The following story is based on real-life events and was told to me by several people directly related to the events in question, including those living in and around Peshawar in 1997.
Although I have fictionalised the conversations and some minor details for ease of reading, the basic facts of the story are true as I have verified from multiple sources. This story is longer than my usual blog posts but it is a very important post. Please let me have your comments…
Peshawar, North West Pakistan, 1997
It was late in the evening and the wedding party was in full swing. Earlier in the day Asma’s sister had taken her to one of Peshawar’s beauty salons to be made up and have henna decorated on her hands. She was wearing a red wedding dress lined with golden brocade.
Although of modest means, her family had travelled to Peshawar from Lahore for the wedding. Still only 23, it had been two years since Asma completed her six year “Alimah” (female Muslim scholar) course at the Darul Uloom seminary in Lahore.
Since then, she had been teaching Islamic studies to girls at a local school.
It was September 1997. The dusty north western frontier Pakistani city of Peshawar was bustling with foreigners: mainly Afghan refugees who had settled in the city, but also a few Arabs.
It had been eight years since the Soviet Union withdrew its troops in February 1989 after suffering heavy losses at the hands of the Mujahideen freedom fighters.
Three years later in April 1992, the Mujahideen went on to capture Kabul and overthrew the Communist regime of Soviet-puppet Najibullah.
This triggered the start of the Afghan Civil War. Afghan warlords began to fight amongst each other over who would be incharge of the newly “liberated” Afghanistan.
Thousands of civilians were killed as rival warlords lobbed artillery shells into Kabul as one might throw rotten apples into a garbage heap.
These particular warlords, despite calling themselves “Mujahideen”, so-called “soldiers of God” had no regard for killing the innocent servants of God. In doing so, they dishonoured the legacy of the real Mujahideen.
It was in the midst of this civil war that a group of religious students known as the Taliban and led by a man named Mulla Muhammad Umar appeared.
Within two years they swept through Afghanistan, restoring some semblance of security and stability for the ordinary Afghans fed up with the civil war.
In exchange for security, ordinary Afghans tolerated the Taliban banning everything from girls’ schools to kite-flying, hoping that with time they would relax these policies.
In September 1996, one year before Asma’s wedding, the Taliban conquered Kabul and declared the new name of the country to be the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
It was while she was a teenager during the late 1980s that Asma first heard of the Afghan Jihad. Throughout the 1980s, Afghan Mujahideen freedom fighters had been fighting to expel invading Soviet troops from their land.
They were supported by the United States, Britain, Europe, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia along with most of the world.
They were also supported by thousands of Arab Mujahideen: foreign volunteers from the Muslim world who had arrived in Afghanistan to help their Muslim brethren liberate a Muslim land occupied by a non-Muslim invader.
From time to time, Asma would hear of these legendary Arab Mujahideen with their long black beards and flowing locks of hair facing Russian tanks armed only with rifles.
She would read about their heroic feats in the Urdu language newspapers supporting the Afghan Jihad.
Asma admired these Arab Mujahideen, in fact, she idolised them. To her, they were heroes; modern-day equivalents of the Sahabah, Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) whom she had studied about in the books of Islamic history.
She would pray day and night that she married one of these heroes.
So when news reached Asma one day that an Arab Mujahid from Peshawar had arrived in Lahore looking for a Pakistani girl to get married to, she could not believe her ears.
She jumped at the opportunity. “This must be God’s answer to my prayers,” she thought and a meeting was arranged at Asma’s house.
Abu Adil was an Algerian in his early 20s. A fair-skinned man with a wispy beard, he clearly looked different to Pakistani men, almost exotic. Asma was mesmerised by him as he spoke.
He told Asma that he had been fighting in the Afghan Jihad for several years, first against the Soviets and then against the Communists. He wanted to live and die for Islam and participate in Jihad for as long as he lived.
Asma was too awe-struck to ask him any questions of her own. She didn’t ask him why, after the end of the Afghan Jihad in 1992, he had not followed his fellow Arab warriors to the lands of Jihad in Bosnia or Chechnya or Tajikistan.
She didn’t ask him why he was living in Pakistan when the Taliban had announced an Islamic Emirate next door.
She didn’t even ask him for any character references, to verify his background and history. To find out about his character.
“Why bother with these silly questions?” Asma later thought to herself after she had agreed to marry him, after that single meeting.
