Refuting the Salafi defender’s book:
“The Wahaby Myth”
General Comments:
1: This writer used the bright side of Islam, attributing it to the Salafi culture, ignoring the contradiction between Salafi culture and the religion of Islam, and ignoring also, the secret untouchable sacred side of the Salafi Wahaby faith and culture.
2: He tries to prove that Ossama Ben Laden is not Salafi, to clear and acquit the Salafi movements from the reaction of September 11, using many false statements, and false verdicts issued by the Saudi religious officials.
3- All the detailed answers will be available in my perspective full report about the Salafi Wahaby movements and Islam, but in this concise report, I will give the needed answers as a response to the false statements in this book: “The Wahaby Myth”.
4- It is necessary and imperative to get the original Wahaby Saudi text books and scriptures to use them in the court as irrefutable evidence proves their bloody terrorist religious culture. It is the only successful way to win this case and all coming cases against all the fanatic Salafi leaders here who are hijacking the American freedom of speech and belief and the peaceful Islam in fighting the U.S. These books must be translated into English and analyzed it in the light of Islam to expose and disclose this sacred untouchable side of the Saudi Wahaby Salafi danger. This will make it easy to incriminate the other supporters of the terrorists who are fighting this country using its facilities and values.
Detailed comments about Salafism
In page 1, footnote 1, he said that Salafism refers to the following of the prophet Mohammed and his companions and two generations followed him, proving this by mentioning Hadeeth or Saying attributed to the prophet Mohammed Saying: “The best of mankind is my generation, then those who follow them, then those who follow them.”
Here, he declares the real aim of the current Salafi movement which is centered and upheld and supported and supervised by the Saudi State.
Here also, it is imperative to point out some Islamic Quranic and historical facts about the Salafism:
1- The two generations after the prophet Mohammed means the Muslims who lived during the two centuries after his death, 632 – 832, from the time of the companions of the prophet Mohammed to the first period of the Abbasy Empire.
During this time, Muslims changed the real Islamic Jihad which means to fight to defend yourself and your country and freedom of belief [for more details look at the attachment N. 1], they have made it to fight and to conquer and invade and occupy other people’s land to enslave the other peoples and confiscate their wealth and freedom. To justify this transgression by the name of Islam they fabricated [Hadeethes] and attributed them to the prophet Mohammed after his death, calling it Sunna, making this Sunna the active part of religion of Islam, although it contradicts Islam in every minute detail.
The fanatic teachings of Sunna were applied by the two generations after the prophet Mohammed; his companions and the other who followed them. This was in harmony with the Middle age culture of Holy wars, but in our time the current Salafi Wahaby movements made these Sunni teachings their sacred secret untouchable side because it is no longer belongs to our modern culture.
According to their sacred untouchable religious tradition, most of Muslims believe that the prophet Mohammed said” I was commanded to fight [all] the people until they testify that there is no God but one God, and I am his messenger.” It means simply that all the non- Muslims should be killed as a Jihad. This was the religious justification for Arab Muslims in the Middle Ages to invade and occupy most of the known world in that time.
Ibn Laden in one of his tapes used this Hadeeth to remind the official Saudi Sheikhs who disowns him according to the political Saudi orders.
Ossama Bin Laden knows that they could not deny or reject this Hadeeth which orders them to fight all the Christians and the Jews, just like Ossama and his Al Qa’eda are doing.
Those officials Saudi Scholars believe that all the Christian and Jews are infidels according to their sacred secret untouchable side of culture. Inthe official Saudi translation of the holy Quran of [Al Fateha]- or the opening of the Quran which is recited 17 times through the daily Muslim prayers- they on purpose mistranslate the Last two verses in [Al Fateha]. It says:" Guide us to the straight path. The path of those on whom you have bestowed Your blessing, not of those who earned your anger, nor of those who went astray." The official Saudi translation comments on this verses giving the Wahaby Fanatic Salafi faith describing the Jews as those who earned the anger of God, and the Christians as those who went astray. It is only one example in this translation which has hundreds of examples. Thousands copies of this Translations are usually distributed in the Islamic centers and schools and mosques in the U.S. to confirm that all the Christians and Jews are infidels, and according to the Wahaby faith, they should be killed and fought.
