly means that the Holy Prophet acted against this Qur’anic injunction when he did not explain what the Qur’an had said; or, that he had explained it but his explanation did not remain preserved for posterity. Under either of the two conditions, it is being suggested that the Qur’an has not remained protected as to its meaning – the responsibility of protecting which has been undertaken by Allah Ta ‘ala Himself: [We, Ourselves, have sent down the Dhikr (the Qur’an) and We are there to protect it – 15:9]. ²⁰

Expounding on verse 15:9 [cited above] the revered scholar firmly states, “One who says that the Ahadith of the Rasul of Allah are not absolutely protected is really saying that the Qur’an is not protected.” ²¹

In other words, to assert the “extremist” or anyone else has twisted and changed the words and meanings of the Qur’an is to call Allah a liar.

The author adds, such a claim or its inference “is contrary to this textual authority (nass) of the Qur’an.” He thus affirms, “from here it stands proved that a person who refuses to accept the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet as a binding authority of Islam is, in reality, a denier of the Qur’an itself.”²²  

Reason being so, as that provided above. As that restated below, same concept, same authoritative source, different volume, this, under the heading, “The Holy Prophet’s Words are a Revelation from Allah:

(And he does not speak out of (his own) desire. It is not but revelation revealed [to him] …. 53:3 – 4] The verses tell us that it is absolutely impossible for the Messenger to forge lies and impute them to Allah. Nothing he utters is of his own wish or desire. He only conveys to the people what he was commanded to convey, in its entirety, without additions or deletions. An analysis of the various Traditions in Bukhari indicates that there are many categories or types of wahy [inspiration or revelation]. Type one is that in which the wordings and the meaning are both directly from Allah. This is called Qur’an. Type two is the one in which only the meaning comes from Allah, and the Messenger expresses the meaning in his own words. This is called Hadith or Sunnah [Tradition]. The subject of Hadith, which comes from Allah, sometimes lays down injunctions or rules of conduct in clear and express terms, and at other times it establishes a general principle from which the Messenger derives laws on the basis of ijtihad or anology [sic] , and promulgates them. ²³

Therefore, with the invaluable indispensable worthiness, from the Islamic perspective, of the words of the “prophet” established, we note the invaluable indispensable worthiness of narratives such as this:  “The Messenger of Allah said: ‘Whoever changes his religion [away from Islam], execute him.’”²⁴

When we read such we know just how such arrived thereat, we know why. We know its weight and worth in Islam.

Likewise, when we read, “It was narrated from Abdul ‘Aziz bin Muhammad, from ‘Amr bin Abi ‘Amr, from ‘Ikrimah, from ibn ‘Abbas who said: “ Allah’s Messenger said: ‘Whoever of you find doing the action of the people of Lut, kill the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.” ²⁵  

So too with, “the Prophet called the Khawarij  ‘the worst of the people’. This is the quality of the unbelievers. He said, ‘An evil tribe under the sky. Blessings for the one who kills them or the one whom they kill.’” 

“He said, ‘When you find them, kill them as you would kill an enemy.’” ²⁶

We move on.

Preserving and protecting “Qur’an”

Thus, with the above concept regarded, once the correct words of the Qur’anic verses were learned and memorized, the same record provides, once, along with that, their correct meanings and explanations; then was the duty of the ummah to, along with preserving the correct words of the “noble Qur’an,” likewise preserving their correct meanings.

Therein a practice, a sunnah of “Allah” noted in many a tenet of Qur’an: accomplishing his stated promises and/or threats, via the hands, heads, and hearts of the believers, in this instance: “We, Ourselves, have sent down the Dhikr (the Qur’an), and We are there to protect it” (Surah Al-Hijr 15:9).

Thus, to that end, as the scholars state, “It became necessary that the tafsir of Qur’an be preserved as a permanent branch of knowledge so that, along with the words of the noble Qur’an, its correct meaning as well stands protected and conserved for the Muslim ummah.” Thereby assuring, assert the scholars, “heretics and deviationists find no room there for distortion of its meanings.” ²⁷

Therefore, provides that same source, the scholars assert, so important was that mission, so dedicated to it was the ummah, that it was accomplished, by nothing less than “the grace and tawfiq [success given by Allah] of Allah Almighty.”

Therefore, this, there unabashed certain affirmation: 

…this ummah accomplished this wonderful mission with such efficiency that today we can say without any fear of doubt or rejection that not only are the words of this last Book of Allah protected but also stands protected even that correct tafsir and explanation which has reached us through the Holy Prophet and his Companions who were prepared to sacrifice their lives for him. ²⁸

Prepared to sacrifice their lives for him, as in, in this instance, do so, if need be, to insure only the clear intended meaning of the Qur’an verses, as they learned those meanings from the words and deeds of their “prophet,” as he, according to Islam, learned them from “Allah,” were the explanations provided in the preserved record of tafsir. And it is those works of tafsir, the fruits of that line of, according to Islam, reliable trustworthy sources and preservers of the “integrity” of Qur’an and tafsir, that the revered masters of tafsir rely on in what they provide to us in their respective works.

It is those revered works, with the above- cited and stated certified stamp of approval of the ummah, we have in our hands today.

There, as stated above, according to the Islamic record of such, by no less than the assiduous fastidious efforts of the ummah and by “the grace and tawfiq [success given by Allah] of Allah Almighty” to them. I therefore cite regularly from those works. The scholars and scribes of IS likewise cite from those works.

Because it is from such works IS gains their clear understanding of the Qur’an.  Thus, it is after the details and guidance provided in those works of tafsir IS provides, seemingly daily, for the world to see, Big-screen episodes of the Qur’an in living color.

Paris, San Bernardino, New York, Baghdad, Boston, Israel, Bangladesh, Libya, Istanbul, Brussels, Orlando, Dhaka, name your nation, your state, your province, your city, your mall, your airport, your nightclub, et cetera.

Those Allah-and-Muhammad’s-ummah preserved correct explanations of Qur’an, we now witness and hear the bloody details of seemingly daily in our homes as they play out across our screens, the  blueprints of them all in our hands via regard-worthy works of tafsir, are none other than those provided by the words and deeds of “Allah’s Messenger.” 

Mr. Obama, Mr. G. W. Bush, Mrs. Clinton, and all others who tell us of the twisted perverted texts that the “extremist” cite and use as their guidance and reasons for their acts of violence and terror against us and others,  take your charge of those texts and their meanings being twisted and perverted to the heads of the ummah. Lay your charges of such at the feet of “Allah’s Messenger.” Lay them at the feet of Allah. Given, according to Islamic doctrine, as spoken to above, all the Messenger did he did by the leave and guidance of Allah, neither said nor did anything on his own accord but all he did he did by Allah’s revealed guidance to him.

As shown above, according to Islamic doctrine, as the Qur’an bears out, all Muhammad did, he did in obedience to Allah’s instruction and guidance to him, as he [Muhammad] provided through the medium of his words and deeds clarity in perfection of the intended “Divine” meanings of the Qur’anic verses.  Meanings and verses Allah himself swore he would protect and defend against change or perversion.

Thus, lay your charges of “extremist” having twisted and perverted the words and meanings of the “Qur’an” at the feet of Allah himself.  Because, as stated, he himself swore that he would keep both the words of Qur’an along with their intended meanings safe from perversions or change.

Charge him then with negligence. Charge him with babbling. Charging him with lying and deceit.

Because, as the Qur’an asserts, as mentioned  above,   as tafsir, under the sub heading, “The Promise to Protect the Qur’an Includes the Protection of Hadith” clarifies, this affirmation:

As a matter of principle, all learned people agree that the Qur’an is neither the name of the words of the Qur’an alone, nor that of its meanings alone, instead, a combination of both is called the Qur’an….This tells us that the Qur’an is the exclusive name of the particular Divinely revealed Book the words and meanings of which are simultaneously protected.

This also leads us to the ruling that the practice of people who publish the translation of the Qur’an only in a foreign language and give it the, for example, an English Qur’an or … is not permissible at all – because, that is not the Qur’an. ²⁹ 

Wait a minute--this book I received to read, called “Koran,” shortly after 9/11 from an acquaintance, the wife of a former Muslim, the book the content of which, at that time, I could scarcely make heads or tails of the message contained in its chapters and verses; that was not “Qur’an”?

No, that was not Qur’an.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn, Tafsir Ibn Abbas , Ten Volumes of Tafsir ibn Kathir, Eight Volumes of Tafsir Ma ‘ariful Qur’an, the latter there, based on volumes and volumes of master of tafsir that proceeded his said work, et. al. – works with words as well as meanings of the Qur’an-- that is the “Qur’an.”

Only the content of such works provides the reader with the proper and correct understanding and thus knowledge of the authoritative “book” of guidance of the din of Islam.

Obama and line up mentioned above, only fools make your assertions there stated, only fools believe them.  But you, and for justifiable reason, trust your gullible audiences to be just that: gullible, foolish, unread on the content of the subject you so stupidly, yet “authoritatively,” speak to with either crafty prevarication or categorical ignorance of.

We wind this segment up with a visit to “the Court of Ma’mun.”

“An Episode from the Court of Ma’mun”

In the tafsir I have quoted almost exclusively from in this post, there, in the comments on the verse, “We, Ourselves, have sent down the Dhikr (the Qur’an), and We are there to protect it,” (15:9) providing clarification on that verse is a narrative credited to Imam Al-Qurtubi.  It is asserted to be “authentically reported” by him of “an event from the court of ‘Abbasi Khalifah, Al-Ma’ mun.” ³⁰  

It goes this way:  Caliph al-Ma’mun used to regularly have to his courtroom scholars to debate “on intellectual issues.”  “All scholars were welcomed.” Thus, to that courtroom one day came a Jew.  The narrative provides, the said scholar, “by his looks, dress and manners,” appeared to be a right “elegant person.”  And when he made his debate, sure enough, he was notably “eloquent and intellectually bright.” Impressed by the man, after the debate, suspecting the man was a Jew, Ma’mun accordingly inquired just that from the man. The man confirmed indeed he was a Jew. To which Ma’mun then, seeking to confirm the man’s claim, asked the man if he wanted to embrace Islam, and thus by so doing insure he [the Jew] would “then hope to have the best treatment” from Ma’mun. ³¹

But the Jew said, by no means could he leave “the religion of his forefathers.” Thus the narrative relates, “the matter ended there.” The Jew left. Time past. Then, about a year later, about the same time of year, to the same court and opportunity there came the same man. But this time, he came a Muslim, and one well informed, skilled in the knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence. And on that topic in that court he spoke with noted skill and authority.

Upon seeing and hearing the said man, and being certain he recognized him for  “the Jew” he had spoken to the year before, Ma’mun  inquired of him,  was he “the same person who had come last year?”  The man answered, reads the narrative, “ Yes, I am.” Then Ma’mun asked, why the change of heart, what brought about his conversion to Islam?

To that, the narrative relates, the former Jew answered, “I am a scribe. I write books and sell them. They bring good prices.” ³² He then stated, after he left Ma’mun’s court the year before, after refusing to embrace Islam, as Ma’mun had invited him to do at that time, thinking more on his decision thereto, he said he decided to run a test of sorts.  Testing the then contemporary religions. His test went like this:

First I calligraphed three manuscripts of the Torah in which I made some additions and deletions on my own. I took these manuscripts of the Torah to the Synagogue. The Jews found them interesting and bought them. Then, I did the same things with the Injil. I calligraphed three manuscripts, complete with my additions and deletions, and took them to the Church where the Christians were pleased with these manuscripts and bought them from me. After that, I tried the same thing with the Qur’an. I calligraphed three good looking [sic] manuscripts of the Qur’an, of course with the usual additions and deletions of my own. When I went out to sell them, I faced a problem. Every buyer I went to would take the manuscript, look into it to determine if it was correct or not, and when he would notice additions and deletions made into it, he would quietly return the manuscript back to me. ³³

This former Jew then stated, relates the narrative, “From this I learnt my lesson that this Book is protected, and protected by Allah Ta ‘ala Himself, therefore, I embraced Islam.” ³⁴

Thus, from the events portrayed in the above narration, and no doubt, others similar to it, the author of Ma’arful Qur’an provides the following affirmation:  “…Allah Ta‘ala has said: (And We are there to protect it [the Qur’an] –9). Thus, When Allah Ta ‘ala Himself arranged to have it remain protected, then, despite thousands of efforts made by enemies, not a single change in one tiny dot or case mark could be made.” ³⁵

Therefore, he declares, “Today, over fourteen hundred years have passed since even the blessed age of the Holy Prophet, and there has been a shortfall and neglect on the part of Muslims in all areas of their religious matters. Yet,” notwithstanding those shortfalls and neglects, “the continuous arrangement of memorizing the Holy Qur’an all over the world stands firmly established as it was.” ³⁶

With strong argument,  hard countering all who claim the Qur’anic text, as defined above, have, any time, any era, any place been twisted or perverted, he continues: “In every period of time, there are millions of Muslims, old and young, male and female, always present on the scene, blessed people in whose hearts and minds the Holy Qur’an lives protected.” ³⁷

And “before them”—those  “blessed people”--  declares this revered scholar, “not even the highest of the high religious scholars can dare recite a single letter of the Qur’an wrong, for there would be around at that time many, seniors or children, who would promptly apprehend the error.” ³⁸

That, Mr. Obama, Mr. G.W. , Mrs. Clinton and all other fools or prevaricators who tell us of the perversion and twisting of the Qur’an by those they call “extremist,” above is the record the revered scholars of Islam know. It is the record any serious student of Islam likewise knows. It is also what every Muslim knows.

I wind up this  up with this terse exegesis on Surah 15:9, from tafsir of Ibn Kathir:  “Allah … stated that He is the One Who revealed the Dhikr to him [his messenger], which is the Qur’an, and He is protecting it from being changed or altered.” ³⁹

Moving forward.

“Ma’riful Qur’an”

(The Wisdom of the Holy Qur’an)

The tafsir I have quoted from and will quote most often from in this essay is that of Maulana Mufti Muhammad Shafi, eminent Islamic scholar and professor, former grand Mufti of Darul-Uloon Deoband, prolific writer and thus author of “about one hundred books on different Islamic and literary subjects.” 34 Not the least of those works, his “last great work, Ma ‘arful-Qur’an,” a Comprehensive commentary on the Qur’an. It is that work, as noted, cited from numerous times above, will yet be often- cited in the remainder of this post. 

In that work, he has relied upon the wealth of information, doctrinal tenets, and Qur’anic explanations provided in the works of the regarded master of Tafsir in Islamic circles who preceded him. 

Highlighting the major works thereof, we begin with Tafsir ibn Jarir.  The real name of the work being, “Jami’ al-Bayan and it was compiled by ‘Allamah Abu Ja ‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (died 310 Hijrah). ‘Allamah Tabari is a highly rated commentator, muhaddith (hadith expert) and historian.” ⁴⁰

The said comes in thirty volumes. It holds the honor of being “a basic source for later commentaries.” ⁴¹  To my knowledge, at the time of this writing, this work is unavailable in English.

After that is Tafsir ibn Kathir, the author of that work being, “Hafiz ‘Iman al-din Abu al-Fida’ Isma ‘il ibn Kathir al-Dimashqi al-Shafi (died 774 Hijrah), a distinguished research scholar of the eighth century.” His work, In Arabic, published in four volumes, English abridged version, comes in ten volumes.  “This book holds a distinct place among all books of Tafsir.”⁴²

Next, it the Tafsir of Al-Qurtubi.  The full name of which is, “Al-Jami ‘ li-Ahkam al-Qur’an.” It’s author is “the famous and learned writer and research scholar of Andalusia (Spain), Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ahmad Abi Bakr ibn Farah al-Qurtubi (died 671 Hijrah) ⁴³  The book comes in Twelve Volumes, and to my knowledge, thus far, only Vol. 1 is available in English. Therefore, the indispensable value in Ma’ariful Qur’an, which cites oftentimes from those 12 volumes, thus providing in English much from that in Tafsir Al-Qurtubi’s 12 volumes.