“He is a Mujahid, an Arab, he must be of exemplary character. He must be brave, fearless, romantic, protective, noble, hospitable, generous… just like the Sahabah [Companions of the Prophet Muhammad ss] were,” Asma thought to herself.
Unsurprisingly, Asma’s response to Abu Adil’s proposal was a resounding yes.
The wedding party finished and Asma was picked up by the groom. “I live in Pabi,” Abu Adil told her as his car left Peshawar for the 30 minute drive to Pabi. Asma did wonder why Abu Adil did not live in Peshawar as he first claimed, but she dismissed it.
Who cared where her Mujahid husband lived? He was a hero and that was all that mattered.
The next day Abu Adil’s friends came round to visit the new bride with their families. Asma was shocked by what happened next. The women took off their hijab headscarves and sat in the company of all the men.
As a scholar herself Asma knew that devout Muslim women did not take off their hijabs infront of men outside their immediate family. Something didn’t seem right, but she dismissed it as whisperings of the devil.
Over the next couple of days Asma realised more strange things. Abu Adil’s friends would come round to his house, with their wives, and they would sit and chat and laugh all day long.
But when time came for prayer, they were not in the least enthusiastic about it, including Abu Adil. They did pray, but only when the time for prayer was almost finished.
Asma did not need a scholar to tell her that praying the five times salah prayer on time was the most important thing that a Muslim needed to do.
There were about six or seven families living close to Asma’s new house in Pabi. Two of them were in the same building as her. These were all Abu Adil’s friends.
Among them was a Sudanese man whom all the others called, “Sheikh.” His name was Abu Ayub Al-Barqawi.
At her husband’s insistence, she served the guests but Asma was starting to feel very uncomfortable. The behaviour of the men, their character, their manners and personal hygiene were more like slumdogs rather than noble warriors or clerics.
OK, putting feet up on dining tables to cut toenails infront of guests was not haram (forbidden) in Islam, but it was definitely disgusting manners. This was not the way Asma had been brought up and she found some of the behaviour of the men very odd.
Nevertheless, Asma put on a brave face whenever her family called. Perhaps her expectations were too high and it would take time for her to adjust?
The first slap came before the week was over. Asma had put too much chilli in the food, the way she was taught by her mother.
Abu Adil had not liked it, so he spat it out and slapped Asma across the face as he swore at her, “Anti aahirah ya kalbah!”
Asma understood enough Arabic to know that Abu Adil had just called her a “whore” and a “b***h”.
Asma left the kitchen in tears and went straight to her bedroom. She put her face in her pillow and cried. She was homesick and missed her family.
A short while later Abu Adil entered the bedroom and apologised to Asma for hitting her too hard. “I’m sorry I hit you so hard but the Quran says that I can beat you,” he said to her.
“Did the Prophet (ss) ever raise his hand at a woman?!” Asma cried out in response. “Tell me! Did he? Tell me!”
Abu Adil was silent, then he said. “Let’s try again, maybe we got off to a bad start?”
Asma felt better in the morning but she was still a little upset. She began to feel guilty. Maybe she was in the wrong by putting too much chilli in the food? Maybe she deserved the slap?
As the days went by Asma noticed that although none of the men worked, they always seemed to have money. The women wore the best jewellery and clothes, the men drove good cars and had good watches.
She wondered where all this money was coming from.
“Fai,” she heard one of the men say one day as he grinned and pointed to a new watch that he was wearing. All the other men laughed. Asma knew that “fai” was a type of war booty that fighters acquired from the enemy without fighting.
Asma began to wonder whether the watch was stolen so she asked Abu Adil about it. “Since we are Mujahideen Sheikh Abu Ayub says that we are allowed to take anything we want to support ourselves.”
But who was the “enemy” and where was the “fighting”? The families were living in a small town about 15 miles from Peshawar. All the people in Pabi, Peshawar and surrounding areas were Muslims. There was no war or Jihad in Pabi.
“But that’s stealing!” Asma said to Abu Adil. “And what’s worse is that your friends are stealing from Muslims.”
“They are not Muslims,” Abu Adil replied. “They are apostates, because they haven’t pledged allegiance to the Caliph.”
“Caliph?!” Asma exclaimed. Asma had heard of Mulla Umar, the leader of the Taliban movement who had just taken power across the border in Afghanistan, but even he had not declared himself to be a caliph. “So who is this ‘Caliph’ and where is he?”
