Huthaifa | حذيفة

But the super serious political commentators on Twitter told me Syria was about to join Israel in its war on Iran and Lebanon. So now you’re telling me that random tweets that start with “BREAKING” and have furry pfps aren’t a reliable source of news?

I keep rereading this guy’s letter, and it’s still insane that he chose to say all of this publicly. 1. There is absolutely zero benefit for the U.S. to have entered this war. 2. The global war on terror was fought on behalf of, and at the discretion of, Israel. Keep in mind, this guy isn’t against wars, assassinations, or invasions as long as they’re carried out for the sake of the U.S. empire, not Israel. Pack it up, kids. The “Israel as a U.S. aircraft carrier” theory is officially dead.

اللهم لا تجعلنا ممن يقفون بين يديك يوم القيامة عاجزين عن أن نقول بصدق إننا بذلنا كل ما في وسعنا ابتغاء مرضاتك. اللهم لا تجعل في قلوبنا ندمًا على تقصيرٍ في حقك، ولا حسرةً على فرصةٍ ضيعناها في طاعتك. اللهم اشهد أننا أردنا وجهك، وأننا حاولنا ما استطعنا، فاقبل منا القليل، وتجاوز عن التقصير، واجعل أعمالنا خالصةً لك وحدك.

Reminder that the so-called “Arab slave trade” in Africa is mostly a fiction invented by 19th century British abolitionists & Imperialists to justify European colonization of Africa. When I push back on this narrative, Africans accuse me of defending Arabs.

I don’t believe Netanyahu is dead. It's more likely that he’s somewhere deep in a bunker, surrounded by layers of security and using his people as human shields, afraid that any kind of communication he makes could tip off where he is and leave him exposed. The radio silence and his absence from physically attending security cabinet meetings would make sense in that situation, especially at a time when Israel is reportedly running short on interceptors. What comes to mind watching this is a passage in the Qur’an where Allah addresses the Jews who claimed that the Hereafter belonged exclusively to them. After challenging that claim, Allah exposes their desperate attachment to worldly life: “You will surely find them the most eager of people for life, even more than the polytheists. Each one of them wishes he could live a thousand years. But even if he were granted such a life, it would not distance him from the punishment. And Allah is All-Seeing of what they do.” — Qur’an 2:96 The verse is describing a mindset: those who claim certainty about their standing before God can often be the ones who cling most desperately to worldly life when death approaches, grasping at any extension of life, even a thousand years, in the hope of postponing what they know awaits them. So even if conditions in that bunker become unbearable, his instinct will still be to hold on to life for as long as possible. But the Qur’an makes the point clearly: no amount of delay, protection, or years added to a person’s life can ultimately shield them from the reckoning that awaits them. And in contrast to this desperate clinging to life, one is reminded of the words of Huthaifa Al-Kahlout (Abu Obeida), may Allah have mercy on him, when he quoted a line of poetry: "We carry death with resolve, while you tremble in fear."

This incessant need by Western pro-Palestinian “allies” to mirror Israeli rhetoric about an internal struggle for power within Hamas, based on nothing more than two statements that don’t even contradict each other, combined with their own projections onto a struggle they’ve only just become acquainted with, rooted in religious values they don’t share and operating in a context they neither understand nor are humble enough to admit they may never fully understand, is infuriating, though not surprising. These men aren’t seeking status, power, money, or anything else. They embarked on a path in which they expect to lose everything and are content to do so purely for the sake of Allah. We hold them to be so, and Allah is their true judge, and we do not claim purity for anyone before Allah. And despite what some may think of themselves, it takes an enormous amount of hubris, arrogance, and ego for someone who has sacrificed little or nothing to sit comfortably in their safe bubble and, despite being completely new to this cause, criticize men like Khaled Mashal, who’ve been involved in this struggle longer than they’ve been alive. I thought it was a running gag, but it seems some of you genuinely see yourselves as the Global North branch of the resistance. Tone it down and have a bit of shame.

@malsaafin Same here. I’m honestly wondering if everyone else read a different version of these statements that I somehow missed. At this point, I’m starting to blame decades of cuts to the U.S. Department of Education.

@Shack_Rat I’m bewildered by people’s reading of this any other way

“There are two Hamas statements now. One from Doha and one from Gaza.” No. Both statements came from Doha, and they don’t contradict each other. 1. The letter to Iran’s leadership congratulates Mojtaba Khamenei and reaffirms Hamas’ longstanding alliance with Iran, emphasizing solidarity in the broader struggle against Israel and the United States. 2. The public press statement, meanwhile, still condemns the attack on Iran and affirms Iran’s right to respond, but it also urges Iran not to target neighboring countries and calls for regional cooperation to prevent escalation. When you take these two together, they reflect layered messaging rather than a contradiction, like what everyone else is saying. One message reinforces Hamas’ relationship with Iran in fighting against Israel, while the other signals to the wider region that Hamas does not want the conflict to expand into a broader regional war. FYI: Oman did the same thing. They congratulated Iran’s new leader, but at the same time they are trying to make sure Iran doesn’t hit them or other neighboring countries with missiles.

@AyKarT0 It doesn’t contradict the first statement at all; it actually reinforces and clarifies it.