After al-Qurtubi’s tafsir is that of “Iman Fakhr al-din al-Razi (died 606 Hijrah),” Al-Tafsir al-Kabir. Its real name being, “Mafatih al-Ghayb.  As with the lion’s share of al-Qurtubi’s tafsir, this work also, to my knowledge, unavailable to date in English. Hence, again, the value of it cited from repeated times throughout the eight volumes of Ma ‘ariful Qur’an. “Imam Razi is an imam of the theology of Islam.” ⁴⁴ The work is known among scholars to be “a unique key to the Qur’an,” therefore, enjoys the honor of a tafsir of “high rating as far as the resolution of the meanings of the Qur’an is concerned.” ⁴⁵ It comes in eight volumes.

Next major work mentioned as cited from in Ma’ariful Qur’an is Tafsir al-Bahr al-Muhit, “written by ‘Allamah Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati al-Andalusi (died 754 Hijrah).” He “was a master of syntax and rhetoric in addition to other Islamic fields of learning.”⁴⁶   It also, to my knowledge, yet to be made available in English.

After that, “Ahkam al-Qur’an by al-Jassas.” This work the work of Imam Abu Bakr al-Jassas al-Razi (died 370 Hijrah), an Imam “distinguished among Hanafi jurist.” In this work, al-Razi usurps the task of providing the correct juristic details in Qur’anic verses containing such. Therefore, among works that provide clarity on juristic injunctions, “this book enjoys a prominent place among those.” ⁴⁷ Once more, to my knowledge, this work yet to be made available in English.

Next comes the work , Tafsir al-Durr al-Manthur.  This, “written by ‘Allamah Jalah al-din al-Suyuti (died 910).” The full name of this work is, “ ‘al-Durr al-Manjthur fi al-Tafsir bi l ‘Ma’thur.’” In this work, al-Suyuti presents the sum of his devoted efforts to collect “all narrations about the tafsir of Qur’an,” that were available at that time, assemble, and present them all in this book. As such, in this indispensable work, he cites the works of “hadith scholars such as Hafiz ibn Jarir, Imam Baghawi, Ibn Marduwayh, Ibn Hibban and Ibn Majah and others.”⁴⁸ This work also, as is so with the lion’s share of the works of the scholars of hadith just noted, to the best of my knowledge, yet to be make available in English.

Next major work in the list of such cited in Mar’arul is the work, “Al-Tafsir al-Mazhari.” The author of this work is, Qadi Thanaullah Panipati (died 1225 Hijrah). The work is named after “his spiritual master, Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janan Dehlavi. “ The work is said to be “very simple and clear, and extremely useful to locate brief explanations of Qur’anic verses.”⁴⁹  It also, as most those above, to the best of my knowledge, at the time of this writing, unavailable in English.

The last in the list of major works cited in Ma’ariful Qur’an is that of “Ruh al-Ma ‘ani.” Full name of that work is, “ ‘Ruh al-Ma ‘ani fi Tafsir al-Qur’an al- ‘Azim wa al-Sab‘ al-Mathani. Its author, “ ‘Allamah  Mahmud al-Alusi (died) 1270 Hijrah), the famous scholar of the last period of Baghdad.” Comes in thirty volumes.  And the author of Ma’ariful Qur’an states of this “very comprehensive commentary … no future venture in connection with the Tafsir of the Qur’an can now afford to ignore its help.” ⁵⁰

Thus, winding up this section, when I state, that which I cite is that from the authoritative voices in Islam, I do so for good and justifiable reason. Citing those who, their testimony is, they dedicated their lives, “in the fear of Allah,” each respective Imam, reaching back, gather up, to the very best of his ability to do so, the revered works of the regard-worthy scholars and makers of tafirs who preceded him, and from those works, concluding, and presenting their works.

“Bismillah”

With the above tabled, with the opening lines of this essay in mind—“ Orlando Police Dispatcher: Emergency 911….Omar Mateen: In the name of God the Merciful, the beneficent [said in Arabic] [“Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim”] ⁵¹…. . I wanna let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings”—to the third unnumbered page of Tafsir al-Jalalayn, where we read, “In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Beneficent.”

From there, to  verse one of "Surat” One, Tafsir al-Jalalayn, “In the name of Allah, All Merciful, Most Merciful, Praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds….” ⁵²

Imam Al-Qurtubi, in his tafsir, provides as verse one of “Surat” one, “In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful.”

With Mateen’s Bismillah in mind, we read, in the just cited work of Al-Qurtubi , the revered Imam also provides, “Scholars say that ‘In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful’ is an oath from our Lord which He revealed at the beginning of every sura.” He adds, by that oath revealed, “Allah” “swears to His slaves, ‘What I have laid down for you, My slaves, in this sura is true. I will fulfil [sic] for you all that I guarantee….” ⁵³

Imam Qurtubi there also provides, “Some scholars say that “In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful” contains all the Shariah because it indicates the Essence and the Attributes.” ⁵⁴

Al-Qurtubi also provides, “Muslim reports from Anas,” as follows:

One day while the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was among us he nodded off and then he raised his head smiling. We asked, ‘What has made you smile, Messenger of Allah?’ He said, ‘A sura was just revealed to me. It is: “In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful! Truly We have given you the Great Abundance. So pray to your Lord and sacrifice. It is the one who hates you who is cut off without an heir.’” (108)” ⁵⁵

From there, into the pages of Ma ‘ariful Quran, Volume one, on the opening lines of verse one of Surah one: “(I begin) with the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Very-Merciful.” (Surah Al-Fatihah, [The Opening] 1:1).

Under the heading, “Bismillah is a verse of the Holy Qur’an,” the author of Ma’ariful Qur’an provides, some assert that Bismillah is indeed a verse in the Qur’an and that verse is in Surah al-Naml. Others assert the Bismillah is an integral part of Surah one, verse one.  “According to the great Imam Abu Hanifah, it is not an integral part of any Surah except al-Naml, rather it is in itself  an independent verse of the Holy Qur’an … placed at the beginning of every surah,” thereby “distinguishing one Surah from another.” ⁵⁶

Though there is absence on consensus on that matter, where there is consensus of the scholars, with respect to Bismillah, is that it is indeed an integral part of the Qur’an, thus likewise,  “It is a Sunnah to recite Bismillah,” because, when one does so, one is reciting Qur’anic content. ⁵⁷

Additionally, “The Holy Qur’an,” provides the author of Ma’riful Qur’an, “again and again instructs us to begin what we do with the name of Allah.” He adds, “ The Holy Prophet has said that no important work receives the blessings of Allah, unless it is begun with His name.” ⁵⁸

(Thus, for no trite reason Mateen’s utterance thereto, in his above cited “work” early 12 June 2016, Pulse nightclub.)

Same authoritative source also provides, as follows:

 By instructing man to begin everything with the name of Allah, Islam has given to the whole of his life an orientation towards Allah so that he may, with each step he takes, renew his allegiance to the covenant with Allah that nothing he does, not even his very being can come into existence without the will and help of Allah.  Thus, all the economic and worldly activities of man, each movement and gesture, becomes transformed into an act of worship. ⁵⁹

For such reasons, Omar Siddiqui Mateen, the morning of 12 June 2016, in the above-cited phone call he made, that work dedicated to Allah, done in the name of Allah; in reciting his Bismillah thereto, his every movement, and gesture thereat that fateful blood-and-death-filled morning became acts of worship.

As Ma’ariful Qur’an speaks to the utterance of Bismillah,  which Mateen uttered that morning: “How brief is the action, which consumes neither time nor energy, and yet how immense the gain –it is a regular alchemy, transmuting the profane (dunya) into the sacred (din).” ⁶⁰

And thus, according to Islamic doctrine, which Mateen believed full heartedly in, by his Bismillah utterance, he transformed his “profane” acts that morning into “sacred” acts—sacred acts of the din of Islam.

As stated above, as borne out in the authoritative texts of Islam, acts of worship.

For such reasons, we read in the revered works of tafsir, “acts of worship (‘Ibadah) are not limited merely to prescribed prayers or fasting.  Imam al-Ghazzali in his book ‘Arba ‘in has enumerated ten forms which worship can take.” ⁶¹

Among those, “Prayers, Prescribed Alms giving, Fasting, Hajj,” as one would expect to find. So too, “Reciting the Holy Qur’an, Remembrance of Allah in all possible situations,” as well as, “Earning ones livelihood in accordance with the regulations of the Shari ‘ah.” So too, “Fulfilling one’s obligations towards one’s companions and neighbors,” as well as, “Persuading people to act righteously and dissuading them from what is reprehensible and forbidden.”⁶²

And the last of those perhaps “uncommon” but certain acts Islam counts as worship:  “To follow the Sunnah, or the practice of the Holy Prophet.” ⁶³

Sunnah, as presented and spoken to in the opening pages of this essay, sunnah as Islam presents it being: words and deeds, sayings and doings of the “Holy Prophet.”

Thus worship is implementing and following sunnah. Sunnah that Siddiqui Mateen, true to the title he makes part of his name, believing in Allah and His Messenger, neither hesitating nor doubting the words and commands of “the Messenger,” sunnah,  “sayings and doings of ‘Allah’s Messenger,’” which, “Man of Allah,” “Saint” Matten put to task that morning in Pulse nightclub.

Sunnah (worship) at Pulse Nightclub

“I could see piles of bodies laying over the toilet seat and slumped over. And the bottom of the toilet was just covered with hand prints and blood,” she said, and recalled thinking, “I really don’t think I’m going to get out of here.”

At one point, she prayed to die.

“I was just begging God to take my soul out of my body,” Carter said.

At times, she said the shooter referenced snipers and implied he was not acting alone.

“It sounded like he was communicating with other people involved in it,” Carter said…. ⁶⁴

Words of Pulse nightclub massacre survivor, Patience Carter.

From her  words we go to these words of "Allah's Messenger":

“…I heard the Messenger of Allah say: If the people see evil and do not denounce it, soon Allah will send His punishment upon them all.” ⁶⁵

“The Messenger of Allah said, … there will be a people who recite the Qur’an but it will go no further than their collarbones; … Fighting them is a duty upon every Muslim.” ⁶⁶

It was narrated that Suwaid bin Ghafalah said: ‘Ali said: …. I heard the Messenger of Allah say: “Some people will emerge at the end of time who are young in age and foolish. They will speak the best of words …. They will pass out of faith as the arrow passes out of the prey. If you meet them, kill them, for in killing them there will be for the one who kills them reward with Allah …. “ ‘Abdur-Rahman said: “If you meet them, then kill them, for killing them will bring to those who kill them reward on the Day of Resurrection.” ⁶⁷

It was narrated that Abu Hurairah said: “The Messenger of Allah said: ‘I have been commanded to fight the people until they say La ilaha illallah. If they say it then their blood and their wealth are safe from me, except for a right that is due, and their reckoning is with Allah….’”⁶⁸ 

It was narrated from ‘Abdullah bin ‘Amir that the Prophet said: “The extinction of the whole world is less significant before Allah than killing a Muslim man.” ⁶⁹

It was narrated from ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet said: ‘The lives of the believers are equal in value, and they are one against others, and they hasten to support the asylum granted by the least of them. But no believer may be killed in return for a disbeliever….” ⁷⁰

It was narrated from Abu Hurairah from the Messenger of Allah: “The believer is the mirror of his fellow-believer, and the believer is the brother of his fellow-believer. He protects him against ruin and looks after him.” ⁷¹

Again, now to the words of shooting victim of Pulse nightclub, Patience Carter, what she related of Mateen: “Through the conversation with 911, he said that the reason why he was doing this was he wanted America to stop bombing his country.” ⁷²

The claimed “his” country of which this American born, raised, and residing American Muslim speaks of: Islamic State.

As Carter also said, “So the motive was very clear to us who were laying in our blood and other people’s blood who were injured, who were shot — that we knew what his motive was. And he was not going to stop killing people until he was killed, until he felt that the message got out there.” ⁷³

Other reports relate, “just before the massacre, the shooter went on Facebook,” and there posted, “America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state. You kill innocent women and children by doing U.S. air strikes. Now taste the Islamic state vengeance.” ⁷⁴

Clearly, Qur’anic doctrine establishes, the believer is the mirror image of his fellow-believer, and a Muslim a brother to the Muslim, thus we deduce from such what is done to one Muslim is as if it were done to all.  Thus, we witness Mateen’s adherence to sunnah in reading the following: “It was narrated from Sa ‘eed bin Zaid the the Prophet said: ‘Whoever fights to protect his family is a martyr.” ⁷⁵

We regard, the Qur’anic text, as described above, as provided in lines following, likewise establishes the doctrine of Qisas [equal retaliation]. Thus again, we note Mateen was armed for his actions not only with firearms there in Pulse nightclub, but also for those acts fully armed with Qur’anic blessing, guidance, and authority.

As was so with the troops of Allah who struck our nation, 9/11--there too, their claim was the hits were in return for our actions abroad in Muslim nations. What’s more, of 9/11, “high school friends “of  Mateen, child of Qur’an,  they stated he showed elation and pleasure upon witnessing that macabre. ⁷⁶ 

Other reports provided, “a former classmate” of Mateens, from “Mariposa Elementary School,” stated, “one day when he [Mateen] was in either 4^th or 5^th grade, he threatened to come in here with a gun and kill everyone.” ⁷⁷

Dan Gilroy, who worked as a Security Guard with Mateen, he said of Mateen, “he said, several times, he was going to kill a large group of people, In fact, one time he said I would make the count the highest.”⁷⁸

The commentators on that show that day commented on the above-cited “behavior problems” stating, “it was deep rooted…. Not something that just started yesterday or last week. It is certainly something that has been going on for a while. “

Indeed--Mateen was both born and raised an American Muslim, thus raised in a U.S. based Muslim home, raised on the Qur’an and the sunnah. Thus well versed on that in those works. Some Muslims hide their faith well. Countless reject it but must keep concealed that repudiation. Mateen seem not only to embrace his Muslim faith but also to wear it on his sleeve, its precepts ever close to the surface. Thus, his “teapot” repeatedly noted, throughout stages of his life, boiling.

Surviving mother of the youngest victim killed that morning at Pulse Nightclub, Natalie Murray, mother of Akyra Murray, she stated, her daughter was on her way with a “Full ride” Scholarship to Mercy Hurst University. Akyra’s goal there: “study criminology and sociology.” Central to that, “find out why criminals act the way they act and what caused them to tick to be able to kill and hurt people.  This is what she was going to study,”⁷⁹ provided her mother in a CNN interview with Don Lemon.

Natalie stated, “ And to think that a person like that would actually take her life at such a young age, it’s just the saddest thing.” Indeed it is. Natalie stated, “I can’t – I’m at a loss for words for what was going through his head. And what made him do what he did and why he wanted to hurt those kids. That club,” she stated, “brings from 18-years-old up. These were kids….”⁸⁰

My heart breaks for this momma’s loss, and for all the horrific details surrounding it… I, however, am at no loss as to what was going through Mateen’s head:  “dhirk” remembrance of Allah.

“Dhirk,” which is worship.  “Dhikru’ullah: remembrance or invocation of Allah.” ⁸¹

Neither am I at a loss as to what made him do what he did: The doctrines in the Qur’an, and the spirit behind them, made him do what he did.  The words and deeds, the sayings and doings of the “prophet” of Islam, and Mateen’s regard and devotion to such made him do what he did 12 June at Pulse Nightclub.

