“They are all here as promised by the Prophet. “If you think all these mujahideen came from across the world to fight Assad, you’re mistaken,” said a Sunni Muslim jihadi who uses the name Abu Omar and fights in one of the many anti-Assad Islamist brigades in Aleppo. Diplomatic efforts, focused on the political rather than religious factors driving the conflict, have made no headway. Syria’s war has killed more than 140,000 people, driven millions from their homes and left many more dependent on aid. The power of those prophecies for many fighters on the ground means that the three-year-old conflict is more deeply rooted - and far tougher to resolve - than a simple power struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and his rebel foes. If the scenario sounds familiar to an anxious world watching Syria’s devastating civil war, it resonates even more with Sunni and Shi’ite fighters on the frontlines - who believe it was all foretold in 7th Century prophecies.įrom the first outbreak of the crisis in the southern city of Deraa to apocalyptic forecasts of a Middle East soaked in blood, many combatants on both sides of the conflict say its path was set 1,400 years ago in the sayings of the Prophet Mohammad and his followers.Īmong those many thousands of sayings, or hadith, are accounts which refer to the confrontation of two huge Islamic armies in Syria, a great battle near Damascus, and intervention from the north and west of the country. Residents wait to receive food aid distributed by Al-Wafaa campaign at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, south of Damascus April 1, 2014.

The peaceful warrior quotes