@Shack_Rat What do you make out of the 2nd statement released by Hamas?

“This statement is Khaled Mashal’s doing.” 1. That’s not how it works. Hamas isn’t a fragmented student activist club where individuals freelance statements. It’s a movement with a council structure where positions and statements are decided collectively. 2. What a lot of people don’t realize is that the stance of Izz Al-Din Haddad and the military leadership is, more often than not, way stricter than that of Mashal or even the political Shura Council. Al-Qassam fighters on the ground largely come out of Ibn Taymiyyah–centric mosque environments and religious study circles. Again, if you take public political statements at face value, you’re gonna be blindsided sooner or later as the internal realities of the movement become clearer. Reading translated tweets on social media doesn’t give you the ability to understand movements like this. You need to look at the broader cultural context, historical realities, internal structures, relationship dynamics, and the environment these actors operate in. Without that background, you end up misreading statements or come away with conclusions that don’t actually reflect how the movement thinks or makes decisions.

@mrsandm28933020 The current moment being an anomaly still doesn’t mean the movement is functioning as competing factions. The decision-making culture hasn’t suddenly changed.

@Shack_Rat True but currently the movement is in a bit of limbo with the internal elections delayed and the 5 man leadership has 2 if not 3 contenders for overall leadership. This is an anomaly. Plus being based in Doha with few alternatives necessitates some finesse in messaging

@ablasalma Yup, exactly this. This app is filled with people new to the scene who don’t seem to realize that Hamas now has to make decisions based on what’s best for the people actually living in Gaza, not what some online commentator with romanticized ideas about the struggle thinks.

@Shack_Rat Are people forgetting who is going to foot the bill for rebuilding of Gaza???

Hamas’ statement today is going to piss a lot of people off, but it actually lines up with something many of us have been saying: you can’t treat Hamas’ public statements as a perfect reflection of what they truly believe. Those statements have to be understood in the context of political pressure and the realities they’re operating under, not as a straightforward expression of their views.

Yeah, but tension and disagreement don’t automatically translate into factional division. Internal debate is built into how the movement’s consultative structure works. Large movements with both political and military wings almost always have internal debate about tactics, messaging, and timing, which is normal for any organization operating under pressure, but debate within a structure isn’t the same thing as competing factions pursuing independent agendas. In Hamas’ case, the movement still operates through a defined decision-making structure: the Shura Council, the political bureau, and the military leadership. Those bodies interact constantly, and major strategic decisions emerge from consultation rather than individual figures freelancing policy. Differences in tone between figures like Mashal and Sinwar usually reflect role and arena more than ideological camps. Leaders often represent different operational arenas of the movement, whether that’s the external political leadership, the Gaza leadership, or the military command. Political leadership engages in diplomacy and public messaging, while military leadership speaks from the battlefield reality in Gaza, so naturally their rhetoric and priorities can sound different. What often gets framed externally as a “Gulf-leaning political faction vs. militant faction” is usually just the internal deliberation process of a movement that operates across multiple theaters and responsibilities. That distinction matters because if observers (particularly Western non-Palestinians who’re fresh on the scene after 10/7) treat every difference in tone as evidence of a split, they end up misunderstanding how the movement actually functions and how its decisions are ultimately reached.

@Shack_Rat I don’t disagree with you but there has always been a degree of tension between the more diplomatically inclined gulf leaning political faction largely represented by Mashal and the more militant faction represented by Sinwar.

I'm going to commit self-homicide x.com/pathfinder_tua…

One thing that’s stood out to me over the past two and a half years is how many people only started paying attention after October 7, yet now have these very strong opinions about how movements and causes they previously knew nothing about should conduct themselves. I’m reading replies where people talk about Hamas as if it’s some loose, fragmented group where a statement can just get released because two people felt like saying something. And if you were surprised when Abu Obeida’s family revealed that he supported the Syrian revolution and celebrated the fall of Bashar al-Assad, you’re probably going to be even more surprised when you realize how popular Khaled Mashal is among conservative circles in Gaza, especially within Al-Qassam.

@JusticeDSword1 timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

@Shack_Rat Huthaifa dear brother, can you share the full statement, JAZAK ALLAH.

Anyone expecting this war to eventually taper off is likely going to be disappointed. Nothing about the current trajectory suggests things are calming down. If anything, the direction points toward greater intensity and deeper escalation. There’s no path back to the way things were. And the longer people cling to that hope, the less prepared they’ll be for what’s actually coming.

@ebrahim_hodifa رحمهم الله رحمةً واسعة، وتقبّلهم في الشهداء، وجعل قبورهم روضةً من رياض الجنة، وجمعك بهم في الفردوس الأعلى عند حوض نبيّه ﷺ. نسأل الله أن يربط على قلبك ويجعل صبرك رفعةً لك في الدنيا والآخرة.

اللهم في هذا الليالي المباركة اغفر لأبي وأمي وإخوتي واجعل مثواهم الفردوس الأعلى وارزقهم شربة من حوض النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ...

It’s just as important, if not more so, for synagogues to clearly and unequivocally distance themselves from foreign governments, especially when those governments claim to act in the name of Judaism and invoke language from Jewish scripture while committing genocide.