“Remember Me,” the Qur’an provides Allah commands his ummah, “and I will remember you. “ (Surah Al-Baqarah  2: 152.) And that “means to say,” reads revered exegetic view provided, “if men ‘remember’ Allah by obeying His commandments, He will ‘remember’ them by granting His pardon and His rewards.” ⁸²

“He who has not obeyed Him has not remembered Him, “provides the same source, citation attributed to “commentator Sa ‘d ibn Jubayr, asserting, “'Remembrance’  of Allah as obedience and submission to him.” ⁸³

 That explanation, “fully supported by a hadith cited by Al-Qurtubi on the authority of “Ahkam al-Qur’an by Ibn Khuwayz Mandadh.” He states, “the Holy Prophet has said that one who has been obeying Allah – that is following the injunctions with regard to the lawful (Halal) and the unlawful (Haram)—has truly been remembering Allah.” ⁸⁴

“Islam,” provide the revered scholars of that faith, “signifies ‘to obey, to submit oneself, to surrender one’s will.’” ⁸⁵

“What Islam requires of man,” state the same, “is that he should set aside all his desires and inclinations, and seek, in everything he does, the pleasure of his Lord.” ⁸⁶ And how will such a man know what pleases his “Lord”? The scholars answer that for us, stating, “ only when he knows the commandments of his Lord, and also performs these tasks exactly in the manner He has prescribed. This,” they affirm, “ is what ‘Ibadah or worship is.” ⁸⁷

They add to that, “Thus, Islam signifies total obedience to Allah, and this obedience is possible only when one follows the Sunnah, the Way of the Holy Prophet.” ⁸⁸

Because all in Sunnah is Halal and thus all sunnah-following actions are obeying Allah. Neglecting one dot of following sunnah is Haram. What’s more, obeying Allah is following sunnah examples, obeying sunnah commands , thus following the injunctions of the lawful and the unlawful in Islam.

Allah’s word commands “Bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair.” (Surah “AL-‘Imran 3:104)

Speaking to that Qur’anic command, Hadith provides in  Sunan An-Nasa’i, and elsewhere, as follows: 

“It was narrated that Tariq bin Shihab said: “Abu Sa ‘eed Al-Khurdi said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah say: ‘Whoever among you sees an evil and changes it with his hand, then he has done his duty. Whoever is unable to do that, but changes it with his tongue, then he has done his duty. Whoever is unable to do that, but changes it with his heart, then he has done his duty, and that is the weakest of Faith.” ⁸⁹

Comments of the scholars on the above provide,   “We get to learn that witnessing the sin taking place is also a sin, except for the one who fulfills his duty imposed upon him by the Shar ‘iah.” ⁹⁰  

Speaking to the same, comments on the above-cited verse, (3:104) include this citation: “the obligation—‘to bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair –has been assigned to the whole community. That they discharge this responsibility is the reason that they are placed higher over other communities^{.” 91}

Hence, the verse, “You are the best Ummah raised for mankind. You bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair.” (Surah “AL-‘Imran 3:110.) That is they “enjoin what is good in accordance with the dictates of the Qur’an and the Sunnah.” ⁹²

Hence these sayings of the “Holy Prophet”:

“By the One in Whose Hand is my soul!: Either you command good and forbid evil, or Allah will soon send upon you a punishment form Him, then you will call upon Him, but He will not respond to you.” ⁹³

Footnotes thereat read as follows:

….an individual person who is capable and does his best to fulfill this duty, he will surely save himself from punishment. If no one performs this duty, then the entire community shall be considered sinning and be punished. The reason being … stopping the wrongdoer from committing wrong is a collective duty that must be performed by all. ⁹⁴

Adding to the above, Allah’s word commands, “O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared. And die not except in the state of Islam (as Muslims) with complete submission to Allah.” (Surah ‘ Al-Imran, 3:102.)

It provides, as mentioned and spoken to above, with respect to the “prophet” Muhammad, the one Islam asserts is Allah’s final messenger to mankind, “And We sent down the Message (adh-dhikr: The Qur’an) so that you explain to the people what has been revealed for them and so that they may ponder. ” (Surah Al-Nahl 16:44.)

Therefore, because the Qur’an establishes, as spoken to at length above, Muhammad, via his life, was dispatched for the express purpose of explaining  the intended meanings of the verses of the Qur’an, “Allah’s” word likewise repeated times throughout it commands “You who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger.”

The rest of that verse reads, “ [and obey] those in command among you. If you have a dispute about something, refer it back to (the Book of) Allah and the Messenger [himself, while he was alive, and then to his Sunna].” (Surat an-Nisa’ 4:59, Al-Jalalayn, and elsewhere.)

Therefore, this Qur’anic command and assertion:  “Say [to them, O Muhammad], “If you love Allah, then follow me and Allah will love you….” ( Surat Al-Imran 3:31, Al-Jalalayn) So too, “Whoever obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah.” (Surat an-Nisa’ 4: 80, Ibid.)

For such reason, from the mouth of the “Messenger of Allah,” this command: “Whoever among you lives after I am gone … you must adhere to my Sunnah and the way of the Rightly Guided Khulafa. Hold on to it and cling fast to it” ⁹⁵

Why is that?

Once more, because, as the Qur’an asserts of all the “prophet” said or relayed, thus , as we note footnotes thereat from the men of knowledge in Islam on that just cited hadith read,  “Regarding the fact that the Sunnah is revelation ,” as touched on earlier in this post, “Allah has said: ‘Nor does he speak of (his own) desire. It is only a revelation revealed.’ (An-Najm 53:24 [sic] [actual verses: 3, 4.]” ⁹⁶

Therefore, on the pages written by the learned on Islam, “Commentators and Imams have said that obeying the Messenger of Allah means to cling to his sunna and to submit to what he brought.” ⁹⁷ They add, “Obeying the Messenger in his sunna is equivalent to obeying Allah.” ⁹⁸ They state, “Sahl at-Tustari was asked about the Shari‘a of Islam and he quoted, ‘Take what the Messenger brings you.’ (59:7.)” ⁹⁹

That last line bears repeating, given, with so much talk of rejecting Shariah in our nation but praising and promoting Islam in our nation, that last line gives us the basic shakedown of just what Shariah is--“Sahl at-Tustari was asked about the Shari‘a of Islam and he quoted, ‘Take what the Messenger brings you.’ (59:7.)” Indeed, therein Shariah: Sunnah of the “Prophet; Sunnah of the Prophet: Islam--the lawful therein done, the unlawful forbidden and shunned-- enacted.

Because of that basic established tenet of Islam, hadith provides, with full confidence absent one slivers thread of apology, this “prophet” asserted as follows:

“Let me not find one of you reclining on his couch, and when he hears of a command that I have enjoined or a prohibition I have issued, he says: ‘We do not know; what we find in the Book of Allah, we follow.’” (Sahih.) ¹⁰⁰

Therein, we note, Allah’s Messenger emphatically asserts the importance of believers moving to action in obedience to, not of what Allah enjoined or prohibited, but, in his words, what “I have.”  That is so because the regarded works of Islam establishes, as shown herein and elsewhere, the sunna of the “prophet” was nothing more, nothing less than sunna of Allah.

 Thus, as spoken to above, when one obeys the former by default one obeys the latter, and when obeys the latter by default one will then obey the former. In addition, obeying and submitting to Allah is remembrance of Allah, remembrance of Allah is worship, and following Sunnah is obedience and submission to Allah and it is worship.

Regarding the above, we recall Mateen’s affirmations in the transcript of his 911 phone call: “OM: My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.

“OD: Ok, What’s your name?

“OM: I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may God protect him [said in Arabic], on behalf of the Islamic State.”

We note, thus, in the following hadith, again, Mateen’s adherence to sunnah:

COMMAND ON THAT WHO TRIES TO DISRUPT THE UNITY OF THE MUSLIMS

It has been reported on the authority of ‘Arfaja who said: I have heard the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) saying: Different evils will make their appearances in the near future. Anyone who tries to disrupt the affairs of this nation while they are united you should strike him with the sword whoever he is. (If remonstration does not prevail with him and he does not desist from his disruptive activities, he should be killed.)

In another version of the tradition narrated on the same authority through a different chains [sic] of transmitters we have the words: “Kill him.”

It has been narrated (through a still different chain of transmitters) on the same authority (i.e. “Arfaja) who said similarly – but adding; “Killing them all.” I heard the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) saying: When you are holding one single man as your leader, you should kill who seeks to undermine your solidarity or disrupt your unity. ¹⁰¹

With that in mind, we regard, the Qur’an provides, “O those who believe, the Qisas [even retaliation] has been enjoined upon you –freeman for a freeman, slave for a slave and female for a female.” (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:178) It likewise provides, “So when anyone aggresses against you, aggress against him in the like manner as he did against you.” (2: 194) It provides, “And if you retaliate, then retaliate just as you have been oppressed against. (Surah al-Nahl 16:24).

Thus, the record of sunnah provides, because, for those who wage war against Allah, his messenger, his ummah, this prescription and example of returning like-kind wounds and killings, this sunnah of “Allah’s Messenger”:

It was narrated that ‘Aishah said: “Some people raided the milk camels of the Messenger of Allah. He caught them and had their hands and feet cut off and their eyes gouged out.” ¹⁰²  

It was narrated that Anas said: “The Prophet only had the eyes of those people gouged out, because they had gouged out the eyes of the herdsmen.” ¹⁰³

There too, this example of “equal retaliation” against an aggressor:

It was narrated from Sumurah that the Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever kills his slave, we will kill him; whoever mutilates (his slave), we will mutilate him, and whoever castrates (his slave), we will castrates him.” ¹⁰⁴

The above words and deeds of the “prophet” and his companions sanctioned irrespective of the prohibition in Islam to mutilate. The law of equal retaliation making the unlawful in Islam lawful. The words and deeds of the “prophet” explaining the meaning of the Qur’anic verses.

As the Qur’an provided, so explained the “prophet”: “The repayment of a bad action is one equivalent to it….if people do defend themselves when they are wronged [--and wrong those who have wronged them--] nothing can be held against them for doing that, [and there is no punishment]. (Surat ash-Shura 42: 40, 41, al-Jalalayn)

And just who is it that is to be counted as the aggressors, thus those deserving of Allah’s above provided punishment? Who is it that the Qur’an provides are those  “due” “Allah’s” punishment” if not under the law of equal retaliation than  for the “wrong” of rejecting Allah’s messenger and the message he brought—a “wrong” of which the Qur’an provides example after example of how Allah destroyed nations guilty of such a wrong?

The answer to those questions are provided in the Qur’anic chronicles of the narratives relating how Allah dealt with these “guilty” nations.  Narratives in the Qur’an, there to serve as warnings, lessons, and signpost telling nations coming after those in the “examples” what belongs to their sorrow should they reject Allah’s messenger sent to them.

“Signpost: ‘Warning!’”

“News has come to them,” states the Qur’an, come to those who reject the “Prophet” and what he brought; news “which contains a threat [--information about the destruction of the nations who denied their Messengers. It contains a harsh deterrent]. ( Surat al-Qamar 54: 4, al-Jalalayan.)

“’Ad,” provides Qur’an, “denied the truth.” What truth did they deny?

The truth that the messenger Allah sent to them was just that: “[ Their Prophet was Hud ,” but they denied he was Allah’s dispatched messenger to them and for doing so, “[… they were punished]. How terrible,” warns Allah, “were my punishment and warnings! [--My warning to them before the punishment descended on them. Then,” provides the tafsir, “ Allah explains what that punishment was.]” (Ibid [Surat al-Qamar], 54: 18)

We will return to those details shortly. For now, however, still focusing on just whom it is that is to be counted among those due Allah’s punishment, we go to go to Surah az-Zukhruf (43).  There we read, “…he [(Pharaoh)] swayed his people and they succumb to him [-- and they did what he wanted and denied Musa]…. (43: 54, al-Jalalayn)

Thus, because of those actions, the Qur’an provides, “…We took revenge on them and drowned every one of them. We made them a thing of the past, an example for later peoples. [They were a lesson for those after them so that they should not do the same as those before them did].” (Ibid, [Surah az-Zukhruf] 43: 56)

What does the Qur’an assert was the action that Pharaoh and his people did that earned their mass destruction? They denied Musa, whom the Qur’an states was Allah’s messenger sent to them. What lesson are we to gain from that Qur’an provided narrative?

The lesson that nations now who reject the one the Qur’an provides is Allah’s final messenger sent to mankind will doubtlessly likewise incur mass punishment from Allah.

Ma’ariful Qur’an, speaking of the examples of the mass punishment that was sunnah of Allah on nations who rejected his Messengers, it provides this warning:

“All these nations were the strongest and resourceful….The current set of verses [referring here to those cited above from surah 54] show how the superpowers were destroyed by Divine punishment….That is, when the Divine chastisement overtook these nations … wealth and number were killed like flies and mosquitoes.” ¹⁰⁵

The same source, different volume, commenting on the narrative of Allah’s punishment visited on Thamud and others in Surah al-A ‘raf (7:77-79), provides, on account of the wrong actions of the people of Thamud, “ the result was: (and they were [found dead] in their homes, fallen on their knees –77).” ¹⁰⁶ 

 It expounds thereat, “The word: (jathimim) is a derivation from the verbal noun: Juthum, which means to be rendered motionless at one spot, or remaining sitting (Al-Qamus). The sense is that everyone lay dead as and where one was.” ¹⁰⁷ Commentary also there reads, “Allah Ta ‘ala, in his infinite wisdom, has allowed these habitations of punished peoples to stay as signpost of lessons for coming generations.” ¹⁰⁸

As mentioned above, one example among many that the Qur’an provides of those guilty of rejecting his messenger sent to them and thus those deserving and thus recipients of his punishment earned and delivered,  is, the example of the people of Thamud, the prophet Salih, and the she-camel hamstrung in the narrative. (Surat Hud  11, and others)

Therein we read, “They hamstrung her.” (Surat Hud [11]: 65, al-Jalalayn) They, being the people of Thamud.

Yet the exegesis provided there on this Qur’anic narrative states, “a man named Quddur did the action on their instructions.” (Surat Hud 11:65, al-Jalalayn, Tafsir.)

Ma’ariful Qur’an on the account, as it is spoken to in Surat Al-A ‘raf (7: 77 – 79) provides, “Qadhar hamstrung her ….” ¹⁰⁹

Adding, “The Holy Qur’an calls this person the most cruel and wretched among the people of Thamud: (when the one, most wicked of them, was sent [incited to kill her] -91:12),” it provides, that incitement “brought mass punishment on the people of Thamud.” ¹¹⁰

Surah Ash-Shams provides, “(The people of) Thamud denied the truth … when rose up the one who was most wretched of them. So, the Messenger of Allah said to them, ‘Be careful  of Allah’s she-camel ….’ But they rejected him,” states the Qur’an, “and killed her, so their Lord sent eradicating torment upon them, and made it equal, [Allah’s punishment] for all.” (91: 11 – 14, Ma ‘ariful Qur’an rendered verse)

Exegesis there provides, those such as the people of Thamud who deny the truth sent to them, and reject Allah’s Messenger sent to them; they will “receive severe punishment in the Hereafter. Sometimes, however, an instalment [sic] of punishment is meted out to them in this world as is in the case of Thamud.” ¹¹¹

It provides, “the word damdama [used in the just-cited verse] refers to such tormenting scourge as is unleashed on a person or a nation again and again, until it destroys or crushes them completely.” There follows, “Fa-sawwaha [likewise used in the above verse] signifies that the scourge overtook the entire nation, men, women, children, and young and old.” ¹¹²

Tafsir al-Jalalayn provides the narrative and its explanation this way:

“Thamud denied in their excessive tyranny [and insolence; the Messenger to Thamud was Salih]. (Surat ash-Shams 91:11)

…when the worst of them rushed ahead  [--this was a man named Quddar who rushed to hamstring the camel with their approval--](vs.: 12)

…. [as a consequence … the punishment of Allah descended on them] --and they hamstrung her— … So their Lord crushed them [with the punishment] for their sin and flattened them: [ in other words, He totally enveloped them in it so that none of them escaped]. (vs.: 14.)