Asma didn’t know that just like the ‘former Islamist’ industry today, the ‘caliphate’ industry was ripe in Afghanistan/Pakistan during the 1990s. ‘Caliphs’ were popping up everywhere.
First there was Jamil-ur-Rahman, who was the head of a ‘caliphate’ in Nuristan province of Afghanistan in 1991. His caliphate was short lived, and he was killed a few months later after fleeing for his life to Pakistan.
Then there was the controversy surrounding Mulla Muhammad Umar, leader of the Taliban movement that took control of Afghanistan in 1996. However, while Mulla Umar himself never declared that he was a caliph, others raised him to that pedestal. And then…
“The Caliph’s name is Abu Isa Muhammad Eid Ar-Rifaei, also known as Abu Hammam Al-Khalifah. He is a Jordanian man descended from the Quraysh tribe of the Prophet (ss).”
“He was living here with us in Pabi but for the last few years he has been living in Britain because he suffered health problems here.”
Asma wondered whether Abu Adil was out of his mind. But then she remembered that neither Abu Adil, nor his friends, ever attended prayers at any of the local mosques. Maybe they really don’t consider all these people Muslims, she wondered.
“You mean the ‘Caliph’ is living in Britain?” Asma asked Abu Adil. “You are joking, right?”
Abu Adil was silent. He did’t tell Asma that the Abu Isa ‘The Caliph’ was living on income support (Government social security welfare) in the city of Slough, a few miles west of London.
The second beating came a few days after this conversation. This time Asma had mistakenly burned one of Abu Adil’s kameez shirts while she was ironing it.
Abu Adil had picked up a sandal and, while swearing at her with the most vulgar language, beat Asma with it so severely that her nose began to bleed.
He would have continued had she not managed to run away and lock herself in the bathroom.
A short while later, the same thing happened. Abu Adil apologised and promised he would never hit Asma again. She found it quite strange.
Why apologise and promise never to hit me again if you believe that you are obliged to beat me according to the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet (ss), Asma wondered to herself.
The cycle of beatings and apologies continued for the next few weeks. Asma began to realise that this was how it was going to be. The final straw came one night after Abu Adil dragged Asma by her hair and threw her down the stairs.
Asma had to run away. She was in fear for her life.
The next morning, as Abu Adil slept, Asma managed to slip out of the house and get a rickshaw to the bus station. There she mingled among some local women and then got on a bus to Peshawar.
Asma remembered that she knew someone in Peshawar. Fatima, one of Asma’s classmates was living in Peshawar, having moved there after she got married. Somehow, Asma managed to reach Fatima’s house and explained to her what had happened.
She knew that Abu Adil would be hunting her as soon as he found out what had happened. Her life was in danger.
“Go to the house of Asadullah As-Sindhi,” Fatima told him. “He is the most well-connected Mujahid in Peshawar. You will be OK with him.” Asadullah was certainly well-known not just in Peshawar, but in Jihad circles across Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Unlike most of the “armchair Mujahideen” living in Pakistan, Asadullah was a real warrior, Fatima told Asma. He had actually fought in Jihad, on a battlefield.
Asadullah had spent many years fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan and was one of the 50 fighters that took part in the famous 1987 “Lion’s Den” operation in Jaji, successfully defending the base of the foreign Mujahideen fighters from a Soviet attack.
Asma somehow made it to Asadullah’s house; his wife was at home. In tears, Asma explained to Asadullah and his wife everything that had happened.
“I think you have got caught up in the ‘Caliphate’ cult,” Asadullah told Asma.
“Most of them arrived in the region long after the Jihad in Afghanistan ended,” he carried on. “None of them have any significant history or legacy in the Jihad. They consider every Muslim who is not with them to be an apostate.”
“There are only a handful of them,” he continued. “All the Mujahideen of the area hounded them out of Peshawar so they went to live in Pabi.”
“They kill anyone who leaves them but here you will be safe with us inshallah [God willing].”
Somewhat reassured, Asma ate and fell asleep in the spare room. At 1 o’clock in the morning there was a loud knocking on the gate to the house compound. Asma peered out of a corner of the curtain.
Asadullah went to the gate and opened it. Standing there was Abu Adil. He began shouting angrily at Asadullah. Asma was terrified.
Asadullah meanwhile tried to calm Abu Adil down and reason with him.
And then Asma saw what was in Abu Adil’s hands. She glimpsed the steel of a handgun before she saw the muzzle flashes of the multiple gunshots. Asadullah fell to the floor and remained there motionless.
