Extremism like ISIS has had many forms in history. The original incarnation began at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) when a man named Dhu Al-Khuwaysirah accused the Messenger of God of being unjust directly in His presence! This is the tradition of these people who feign religiosity whilst going against everything our religion teaches. They claim they know more than the one God sent to teach us!
The hadith in Bukhari and Muslim (the two most authentic sources after the quran) goes on to describe the prophet’s words about this man: that from his offspring will emerge a people whom we will belittle our prayer and fasting in comparison to theirs, yet they leave Islam like an arrow leaves a bow.
What we see in ISIS is the incarnation of this prophecy. These are the people who feign religiosity, yet hold nothing but it’s shell (if that!). They have deluded themselves and others to thinking they are right, yet they deny the teachings of the very person brought to guide us to it.
Just like Dhu Al-Khuwaysirah before them, they felt they held the truth over the Messenger of God, and have the same audacity to deny his prophets rulings whilst claiming to follow his path. They have convinced themselves they are right by rejecting the very man we must follow to be Muslim.
Dhu Al-Khuwaysirah left that gathering and went on to form the khawarij sect, a group of people who denounced the noble companions of the prophet as disbelieve and killed 1000s of them. ISIS today are following their footsteps step by step.
May Allah protect us all from their evil, allow the true Islam to manefest: the one I and billions of others fell in love with for the beauty, truth and peace it has brought to our lives.
Ameen
The book is Imam Shahrastani’s Milal Wal-Nihal. The two hadiths in bold are the ones refered to in this piece
On the Path of Knowledge 