  

Speaking to the same incident, Surat al-A ‘raf reads, with tafsir providing the full picture concept of the event, “….and they hamstrung the She-camel  [--Quddur killed it at their command by slaughtering it with a sword --] …. So the earthquake … seized them and: morning found them [dead], lying flattened in their homes.” (7: 77, 78,  Al-Jalalayn.)

In other words, one man, with the consent, support, and approval of the populace, did the action.

Yet the Qur’anic record of that event provides, “They hamstrung her.” Does so to make clear who it was, when “The Great Blast seized hold of those who did wrong,”  just who it was that Allah held responsible for the said “wrong.” Thus just who it was, as the Qur’an declares, “morning found them lying flattened in their homes, [dead bodies on the ground].” (Surat Hud 11: 67, Al-Jalalayn.)

Therefore, from Surat ash-Shu ‘ara,’ speaking to the same account, we read, “But they hamstrung her [--with the consent of others--] and woke up remorseful,… for the [promised] punishment did come down on them [--and they were destroyed.” (26: 157, 158, al-Jalalayn.) In addition, the verse contains, “There is certainly a sign in that….”

Surat adh-Dhariyat echoes the same message, speaking of the mass destruction of the people of Ad,

“And also in [the destructions] of ‘Ad [--there is a sign--] when we unleashed against them the barren wind …. Which left nothing [--neither living person nor property--] ….” (51:41, 42. Al-Jalalayn.)

Following that, “And also in [the destruction of] Thamud [there is a Sign --].”  (51:43.)

Indeed, there is a sign—there is object lesson after object lesson: “They spurned the Lord’s command [out of arrogance, and did not obey the Messenger,] so the Blast seized them … as they watched. They could not stand upright [--being unable to rise when the punishment descended--] and they were not helped.” (Surat adh-Dhariyat 51:  44, 45, Ibid.)

Driving the message home, of just why the Qur’an devotes much time and space on these narratives, the surah continues with “and [there is a Sign in the destruction of] the people of Nuh before [who were destroyed by Allah ….]” (51: 46, Ibid.)

Indeed, as stated earlier, as is clear in all these Qur’an provided examples, there is a sign, there are numerous clear object lessons. Those lessons being, when Allah’s punishment came, it came to all the incorrigibly unrepentant who allowed the “wrong” done to be done; Allah’s punishment came, affirms tafsir, to the entire “area and tribe” (Surat Hud 11: 68, Al-Jalalayn.)

Therefore, as cited above, the Qur’anic narrative of that event reads, “morning found them lying flattened in their homes, [dead bodies on the ground].” (11: 67, .Ibid) In other words, “Morning found,”  asserts Qur’an, not only Quddur’s dead body “on the ground,” but there also and in like condition, the same of all those who supported him, instructed him, and approved of his said “wrong, ” though it was Quddur alone who did the actual act.

Thus, in summary we read, “Yes indeed! Thamud rejected their Lord, So away with Thamud! [This means both the area and the tribe.]” (Surat Hud 11:68, Al-Jalalayn, Tafsir.)

Much the same telling is told of the Ancestors to the people of Thamud, the people of ‘Ad.

Tafsir on object lesson “the people of Ad” goes this way: “… their gardens and mansions, and palaces,” were “leveled to the ground. Their men and animals went up in the air and zoomed back hitting the floor with their heads.” ¹¹³

The narrative adds, “Thus, the people of Ad were eliminated to the last man.” ¹¹⁴

Thus made clear the meaning in “And we eradicated those who belied Our signs. And they were not believers.” (Surah Al-A-‘raf 7: 72)

Likewise, there in Surah Al-Araf for our benefit to learn from the story sunnah of Allah is the example of his sunnah dealing with the people of Lut.

That example of Allah’s sunnah therein in Surah Al-Araf reads this way: “And (We sent) Lut, when he said to his people, “Do you commit the shameful act in which nobody has ever preceded you from all the worlds? [80] Surely, you come to men lustfully instead of women. No, you are a people who cross the limits.” [81]

Tafsir al-Jalalayn renders verse 81 this way: “You … come with lust to men instead of women. You are indeed a depraved people, [going beyond the lawful into the unlawful.” (7:81)

Thus, the judgment the Qur’anic record there states thus visited on the people of Lut in their city of Sadum (Sodum) for their above crossing of Allah’s limits is, “We rained down upon them a rain. So look,” chides Allah, “how was the fate of the sinners! [84]” (Surah Al-A-‘raf , 7:84, Ma’ariful Qur’an rendition.)

Tafsir Jalalayn provides the verse this way: “”We rained down a rain [of backed stones] upon them [which destroyed them]. See the final fate of the evildoers!” (7:84)

Surah al-Hijr speaks to the same event, stating, “”We turned the place [(their cities)] completely upside down [--Jibril lifted them to heaven and turned them over and dropped them back to the earth --] and rained down on them stones of hard-backed clay.” (Ibid [Al-Jalalayn], 15: 74)

“There are certainly signs in that,” affirms the Qur’an, at least that is, “for the discerning.” (15: 75.) And just in case some of the expected-to-be discerning are slow to that task, “Allah” affirms of these examples again, “There is certainly a Sign [(a lesson)] in that for the believers.” (Vs. 77.)

“The people of the Thicket [--a reference to a thicket of trees close to Madyan; they were the people of Shu ‘ayb --] were also wrongdoers [--in denying the prophethood of Shu ‘ayb],” reads verse 78 of surah al-Hijr (Al-Jalalayn). We will return to find the fate of this example “Allah” has provided for the believer regarding those who reject the prophethood of the messengers Allah sends to mankind. But for now, we read more of the Allah’s punishment, specifically, for the people of Lut.

The Qur’anic view on the sin of “the people of Lut”

“Ask the men of Knowledge, if you yourselves do not know,” counsels the Qur’an, (Surah an-Nahl, 16: 43), therefore, we do just that. 

Given the hit in Orlando was on a “Gay Nightclub,” we delve into the authoritative works of Islam to see just what the revered elders of Islam provide as the Qur’anic view on homosexuality.

We start with that on it in Surah 7, as cited above. Do so, recalling and regarding, Allah having pressed, these examples are provided for neither entertainment nor fillers, they are there for the believer to see how Allah deals with those who reject his messengers sent, as stated above. The examples the Qur’an provides, as the text of surah seven cited earlier speaks to, are to allow the believer to “See the final fate of the evildoers!” (Surat Al-A ‘raf 7: 84, Al-Jalalayn.)

Because, as spoken to in other parts of this essay, as spoken to numerous times throughout the regard-worthy Islamic authoritative works, Allah now uses the hands of his believers to deliver his punishment.

Therefore, the necessity of certifying that the readers of Qur’an, who read that book believing it came from God, and thus, is a sacred book with inviolable instructions and commands, clearly understand what they should “see” in the harvest, if you will, the end result of the “work” of their hands.

Therefore, serving that end, Tafsir on the above just-cited verses provides the reasons for the narrative being part of Qur’an, as well as clarity, it was no gentle rain rained down on the dwellers of Sodum, as we read:

The Sahabah, the Tabi ‘in and Mujtahid Imams have declared this crime and sin to be far more grave than other acts of shame. Imam Abu Hanifah has said: The punishment given to the person who commits this act should match the punishment which came upon the people of Lut, by the command of Allah Ta ‘ala – that rocks rained from the skies and the floor of the earth flipped upside down. Therefore, this person should be pushed down from a high mountain and rocks should be thrown from above on top of him. According to a narration of Sayyidna Ibn ‘Abbas, in the Musnad of Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, and ibn Majah, the Holy Prophet said about the people who commit this evil act: that is, the doer of this evil deed and his passive partner (al-maf ‘ul u bih i: with whom it was done) should both be killed. (Ibn Kathir) ¹¹⁵

Who is going to be “delivering” this prescribed punishment of Allah? Thus who is going to be seeing to it “this person should be pushed down from a high mountain and rocks should be thrown from above on top of him”?

The believer is. As the Qur’an, ahadith, sira, tafsir, and works of Islamic jurisprudence, “Fiqh” bear out.

Tafsir on surah four recommends much the same punishment for the sin of the people of Sodum, and we are on our way to it. But first, we read what hadith, words of the “Prophet of Islam,” state on the topic.

We start in Sunan Ibn Majah:

It was narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas that the Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever you find doing the action of the people of Lut, kill the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.”

It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet said concerning those who do the action of the people of Lut: “Stone the upper and the lower, stone them both.” ¹¹⁶

Comments from the men of knowledge in Islam on the just cited ahadith read, “Sodomy is one of the most immoral actions and a mortal sin. Its punishment is more severe than the punishment of illegal sexual intercourse.

……………..

“The Punishment of this crime is death whether committed by married or unmarried persons.” ¹¹⁷

Next, from Jami ‘ At-Tirmidhi, the following:

Ibn Abbas narrated that the Messenger of Allah said: ‘Whomever you find doing the actions of the people of Lut then kill the one doing it, and the one it is done to.” ¹¹⁸

Additional notes provided along with this hadith provide the following:

….Muhammad bin Ishaq reported this Hadith from “Amr bin Abi ‘Amr, so he said: “Those who do the act of the people of Lut are cursed.” And he did not mention killing in it. He did mention: “Those who have relations with a beast are cursed.” This Hadith has been reported from ‘Asim bin ‘Umar, from Suhail bin Abi Salih, from his father, from Abu Hurairah, from the Prophet saying: “Kill the doer and the one it is done to.”

……………………………..

The people of knowledge differ over the legal punishment for the sodomite. Some of them held the view that he has to be stoned, whether married or not married. This is the view of Malik, Ash-Shafi ‘I, Ahmad and Ishaq.

Some of the people of knowledge among the Fuqaha from the Tabi ‘in [those learned in the application of Shari ‘a, and specifically here, those from the  Second generation of Muslims, the Followers of the Companions]—among them Al-Hasan Al-Basri, Ibrahim An-Nakha ‘im, ‘Ata’ bin Abi Rabah, and others—said that the legal punishment for the sodomite is the illegal punishment for illegal sexual relations. ¹¹⁹

Shortly here, we will thus visit the “legal punishment for … illegal sexual relations,” but for now, scholars’ Comments posted on the above read as follows:

….The punishment of a sodomite, married or unmarried is stoning….This is the correct point of view.

Sodomy and lesbianism are among the most disgusting forms of sexual satisfaction. Old civilizations were destroyed and stones were rained upon such people, as stated in Surat Hud Verse 82. “We turned (the cities) upside down and rained down, on them stones of baked clay, spread layer on layer.” ¹²⁰

Additionally, the following from Sunan Abu Dawud on the subject:

It was narrated from Abdul ‘Aziz bin Muhammad, from ‘Amr bin Abi ‘Amr, from ‘Ikrimah, from ibn ‘Abbas who said: “ Allah’s Messenger said: ‘Whoever of you find doing the action of the people of Lut, kill the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.” ¹²¹

It was narrated from Juraij: “Ibn Khuthaim informed me, he said: ‘I heard Sa ‘eed bin Jubair and Mujahid narrating from Ibn ‘Abbas, concerning a man who was never married and is found committing the act of the people of Lut; he said: “He is to be stoned.” ¹²²

Comments thereat of the revered scholars of Islam read as follows: “Regarding the punishment of a sodomite, both sentences, stoning to death and killing by sword, are valid in the light of above mentioned narrations. ¹²³

Certainly understandable, as both punishments would be a form of hell raining down on the said guilty, his/her world being turned upside down. Because, as spoken to earlier in this work, part of what Islam requires of a man, thus, what Allah was quick to provide the details of, part of what Islam counts as worship, is for man to know “the commandments of his Lord.” And being thus informed, be fully able to perform “these tasks”-- “the commandments of his Lord”—“exactly in the manner He [“Allah”] has prescribed. This,” the elders of Islam affirm, “is what ‘Ibadah or worship is.” (as cited earlier herein.)

Thus, delivering Allah’s punishment is, according Qur’anic doctrine, simply worship.

And the details on the “prescribed” manner in which that “worship” is to be done the Qur’an, the full purview of it, amply provides. Does so to insure, one will know he has followed the said “prescribed” manner in the same way one will know one has correctly followed a cake recipe: that which one produces mirrors the end result described in the example, so too, the snapshot of the “cake” that the recipe provided.

Now, recalling that cited above from at-Tirmidhi on “the legal punishment for the sodomite is the illegal punishment for illegal sexual relations,” we return once more to the counsel of the master of hadith and makers of tafsir, to the pages of Ma’ariful Qur’an on just what it states of the “legal punishment” prescribed for all “illegal sexual relations.”

In Surah 4 of the Quran, we read as follows:

These are the limits set by Allah. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, He will admit him to gardens beneath which rivers flow …. [13] And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger and crosses the limits set by Him, He shall admit him to the Fire, remaining there for ever. And for him there is humiliating punishment. [14]

And those of your women who commit the shameful act, then have four witnesses from among you. So, if they do testify, then confine those women to their homes until death overcomes them or Allah prescribes a way for them. [15] And those two of you who commit it, torture them both. But if they repent and amend, turn away from them. Surely, Allah is Most-Relenting, Very-Merciful. [16] (Surah Al-Nisa 4: 13 – 16, Ma’ariful Quran rendition)

Exegesis on the above verses, our focus here primarily on the mentioned prescribed “torture,” the revered scholars provides:

No definite Hadd (punishment) has been described in these two verses of the Holy Qur’an. What has been said here is limited to “torture them” and “confine the fornicating women to their homes.” No particular method of such “torture” has been described either, and this has been left to the discretion of the authorities. ¹²⁴

Further clarification on the above verses read as follows: 

 ‘And those two of you who commit it (the shameful act), torture them both”.

Here the Arabic word used for ‘those two of you’ is a masculine pronoun which presumes males on both sides. On this basis, these commentators have opined that this verse relates to two males committing unnatural shameful act [sic], i.e. homosexuality. ¹²⁵

The said Tafsir goes on stating, though some refute the notion that the above verse is speaking of homosexuality, nonetheless, because there is consensus of the scholars that homosexuality is indeed, according to Islam, illegal sexual activity, it is therefore, they affirm, “pertinent here to give some details about the severe prohibition of homosexuality.”  They then provide, along with the Qur’anic and tafsir narrative of the people of Lut, a harsh example of how the ‘four Caliphs’ dealt with such: in short, they “condemned those guilty of sodomy to the fire.” ¹²⁶

They sum up the discussion on punishment due those engaging in “the shameful” “the unnatural” acts stating, “the nature of such punishments reported by them is as severe as it can be, such as, burning into fire, bashing under a wall felled over, throwing down from a height, stoning and beheading with a sword.” ¹²⁷ In reading the just cited, we recall Surah Al-Araf’s provided and called for prescribed punishment for those guilty of the sin of the “people of Lut”; recalling such, we likewise note, once again, precisely why IS deals as it does with those guilty of homosexuality:

this person should be pushed down from a high mountain and rocks should be thrown from above on top of him. According to a narration of Sayyidna Ibn ‘Abbas, in the Musnad of Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, and ibn Majah, the Holy Prophet said about the people who commit this evil act: that is, the doer of this evil deed and his passive partner (al-maf ‘ul u bih i: with whom it was done) should both be killed. (Ibn Kathir) ¹²⁸

In short, the Qur’an is loaded with reasons authorizing Mateen’s actions at Pulse nightclub that fateful morning. But the truth is, he was armed from the same source to strike any number of places and gatherings—evidenced by the Nice, France promenade hit, evidenced by the “word of Allah”: “whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger and crosses the limits set by Him …. For him there is a humiliating punishment.” (Surah Al-Nisa 4:14)

It is both certain and clear, for the reasons Mateen stated, for the reasons presented in this write up, and for many not listed herein but that substantiate the same, Mateen had Allah’s punishment to deliver, and that he did. Did it according to the Qur’anic prescribed manner.

Still many may press, why Pulse?

