Narrated ibn ‘Umar as recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari:

The Prophet said, „O Allah! Bestow Your Blessings on our Syria! O Allah! Bestow Your Blessings on our Yemen.”
The people cried, “And also on our Najd.”
The Prophet repeated, „O Allah! Bestow Your Blessings on our Syria! O Allah! Bestow Your Blessings on our Yemen.”
The people cried again, “O Allah’s Apostle! And also on our Najd.”
Then, the Prophet said, „There is the place of earthquakes and afflictions; from there comes out the Horn of Satan.”

Brother Ismael, a former convert to Islam, was a Muslim for 16 years but in the past few years has been bothered by some serious reoccurring issues that have repeatedly forced him to question his Islamic faith, and recently he decided to finally leave Islam.

In the following two videos, brother Ismael — who has studied Islam extensively, learned Arabic, and lived for years in the Muslim world — explains what the ‚Horn of Satan’ is the above-mentioned Hadith warns about and why he believes that it refers to Wahabism and Salafism and to religious, political and terrorist groups which accept their teachings. He gives a historic overview how Wahabism and Salafism developed and why the most learned and respected orthodox Islamic scholars condemned them from the beginning.

You will understand ISIL, as well as groups like al-Quaeda significiantly better after having watched this video, and why Wahabism and Salafism have become significant forces in the world, after The House of Saud (Arabic: آل سعود‎‎ Āl Saʻūd) became the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. The family has thousands of members, owns some of the world’s largest oil resources, hedge funds, hotel chains, companies, and industries, and spends billions of dollars every year promoting its fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, which is shared by only a small faction of Muslims all over the world.

But due their extreme wealth, their sponsoring of Qu’ran schools, charities and Islamic education institutions all over the world, and, above all, due to their control of the most holy Islamic sites, the Kaaba in Mecca and the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi („Mosque of the Prophet”) in Medina, it is questionable whether their influence will be on the decline anytime soon.

Image courtesy of The Scarlet Pensieve ◻︎