Islamic State, in its most the 216th issue of its weekly Al-Naba newsletter, profiled the former deputy amir of its Somalia branch, Shaykh ‘Abdul Hakim Ahmed Ibrahim (‘Abd al-Hakim al-Somali) his name has also been reported as “Abdihakim Mohamed Ibrahim”), covering his “three decades of da’wa (missionary propagation/”calling to God”) and struggle (jihad) in God’s path.” Some of his family members blamed other members of IS-Somalia of killing him at the time as part of a possible power struggle.

Born on the savanna area of eastern Somalia in 1390 Hijri, corresponding to (March 9, 1970 to Feb. 26, 1971), Ibrahim is portrayed as a pious youth who “sought knowledge” and attended the mosques in the port city of Bosaso in the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland where he studied Islam and prayed. He was dedicated to “true monotheism” (tawhid) and the sunna of the Prophet Muhammad, rejecting the heretical innovations (bid’a) of local Sufis such as the visitation of the graves and tombs of dead holy men and other shrines. He began his career in the field of missionary propagation (da’wa) by trying to get his family members and fellow clansmen to abandon bid’a and begin practicing “true” Islam. He and his companions then began to conduct da’wa in the Somali-majority region of Ogaden in eastern Ethiopia.

He was an active supporter of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) umbrella and adopted a militant/armed stance with regard to his da’wa activities when he faced opposition from “apostates,” exhorting his audiences to fulfill their duty of military jihad. He and his “brothers, the monotheists” (muwahhidun) worked tirelessly as righteous reformers (ahl al-salah) to fight the corruption from the Sufi spreaders of corruption and sedition (ahl al-fasad min al-Sufiyya).

Following the Ethiopian (Christian) invasion and the collapse of the UIC after its military defeat, Ibrahim’s and his companions’ efforts were betrayed by the “apostate” Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-murtaddin), which eventually allied with Somali Sufis, other Muslims in error (ahl al-dalal) as well as the “Crusaders.”

Following the collapse of the UIC and the occupation of parts of Somalia by Ethiopia, Ibrahim met young Somali “mujahidin” seeking to migrate (hijra) to Yemen, one of the other “arenas of jihad,” the travel routes of which ran through northeastern Somalia/Puntland, specifically the coastal Bargal area.

After a small group of 11 Somali mujahidin were attacked in an airstrike, Ibrahim successfully helped them escape a blockade by “apostates,” evacuating them to Yemen by sea.

He joined Al-Shabab, which at the time, the Al-Naba article acknowledges, was the best insurgent factions in Somalia (afdal al-fasa’il al-muqatila al-mawjuda fi-l-Sumal). Unlike other members of Al-Shabab, though, Ibrahim was dedicated only to tawhid and the Prophet’s sunna and was not corrupted by “pre-Islamic” clannism or “regional” loyalties). He was dispatched to Puntland by Al-Shabab commanders as part of “security detachments” (mafariz amniyya) operating against Somali “apostate” government forces.

In Puntland he participated in the attempted assassination of “one of the biggest agents of the Crusaders, Diyano,” probably Puntland senior military commander Asad Osman Diyano. Diyano survived though several of his companions were killed or wounded.

The article said that Ibrahim was eager to strengthen jihadi efforts in Puntland while the bulk of Al-Shabab remained focused on southern (and central) Somalia. He requested a meeting with the group’s leadership in order to lay out his plan and his reasons to widen military operations in northeastern Somalia. He ended up spending nearly two years fighting in the south before returning to Puntland. He gained experience in procuring weapons and ammunition, a skill that would prove helpful later on.

Ibrahim took the decision to join the “unified community of the Muslims” (jama’at al-Muslimin) after observing events in Syria, chiefly the betrayals of the “mujahidin” by Al-Qa’ida and its amir, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and its allies in the “apostate” Ikhwan and the Sururiyya. He and many of his friends were inspired by the expansion of Islamic State.

They saw joining Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s group as being a religious duty because of Islamic State’s implementation of shari’a and establishment of an Islamic state, culminating in the declaration of a caliph-imam to unite the Umma. Ibrahim and his companions started to engage in da’wa to convince others to pledge allegiance (bay’a) to al-Baghdadi and reject divisions between the different mujahidin factions that had “torn apart the mujahidin.” The martyrology, unsurprisingly, said that he was successful and convinced many mujahidin to pledge bay’a and abandon their membership in their previous groups.

However, Al-Shabab’s leadership mocked Ibrahim and the other defectors, with the article alleging that Al-Shabab’s commanders had become used to being subordinate to Al-Qa’ida, which led them to religious discord (fitna) and mixing unbelief (kufr) and heretical innovation (bid’a) despite this going against the tenets and requirements of Islam. The biography says that Al-Shabab’s leadership at that time began to dispatch intelligence agents (“spies”), presumably from the feared Amniyat security wing, to tail Ibrahim and other Islamic State sympathizers.

Al-Shabab, the article details, started open repression once a public bay’a was declared by one group, seemingly referring to Shaykh ‘Abdi Qadir Mu’min’s faction in Puntland in late October 2015. Al-Shabab arrested and imprisoned or killed Islamic State sympathizers and defectors. The article equates Al-Shabab’s actions against Islamic State and its loyalists in Somalia with a theological offense against Islam itself. The repression was particularly bad, the article said, in southern Somalia.

The article says, however, that Al-Shabab arrested anyone suspected of sympathizing with Islamic State and not only actual sympathizers, an allegation previously made by other anti-Shabab jihadis. Anyone who even watched a video or listened to a nashid produced by one of Islamic State’s media outlets was arrested or killed by Al-Shabab, the article claims.

Ibrahim was, the biography claimed, one of the first to join Islamic State in Somalia and defect from the “evil, criminal” Al-Shabab. The fact that he was based in Puntland far from Al-Shabab’s strongest forces helped him and this allowed him to more securely engage in da’wa to win over more defectors to Islamic State-Somalia. Al-Shabab tried to prevent recruits from traveling to Puntland but God intervened for the emigrants (muhajirin) and protected many of them. Ibrahim was instrumental in securing weapons, ammunition, and other equipment for the new recruits, enabling them to restart their jihad anew.

As a soldier among the “caliphate’s” soldiers (jundi min junud al-Khilafa) Ibrahim was at the forefront of IS-Somalia’s clan outreach, inviting them to enlist their children, and he was, the article claims, successful because of his good reputation in the region.

Following IS-Somalia’s capture and occupation of the port town of Qandala in October 2016 Ibrahim participated in the battles between Mu’min’s insurgents and Puntland government and allied clan forces. Ibrahim was protected by God and was away from his brothers in IS-Somalia when Al-Shabab sent a force of several hundred to eradicate IS-Somalia (the force was instead soundly defeated by a coalition of of Puntland and Galmudug government forces and allied clan militias near Gara’ad.)

Ibrahim remained a key player in IS-Somalia and its campaign against the “apostate” soldiers of al-Zawahiri (junud al-Zawahiri al-murtaddin), humiliating Al-Shabab and helped swell the ranks of IS-Somalia by the hundreds.

With his growing formidable reputation in Puntland, however, came dangers as Ibrahim came to the attention of the “Crusaders” (U.S.) and their Somali “apostate” allies. He was targeted and killed in a drone missile strike in Rajab 1440 Hijri, corresponding to March 8 to April 6, 2019. The biography defends Ibrahim’s reputation from claims by Al-Qa’ida and Al-Shabab that tried to sully his memory by seeking to link him to the enemies of Islam. The death date window given differs slightly from U.S. AFRICOM’s date of April 14, 2019 noted in its press release announcing his killing.