More likely than not, it was one, perhaps his first choice, among the options or “routes” he had elected that would have the “scenery” he would most enjoy on his supposed way to Paradise. Reports stated, just hours before the terror began at Pulse, Mateen appeared to still, even then, be casing various “opportunities” for terror. 

Obviously, to have “success” in a hit, one needs, at least to a degree, favorable conditions. Thus one would lean to the “opportunity” that seemed to hold the best possibility for success. That night, as is clear by the carnage the hit yielded, Pulse looked promising.

We now return to one of the verses mentioned earlier:  Verse 83 of Surat Hud.

There we read of that rained down on the people of Lut, “…each one earmarked by your Lord [--each stone bore the name of the person for whom it was intended].  And they [(the stones or their land)] are never far from the wrongdoers.” ([11:83] Al-Jalayan, Tafsir.)

Tafsir ibn Kathir provides this on the verse, “Marked from your Lord; and they are not ever far from the wrongdoers” ¹²⁹ : “ ‘Marked,’ meaning the stones were marked and sealed, all of them having the names of their victims written on them….” ¹³⁰

“… and they are not ever far from the wrongdoers,” This means that this vengeance [of Allah] is not far from similar wrongdoers.” ¹³¹

Speaking of the area visited for “this vengeance of Allah” due the “people of Lut,” Ma’ariful Qur’an relays the narrative in surah Hud this way:

Reports say that those habitations were composed of four major towns where those people lived. These very habitations have been named as  ’ al-mu’tafikat’ (the towns overturned) elsewhere in the Holy Qur’an (9:70; 69:9). When the Divine command came, the archangel Jibrail al-Amin, dissected the base of the land mass holding all those towns on top of it with his wing, raised all of it upwards in a way that everything stayed where it was, even water in a water vessel. It was in the backdrop of human, animal and canine voices coming from the sky the he heaved all these habitations straight up towards the sky and, then, threw the whole thing back upside down – as appropriate to and as called for by the evil they indulged in. ¹³²

Focusing in on Allah’s promise, and threat, in the last cited verse, the revered work provides this warning:

At the end of the verse (83), after having mentioned the actual punishment that hit the people of Sayyidna Lut, it was to warn the contemporary peoples of the world that it was said: (And it is not far from the transgressors). It means that people who insist upon indulging in this shameful act should not consider themselves very far from this punishment. It can come even today. The Holy Prophet said, ‘even in my Ummah, some people will do what the people of Lut used to do. When this starts happening, then wait, for they too would be subjected to the same punishment that was inflicted on the people of Lut. ¹³³

As we read all these statements attributed to “Allah” and “His Messenger,” we do so, of course, knowing the words and statements of the two mean little, if anything at all, to the Ummah.

“It can come even today” --“It” both can and does.

And come, just as the Qur’an, ahadith, sira, tafsir, and maghazi provide how “Allah” came to the Jewish tribe of the Banu Nadir.  When, in short here, there were past the time of kindness. Past the time for peace agreements. Because they had rejected the message brought by the “prophet.” And when charged by him for plotting his murder, and thus, informed of his verdict concerning them, they likewise rejected his verdict.

Waqidi’s account of the story puts the order, verdict, and threat of the “prophet” in these words respectively:  “Leave my land [the homeland of the Banu Nadir Jews]. I have granted you a period of ten days. Whoever is seen after that, his head will be cut off.” ¹³⁴

The brief on the narrative of the account goes, in short, the Banu Nadir dug in.  Refused to leave. Instead, with their cattle, their wives, and their children, took to their fortresses. ¹³⁵

Therefore, it was, asserts the Qur’anic record, “They deemed that their fortresses would protect them from Allah. But Allah came to them from where they did not expect, and cast fear in their hearts when they were spoiling their homes with their own hands and with the hands of the believers. So learn a lesson, O those who have eyes.” (Surah Al-Hashr 59: 1, as rendered in Ma’ariful Qur’an Vol. 8.)

How did Allah come to them from whence they did not expect? In that instance, with life-threatening fire and smoke.

Fire and smoke, from fires set by the hands of the believers: “The Jews took refuge in their forts and the apostle ordered that the palm-trees should be cut down and burnt.” ¹³⁶

How did Allah “cast fear in their [the Banu Nadir] hearts?” Via the actions of the hands of the believers. 

For that reason, Sahih Muslim relates, “on the authority of ‘Abdullah that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) ordered the date-palms of Banu Nadir to be burnt and cut.” ¹³⁷

Therewith setting the precedence, establishing the sunnah, of creativity in Islam with respect to  weapons-- “weaponizing” what one least expects one would use as weapons. Weaponizing that that the “enemy” provides at hand, as in weaponizing date-palm orchards, boarding passes, American Airlines.

Weaponizing, if such will serve the cause, one’s vocational skills and “earned” “trustworthiness.”

 Thus, enabling one to strike with that, when, where, and how one would least expect. For such reasons, when “fitting,” doing just that is a practice commonplace with the followers of Sunnah.

“Allah’s” punishment visited upon the Banu Nadir as delineated above is just one more example of Allah’s “vengeance,” as cited earlier, ever near, at the ready, thus, in line with Qur’anic doctrine, in an instant visited unawares upon those who rejected “Allah’s Messenger,” rejected the message he brought.

Ibn Kathir, as noted earlier, speaking on this ever-near “vengeance of Allah” [11:83], for the said “guilty,” thus those “deserving” Allah’s painful punishment, via that deduced from the words and deeds of the “Explainer” of the Qur’an, the revered scholar provides this clarity on the meaning in this “not ever far from” “vengeance of Allah”:

Verily, it has been reported in a Hadith of the Sunan collections from Ibn Abbas, which he attributed to the Prophet, “Whoever you find doing the deed of Lut’s people [homosexuality], then kill the doer and the one who allows it to be done to him (both partners). ¹³⁸

This calls to mind, also in the revered works of tafsir, explaining the meaning of “Say to the believing men they must lower their gazes….” (Surah An-Nur 24: 30), so too, speaking to the same injunction of Hijab (seclusion of the woman) in Surah al-Ahzab (33: 53 – 55), alongside the prohibition for men to see more than the one needed eye of potentially marriageable females is the prohibition for them to look at the beardless boys. ¹³⁹

Why? Because as is so with the female, if the Muslim man sees the eyes, the hand, the feet, God forbid, the forearm and so forth, there is danger of lust.

So it is with the beardless boy, according to the works of the revered scholars of Islam.

Therefore, the prohibition comes under the Islamic tenet of prevention--barring the way and means to the final act of sin, by making illegal and “sinful” all acts leading to the final act of sin.

Therefore, in brief, clarifying the meaning in, “the one whom Allah curses you shall find no helper for him” (Surah Al-Nisa 4: 52), hadith provides, "Allah curses the ogler and the ogled at." ¹⁴⁰

As the same source provides on the just-cited hadith, "It means that the curse of Allah falls on anyone who looks at someone in an evil way, someone who is a non-Mahram; that is, someone outside the count of those in the family he is permitted to see because marriage with them is forbidden for ever [sic] ." ¹⁴¹

It goes on, providing, "this is why such a nazir, the onlooker of the other, comes under the curse of Allah. As for the manzur ilaihi, the one looked at lustfully, the same curse will apply subject to his or her having deliberately and invitingly caused such a look to be cast." ¹⁴²

As mentioned above, with respect to "Allah's curse," Surah Al-Nisa provides, “…the one whom Allah curses you shall find no helper for him.” (Vs. 52.) Including in exegesis on the verse, the same stated source above, and others, relate, hadith provides, the Messenger of Allah said, “Cursed is he who does what the people of Lut used to do.” It adds on that, the hadith was “Narrated by Razin and appearing in Mishkat, the reference is to the male homosexual.” ¹⁴³

But hadith also includes the female in the above said curse, as we read in the following hadith and others:

The Holy Prophet has cursed the effeminate from among men (who, in dress and looks, emulate women – like transvestites) and he has cursed the masculinized from among women (who, in dress, looks and ways, act man-like), And he said: ‘Expel them from your homes’” (Bukhari, from Mishkat) ¹⁴⁴

And the same revered work provides, on those who earn the curse of Allah, “’la ‘nah” being the Arabic Qur’anic word.  “la ‘nah’ (translated as ‘curse’ in absence of a more exact equivalent) means being far removed from the mercy of Allah, extremely debased and disgraced.” It continues, “For such accursed ones admonitions are very stern.” ¹⁴⁵

It continues, providing, “The Holy Qur’an says: (The accursed, wherever they be, are to be caught and killed massacre-like.) (33:61) This is their disgrace in the present life.” ¹⁴⁶

Therefore “Orlando” – as it was with the “people of Lut,” they, in short, were “caught” unawares of Allah’s at-the-ready waiting-in-the-wings as it were due punishment. Their world turned upside down, hell raining down on them.

“Orlando” echoes the death cries of former nations, it bespeaks of the details of Qur’anic narratives of recipients of Allah’s punishment. As do all accounts of terror at the hands of “believers.”

 “News has come to them,” states Qur’an, speaking to those who reject the “Prophet” and what he brought, News, “which contains a threat [--information about the destruction of the nations who denied their Messengers. It contains a harsh deterrent].”  (Surat al-Qamar 54: 4, al-Jalalayn.) Harsh threat indeed, and that threat is this, as mentioned already in many a Qur’anic verse: people, take note of what happened to former nations who rejected “Allah’s Messenger,” be assured, what happen to them will likewise happen to you, should you reject “Allah’s Messenger” and thus reject the message he brought: the doctrines of “the Qur’an.”

Recall if you will what we read earlier on the details of Allah’s punishment visited on Thamud and others in Surah al-A ‘raf 7:77-79: “ the result was: (and they were [found dead] in their homes, fallen on their knees –77).” Recall, how we read, in part, the additional details on that account, of when the “earthquake seized them.” Tafsir provides, along with the earthquake “from down below the earth,” “from above tore in a horrendously shrill cry.” And that “cry,” provides tafsir, “ caused everyone to die, instantly and simultaneously, fallen upside down, (like some dead bird landing on the ground on its breast – see ‘J athim in in Mufradat al-Qur’an.) ….

“The word: (jathimim)," expounds tafsir, "is a derivation from the verbal noun: Juthum, which means to be rendered motionless at one spot, or remaining sitting (Al-Qamus). The sense is that everyone lay dead as and where one was.”  ¹⁴⁸

That is how Surah Al-Araf describes Allah’s punishment delivered on the people of Thamud.

This is how Joshua Stephany, Chief Medical Examiner of Orange County, Florida described Allah’s punishment, Sunnah of Allah, at Pulse Night club, 15 June 2016:

It’s almost like time stopped. There were still things, background TVs playing, lights blinking, drinks that are just in poured, checks that about to pay [sic] , food half eaten, and that’s not even thinking about the bodies on the ground I’m just looking around, and seeing it’s like time stood still. All of the sudden everything is gone, everything stopped.

…when you actually see everyone lying down in one place or went down in one place or their final positions, you can feel it.¹⁴⁹

And in the words of Survivor Christian Cortez, this description: “the lights went off, it was so dark. I can see people falling dead in front of me. I could see everything was everybody was dead. Everybody was like a truly massacre or something like that.” ¹⁵⁰

Christian stated, he and one of his buddies ran to take cover in “the dark bathroom with about 30 other frightened people.” He stated, “We can see the blood was coming from under the door, like it was like water when you break water it goes on the floor. It was the same thing but it was blood. It was getting under the floor. It was very horrible.”¹⁵¹

Horrible indeed. Moreover, indeed, Sunnah of Allah at Pulse Nightclub that fateful morning.

Recall the “people of the Thicket” I mentioned earlier, of whom the Qur’an states, “were also wrongdoers [in denying the prophethood of Shu ‘ayb],” rejecting the message he brought? (Surat al-Hijr 15:78, Al-Jalalayn.)

Surah Al-Alraf provides this concerning them and their stated “guilt”: “So, the [strong] earthquake seized them, and morning found them [dead], lying flattened in their homes.” (7: 91) Others versions render, “…they were [found dead] in their homes fallen on their knees.” (Ma’ariful Qur’an rendered.)

Found dead, in other words, where they felt safe, where they relaxed, in the place, one can say, that was to them a place of refuge.

And on the punishment visited on the “people of the Thicket,” the people of Aikah, ¹⁵²  those whom, because of their rejection of the prophet Shu ‘ayb sent to them, the Qur’an identifies as “wrong doers,” those who cross the limits set by Allah, tafsir provides this narrative:

….Attracted by the shade and cool breeze there, all inhabitants of the locality assembled under the shade of that cloud. As Divine arrangement would have it, here were its criminals walking on their two feet and reaching the exact spot where they were to be destroyed, without a warrant of arrest and without a police gun pointed at them. Once they were all there, the clouds rained fire and the earthquake shook the earth. That killed them all. ¹⁵³

Why that punishment of “Allah” visited upon the people of Maydan to whom the Qur’an asserts Allah’s messenger Shu ‘ayb was sent?

Because “The ruling circle of those of his people who were [too] arrogant [to believe] said, ‘We will drive you out of our city, Shu ‘aub, you and those who believe along with you…. (Surat Al-A ‘raf 7:88)…. “The ruling circle of those of his people … disbelieved….” (Ibid, vs.90)

Therefore, as stated above, “So, the earthquake seized them, and they were (found dead) in their homes fallen on their knees.” (Vs. 91) Therefore, boast “Allah,” “We seized them suddenly [with the punishment] when they were not expecting it.” (Vs. 95.)

Making it clear just why this punishment was due thus delivered on these people, “Allah” continues, seemingly bemoaning having been forced to send his stated punishment on the said people, “If only the people of the cities [who denied] had believed [in Allah and His Messenger] …. But they denied the truth [(the Messengers)], so We seized them [and punished them] for what they earned.” (Vs. 98)

Therefore, “Allah,” adds, “See the final fate of the corrupters, [which was utter destruction on account of their unbelief!”] (Surat Al-A ‘raf 7: 103)

Thus, regarding Allah’s amply provided examples and prescription indicating his sunnah of mass slaughter, not a bit surprising, as shooting victim, Tiara Parker, survivor from Pulse night club massacre stated, “I thought I was going to die. I thought it was over when he [Mateen] said he had enough bombs to light up a city block.” ¹⁵⁴

For no slight reason, “How terrible,” provides Qur’an, “Were my punishment and warnings!” (Surat al-Qamar 54: 21.) “Thamud denied the warnings.” (Vs. 23) And  “Early morning brought them enduring punishment. ‘Taste’” proclaims Allah, “My punishment and warnings!” (Vss. 38, 39.)

Warnings such as, “When Our Signs (the Qur’an) are recited to him, he says, ‘Just myths [(lies)] of previous peoples!” (Surat al-Qalam 68: 15, al-Jalalayn) “So a visitation from your Lord came upon it while they slept….” (Vs. 19) “Such [--the punishment of these people--] is the punishment that will alight on those unbelievers of Makka and others who oppose Allah’s command];….” (Vs. 33)

Making certain readers of Qur’an get it clear, just how Allah deals with unbelievers--those who reject the Messenger Allah sends to them and reject the message he brings--Qur’an provides, “Warnings came to Pharaoh’s people [on the tongue of Musa and Harun, but they did not believe]. (Vs. 41.)

“They dismissed everyone of Our [nine] Signs …. And so We seized them [with the punishment--] with the seizing of One who is Almighty, All-Powerful….” (Vs. 42.)

Lines preceding that, tell of the messenger, Nuh, stating, “Before them (Quraysh) the people denied the truth.” How did they deny the said “truth”? “They denied Our slave [--Nuh--]….” (54:9.)

Thus, Qur’an provides, Allah rewarded Nuh and punished those who rejected him and his message, “… a reward for him who had been rejected [--help for Nuh by drowning them. That was their punishment].” (Surat al-Qamar 54:14.)

