Abu Abdullah al-Mansoor, amir of Jayshul Mujahideen re. the ilm of the "khalifah"
Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Mansoor, leader of Jayshul Mujahideen (in Iraq) said in his book “ad-Dawlatul Islamiyyah Baynal Haqeeqati wal Wahm” pg. 132-135:
“As for me, then I make my witness Allah besides whom none has the right to be worshipped, due to what I know closely of this claimant who has named himself Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and he studied from me alongside a group virtuous [brothers] a little bit from the book “Zadul Mustaqni’” in the year 2005, and then the study discontinued because of my arrest. I’ve come to know him accurately, he was of limited intelligence, slow at grasping and dim witted, he’s not from the intermediate students of knowledge and his study is that of an academic study in the state universities, those of which the levels [of study] are ridiculous and have no relation in forming a student of knowledge, let alone a scholar.”
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“And thus, I confirm swearing by Allah without violation, that this Abu Bakr is neither a well-versed scholar nor an established student of knowledge, on the contrary he hasn’t mastered a single renowned book of ‘aqeedah or fiqh at all, and our Iraqi brothers from the students of knowledge of all groups & orientations know that very well, they know that there’s no affiliation between him & knowledge and they know the very ridiculous level of shar’i knowledge that the state universities present.
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“And by Allah whom we’ll stand in front of, he’s not competent in giving fatwa in issues which the fuqaha’ mentioned in their renowned books, like Fathul Qadeer of the Ahnaf, or ash-Sharhul Kabeer from the Malikiyyah, or Mughnil Muhtaj of the Shafi’iyyah or al-Mughni of the Hanbilah, rather he hasn’t mastered any renowned text of the four schools, such al-Qudoori and its explanation al-Hidayah from the Ahnaf, or Mukhtasar al-Khaleel & the explanation of it ash-Sharh ash-Sagheer of the Malikiyyah, or al-Minhaj & it’s explanation of it Sharhul Mahalli of the Shafi’iyyah, or Zadul Mustaqni’ & it’s explanation ar-Rawdul Murbi’ of the Hanabilah. So I don’t know how he can give fatwa on complex & unprecedented cases while he hasn’t mastered any of the relied upon schools. As for his knowledge regarding usoolul fiqh then he hasn’t surpassed “al-Waraqat” which is read by small students of knowledge, as for Jam’ul Jawami’ & it’s explanations or Minhajul Usool & it’s explanations or Rawdhatun Nadhir & it’s explanations or it’s equivalents then he doesn’t know anything of them.”