Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif (, Sayyid ‘Imām ash-Sharīf; born 8 August 1950),Seth G. Jones (2012). Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of al Qa'ida since 9/11 (W.W. Norton & Co.) also known as Dr. Fadl or Abd Al-Qader Bin 'Abd Al-'Aziz,El-Zayyat, Montasser, "The Road to al-Qaeda", 2004. tr. by Ahmed Fakry has been described as a "major" figure "in the global jihad movement." He is said to be "one of Ayman Al-Zawahiri's oldest associates", and his book al-'Umda fi I'dad al-'Udda ("The Essentials of Making Ready [for Jihad]"), was used as a jihad manual in al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Fadl is reported to be one of the first members of Al Qaeda's top council.
In 2007, he criticized al-Qaeda and called for a stop to violent jihad activities both in Western and Muslim countries.
He is reported to have two wives, with four sons and two daughters between them.
Early life and education According to Human Rights Watch, Sharif was born in 1950, in the southern Egyptian province of Beni Suef seventy-five miles south of Cairo. His father was a headmaster in Beni Suef. Sharif studied the Quran, and was a hafez (i.e. he had memorized the Quran) by time he finished sixth grade. At fifteen, the Egyptian government enrolled him in a boarding school in Cairo for exceptional students. At 18 he entered medical school, and began preparing for a career as a plastic surgeon, specializing in burn injuries. He has been described as being "pious and high-minded, prideful, and rigid" at that time.
It was while studying medicine at Cairo University in the 1970s that al-Sharif met Ayman Al-Zawahiri. In 1977, Zawahiri asked al-Sharif to join his group. According to al-Sharif, Zawahiri misrepresented himself as a delegate from a group that was advised by Islamic scholars, when in fact Zawahiri was the group's emir and was not guided or advised by clerical authorities. Al-Sharif did not join Zawahiri's group.
Egyptian Islamic Jihad Following the 1981 assassination of the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat – who had signed a peace treaty with Israel two years earlier – thousands of Egyptian Islamists were rounded up. These included Zawahiri, who was charged with smuggling weapons, but not Al-Sharif who fled the country, was tried in absentia, and convicted. Al-Sharif left Egypt for the UAE in 1982, where he worked as a doctor. He then resided in Pakistan for few weeks before leaving for Saudi Arabia, and then went back to Pakistan again, where he worked for a Kuwaiti Red Crescent hospital in Peshawar.Human Rights Watch interview with Muhammad Salah, Cairo, December 2004. Quoted in X. Trade-Off: The Rendition to Egypt of Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, ...
In Pakistan Sharif worked with Ayman al-Zawahiri to rebuild Egyptian Islamic Jihad in exile. In the mid-eighties, Sharif is thought to have become Egyptian Islamic Jihad’s emir, or chief. Al-Sharif denies this, saying that his role was merely one of offering "Sharia guidance." Zawahiri, "whose reputation had been stained by his prison confessions", handled "tactical operations." Al-Sharif impressed other jihadis with his encyclopedic knowledge of the Koran and the Hadith. According to one source, al-Sharif stayed in the background, “Ayman was the one in front, but the real leader was [al-Sharif, aka] Dr. Fadl."
The Essential Guide for Preparation In Peshawar, Imam Al-Sharif (aka Fadl) wrote a text for jihadis to "school them in the proper way to fight battles" and preached that the "real objective was not victory over the Soviets but martyrdom and eternal salvation". This work, "The Essential Guide for Preparation," appeared in 1988 and became "one of the most important texts in the jihadis' training".
The "Guide" begins with the premise that jihad is the natural state of Islam. Muslims must always be in conflict with nonbelievers, Fadl asserts, resorting to peace only in moments of abject weakness. Because jihad is, above all, a religious exercise, there are divine rewards to be gained. He who gives money for jihad will be compensated in Heaven, but not as much as the person who acts. The greatest prize goes to the martyr. Every able-bodied believer is obligated to engage in jihad, since most Muslim countries are ruled by infidels who must be forcibly removed, in order to bring about an Islamic state. "The way to bring an end to the rulers' unbelief is armed rebellion," the "Guide" states. Some Arab governments regarded the book as so dangerous that anyone caught with a copy was subject to arrest.
In 1989, bin Laden moved from Afghanistan to Sudan along with Zawahiri and most members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Imam Al-Sharif, who was finishing "what he considered his masterwork, The Compendium of the Pursuit of Divine Knowledge", agreed to go at the urging of Al-Zawahiri.
Time in Sudan "On September 10, 1993, al-Sharif took his wife and family to Sudan, where he was received on arrival by Ayman al-Zawahri, in Khartoum Airport. The relations between the two men, however, deteriorated further during al-Sharif's time in Sudan."
Sometime in the early 1990, Al-Zawahiri and Al-Sharif fell out over questions of strategy and tactics. Al-Sharif opposed Islamic Jihad's joining another Islamist group, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, in its terror campaign against Egyptian government and foreign tourists in Egypt saying, "this is senseless activity that will bring no benefit."
"Al-Sharif believed that violent attacks were futile, and instead advocated slow and steady infiltration into the structure of the state, but the group as a whole decided otherwise."