Why does IS use drowning as a punishment for those transgressing the limits established in Qur’an and Sunnah? For the same reasons they use beheadings: because it is one of the examples, that in the blueprint, Allah provides in his book of examples of how he delivered his punishment on unbelievers.

Tafsir on Surat al-Anfal, on, “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, so strike their neck s [sic] [(behead them)] and strike all their fingers and joints,” 8:12 (al-Jalalayn), it provides, during the Battle of Badr, Allah sent Angels to reinforce the Muslim, and sent them with the above orders.

Therefore, the Muslims at Badr followed the Allah-provided example of how to deal with that enemy. Therefore, reads tafsir, “It happened that a man would go to strike at the neck of an unbeliever and his head would fall off before his sword was able to get there.” (8:12 Al-Jalalayn.)

“This,” affirms the verse following that, “[punishment] was [visited on them] because they were hostile to [and fought against] Allah and His Messenger. If anyone is hostile to Allah and His Messenger, Allah is severe in retribution [to him].” (Surat Al-Anfal, 8: 13, al-Jalalayn.)

Thus of those the Muslims killed at Badr, to show the believers how he sees this work of their hands, Allah declares, “You did not kill them [at Badr through your own strength]: it was Allah who killed them.” (Surat Al-Anfal, 8: 17, al-Jalalayn.)

Ma’ariful Qur’an on the verse calls this order to the alleged angels dispatched to Badr “the fifth blessing which was beamed at Muslims in this battlefield of Badr.”¹⁵⁵ What’s more, it provides, at Badr, “Allah” worked through the hands of the believers, guiding those hands by the said actions and example of the alleged dispatched angels, and “by sending punishment on disbelievers through Muslims they [the disbelievers] were chastened….” ¹⁵⁶

“In other words,” provides the said tafsir, “what is being said here is: This is a little punishment from Us. So taste it and better realize that, after this, the punishment of the fire of Jahannam is due….”¹⁵⁷

Same source provides, “the enemies killed at their hands [the hands of the believers] were not really killed by them, rather, they were killed by Allah Ta ‘ala.” ¹⁵⁸

Volume Two of the same, speaking to the Badr Battle said “blessing,” as it is mentioned in Surah ‘Al-Imran 3: 124, reads, “According to some hadith narrations, when an angel decided to attack a disbeliever, the head of the disbeliever slid of [sic] his body all by itself.”  (“From Sahl ibn Hanif Al-Hakim and Baihaqi.”) ¹⁵⁹

Waqidi’s al-Maghazi relates of “the blessing,” Sa ‘d said, “ I saw two men on the day of Badr, fighting with [alongside] the Messenger of God, one on his right and the other on his left. I saw him look at one and once at the other, happy for the assistance that God most high granted him.” ¹⁶⁰

Those were the alleged angels beheading the disbelievers at Badr, teaching the Muslims how Allah wills to deal with unbelievers. Thus making sunnah of Allah sunnah of the “prophet” thus sunnah of the ummah.

Thus the same record relates, among others, this narration:

Muhammad b. Yahya related to me from Abu ‘Ufayr from Rafi b. Khadij from Abu Burda b. Niyar, who said: I came on the day of Badr with three heads and placed them before the Messenger of God, and said, “O Messenger of God, I killed two heads. As for the third, I saw a tall white man strike it and it rolled before him, and I picked it up.” The Messenger of God said, “That was one of the angels.”  ¹⁶¹

Speaking to the same “blessing” as well as the alleged reason for it, the same record provides, Ibn Abbas said, “The angels took the form of those known among the people to motivate them.” ¹⁶² Thus it relates of the event and the disbelievers slaughtered thereat, “The angels and the believers killed them.” ¹⁶³

Tafsir Ibn Kathir on the noted “fifth blessing” at Badr, reads this way:

…Ali bin Abi Talhah Al-Walibi reported that ibn Abbas said, “Allah supported His Prophet and the believers with a thousand angels, five hundred under the leadership of Jibril on one side and five hundred under the leadership of Mika’il on another side. “ Imams Abu Ja ‘far bin Jarir At-Tabari and Muslim recorded that Ibn Abs said, “While a Muslim man was pursuing an idolator [sic] (during the battle of Badr), he heard the sound of a whip above him and a rider saying, ‘Come, O Hayzum!’ Then he looked at the idolator [sic], who fell to the ground. When he investigated, he found that the idolators [sic] nose had a wound and his face torn apart, just as if he received a strike from a whip on it, and the entire face had turned green. ¹⁶⁴

Certifying the believe understands precisely what scene Allah expects from this work of their hands,  the tafsir adds, “so strike them over the necks, and smite over all their fingers and toes,” “over the necks” refers to striking the foreheads to tear them apart and over the necks to cut them off, and cut off their limbs, hands and feet.” ¹⁶⁵

It provides, “Ar-Rabi ‘ bin Anas said, “In the aftermath of Badr, the people used to recognize whomever the angels killed from those whom they [the believers] killed, by the wounds over their necks, fingers and toes, because those parts had a mark as if they were branded by fire.” ¹⁶⁶

(That calls to mind, a testimony of a 911 survivor, who, during the Democratic National Convention 2016, telling of her injuries suffered that day, stated, where the limbs were severed, so intense was the heat of that which severed them, that the wounds appeared cauterized.)

The record relates, “Ibn Jarir commented that this Ayah commands, ‘O believers! Strike every limb and finger on the hands and feet of your (disbelieving) enemies.’” (Per At-Tabari 12:431.) ¹⁶⁷  

Because as Qur’an states, “This is because they defied and disobeyed Allah and His Messenger. And whoever defies and disobeys Allah and His Messenger, then verily, Allah is severe in punishment.” (Surah 8. Al-Anfal : 13, as rendered in Ibn Kathir, Tafsir).

“This,” provides the Qur’an, “is (the torment), so taste it.” (8:14) And this, provides tafsir on that: “ This Ayah addresses the disbeliever, saying, taste this torment and punishment in this life….” ¹⁶⁸

And, as spoken to above, Tafsir ibn Kathir provides, “Allah states that He creates the actions that the servants perform and that whatever good actions they take, it is He Who should be praised for them, for He directed and helped them perform these action.” ^169.  

As Qur’an asserts, “You killed them not, but Allah killed them.” (Surah Al-Anfal : 8:17, Ibn Kathir, Tafsir rendered.)

Yes, indeed, “Allah” helped the Muslim perform the beheadings at Badr, just as “Allah” help Mateen perform his high-profile actions at Pulse nightclub, just as “Allah” helped the beheaders of 84 year old Catholic Priest, Rev. Jacques Hamel deliver “Allah’s” painful punishment that morning at the Saint-Etienne-du Rouvray Church in Normandy.¹⁷⁰

Hence, asserts the Qur’an, of all the above provided examples and others like them, “We left it (this action) as a Sign [for anyone who reflects, because knowledge of it is widespread and will continue to spread].” (Surat al-Qamar: 54: 15, Al-Jalalayn, Tafsir.)

I assure you, the Scholars, scribes, soldiers, citizens, and patrons of IS reflected on Allah’s word and thus gain from the signpost and patterns provided therein clear understanding. Thus their actions.

 “So leave,” declares “Allah,” “anyone who denies this discourse [(the Qur’an)] to Me! We will lead them, step by step, [--little by little--] into destruction from where they do not know.” (Surat al-Qalam 68: 44, al-Jalalayn.) He boast, “We destroyed those of your kind [--like you in respect of unbelief--] in the past [nations]. But is there any rememberer [sic] there? [This is a command, meaning, ‘Remember and be warned!’” (Surat al-Qarm 54: 51, al-Jalalayn.)

“Taste [(experience)] My punishment and warnings!” (54: 37, Ibid.)

Just as Mateen echoed in his facebook post as cited earlier herein, just before the massacre began: “Now taste the Islamic state vengeance.”

What was Mateen doing in posting that Facebook post? Following sunnah, obeying Allah.

Allah commanded, “And give those who disbelieve the ‘good’ news of a painful punishment.” (Surah Al-Taubah: 9: 3, Ma’ariful Qur’an, Vol. 2 rendition.) He follows that up with, “Kill the Mushriks wherever you find them.” (Surah Al-Taubah: 9: 5.)

[mushrik: (plural) mushrikun): someone who commits shirk (shirk—the unforgivable wrong action of worshipping something or someone other than Allah or associating something or someone as a partner to Him.) ¹⁷¹

He follows that with, “Fight them, so that Allah should punish them at your hands and disgrace them, and help you win against them and bring relief to bosoms of a believing people, [14] and remove the rage of their hearts…. [15.]” (Surah Al-Taubah : 9, as stated, Ma’ariful Qur’an rendered.)

Tafsir on that provides: “As for the enemies [the disbelievers, they have already become deserving of Divine punishment because of their evil deeds but this punishment will not come down upon them from the heavens or up from beneath the Earth.” No, now, as we will read shortly from tafsir ibn Kathir, “Instead of that,” provides tafsir, “says the verse, that is, ‘Allah shall punish them at their hands’” [i.e., the hands of believers]. ¹⁷²

Tafsir ibn Kathir speaks to that sunnah of Allah with these words:

These are points of wisdom for which Allah has legislated performing Jihad, by the hands of the believers against the disbelievers. Allah used to destroy the previous nations that denied the Prophets, using various disasters that encompassed these rebellious nations. For instance, Allah destroyed the people of Nuh with the flood, ‘Ad with the wind, Thamud with the scream, the people of Lut with an earthquake and the people of Shu ‘ayb by the Day of the Shadow. After Allah sent Musa and destroyed his enemy Fir ‘awn and his soldiers by drowning, He sent down the Tawrah to him in which He legislated fighting against the disbelievers, and this legislation remained in the successive Laws. Allah said,

“And indeed We gave Musa –after We had destroyed the generations of old—The Scripture as an enlightenment.” [28:43]

It is more humiliating for the disbelievers and more comforting to the hearts of the faithful that the believers kill the disbelievers by their own hands. Allah said to the believers of this Ummah,

“Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands, and disgrace them, and give you victory over them, and heal the breast of a believing people [9:14].”  ¹⁷³

Therefore, “Allah,” following his sunnah, now using the hands of the believers to deliver his punishment. “Allah,” thus, piling up the dead, ratcheting up the dead-count, now, by that delivered by the hands of the “believers.”  

Piling up the dead and/or mangled bodies on concert hall floors, on office floors, on toilet seats, on roadways, on sidewalks—as I write these very lines, “Breaking news” again delivering “the ‘good’ news” of Allah’s punishment.

Punishment delivered, “this” day, on the streets of Nice, France.  Today’s weapon of choice and attack of choice: firearm, weaponized delivery truck, weaponized “earn trustworthiness,” and of course, “the Dhikr of Allah … a weapon in its own right, special and spiritual, something known to Muslims only….” ¹⁷⁴ Striking the unbelievers when, where, and how they would least expect it, just as Allah’s word promises “He” will do.

Thus far today’s the dead count thereat: “60…73 … still climbing…” ¹⁷⁵

Yes, indeed, yet another “‘soldier of Islamic State,’” another child of the Qur’an, another good Muslim, on the move for Allah.  This one, via a delivery truck delivering His “painful punishment.” 

As reports state, Islamic State asserting of him, as they did of Mateen, as they have done, and will doubtlessly do of others, “the person who carried out”  this days attack, is a soldier of Islamic State, “and carried out the operation in response to the calls to target nationals of the coalition which is fighting the Islamic State.” ¹⁷⁶

Therefore, racking up the dead, following sunnah, thus looking to produce the scene of which Allah boasted was his sunnah to produce with those who rejected his messengers and the message he brought: scatter, spread, or lay dead mangled bodies in mass on the ground or elsewhere. Fling these bodies in the air, burn them, mangle them, dismember them, etc, all in line with Qur’an provided sunnah of Allah to be emulated by his believers.

 “But they have rejected it [--The Book which has come to them, meaning the Noble Qur’an--] and they will soon know [the result of their unbelief],” asserts the Qur’an. (Surat as-Saffat 37:170, Al-Jalalayn)

As we read earlier, “‘Ad denied the truth.” In other words, the people of ‘Ad “rejected” the messenger and message of Allah sent to them.  “[Their Prophet was Hud and they were punished]” for having so done. 

Thus, “How terrible were My punishments and warnings!” Boasted “Allah.” “[Then,” provides tafsir on the cited verse (54:18), “Allah explains what that punishment was.]” (Al-Jalalayn.):

We unleashed a howling wind against them on a day of unremitting horror ….(Surat al-Qamar 54: 19, Al-Jalalayn.)

It plucked up men like uprooted stumps. [It sucked people up form pits in the earth in which they had taken refuge. It threw them on their heads and tore their necks so that their heads were ripped off their bodies. They looked like the stumps of palm trees cut down and fallen on the earth. They are likened to palm trees because of their height]. (V. 20, ibid.)

How terrible were My punishments and warnings! (Vs. 21)

Surat al-Haqqa renders the narrative this way:

‘Ad were destroyed by a savage howling wind. [It made a loud noise and had immense strength with which it struck ‘Ad, who considered themselves strong]. (69:6, Al-Jalalayn.)

Allah subjected them to it [--sent it against them with force--] …. [It is said that the word used here , husum, is the plural of hasim, from hasm, which means cutting, as one cuts for cauterization for an illness again and again until it is finished (tahassama).] You could see the people flattened in their homes [--dead and prone--] just like the hollow stumps of uprooted palms. (Ibid, Vs. 7.)

That is how “Allah” explained his punishment delivered on the people of ‘Ad that fateful day.

Here follows how a witness of the Nice, France attack, Andres Farfan, described “Allah’s” punishment delivered at the Nice Bastille Day Fireworks that dark horrific day.

Reports state, he said he was celebrating having just “finished his university degree in Nice when he heard screams coming from the beachfront.” ¹⁷⁷

Looking out his window, he said he saw “the truck speeding on the footpath of the road.” He said, “It was going pretty fast, I guess 60 or 75 kph…” ¹⁷⁸ People screaming, some leaping down onto the beach side if they could.

Andres said, seeing the crowd all bunched together as they were, seeing the oncoming and plowing to and through the crowd delivery truck, he had to look away, “I couldn’t watch it. I closed my eyes, and went inside the apartment.”¹⁷⁹

But some of his friends, he said, did just the opposite: “they went outside.” And what they saw there made them weep, made them scream … will undoubtedly haunt them for life …

“They say they saw bodies flying in the air when the truck hit them.” ¹⁸⁰

From another witness to the carnage, this witness, also a survivor of the hit, Nice resident, 16-year-old, Kimberley Torres. Her mother said, her daughter called her in tears, frantically telling her, “Mum, there are dead everywhere, severed heads, severed people, there’s blood everywhere, mother, come.” ¹⁸¹

In other words, in the carnage of Bastille Day Fireworks 2016 in Nice, witnesses to it saw shades of “Allah’s”  punishment delivered to the people of ‘Ad and others: “it plucked up men like uprooted stumps,” flung them into the air, and by the force of such, arms and legs were torn from cores, “heads were ripped off their bodies.” (Surat al-Qamar 54: 20, Al-Jalalayn, Tafsir.)

Why was this Muslim--claimed as a soldier of Allah, one who, like Mateen, responded to Abu Bakr al-Bagdhadi’s calls for retaliation against nations attacking Islamic state—doing what he was doing there on that Nice beach? What was he aiming to produce?”

He was obeying Allah.  He was following sunnah—just as did Mateen that fateful morning in Pulse nightclub.

Thus, just as Mateen did in Orlando 12 June 2016, the “Bastilli” killer aimed to produce the scenery, the harvest—the carnage—from the seeds of Allah’s word sown into his heart, mind and soul. He aimed to yield the fruit in kind with that that Allah’s word provided is “fruit,” scenery, covering the area on which his punishment has descended.

