The Command

“Those whom I serve in the name of God, subahanahu wa ta’la, do not hold with those who shirk their faith,” said al-Ulam. He rattled ice, set the glass down. “The word of God is simple to know and easy to obey. All has been set forth clearly. A command is a command. Is that not simple enough?”

They fell into a debate about whether the women who had just passed were kufr only, or fully kaffir. Whether, following the test of ibn Taimiyyah, the great imam and scholar who had died in prison in 728 A.H., their corrupt way of life doomed them to hellfire as Muslims, or whether the essence of unbelief manifested in their way of life had sunk so deeply within them they had left the fold of Islam. Bin Jun’ad quoted the hadith of ibn Abbaas that most of the inhabitants of hell were women who had committed kufr in various ways, illegal intercourse, or temptation, or simply being ungrateful to their husbands. They debated this for some time before bin Jun’ad asked if al-Ulam had been in Afghanistan.

“Truly, I have.”

“Recently? Or in the past?”

“Both in the past, and recently. With Mullah Omar and Mullah Ahmad in Kandahar.”

“Is it a just regime, as we have heard?”

“The imaamah of Mullah Omar is pure and clean and wholly Islamic. You will not see women parading like whores or masquerading as men in the schools. They are put away, the foreigners are gone, and the people live in all things according to the word of God. I have seen the wonders occurring in that country. In the Sudan, also, we are building the jihad.”

Bin Jun’ad said respectfully, “When you said you had been there in the past, did you mean as a mujahid?”

“I was living as an engineer in Egypt when the call reached me. I left my family and followed the path of jihad.”

“Where did you fight?”

“I fought in two actions, but I was not the bravest. It would inspire you, to see how the brothers charged with their Kalashnikovs and did not falter. The machine guns cut them down right and left, but the rest went on, shouting God is Great.” He waited as the other murmured the phrase, too, then went on, “One day we captured eight of the godless ones — the Russians. We made them kneel, and looped detonation cord around their necks, leading it from one to another. Their heads leaped off in perfect arcs.”

“Isn’t God merciful,” bin Jun’ad breathed, eyes blinking rapidly.

“We drove them out, and then their power collapsed in their own country, too. After that, we realized nothing was impossible. One superpower has fallen. Now it is the turn of the second.”

“I am told you have worked with the Sheikh. Do you know him? The Sheikh?”

* * *

He debated how much to tell this man. He hadn’t survived this long by trusting others. This Qari had known the password, and he voiced the right opinions, but by speaking of the Sheikh, he was touching on matters better unsaid. The one al-Ulam followed was so reclusive he himself had never met him. The Sheikh didn’t trust telephones, for example. He sent his instructions on videotapes or by hand-carried notes. Or most securely of all, by word of mouth, through men who could be trusted because they could be killed.

Which was why since Afghanistan the man bin Jun’ad was calling Abu, honored son, had not lived in any country for longer than a year. In the Gulf War he’d carried messages between Iraq and a Saudi group Saddam had counted on to support his invasion. But that group had been suppressed by the Saudi police. He’d barely escaped, using another false passport, to refuge in the Sudan.

But year by year the pace quickened. He was found trustworthy. His skills were honed and appreciated. He’d gone to Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, to Pakistan three times, to Yemen, Egypt again, then Saudi Arabia, Britain, Algeria.

And most recently to Iran.

But more and more these days, he found himself tiring of travel. He’d started a fishing company in Sudan, using the Sheikh’s capital, but building his fleet with the profits. His boats spent more days at sea than any of his competitors’, with fewer breakdowns and less theft. He owned six now; when he returned he hoped to buy two more.

* * *

Finally he said, “To us, Qari, the most exalted commandment is to kill the idol worshipers where we find them. Is your heart ready for this?”

Stubby hands spread. “Bones must break and limbs must fly, so the true religion may stand. I and mine are ready to help.”

Al-Ulam said, “So far, those who wage jihad have struck either against the sectarians, those outside the lofel, or against the regimes which support the Zionists. But in the end, these are puppets.

“We are not frightened of this so-called superpower. It is corrupt and decadent, and, above all, it does not want to fight.