Category: Jabhah al-Nuṣrah

NOTE: For prior parts in The Archivist series you can view an archive of it all here. And for his older series see: Musings of an Iraqi Brasenostril on Jihad.
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“Until Our Hearts Submit To The Shari’a”- Da’wa Pamphlet From Jabhat al-Nusra
By Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi

Like the Islamic State, Syria’s al-Qa’ida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra has its own department responsible for the distribution of da’wa [religious outreach] literature. This department of Jabhat al-Nusra is called the Maktab al-Da’wa wa al-Irshad (Da’wa and Guidance Office). However, whereas the Islamic State has unsurprisingly made many of the da’wa pamphlets it has produced via its al-Himma Library available online since 2013 as part of its strategy of flooding the Internet with propaganda and heavily encouraging foreign recruitment, Jabhat al-Nusra has not done so, preferring to focus its materials on local distribution.

Therefore, publications distributed by the Maktab al-Da’wa wa al-Irshad must be obtained from the ground. Not all of the publications that can be acquired from the office are original Jabhat al-Nusra works. In keeping with the group’s ideological alignment, the Maktab al-Da’wa wa al-Irshad also distributes works by figures like Abu Mus’ab al-Souri, a jihadi ideologue well-known for pushing the gradualist strategy to build jihadi influence in societies, and Abu Qatada, a Palestinian-Jordanian cleric who stands out today as a leading al-Qa’ida-aligned intellectual heavyweight in the Islamic State-al-Qa’ida schism of today’s global jihad.


A 2004 work by Abu Mus’ab al-Souri on the Algerian jihad of the 1990s obtained by a local contact for this author from a Maktab al-Da’wa wa al-Irshad branch in Idlib province. Souri was critical of the extreme tactics of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and in this work he also wished to disavow “the evil role that some of the supporters of that jihad played in London during the period 1994-1996”- referring to cheerleading for the GIA back then by some jihadists (including Abu Qatada).

The pamphlet below- obtained from the Maktab al-Da’wa wa al-Irshad the branch in Hureitan in the north Aleppo countryside- is actually plagiarised from Dr. Iyad Qunaibi, an Islamist preacher in Jordan. The pamphlet fits in with the idea of a more gradualist approach to implementing Islamic law in society, with the title emphasizing the need for people’s hearts to submit willingly to the Shari’a, rather than mere outward compliance that leaves room for nifaq (hypocrisy). Also of note is the pamphlet’s point that the hudud (harsh punishments for serious crimes like cutting off the hand for theft and executing adulterers) should only be applied in rare and exceptional cases in a society under the Shari’a system, likely an implicit contrast with the Islamic State that makes a show of implementation of hudud in its propaganda as one aspect of its supposed ideal society. Occasionally, the Jabhat al-Nusra judiciary in the form of the Dar al-Qada in Hureitan has implemented hudud punishments, though that has only been made public knowledge through Dar al-Qada documents on the cases, rather than high quality photos and videos that are the norm of Islamic State propaganda. It should also be noted, as Sam Heller points out, that the Dar al-Qada in Hureitan enjoys the clear backing of other factions in the area, which fits in with the conception of willing acceptance of the Shari’a as advocated in this pamphlet.

The pamphlet is translated in full with occasional explanatory notes.


Until our hearts submit to the Shari’a

Da’wa and Irshad Office
Jabhat al-Nusra


Until our hearts submit to the Shari’a

We may disagree or agree with a program here or there that says it is “applying” Shari’a, but our aim here is not supporting any of the human programs or disavowing them, but rather that we should continue loving the Shari’a of God and not reckon for a moment that it is no longer just for our time, or doubt its justice or mercy. And whoever disparages “applying it,” his sin is upon himself, and it is not reckoned against the Shari’a of God.

Our aim here is that we should continue loving the Shari’a, longing to realize it, striving for that, being honoured through it, and that we should meet God with a heart sincerely amenable to the Shari’a that He has approved for us.

The Shari’a that we speak of is the Shari’a of the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Benevolent, the Mild, who says: “Does He who created not know, while He is the Pleasant, the Knower?” (al-Mulk 14)- [Qur’an 67:14].

It is what its Revealer- the Exalted- commands: “Justice, ihsan and giving to relatives, while forbidding immorality, the condemned and oppression. He warns you, perhaps you will remember” (al-Nahl 90)- [Qur’an 16:90].

It is what God Almighty has revealed to lighten the burden on His servants, for He knows of their weakness. For He has said: “God wants to lighten your burden, for man has been created weak”- (al-Nisa’ 28)- [Qur’an 4:28].


The Shari’a that we speak of is not something rulers “apply” on those ruled, as though we are not in conversation with it, and as though it is thrown on us from above our heads! But rather the Muslims “establish it” in their lives, in all that is possible, for it is their cause, spirit and that by which they draw near to God, and they strive for it to be established on the level of rule and for there to be a state for it.

The Shari’a is that which orders the father to be merciful to his children, and the children to be respectful of their parents and attend to their mothers’ feet, and the ruler to be gentle with his subjects and establish justice on himself before establishing it on them.

It is that in which the Ummah becomes one body and is freed from the chains of the global system that oppresses it, humiliates it and plunders its resources.

It is that in whose state the affair of the Muslim individual is dignified in a way in which the affair of