Did so, because, for the true believer, the good Muslim, Allah’s law, Allah’s sunnah, it comes first to the negation of all other laws and guidance. For such reasons, Allah’s Messenger commented then asserted “What about people who impose conditions which are not present in Allah’s Book (Laws)?  Whoever imposes conditions which are not found in Allah’s Book (Laws), his conditions will be invalid even if he imposed them a hundred times.” ¹⁸²

Mateen, the Nice, France attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, Muhammad Ata and his 9/11 comrades and countless other Muslims who kill and are killed for the sake of Allah, they are following that in “Allah’s Book.” Following it and thus making invalid laws and “conditions which are not found in Allah’s Book (Laws),” imposing conditions spelled out in therein. Which is precisely what every Muslims is commanded to do.

 According to Islam, the alleged “prophet” of Islam, Muhammad, was Allah’s final messenger sent to mankind. Sent with the final Shariah (Code of conduct and life).

The Qur’anic text bears-out thus tafsir spells out, “The Holy Prophet is the last of all prophets and messengers of Allah, and his Shari’ah”—take note all who froth and fling at Shari’ah but welcome Islam—“is the last Shari ‘ah of all Shari ‘ahs and is to remain valid upto [sic] the end of time….”¹⁸³  

“Guide us on the straight path,” provides Surat Al-Fatihah (1:6) . What path is that, according to Islamic doctrine? Doi and others of like caliber in Islam answer that: “Shari’ ah is an Arabic word meaning the Path to be followed.” ¹⁸⁴

Speaking to the straight path to be followed, Ma’ariful Qur’an provides, “It would seem that in order to define the straight path it should have been sufficient to call it ‘the path of the Prophet,’ or ‘the path of the Qur’an….” It continues, stating, “ for the whole of the Holy Qur’an is really an explanation of the straight path, and the teachings of the Holy Prophet.” ¹⁸⁵

Dr. Mohammad Hasim Kamali, in his work, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, he provides, “Sunnah means a clear path or a beaten track … also … normative practice, or an established course of conduct.” ¹⁸⁶

Qadi Iyad’s Ash-Shifa, speaking of that “clear path,” that “beaten track, that “Path to be followed,” provides, speaking of the birth of Muhammad, al ‘Abbas ibn ‘Abdu ‘l-Muttalib indicated in poetic lines, “When you were born, the earth shone and the horizon was illuminated by your light. We travel in that illumination and in the light and the paths of right guidance.” ¹⁸⁷

What path according to Islamic doctrine is that? What path is that which is Shari ‘ah, which is, as cited above, “the Path to be followed” the “Straight Path” spoken to in Surat 1 of the Qur’an?

Once more, speaking here now only with great limitedness to this Islamic fact, “ Sunnah literally means way, practice, rule of life; and refers to the exemplary conduct or the model behavior of the Prophet in what he said, did or approved.” ¹⁸⁸

‘”Allah’s’ Book” provides, “You have an excellent model in the Messenger of Allah ….” (Surat al-Ahzab 33:21, al-Jalalayn.)

It is clear as well as irrefutable, Islamic doctrine is built on following Sunnah: words, deeds, counsel, etc, of the so-called prophet, as spoken to often herein. Because the so-called prophet was, as spelled out above, the explainer of all in “Allah’s Book.” Thus all that was sunnah of Allah was thus sunnah of his messenger. 

And that sunnah is to be followed. Implemented. That is what “’Allah’s’ Book” commands.

That is the “Path to be followed,” which is, as cited above, what Shariah is. That path is following all within the limits set by “Allah,” disregarding all limits established by others should they infringe on commands within “Allah’s limits.”

And as we read above, for those who reject that in “The Book,” (“But they have rejected it [--The Book which has come to them, meaning the Noble Qur’an--]”) “they will soon know [the result of their unbelief],” asserts the Qur’an. (Surat as-Saffat 37:170; Al-Jalalayn, Tafsir.)

“…and watch them,” it states, “[when the punishment befalls them], for they will soon see [ the consequences of their unbelief].” (Vs. 175, Ibid.)

What is the punishment for? For their unbelief in the Qur’anic message.

“They will soon know” and “soon see” what? “The punishment” descending.

And, “When it descends,” states the Qur’an, and descends “in their courtyard [ --the word used here, saha, means the courtyard around a house] …. How evil will be the morning of those who were warned!” (Vs. 177, Ibid.)

Surat az-Zumar 39:55, and other verses, speaking to the same, pointing to that “Straight Path,” that “Path to be followed,” that “beaten track” state, “Follow the best that has been sent down to you from your Lord [(the Qur’an)] before the punishment comes upon you suddenly when you are not expecting it [--unaware of its time of arrival];”  (al-Jalalayn, Tafsir.)

“Woe [-- in other words they will be punished--],” warns the Qur’an, “ to those whose hearts are hardened against the rememberance of Allah” -- as it is defined earlier in this text: “He who has not obeyed Him [Allah] has not remembered Him” – “[preventing them from accepting the Qur’an]!” (39:22, Ibid.)

“The wrongdoers,” it proclaims, “will be told, ‘Taste what you have earned.’” (Vs.24)

“Those before them,” it states, “also denied the truth [--by denying their Messenger’s warnings about Divine punishment --] and the punishment came upon them from whence they did not expect [-- in a manner which had not occurred to them].” (Vs. 25)

“So Allah made them taste disgrace [--humiliation and debasement--] in the life of this world [--in the form of … being killed and other things --]….” (Vs. 26) “We have given all kinds of examples to peoples in this Qur’an,” declares “Allah,” “so that perhaps they will pay heed—“ (Vs. 28, al-Jalalayn, Tafsir.)

Regarding all the above, I ask, is there any where we or the people of France, and others, have fallen short of following Allah’s commands? Are there any among us who reject that in the Qur’an, thus reject following sunnah, thus, reject following the Shariah of “Allah’s Messenger”? Of course there is. Of course they are. 

Therefore, according to Qur’anic doctrine, Allah’s punishment is due us. It is our “earnings.” Thus, ready to be delivered anytime, anywhere by the hands of his believers.

That is simple sunnah of Allah, thus sunnah of his “messenger,” sunnah which “Allah” commands must be followed, thus such is sunnah of the ummah.

For such reasons, as reported at Jihad Watch just days before writing these lines, and as provided in an  8 July 2016 Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia, press release, good Muslim, Haris Qamar, was arrested on charges to provide material support and resources to Islamic state. Part of that support and those resources being photos of potential targets in the D.C. area for future “lone wolf” attacks.

“On June 3,” reads the said report, “a conversation was audio and video recorded when CW picked up Qamar in a vehicle and they drove to area landmarks on the list Qamar had developed.  Qamar allegedly said “bye bye DC, stupid ass kufar, kill’em all”. ¹⁸⁹

“Kill’em all,” dreams and states this good Muslim? Kill all the kufar in the D.C. area?

Where in this world does he get such an idea? I will tell you where: “Allah’s Book.”

As I posted at Jihad Watch commenting on that report, as I have spoken to in numerous places in this essay, “Could it possibly be ‘Allah’s’ Qur’an-provided object lessons? Say, as in just for one therefrom, the object lesson of ‘the people of Ad’?

“A people of whom Qur’an and reliable regarded Tafsir tell us, ‘… their gardens and mansions, and palaces,’ were ‘leveled to the ground. Their men and animals went up in the air and zoomed back hitting the floor with their heads.’¹⁹⁰

The narrative adds, as mentioned above, “Thus, the people of ‘Ad were eliminated to the last man.”

Thus the elucidated meaning in ‘“And we eradicated those who belied Our signs. And they were not believers.”’” ¹⁹¹

We regard, the same works tell us, as mentioned above, in times past Allah used “various disasters” to deliver his punishment, but now, since first giving Moses the order to fight, now, because it is more humiliating for the unbelievers, and more mollifying to the hearts of believers, now he delivers his punishment via the hands of believers.

And as we have read herein, as one will easily find provided through-out the Qur’an, Allah’s word provides for his following no shortage of object lessons and examples of his sunnah, his practice of dealing death to unbelievers. Moreover, oftentimes, as we have read repeatedly, the Qur’an-provided blueprint the believer is to follow in his Qur’anic authorized and sanctioned death-dealing is one that yields the end result of mass destruction.

What’s more, we know all these examples in the Qur’an are there neither for filler, nor entertainment but for the sole purpose of instruction. Enabling one thus to draw conclusions from the story. Derive therefrom “spiritual principles,” principles that are sunnah of Allah, thus sunnah of Islam.  

As revered tafsir confirms: “The Holy Qur’an does not tell stories for the sake of telling stories…. The real intention … is to draw certain conclusions from the stories, and to illustrate or point out certain spiritual principles. Now, the various episodes of a story help to bring out various principles.” ¹⁹²

And for that reason and that only, are all stories in the Qur’an included therein: sign post, object lessons, illustrations and blueprints for believers to follow.

Why then, many will ask, have we not yet suffered this mass destruction spoken of in “Allah’s Book”?

Shortest answer to that: God’s grace. Included therein are all successes thus far that have, thus far, prevented such. It is not for lack of effort, planning, or instructions thereto. It is God’s mercy thus far spread over us.

Aiming to wrapping this section up, we note, the second of the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs, Ibn ‘Umar, fully understanding the reason for as well as the meaning of the verses of Qur’an, “Ibn ‘Umar said: A boy was assassinated. ‘Umar said, ‘If all the people of San ‘a took part in the assassination I would kill them all.’” ¹⁹³

We likewise regard, when the Qur’an states the following, it does so with all the principles related to the following end as spoken to herein regarded, and the verse means precisely what it states:

And such days we rotate among the people, so that Allah may know those who believe and let some of you be martyrs—and Allah does not like the unjust [140] –and so that Allah may purify those who believe and eradicate the disbelievers.” [141] (Surah ‘Al-‘Imran 3, Ma’ariful Qur’an rendered.)

 Tafsir al-Jalalayn renders the verses this way: “We send days to people in rotation …. so that Allah can purge [and purify] those who believe … and wipe out [and destroy] the unbelievers.” (3: 140-141.)

Conclusion

In his rally speech in Atlanta Georgia, 15 June 2016, then Presumptive Nominee of the Republican party, Mr. Donald J. Trump, speaking of the numerous horrors suffered by the victims in Pulse Nightclub early Sunday 12 June 2016, Mr. Trump stated, as one hears of such accounts, one is compelled to ask, “How can this be happening in our country?”

I will tell you how it is happening in our nation, “Mr. President”: in our nation, we have freedom to practice our religion, and to practice it full and freely. We also have in our nation those who have as their “religion” the way of Muhammad. That way being following the guidance provided in the Qur’an.  That is why and how, Sir, what happened at Pulse Nightclub that death-filled June morning: a “believer” practiced the tenets of his faith system.

That is why and what happened 9/11. 

That is what happened countless other days in our nation, in our world, as the blood flowed, as limbs were severed, faces marred and disfigured, lives snuffed out: a “believer” obeyed Allah.

A “believer”—with the stomach for armed jihad--followed Qur’an and sunnah guidance. The instructions and blueprints therein.  That is precisely the reason why and what happened in Orlando Sunday morning 12 June 2016: “Allah’s” word, “Allah’s” guidance, thus, the traditions of his messenger, Muhammad, in full play and on display for the world to see.

Allah’s word asserts, with respect to the mission of Muhammad, “This Qur’an has been revealed to me so that I may warn you [and frighten you] by it, [people of Mekka] and anyone else it (the Qur’an) reaches [among jinn or man] . (Surat al-An ‘am 6: 19, al-Jalalayn, Tafsir.)

In verse 47 of that same chapter, Allah speaks to the unbelieving lot, asking, “What would you think if Allah’s punishment were to come upon you by night or openly by day, would any but the wrongdoing people (the unbelievers) be destroyed?” He follows that up with admonishing his messenger and those who follow him (Vs. 51), “Warn [and alarm] by it (the Qur’an) … so that perhaps they will be godfearing [sic]  [… so that they will perform acts of obedience].”

Allah’s word likewise warns, (....These [rulings] are the rulings of Allah's limits. The unbelievers will have a painful punishment. (al-Mujadila [58]: 4, al-Jalalayn.)

It promises, “Those who [disagree and] oppose Allah and His Messenger will be subdued and overcome as those before them were also subdued and overcome [when they opposed their Messengers before]….The unbeleivers will have a humiliating punishment.” (Ibid, Vs. 5.)

What’s more, on that “painful punishment,” as spoken to above, and on the unbelievers it is promised to, Allah’s word provides this spurring on and this promise to his ummah: “Fight them! Allah will punish them [by killing them] at your hands, and disgrace them [by capture and defeat] and help you against them, and heal the hearts of those who believe.”  (Surat at-Tawba: 9:14, al-Jalalayn, Tafsir.)

As mentioned above, Verse 15 there provides, “Allah” elects to use the hands of the believers because by using the hands of the believers to deliver the said punishment of Allah “earned,” thereby, “He will remove the rage [and grief] from their [the hearts of the believers] hearts.” (9:15, al-Jalalayn.)

We regard, the Qur’an reminds the believers of the following contract they have with Allah:

Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their wealth [which they expend in obedience to Allah on things like jihad] in return for the Garden. They fight in the Way of Allah and they kill [(read as yaqtuluna wa yuqtaluna or as yuqtaluna wa yaqtuluna “are killed and kill”]) and are killed. It is a promise binding on Him in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur’an; and who is truer to his contract than Allah? [There is no one truer than Allah when He promises. Rejoice then [--changing to the second person from the third--] in the bargain you have made. That [transaction] is the great victory [which obtains the Goal]. (Surat at-Tawba 9:111, al-Jalalayn, Tafsir.)

On the heels of that spotlighted contract, with these words Allah spurs on his believing community: “O Prophet, do jihad against the unbelievers [with the sword] and [against the] hypocrites [ … ] and be harsh with them [through rebuke and hatred]….” (Surah 9: 73. Al-Jalalayn.)

The revered works of tafsir on that verse by the revered Imam, Ibn Kathir, read this way:

Allah commanded His Messenger to strive hard against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and to be harsh against them…. (“Strive hard against the disbelievers and hypocrites,”) “With the hand, or at least have a stern face with them. Ibn Abbas said, “Allah commanded the Prophet to fight the disbelievers with the sword, to strive against the hypocrites with the tongue and annual lenient treatment of them. Ad-Dahhak commented, “Perform Jihad against the disbelievers with the sword and be harsh with the hypocrites with words, and this is the Jihad performed against them. Similar was said by Muqatil and Ar-Rabi. Al-Hassan and Qatadah said, “Striving against them includes establishing the (Islamic Penal) Law of equality against them.” ¹⁹⁴

In summary, in the early morning hours of 12 June 2016, in the early days of Ramadan 2016, honoring the tenets of his “religion,” enjoying the freedom in our nation to do just that, America- born devotee to Allah, thus follower of Muhammad, prayed his prayers, and in his words, for “his country,” Islamic State, killed and was killed.

In other words, true to his title in his name—“Siddiqui—Mateen neither hesitated nor doubted as to the truthfulness of the commands of the “Messenger of Allah," but in full obedience to them, from his Bismillah to his dying in the way of Allah, Mateen obeyed “Allah.”

Did so, following that “Straight Path,” as spoken to above in what is indeed remembrance of Allah: Mateen knew and understood “the commandments of his Lord,” therefore, with respect to the “tasks” provided in the contract that the believer has with “Allah,”Mateen performed “these tasks exactly in the manner He [Allah] has prescribed.”

Therefore, 12 June 2016 Sunday morning’s slaughter in Orlando.

