A Meeting With Shaykh Abu Umar al-Baghdadi - Meeting The Two Martyr Heroes

07 February 2011

By Shafiq Mujahid

One day, I was watching a program about the two Martyr heroes, Abu Umar al-Baghdadi and Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, may Allah accept them. The program discussed their biographies and showed a picture of Abu Umar. I said to myself, “I have seen this man”. The program also discussed his city, the city Hadithah, where I had myself lived during my days of Jihad in Iraq. When they mentioned the mosque in which Shaykh Abu Umar used to preach, I said to those around me, “I prayed in that mosque”. When they mentioned Abu Umar’s first kunya and the name of his eldest son “Mahmud”, I was surprised. The Amir of the Islamic State of Iraq was none other than that Shaykh behind whom I used to pray in that modest mosque in Hadithah.

My story with Shaykh Abu Mahmud (aka Abu Umar), may Allah accept him, began when my Amir: Abu al-Afghan, asked me to go with him to visit a worthy man in the city of Hadithah to coordinate group activity with him. This was after Shaykh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, may Allah have mercy on him, pledged allegiance to Shaykh Usama bin Laden, may Allah protect him.

I and my Amir Abu al-Afghan went and met with Shaykh Abu Mahmud. We greeted him and he invited us into his house where he received us with great hospitality. I then felt that they wanted to speak together alone so I stepped back. Shaykh Abu Mahmud said to me, “Come over here, you are the ones who taught us our Deen.”

It was a lovely meeting in which words were selected like the choicest of fruit. Shaykh Abu Mahmud was frank, generous and modest. Each time he spoke to Amir Abu Afghan, he addressed him as “my Shaykh”. He spoke the truth and accepted it from others, and he urged fighting the Americans. A few days after our meeting, Shaykh Abu Mahmud joined the Tanzeem al-Qaeda fi Bilad al-Rafidain (The al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers).

Afterwards, I became preoccupied with events and I forgot all about that meeting, until Shaykh Abu Umar al-Baghdadi was killed and that (TV) channel showed his picture and told his story. Only then did I recall that meeting, and I recalled the words of the Messenger of Allah (Peace Be Upon Him): “Allah elevates those who are humble for Him”.

Shaykh Abu Mahmud began the Amir of the Islamic State of Iraq and our Amir Abu al-Afghan became one of the military commanders of the Islamic Army of Iraq, may Allah accept them both among the martyrs.

Those two did not care who was the commander (Amir) and who was the commanded (ma’mur),because they fought and struggled for a great religion. They did not care about the trivialities of this world. Wherever they could be of service to the Deen, that was their goal and their place.

May Allah have mercy on our martyrs, console us for them and give us goodness in exchange for them.

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all Creation

Source: Sada al-Malahem Magazine

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