“Now it’s your turn you whore!” Abu Adil shouted as he began to make his way to the house. Asma froze in fear and recited her shahadah Islamic declaration of faith.
That was the last thing she did. Abu Adil entered the room where Asma was. There were gunshots, Asma never left that room alive.
Within the space of a few seconds, two people who had rendered great service to Islam and Muslims lay dead. One was Asadullah As-Sindhi, a warrior and veteran of the anti-Soviet Afghan Jihad. Another was Asma.
Both were killed not by a foreign enemy or non-Muslim invader; they were murdered by a fellow Muslim who had become blinded by the cult that he was part of.
Epilogue: Abu Isa ‘The Caliph’ was arrested by UK authorities in 2006 on an immigration violation and imprisoned briefly in HMP Belmarsh. I saw him in the Belmarsh visiting hall in December 2006 while his family came to visit him. He was in a wheelchair and in poor health. He was soon given bail and released. He died in March 2014, while I was in an American Supermax prison.
As for Abu Ayub Al-Barqawi (the ‘cleric’ of the Abu Isa Caliphate group), following the murder of Asadullah As-Sindhi in 1997, he fled for his life from Pakistan after learning that associates of Asadullah were hunting him. He is believed to have been killed a few years later in a foreign country.
Finally, Abu Adil was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and detained in Guantanamo Bay for seven years. He was released to Algeria in 2010 after it was revealed that he had been working for the intelligence services of two Western nations. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Enter your email address in the form below to receive a notification every time I update my blog.
Read the story of why I was in prison in the interview I gave to The Guardian newspaper here.
Eye opener on how one can get confused and start trusting ppl..jazakallah for this
LikeLiked by 3 people
Or in other words, always check backgrounds and references when it comes to marriage, money and other trust requiring matters.
LikeLiked by 2 people
May Allah reward you for this story, many lessons can be taken from it. May Allah grant the righteous Jannah. Something as serious as marriage both parties should always be verified and referenced by others.
Shockingly I have heard of Abu Esa before and many in the UK thought he was a caliph. My argument was that like the sisters, why would he be in the UK. Allah always exposes the liars.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Very true, we need to learn from the past in order to understand the present and to prepare for the future. Things happening today have happened before.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jzakallahukhair for sharing this. We can learn a huge amount from this short account. Please keep sharing your experiences.
Wslm
Yaseen
LikeLiked by 2 people
Flashback! My best friend gave bayah to this so called caliph , but then left them and she never discussed why. I met with his family and his followers in Slough, they were nice people but I felt something was very wrong. I always wondered what happened to him.
I can relate to Asma actually I would have been in awe of her proposal as well!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sometimes people are so desperate to believe something that they believe anything. There are many lessons for us all in this story. Always trust your inner vibes and instincts about people, places and things because more often than not they turn out to be true.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder how many similarities there are between the ‘Caliphate cult’ and ‘ISIS’ of today..
LikeLiked by 1 person
My husband knows someone who used to attend halaqah with him,he also used to meet him in masjid praying 5 times a day in congregation.
When issue of ISIS began to rise, almost all masjid in Indonesia put large banner in their exterior wall, declaring that they don’t support extremism such as ISIS. My husband never seen that man again until two weeks ago when we had dinner in a restaurant, the man was there and explained to us why he stopped visiting masjid. It was because he cannot tolerate anyone whose not willing to give baiat to ISIS. So for that reason alone he stopped attending Islamic circle, he stopped praying in congregation, he stopped communicate with his Muslim brothers and all the good deeds that I can’t mention one by one.
May Allah give him and all of us guidance.
LikeLiked by 2 people
May Allah guide all those who have allowed themselves to be blindly consumed by cults, wherever they are.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brilliant piece again akhi.,…may Allah reward you for opening peoples eyes and ears to some of the current similar fitna out there….ameen
LikeLiked by 2 people
what a story. For someone not from the same region, background or religion, many things to learn and understand. And these are the reasons I say not to paint everyone with the same brush. Many outsiders may think that domestic violence is probably tolerated by most Muslims, women don’t have any rights etc. It may be true in some families (so in some western families or for that matter most cultures) but it is not the preaching of the religion itself. Unfortunately there was a Muslim preacher who came to Australia who was preaching hitting your wife a little bit for discipline was okay. That didn’t go down too well in the media nor with the rest of the Aussies. but as always well written and insightful story.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) never raised his hand at a woman. This should be the standard for all Muslim men, including clerics and preachers.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I think it is individuals interpretation for their own benefit, authority and arrogance that brings upon discredit to most religions. Articles like yours are powerful and useful to eradicate that.
