Volume 1: The Return of the Khilafah
The first volume establishes the need for this publication following on from the success of a couple of smaller, pre Dabiq publications. Da’esh claim that their endeavour is to unify the Muslim Ummah, locally and internationally, through the bayah (allegiance) mechanism which offers support to communities. However, in order to achieve this local communities are required to pledge their allegiance and make bayah to the Islamic State. Da’esh argues that Ibrahim disassociated himself from the illegitimate practices of his time in order to fulfil his obligation to Allah. Thus, his adherence to Allah’s commands led to his designation as the Imam. Da’esh propose that they have followed a similar journey to Ibrahim so now have state level leadership which is manifest in the form of the caliphate. Furthermore, the caliphate is now self-sustaining which means that not even amir (leader) can end it if he wanted to. To further validate their own position as the leaders of the global Muslim nation, Da’esh asserts that legitimacy is for them alone as religious imamah (leadership) is dependent on political and state imamah which is the privilege of Da’esh.
Da’esh pushes for allegiance and suggests that all those Muslims who refuse to make bayah to them should be killed. They argue that pledging allegiance is a fundamental obligation and refusal to fulfil it is an indication of apostasy thereby making non adherents a legitimate target for warfare. The publication offers advice and guidance to its intended readership on how to set up groups for the purposes of destabilising and terrorising countries. They value continued social instability through what they refer to as terrorism, nikayah (military) and tawahhush (mayhem) operations.
Volume one details how they formed and grew, the situation on the ground and difficulties they’ve faced in respect of civilian causalities due to third party attacks. The title of this volume is a statement that introduces Da’esh to the world as the self-proclaimed leaders of the Muslim world.