After two unsuccessful bombing attempts "members of Al Jihad demanded that their leader resign. Many were surprised to discover that the emir was Fadl." Al-Sharif "willingly gave up the post", and Zawahiri became the official leader as well as leader of tactical operations. Before he left Sudan, however, Al-Sharif gave a copy of his finished manuscript to Zawahiri, saying that it could be used to raise money.
The Compendium of the Pursuit of Divine Knowledge Al-Sharif's second book was more than a thousand pages long and its author used the pseudonym Abdul Qader bin Abdul Aziz. It opens with the assertion that: "A man may enter the faith in many ways, yet be expelled from it by just one deed."
Despite Al-Sharif's complaints about the al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya bombing campaign, his book defined Islam narrowly and takfir very broadly. Among those who were not only sinners but apostates of Islam and deserving of death, according to Fadl, are the rulers of Egypt and other Arab countries, those who obey them, and those who participate in elections. “The infidel's rule, his prayers, and the prayers of those who pray behind him are invalid," Fadl decrees. His blood may be shed legally by true Muslims. "I say to Muslims in all candor that secular, nationalist democracy opposes your religion and your doctrine, and in submitting to it you leave God’s book behind." Other Muslims who are actually infidels include anyone employed by the government, the police, and the courts, and anyone who works for peaceful change instead of violent jihad. In addition, those who disagree with these ideas are also heretics and deserve to be killed.
According to Fadl, Zawahiri was delighted with the result, saying, “this book is a victory from Almighty God." But Zawahiri also edited the book before publishing it, removing "a barbed critique of the jihadi movement" and specific organizations and individuals – including al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Group) with whom Zawahiri was attempting to engineer a merger – and changing the title to Guide to the Path of Righteousness for Jihad and Belief. Al-Sharif became furious with Zawahiri when he found this out, refusing to accept his apology and telling Al Hayat, "I do not know anyone in the history of Islam prior to Ayman al-Zawahiri who engaged in such lying, cheating, forgery, and betrayal of trust by transgressing against someone else's book."
Leaving Islamic Jihad
In Yemen Al-Sharif reportedly severed his ties with the Jihad, and devoted his time to his medical work and theological studies.Al-Hayat, 3 March 2004; Phone interviews with Hani al-Seba`i and Yasser al-Sirri, London, December 6, 2004. Quoted in X. Trade-Off: The Rendition to Egypt of Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, ... He took his family to Sana'a following the 1994 Yemeni Civil War, then to the mountain town of Ibb, and began working in a local hospital. His son Isma`il insisted his father had by then severed all links with militant groups.Al-Hayat, April 4, 2004. Quoted in X. Trade-Off: The Rendition to Egypt of Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, ... He called himself Dr. Abdul Aziz al-Sharif.
Arrest and imprisonment In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Al-Sharif was questioned by Yemen’s Political Security Organization, the Yemeni "secret police", while at work as a surgeon at the al-Shiffa Hospital in Ibb Governorate, south of Sana'a, on October 28, 2001.Al-Hayat. April 4, 2004 Shortly after he turned himself in. He was held for three years in detention in Sana'a, "without charge, without trial, and without access to an attorney."Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with Yasser al-Sirri and Hani al-Seba’i in London, December 2004. Quoted in X. Trade-Off: The Rendition to Egypt of Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, ...
Criticism of Jihad movement On 28 February 2004 Al-Sharif was transferred to Egypt. He was eventually transferred to Scorpion Prison, a facility inside Tora Prison where major political figures were held. There, Al-Sharif/Fadl was serving a life sentence, although according to his son his "cell" was a private room with a bath and a small kitchen, refrigerator, and a television.
During his imprisonment in Egypt he wrote Wathiqat Tarshid Al-'Aml Al-Jihadi fi Misr w'Al-'Alam ("Document of Right Guidance for Jihad Activity in Egypt and the World", also translated as "Rationalizing Jihad in Egypt and the World"). In it he proclaimed "We are prohibited from committing aggression, even if the enemies of Islam do that."
Rationalizing Jihad in Egypt and the World In November–December 2007 this book/initiative criticized al-Qaeda and calling for a stop to jihad activities both in the West and in Muslim countries, was published in serial form in two Arab dailies, the Kuwaiti Al-Jarida and the Egyptian Al-Masri Al-Yawm. Al-Sharif claims that hundreds of Egyptian jihadists from various factions – including a majority of Islamic Jihad members – had endorsed his position. Lawrence Wright has described it as "undermin[ing] the entire intellectual framework of jihadist warfare."
Restrictions on jihad The book Rationalizing Jihad opens with the premise that "there is nothing that invokes the anger of God and His wrath like the unwarranted spilling of blood and wrecking of property." It defines most forms of terrorism as illegal under Islamic law and restrict the possibility of holy war to extremely rare circumstances. Requirements for the lawful declaration of jihad include: a place of refuge, adequate financial resources to wage the campaign without resort to stealing or kidnapping, a means of providing for and protecting family members, properly identified enemy to avoiding killing the innocent. The "blowing up of hotels, buildings, and public transportation" is not permitted.
In addition permission must be granted by the jihadi's parents, creditors and a qualified Islamic scholar. Al-Sharif warns, "Oh, you young people, do not be deceived by the heroes of the Internet, the leaders of the microphones, who are launching statements inciting the youth while living under the protection of intelligence services, or of a tribe, or in a distant cave or under political asylum in an infidel country. They have thrown many others before you into the infernos, graves, and prisons."