As it was impossible for Muslims to kill all the Jews and Christians inside the Muslim empire, they invented other sayings and attributed them to the prophet Mohammed to persecute and humiliate them, like: “Do not begin the Jews and the Christians by greetings, and when you meet one of them in the street harass him to let him walk into the narrow lane.”
As it was –also- impossible to continue in Al Jihad, every Muslim is commanded to keep Al Jihad in his innermost belief according to this saying attributed to the prophet Mohammed: “ Whoever [ Muslim] dies without [performing actual ] conquest, or without talking with himself about conquest, he will die as hypocrite.”. Conquest means Jihad.
They also make this Jihad their main Livelihood, come from God, and claimed that Hadeeth” My livelihood is made under the shade of my spear”.
2- Mohammed Ibn Abdel Wahab has revived these bloody teachings in his books and Mohammed Ibn Saud applied it in establishing the first Saudi State [1745-1818], and Abdel Aziz did the same in establishing the current Saudi State, [1902-1932], and Ossama Ibn Laden is in a total harmony with this Salafi Wahaby faith. Actually he and the wahaby Salafi oppositions are against the Saudi State because the Saudi State does not apply the Salafi Wahaby teachings literally according to what written and applied in the first Saudi State.
However, that first Saudi Salafi Wahaby state could not use the Hadeeth saying: “ I was commanded to fight[all]the people until they testify that there is no God but one God, and I am his messenger”, because the Saudi family and Ibn Abdel Wahab were surrounded by Sufi and Shiites Muslims in the Arab Peninsula and Middle East. So their only option was to [Takfeer] or excommunicates the other Muslims to justify fighting them and occupying their land and enforcing them to convert to the Wahaby Salafi faith. By [Takfeer] other Muslims, they become according to the Wahaby terminology [Moshrekeen] or idol worshippers, while the Christians and the Jews are branded to be [Koffar] or Infidels. All of them must be fought according to the Wahaby Salafi faith.
Mohammed Ibn Abdel Wahab ordered his people to hate the other peaceful Muslims who are not Salafi Wahaby, making it an Islamic necessity, saying: “ Man could not have real Islam, even he believes in the One God alone and abandons the idol worshipping, unless he abhors the idol worshippers and declares his hostility to them.” and said about the peaceful Muslim Shiites in his time justifying fighting them and occupying their lands: “ Even they testify that is no God but one God, and Mohammed is the messenger of God, and they pray the Friday prayers and other prayers[like us], but they dispute with the [Salafi] Jurisprudence in some of our aspects, so all the[ Salafi] scholars excommunicate them and call to fight them, and [Wahaby Salafi ]Muslims invaded them to get their land for the[Wahaby Salafi] Muslims.”
It is clear here that Ibn Abdel Wahab considered himself and his Salafi Wahaby people as the only Muslims, and so did the Muslim Brothers in an indication to accuse other Muslims to be Non Muslims, then to abhor them and fight them.
The key here is to excommunicate the Muslim just because he is not Salafi Wahaby , then you fight him and plunder and confiscate his wealth, land and freedom, as it applied in establishing the three Saudi States.
More over, Ibn Abdel Wahab made any peaceful Muslim infidel and idol worshipper for just saying a word aimlessly or unintentionally, he said: “ Man becomes infidel by a word uttered by his tongue, he may said it unaware of its meaning, but it is not excuse for him. He may say it to please God as the idol worshippers think.” Ibn Abdel Wahab quoted the same statements of Ibn Taymeyah and other Salafi Scholars who excommunicated the peaceful Muslims because of some words, and accordingly they should be killed as apostates, or fought as idol worshippers.[Read this and more in his message “Kashf Al Shobohat”, or: Clearing the doubts. It is enough as an example, but his books and messages are full of these verdicts.]