Notes and Works Cited

1. A Glossary of Islamic Terms, Aisha Bewley, Ta-Ha Publishers, LTD, 2009; ISBN - 13: 978 1 897940 78 5, First Publishing, Reprint, 2009. P. 223.
2.  Ma’ariful Qur’an, A Comprehensive commentary on the Holy Qur’an, By Maulana Mufti Muhammad Shafi; Volume 1, translated by, Prof. Muhammad Hasan Askari, Prof. Muhammad Shamim, Maktaba-e-Darul- ‘Uloom, Karachi, 14 Pakistan: Second Authorised [sic] Edition 2005. Vol. 1, P. 78. No ISBN provided in this Volume of Eight.
3. http://pamelageller.com/2016/06/breaking-doj-releases-unredacted-transcript-after-criticism.html/
4. Ma’ariful Qur’an, Ibid, P. 42.
5. Ibid, P.36.
6. Kalami, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, Dr. Mohammad Hasim Kamali, The Islamic Texts Society, UK, 2003, Reprinted 2006, 2008, 20011; ISBN: 978 0946621 82 8, paper, P. 81
7. Ma’ariful Qur’an, Ibid, Vol 5,  Translated by Muhammad Shamim, Forurth Authorised [sic] Edition, 2007;P 239.
8. Dawud, Sunan Abu Dawud, Compiled by: Imam Hafiz Abu Dawud Sulaiman ibn Ash ‘ath, Ahadith edited and referenced by: Hafiz Abu Tahir Zubair ‘Ali Za’i, Translated by: Nasiruddin al-Khattab (Canada), Final Review by: Abu Khaliyl (USA); First Edition,2008, Darussalam, Global Leader in Islamic Books, Riyadh, Jeddah, Al-Khobar, Sharjah, Lahore, London, Houston, New York); ISBN: 978-9960-500-11-9 (SET), 978-9960-500-16-4 (Vol. 5); The Book of the Sunnah, P. 160, # 4604.
9.  Ma’ariful Qur’an, Vol. 1, Ibid. P. 37.
10. Doi, Shariah: The Islamic Law, ‘Abdur Rahman I. Doi, Ta Ha Publishers LTD, London, UK, 1984/ 1404, Reprint 1997, ISBN 0 90746138 7 (Paperback); as cited in text, credited to being narrated by Ibn Masud. No ahadith source provided. P. 46.
11. Ibid, as cited in text. P. 47.
12. Ibid.
13. Ma’ariful Qur’an, Vol. 5, Ibid, P. 299, 300; 15:9.
14. Ibid, Surah Al-Nahl: 16: 43-44, P. 363.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid. P. 363.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid, P. 364.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid, P. 300.
22. Ibid, P 364.
23. Ma’ariful Qur’an, Ibid, Vol. 8, Translated by Maulana Ahmad Khalil Aziz, Forurth Authorised [sic] Edition, 2007, 53:1 -18, P.202.
24. Dawud, Ibid, 978-9960-500-16-4 (Vol. 5); Chapter 1, Book of Legal Punishments, (Hudud), Chapter 1. Ruling on One Who Apostatizes, P. 15, # 4351. 
25. Ibid, Chapter 28. One Who Does The Action of The People of Lut, P. 78, #4462.
26. Iyad, Muhammad Messenger of Allah, Ash-Shifa of Qadi ‘Iyad Ibn Musa al-Yasubi, Aisha Abdarrahman Bewley translation, Medinah Press, Cape Town, South Africa, Seventh print, 2008/ 1429H, ISBN 1 874216262, British Library Cataloguing,  As cited in text. P. 422; P. 423 (Muslim and al-Bukhari, from Abu Sa ‘id al-Khurdi).
27. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol.1, P. 37.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid, P. 299, 300;15: 9.
30. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 5, P. 298.
31. Ibid, P. 298, 299.
32. Ibid as cited in text.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.P. 299.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibn Kathir, TAFSIR IBN KATHIR [ABRIDGED], ABRIDGED BY A GROUP OF SCHOLARS UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF SHAYKH SAFIUR-RAHMAN AL-MUBARAKPURI, Second Edition, July, 2003, DARUSSALAM, , Global Leader in Islamic Books, Riyadh, Jeddah, Al-Khobar, Sharjah, Lahore, London, Houston, New York; ISBN 9960-892-71-9, (Set), Vol. 5 ISNB 9960-892-76-X, P. 382 (Qur’anic Text: parenthetical).
40. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid,Vol. 1, Forward.
41. Ibid, PP 45, 46.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid, as cited in text.
44. Ibid, as cited in text.
45. Ibid, as cited in text.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid. P. 49.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid, P. 54; http://pamelageller.com/2016/06/breaking-doj-releases-unredacted-transcript-after-criticism.html/, as ctied earlier. 
52. Al-Jalalayn, Tafsir Al-Jalalayn,  Jalalu’ D-Din Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Al-Mahalli and Jalalu’ D-Din as-Suyuti, Aisha Bewley’s Translation , Dar Al Taqwa Ltd. London, 2007; ISBN 1-870582-61-6 [Exegesis of text is that within brackets.])
53. Al-Qurtubi, TAFSIR AL-QURTUBI, Classical Commentary of the Holy Qur’an, Translated By AISHA BEWLEY, VOLUME I, DAR AL-TAQWA, 2003,ISBN 1-870582-22-5, PP.78 -79. 
54.  Ibid.
55. Ibid, P. 81.
    
56. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. V, P. 55.
57. Ibid, P. 60.
58. Ibid. P. 55 - 56.
59. Ibid, P. 56.
60. Ibid
61. Ibid. P. 70.
62. Ibid. P. 72.
63. Ibid.
64. http://www.abqjournal.com/791914/survivor-on-orlando-gunman-he-was-not-going-to-stop-killing-people-until-he-was-killed.html
65. Hanbal, Musnad Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal, Abu Abdullah Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Hanbal Ash-Shaibani, English Translation by Nasiruddin Al-Khattab, Edited by Huda Al-Khattab, Maktaba Dar-us-Salam,  2012. ISBN: 978-603-500-107-6 (set), 978-603-500-108-3 (vol. 1), Musnad Abu Bakr Siddeeq, # 53, P. 53.
66. Ibid, Musnad Ali Ibn Abi Talib, #1346, P. 607.
67. Ibid, #1086, P. 510.
68. An-Nasa' i, Sunan An-Nasa’i, English Translation, Compiled by: Iman Hafiz Abu Abdur Rahman Ahmad bin Shu‘aib bin ‘Ali An-Nasa’i, Ahadith edited and referenced by: Hafiz Abu’ Tahir Zubair ‘Ali Za’i, Translated by: Nasiruddin al-Khattab (Canada), Final review by: Abu Khaliyl (USA), Darussalam. Riyadh, Jeddah, Al-Khobar, Sharjah, Lahore, London, Houston, New York; ISBN: 978-9960-58-760-8 (set), 978-9960-58-765-3 (Vol. -5), The Book of Fighting, # 3976, P.18.
69. Ibid, #3992, P. 26.
70. Ibid, The Book of Oaths (Qasamah), #4739, P. 39.
71. Dawud, Ibid, (Vol. 5), The Book of Etiquette, #4918, P. 320.
72. http://www.abqjournal.com/791914/survivor-on-orlando-gunman-he-was-not-going-to-stop-killing-people-until-he-was-killed.html
73. Ibid.
74. CNN Transcript, Dr. Drew Pinsky, HLN, Dr. Drew Show, as cited in show by Pinsky, 15 June 2016.
75. An-Nasa'i, Ibid, (Vol. -5), The Book of Fighting, #4099, P. 78.
76. CNN Transcripts, Newsroom, 15 June 2006.
77. Dr. Drew Show, Ibid.
78. Ibid.
79. CNN Transcripts, CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, 14 June 2016.
80. Ibid.
81. A Glossary of Islamic Terms, Aisha Bewley, Ta-Ha Publishers, LTD, 2009; ISBN - 13: 978 1 897940 78 5, P. 206.
82. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 1, P. 399. 
83. Ibid.
84. Ibid, PP. 399- 400.     
85. Ibid, P. 345.
86. Ibid, P. 347.
87. Ibid.
88. Ibid.
89. An-Nasa'i, Ibid, Vol. 6,  978-9960-58-766-0 (Vol. -6), The Book of Faith and Its Branches, #5012, P. 31.
90. Ibid, F.N.
91. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 2, Translated by Muhammad Shamim, Forurth Authorised [sic] Edition, 2007, P. 143.
92. Ibid, P. 142.
93. At-Tirmidhi, Jami At-Tirmidhi, Compiled by: Imam Hafiz Abu ‘Eisa Mohammad Ibn ‘Eisa At-
    Tirmidhi, Translated by: Abu Khaliyl (USA), Ahadith edited and referenced by” Hafiz Abu Tahir Zubair ‘Ali Za’i, Final Review by: Islamic Research Section, First Edition, 2007, Darussalam, Global Leader in Islamic Books, Riyadh, Jeddah, Al-Khobar, Sharjah, Lahore, London, Houston, New York. ISBN: 978-9960-9967-38 (set), 978-9960-9967-7-6 (Vol. -4), Chapters of Al-Fitan, P. 229, #2169.
94. Ibid.
95. Dawud, Ibid, Vol. 5, The Book of Sunnah, P. 162, #4607.
96. Ibid, F.N.
97. Iyad, Ash-Shifa, P. 215.
98. Ibid.
99. Ibid.
100. Dawud, Ibid. narrated from ‘Ubaidullah bin Abi Rafi’, from his father. # 4605, P. 161.
101. Muslim, Sahih Muslim, By Imam Muslim, Rendered in English by ‘Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, Islamic Book Service, First Edition: 2001, Fourth Edition: 2005, ISBN: 81-7231-450-7 (Set), Vol. III, Book of Ermitage [sic],  #1852, 1852R1, 1852R2, respectively, P. 278.)
102. An-Nasa'i, Ibid, (Vol. 5), Book of Fighting, #4042, P. 52.
103. Ibid, #4048, P. 54.
104. Ibid, #4740, P. 393.
105. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 8. P. 248.
106. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 3, Translated by Muhammad Shamim, Forurth Authorised [sic] Edition, 2007; P. 640.
107. Ibid.
108. Ibid, P 641.
109. Ibid, P 639.
110. Ibid.
111. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 8, P. 803.
112. Ibid.
113. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, V. 3. P. 628 (Surah Al-Araf: 7: 72).
114. Ibid.
115. Ibid, as cited in M. Q. V, 3, P. 645.
116. Ibn Majah, Sunan Ibn Majah, English Translation, Compiled by: Imam Muhammad Bin Yazeed Ibn Majah Al-Qazwini, Ahadith edited & referenced by: Hafiz Abu Tahir Zubair ‘Ali Za’I, Translated by: Nasiruddin al-Khattab [Canada], Final review by: Abu Khaliyl [USA], First Edition June 2007, DARUSSALAM, Global Leader in Islamic Books, Riyadh, Jeddah, Al-Khobar, Sharjah, Lahore, London, Houston, New York; ISBN: 9960-9881-3-9 (set), 9960-9919-6-2 (vol. 3); The Chapters of Legal Punishments, #2561, 2562, respectively, P. 469.
117. Ibid.
118. At-Tirmidhi, Ibid, ISBN: 9960-9967-6-9 Vol. 3), The Chapters of Legal Punishment, #1456, P. 241.
119. Ibid, F.N. P. 242.
120. Ibid, P. 243.
121. Dawud, Ibid, Vol. 5, The Book of Legal Punishments, #4462, P. 78.
122. Ibid, #4463, P. 79.
123. Ibid, F.N. P. 79.
124. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 2, PP. 357, 358 respectively.
125. Ibid, PP 359 - 360.
126. Ibid, P. 361.
127. Ibid, P. 162.
128. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 3, p. 645, as cited earlier.
     
129. Ibn Kathir, Ibid, (Vol. 5), P. 93, Surah Hud 11: 83.
130. Ibid, P. 94.
131. Ibid, P. 95.
132. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 4, Translated by Muhammad Shamim, Muhammad Wali Raazi, Surah Hud 11: 83, P. 662.
133. Ibid, PP 662 - 663.
134. Al-Waqidi, The Life of Muhammad, Al-Waqidi’s Kitab al-Maghazi, Translated by Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail, and AbdulKader Tayob, Routledge; New York, NY, 1^st Publication, 2011; ISBN: 978-0-415-57434-1 (hbk), ISBN: 978-0-203-84458-8 (ebk); Chapter of The Raid of the Banu Nad ir, P. 180.
135. Ibid, as cited in text, and elsewhere.
136. Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah, Translated by A. Guillaume, Oxford University Press, Karachi, Pakistan, 1955/1967/2006; ISBN 0 19 636033 1, P. 437.
137. Muslim, Ibid, (Vol. III), The Book of Holy Struggle, Chapter on Permissibility of Cutting Down the Tree and Burning Them, # 1746, P. 186.
138. Ibn Kathir, Ibid, (Vol. 5), P. 93, Surah Hud 11: 83.
139. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 6, Translated by Muhammad Ishrat Husain, Third Authorised [sic] Edition 2007, P 409; Vol. 7, Translated by Muhammad Shamim, Third Authorised [sic] Edition 2007, P. 224, 225 in that order.
140. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 2, P. 458, as cited in text.
141. Ibid.
142. Ibid, PP. 458 - 459.
143. Ibid, P. 457.
144. Ibid, P. 459.
145. Ibid.
146. Ibid.
147. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 8, P. 248.
148. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 3, P. 640, as cited earlier (106).
149. CNN transcript: interview per Sanjay Gupta, 15 June 2016.
     
150. Ibid.
151. Ibid, per Gary Tuchman reporting and interview.
152. “Aikah means a dense forest ….there was a dense forest near Madyan.” Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 5, P. 324 (15: 78).
153. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid (Vol. 3), P. 650, on Surah 7:91.
154. CNN Transcripts, per Don Lemon interview, 14 June 2016.
     
155. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 4, P. 176.
156. Ibid, P. 177.
157. Ibid.
158. Ibid, P. 182.
159. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 2, P. 182.
160. Waqidi, al-Maghazi, P. 40.
161. Ibid.
162. Ibid.
163. Ibid, P. 42.
164. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, Ibid, Vol. 4, ISBN 9960-892-75-1 (Vol. 4), P. 266, commenting on Surah 8:12.
165. Ibid, P. 274.
166. Ibid.
167. Ibid.
168. Ibid, P. 275.
169. Ibid, P. 279.
170. https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/07/robert-spencer-in-the-detroit-news-another-casualty-in-the-war-against-jihadism
171. Bewley, Glossary.
172. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 4, P. 322.
173. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, Ibid, (Vol.4), PP. 268 - 269.
174. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol. 4, P. 237, tafsir on, “…remember Allah much, so that you may be successful.” (8: 45).
175. Erin Burnett, OutFront, CNN. 14 July 2014; 1825.
176. http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/16/europe/france-attack-on-nice-isis/.
177. Ibid.
178. Ibid.
179. Ibid.
180. Ibid.
181. Ibid.
182. Al-Bakhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari, Translated by: Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Darussalam, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 1997, ISBN: 9960-717-31-3 (SET), 9960-717-31-1 (v.1), The Book of Salat (The Prayer), P. 289, # 456.
183. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol.1, PP 172 - 173.
184. Doi, P. 2.
185. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol.1, P. 79.
186. Kamali, P. 58.
187. Iyad, Ash-Shifa, P. 86.
188. Doi, P. 7.
189. https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/07/virginia-muslim-tried-to-join-islamic-state-prayed-allah-give-strength-to-mujahideen-to-slaughter-every-us-military-officer/comment-page-1#comment-1475599; https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/virginia-man-charged-attempting-provide-material-support-isil
190. Mar'ariful Qur'an, Ibid, Vol.3, P. 628, comments on Surah Al-Araf: 7: 72.
191. Ibid.
192. Ibid, Vol. 1, P. 217.
193. Al-Bakhari, Vol. 9, The Book of Ad-Diyat [Blood-money], #6896, P. 29.
194. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, Ibid (Vol. 4), commenting on Surah At-Tawbah 9: 73, P.P. 474 - 475.