LikeLiked by 3 people
😢 jazakAllah hu khair for sharing.
Investigate plenty before getting married!!!
Why on earth people don’t ask significant questions to a potential spouse, is beyond my realm of understanding.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sometimes people don’t ask too many questions because they are afraid of the answers but better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person
May Allah ta Ala elevate ur status in this world and in the aakhirah brother and reward u for ur sabr and istiqaamah during those oppressed years where u were illegally detained .Allah ta Ala shower His special rahmah on u and ur family and always keep u with Aafiyah…Aameen!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Reblogged this on safdarj and commented:
This story is absolutely must-read one. May Allah Azza wa Jal bless our brother, Babar Ahmad.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Brother Babar, jazakallahu khairan katheera. It is such an eye-opener. It is a lesson which every muslims needs to learn that “Not everything that looks wonderful is to be belived without research”. I will hopefully never forget this legendary story and will surely use it as a best example for how we need to conduct ourselves in this world. Assadullah As-Sindhi was our beloved brother and Asma, The best of sisters we have. May Allah Azza wa Jal grant both of them, brother Assadullah As-Sindhi and Sister Asma, the highest ranks in Jannah. Aameen ( In tears)
LikeLiked by 2 people
An eye opener story. There are evil people at all times in all circles among good people. May Allah protect us all from evil. Ameen
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes but I believe there are more good people in the world than bad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think the motto of this story is not to fake anything at face value .Lilian
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow! Subhanallah! Amazing story…those names ive heard in the news or read somewhere, like then and now still alhamdulillah, never believed they were muslims…anyone kills innocent people can never be muslim! I feel sorry for Asma, poor thing got caught amiss all of it, it shows scholar is not save either!!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
abu isa died like a year ago, i used to know some ppl who were very close to him but they all left, abu isa crew even made takfeer on them.
anyway babar ahamd, i love you for sake of Allah. i would love to meet you one day.
LikeLiked by 2 people
sory i think few years ago
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for your comment, Abu Isa died in March 2014. I would also like to meet you one day. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The parallels of this story resonate strongly with the wahabbi cult of so called “isis” which we are sadly witnessing today pray that we as humans can coexist peacefully irrrspective of religion or ethnicity and wish no harm on any person and take a moment to evaluate all available facts and do not be afraid to question the integrity of facts being presented.
LikeLike
Thank you for your comment. I agree with it but I do not think that Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab preached many of the things attributed to him today. The more important point is as you said: don’t take things at face value because things are not usually what they seem.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Firstly the humour of “police danda” although not meant as a malign thought i think it was in bad taste.For i tell people a whole life tariff in a uk prison is like freedom in comparison to the prospect of decades in a high security federal prison in the US on the basis of “exported prosecutions” which if dealt with in uk courts would result in nothing more than a few years.So to say this humour to a man who for years kept his integrity intact without the support in my opinion of the muslim majority in this country is not right.
Secondly in terms of Salafi bashing , brother this is not the case if anything the most committed Muslims who in my opinion showed the most immense love for their religion is the Salafis yet their absolute commitment results in their manipulation and their hatred for everyone and everything and so many weak minded brothers and sisters are doing zillions of years in prisons around the globe and the less fortunate are dead and have caused misery to many others and what they dont even realise is they are mere pawns.So a good honest debate is required about this instead too often any form of debate is treated by certain groups as if islam itself is being scritinised.
Sorry if i have offended anyone but i believe this story of the marriage reaonates very strongly with events today and misguided youth and so called isis.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your kind words. I agree with you in that we need to have a honest debate about important issues that affect us all, even if it might be uncomfortable to do so. We should have the confidence to be self-critical and not just blame our woes on others. I just wanted to make a correction that I am glad to say that while I was in prison I did have the support of the majority of Muslims in this country from all different religious schools of thoughts and persuasions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those cops give u one too many danday I think bro, what’s all this salafi bashing, seems flavour of the month at the moment and now looks like u jumped on band wagon too hey. Hope we not gonna see u put ur green imama on and start disco dancing next. That’d be one step too far. Like u said we gotta have a sense of humour lol!
LikeLike
That’s a harsh comment. There’s a fine line between sense of humour and immaturity.
LikeLiked by 1 person