Because they fought the peaceful Muslim, all the Sufi and Shiites Muslims scholars in the time of Ibn Abdel Wahab called the Wahaby people “Khawarij”, because Al Khawarij was the first Muslim sect in excommunicating the other Muslims and fighting them few decades after the prophet Mohammed death.
3- This in itself is another prove we can use against the Salafi faith who fabricated this Hadeeth saying: “the best of mankind is my generation, then those who follow them.” It was not the best period of Islam. It was the worst.
During this period, Muslims under the leadership of Quraysh, the mighty tribe of the prophet Mohammed used the name of Islam to conquer and establish the Muslim Empire, using the tough tribes of Najd, and then a great part of those tribes revolted against the Qurayshy Empire and were called Khawarij. [For more details look at attachments]
In the same time, the companions of the prophet Mohammed fought each others in the great civil wars, or in the Arabic terminology: “Al Fitnah Al Kobra”. The victims of these wars were more than 70 thousands, besides killing many leaders and Khalifas, [Rulers]. This period deepened inside the coming Muslim generations all the bad habits of civil wars, transgression under the name of Jihad, and dictatorships. More over, in this period, they have justified all these vices by false Hadeeth and called it Sunna, attributing them to the prophet Mohammed and/or God, the Almighty.
4- To defend this period, they attributed many sayings [Hadeeth] to the prophet Mohammed praising it; one of them is that Hadeeth: “The best of mankind is my generation, then those who follow them.”
The writer of this book mentioned some of these Hadeeth in which they claimed that the prophet Mohammed talked about what will happen after him [look at P: 4, 78]
According to the Quran, the prophet Mohammed did not know what would happen after him in this life or in the Day of Judgment, and he was forbidden from talking in this subject when he was asked about the future and /or what may happen in the Day of Judgment, and he used to wait until the Holy revelation of the Quran gave him some answers.
In this respect read the meaning of these Quranic verses:
“They ask you about the Hour [the Day of Judgment]: “When will be its appointed time?” Say: “The knowledge thereof is with my Lord alone. None can reveal its time but Him. Heavy is its burden through the heaven and the earth. It shall not come upon you except all of sudden.” They ask you as if you have a good knowledge of it. Say: “The knowledge thereof is with God alone, but most of people know not. Say: I possess no power over benefit or harm to myself except as God wills. If I had the knowledge of the unseen [the future], I should have secured for myself an abundance of wealth, and no harm should have touched me. I am just a Warner, and bringer of glad tidings unto people who believe. [7: 187-188].
“Say: “I do not tell you that with me are the treasures of God, nor I know the Unseen, nor I tell you I am angle. I just follow what is revealed to me.”[6:50]
“Say: “I am not distinguished among the Messengers [of God], nor do I know what will be done with me or with you. I just follow what is revealed to me, and I am only plain Warner.”[46: 9].
There are more than 50 Quranic verses confirm this fact, but the Salafi tradition is full of these Hadeeth attributing to the prophet Mohammed that he knew the unseen and what would happen in the future.
5- They celebrate the term [Salaf] because they are obsessed by this period, working for establishing Muslim State by the same kind of bloodshed and transgression and dictatorship. They are not aware that the term [Salaf] in the Quranic code and terminology gives them bad news and confirming the contradiction between them and Islam. The term [Salaf] as a verb in the Quran, means the thing which is gone and never to restore it. [Read these Quranic verses: 2: 275// 4: 22&23// 5:95// 8:38// 10:30.
The same word used as a noun in only one verse made the pharaoh of Moses as the bad example for all the generations that would come after him.[43: 56].
Because it is a human bad habit to follow the footsteps of the old ancestors or [Salaf], whatever they did, God calls people to follow the guidance of His Scriptures and by the light of this guidance they examine their tradition. [Read: 2: 170// 5: 104//31: 21//37: 69&70//43: 22&23.]
