10 Things That You Did Not Know About Usamah Bin Ladin 1 – He always lived within a very large family. He had 20 children of his own and he grew up having 51 brothers and sisters of which he was the 17th. 2 – He was a very tall man standing at 6’4 and was fond of playing volleyball in which his height helped him to be a standout player. When the Mujāhidīn would play volleyball in the camps it was said that every player wished that Usamah would be on his team. 3 – His father, Muhammad bin Ladin personally supplied the gold on the roof of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem as a gift to the Muslim Ummah. The family’s construction company worked on the largest ever expansions of the 2 most sacred mosques of Islam in Makkah and Madinah. 4 – His teacher Brian Fyfield-Shayler who taught him at Al-Thager school in Jeddah said about him “He would be one of the top fifty students of his age education-wise [in Saudi Arabia].” He was also known for his love of poetry, some of his own poetry has been published and has been highly praised. 5 – He was a fan of Arsenal Football club and attended 4 matches at Highsbury Stadium in North London during the 93-94 season. 6 – He was described by Michael Scheuer who was the Special Advisor to the Chief of the Bin Laden unit (CIA) as being “Pious, brave, generous, intelligent, charismatic, patient, a visionary, egalitarian and most of all, realistic.” 7 – Despite his immense wealth he lived a very simple life, preferring to use his wealth to support the Mujāhidīn. Having lived in some of the hottest and driest areas of the world he was known for his refusal to drink water with ice, seeing it as an unnecessary luxury. He gave up a billionare’s lifestyle to fight for Islam in some of the most rugged places on earth. 8 – The group which he lead was not originally known as Al-Qāʿidah, it was originally named ‘The Global Islamic Front for Fighting the Jews and the Crusaders’. The name Al-Qāʿidah (which means ‘The Base’ in Arabic) was later adopted referring to one of their bases which was used in the Jihād against the Soviets. 9 – He was not funded nor trained by the CIA at any time, rather all of the funds used by his group came from his own wealth or from Muslim supporters. His greatest alliance was that with the Taliban led by Mullah Muḥammad ʿUmar who refused to hand over Usamah to the Americans. When the Taliban conquered Jalalabad in 1996 the Taliban leaders visited Usamah and told him “You are the Muhājirīn and we are the Anṣār. You are not just our guests and we your servants, rather we serve the very ground you walk on.” Despite the support and affection that the Taliban showed to the Arab Mujāhidīn, Usamah always downplayed their role in defeating the Soviets, stating that the victory came first from Allah and then the brave Afghan Mujāhidīn. 10 – Despite being labelled as a non-Muslim by various deviant Muslims, he was not known to make takfīr (labelling as apostates) of other Muslims, in fact he fought alongside and assisted Sufis, Deobandis, Ikhwanis, Tablighis and many other denominations in Afghanistan and other countries. The idea that Usamah was a fanatic takfīrī is a fantasy that could not be further from the truth, in spite of being attacked and abused by many Muslims he was never known to respond to such attacks nor was he known to speak ill of any other Muslims.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 15:09:51 +0000