[ by Charles Cameron — we’ve ignored the apocalyptic aspect of Khorasan for years, now we’re admitting it, but still overlooking the second prong ]
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Introducing the first English language issue of Ihya-e-Khilafat — which is in effect a new magazine, since it has a new intended readership — Tufail Ahmad, director of MEMRI’s South Asia Studies Project, writes:
A Pakistani Taliban organization that was recently expelled from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP or the Movement of Pakistani Taliban) has released a new English-language magazine that aims at recruiting Muslim youths from the West, praises the 9/11 hijackers, and indicates that some British youths have recently joined the group in the Pakistani tribal region.
The magazine, Ihya-e-Khilafat (Revival of the Islamic Caliphate), has been published in the past in Urdu language, but this is the first time it has been published in English. Its Issue No. 1 is dated October 2014. In an editorial, the magazine states one of its objectives: “[T]here was a need to address English-speaking population of the world. To address that need, we decided to start Ihya-e-Khilafat in English as well and Alhamdolillah [Praise be to Allah] the first English magazine is in your hands. Kuffar [infidels] famously say that the first casualty of the war is truth but we shall try to bring you the news and articles based upon truth even though we are fighting a war.”
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Ahmad mentions a British contributor, “identified as Abu Okasha Al-Britani” — but not the Ghazwa e-Hind, which is in fact one of the core ideas in al-Britani‘s piece, Why? I chose to join Jihad-e-Pakistan, pp 37-40:
Upon further studies I also came across numerous hadiths about the Jihad that will happen in Hind or as it has been mentioned in hadiths by the name of “Ghazvatul Hind”.
It is narrated that by Rasulullah Sallalahu Alaihi Wasallam that “Two groups amongst My Ummah would be such, to whom Allah has freed from the (Hell) fire; One group would attack Hind & the Second would be that who would accompany Isa Ibn-e-Maryam.”
And in another narration Abu Hurairah said, “The Messenger of Allah, promised the invasion of India. If I become martyred, I will be from the best of the martyred; and if I return, I am Abu Hurairah, the saved.” (Ahmad)
From the above two hadiths, we can see the virtues of participating in the Jihad of Hind or Ghazvatul Hind. One of the virtues is that if you are martyred in the Jihad of Hind, than you will be among the best of martyrs but if you return and are granted victory, then Allah has freed this Mujahid from the fire of Hell. Some people may think that Hind refers to India but that is not correct because Hind at the time of Rasulullah referred to a very large area in which today includes Pakistan, Kashmir, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Burma. All these countries are a part of Hind so without doubt the Jihad in Pakistan is the launch of Ghazvatul Hind. Abu Hurairah also narrates that if he is alive and Ghazvatul Hind or the Jihad in Hind starts, he would participate in it with his wealth and life. If he is martyred than he would be among the best of martyrs and if he is a Ghazi and returns then he will be Abu Hurairah who Allah has freed from the hell fire.
I also invite Muslimeen make Hijrah here, aid the Mujahideen in Khorasaan and work for an Islamic state in Pakistan. The blood of the shuhada is calling you and the screaming and oppressed pure sisters are calling for the helpers to help them. Will you answer? Our Jihad will not stop till Pakistan is conquered but we will keep fighting till entire Hind is under the Shari’ah of Allah. We shall keep going and conquering every country in our path bi’ith nillah till we reach Filisteen and there we shall erect the black flags in Al-Quds. Insh’Allah.
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IMO, this new magazine should be read side-by-side with the AQIS magazine Resurgence, which also mentions the Ghazwa, see The new AQ magazine: Ghazwa e-Hind & more. Thomas Joscelyn at LWJ also wrote up Resurgence recently, noting:
“Resurgence” returns to the Indian Subcontinent as its point of reference.
“This wave of Jihad that originated in Afghanistan and has spread to Iraq, the Levant and North Africa is also the ultimate hope of the Muslims of the Subcontinent,” Yusuf writes. “It was Jihad that brought Islam to the Indian Subcontinent, and it will be Jihad again that will overturn the legacy of imperialism from Pakistan to Bangladesh and beyond.”
Various pieces from other authors are dedicated to waging jihad in the Indian Subcontinent.
Like Ahmad at MEMRi, Joscelyn makes no direct reference to the Ghazwa — but it is there by name in the magazine.
It is surely worth remembering that the “Khorasan” tradition is of two victorious armies pursuing independent but related paths in the end-times — “the group that will invade Al Hind (the Subcontinent) and the group that will be with Eesa (A.S), the son of Mariam” — the latter being the one we hear more about in the west, the one which will capture Jerusalem.
Note that according to al-Zawahiri, the Ghazwa e-Hind encompasses a greater area than “India” alone — or “the subcontinent”. As I quoted Bill Roggio writing in Al Qaeda opens branch in the ‘Indian Subcontinent:
Zawahiri says the group will defend the “vulnerable in the Indian subcontinent, in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujurat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir …”