6- It is prohibited in the Salafi Jurisprudence to discuss their tradition or their sacred scholars.. If you do so, you will be accused to be apostate and should be killed as one. Ibn Abdel Wahab gave his verdict to fight the Shiites in his time, and accused them to be idol worshippers because they disputed in some of his Salafi culture. I have been suffered for 25 years because I usually discuss the Salafi Wahaby culture in the light of the Quran. This writing is just one sample of what I used to write and preach in Egypt. Because they have no argument against me, the only thing they have is accusing me to be the ardent enemy of Islam and the prophet Mohammed, and calling for my death as apostate.
Detailed comments about Ossama Ibn Laden and his likes
Ossama Ibn Laden belongs to the current Wahaby Salafi opposition which is the third Salafi Wahaby opposition in the third Saudi State. The three Salafi oppositions have the same original Wahaby Salafi teachings, using them against the Saudi State because of its relationship and alliance with the U.S and the West. The Saudi State usually uses its official Wahaby Salafi scholars to face the Wahaby Salafi opposition. The Official Wahaby Salafi scholars usually fail and lose the debate inside the Saudi kingdom because they do not deny the clear teachings of Ibn Abdel Wahab used by the opposition. So the only way the Saudi regime has is to arrest, torture and persecute those people. Only by the help of the West and its human rights foundations and its free media, members of those people of the Salafi Wahaby opposition were released and escaped to the West and in London in particular.
Being unable to face the argument of the Salafi wahaby opposition inside the kingdom, it becomes easier to defeat them here in the U.S by this book, not because this book has hard evidences, but because the American readers has no Islamic background that can help him to discover the big fallacies and fictitious this book has.
For example he said these fallacies about Ossama Ibn Laden and his likes:-
1-Ossama and his family belong to the Sufism not to the Salafism. [PAGE 7]
If so, the Saudi House would not have any relationship with them. The Sufi people inside the kingdom are persecuted and alienated. More over, the Sufi Jihad is denying the military Jihad. Sufi Jihad is to resist inside yourself all the human aspects to get rid of your mortal body and to improve and develop your spirit to be united in the Holy existence of God.[ My PhD in Al Azhar was about the Sufi Muslims]
2- He said - in the page 8- the same about Taliban.
Taliban are famous as ardent Salafi Wahaby generation taught by Saudi religious Schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. When they took over Afghanistan they applied the original Wahaby Salafi teaching of Ibn Abdel Wahab during the first Saudi State.
3- He said that Said Qutb and Ossama Ibn Laden belong to Al Khawarij, because they excommunicate the people. As it said before, it is Ibn Abdel Wahab and Ibn Taymeyah who are more famous in this regard than the extinct Muslim sect named Al Khawarij who was vanished after the third century of Islam.
Said Qutb is the most Salafi thinker and scholar in the last century, who made the traditional tough version or wording of Ibn Taymeya and Ibn Abdel Wahab easier to be read and understood by the secular and regular Arabic readers. Because of his modern religious books many intellectuals and millions of people converted to the Salafi Wahaby movements. This writer said about this great philosopher and thinker and scholar: “Qutb was not scholar, but rather, a regular Egyptian man who turned to religion during a trying time in Egyptian history.”[P.11]. Sooner, he contradicts himself by talking in many page about Said Qutb; his life, his books, and his great influence on the generations during and after his death, P.12, 16, 17.
4-It is funny to read in this book that Said Qutb was influenced by Ibn Taymeya in excommunicating the people, and this is a fact, but the funny thing is that the writer tried to defend Ibn Taymeya and accusing Qutb in the same page [18-19. footnote 59]. It is prohibited to clear this point or to discuss this untouchable side of the Wahaby Salafi culture. So he has to limit his argument to satisfy the Saudi censorship.
5- It is funny to say that Ossama Ibn Laden and Said Qutb belong to three different Muslim sects; the Sufi, Al Mu’tazilah and Al Khawarij.[P.13&26]
It is clear that this poor writer tries his best to cut any relationship between Ossama and the Salafi Wahaby movement. But it is clear also that he has nothing to do with the Islamic history and Muslim sects. It is well know that it is impossible to be Sufi and from Al Mu’tazilah in the same time. The two sects are against each other in their thoughts. It is also impossible to be from Al Khawarij and from the Sufi and /or from Al Mu’tazilah. Al Khawarij- in their time were tough fighters used to fight the other Muslims in particular while the Sufi and Al Mu’tazilah people who have come after them are peaceful people who have nothing to do with violence and/or [Takfeer] or excommunication.
6- It is funny also to say in page 17: “The year that Egyptian Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered Qutb hanged, Zawahiri was arrested for being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.” It is easy for this writer- and any one else- to search about Ayman Al Zawahiry in the internet to know that he was born in 1951, and was arrested for the first time in 1981 after the assassination of the president Sadat, then was released to continue his Salafi Jihad.
7- It is also funny to say in page 21: “Ussama Bin Laden and the agitators are fervent opponents of Salafism and followers of the Qutbist wing of the Khawarij.” Then he finally said; “Salafism is a single way which is found in the unified understanding of the Salaf. Just as there were no two prophet Mohammeds or two sets of companions, there are no two Salafism.”
According to the Quran, Mohammed is just a messenger of God who was revealed by the same revelation of the previous prophets. God said to him: “Nothing is said to you except what was said to the Messengers before you.[41:43], “Verily, We have revealed to you as We revealed to Noah and the prophets after him.”[4: 163]. As it is the same revelation and the same mission, you can say we have the same prophets regardless of name. One Mohammed, or more than one it does not make difference.
About the companions of the prophet Mohamed, they were not one set, in this early time; they were different sets; Omawy then Abbasy or Suuna after that, Shiites, Khawarij, Morje’ah and Qadareyyah, then Mu’tazilah after that. The great companions of the prophet Mohammed fought each others and establish different Muslim sects and cults; the Salafi sect is just a minute group among them.
Even this Salafi group in our modern history- is not one set. The Salafi Saudi House in the 19th century after destroying the first Saudi State had become many sects fighting each other. In the third current Saudi State, the Salafi Wahaby trend has much Wahaby Salafi oppositions; Al Ikhwan, Johayman and the current Salafi Wahaby opposition which produced Ossama Bin Laden. All of them are Wahaby Salafi against the other official wahaby Salafi who serve the Saudi House.
Of course, it is understood, that the official Salafi Scholars - who are servants of the Saudi House – should disown Ossama Ibn Laden after this disagreement between him and the Saudi State. They did not disown him when he was working for the Saudi regime in Afghanistan; rather he was a great “Mojahid” in that time. Once the Saudi state disowned him and denied him as a Saudi citizen in April 4, 1994, the official scholars disown him as a Salafi too.
8- Ossama is not Salafi scholar, but he is Salafi leader who needs a scholar beside him. His favorite scholars are the two famous Salafi Sheikhs; Safar Al Hawaly and Salman Al Oudah, who are now leading the Salafi Wahaby opposition inside the Saudi kingdom. No one inside the Saudi state and its scholars can disown these two sheikhs as they are the greatest Salafi scholars in this time. Safar Al Hawaly and Salman Al Oudah were arrested in September 1994 and were released by the Western pressure in June 1999. In the late March 1997, Ossama talked to C.N.N, and this talk was released on May 12,1997. Ossama criticized the Saudi regime because the wave of arrest which include his two favorite Sheikhs, Safar Al Hawaly and Salman Al Oudah. As a sign of his loyalty to the two Sheikhs, Ossama has Ayman Al Zawahiri as his right hand to have the same Salafi orientation.
The most comical argument in this book
It is more than funny to let your opponent use your evidence to defeat you. That is exactly what the poor write has done in his comical argument. To praise the Salafi faith, he uses the bright side of Islam unaware of the contradiction between this bright side and the dark Salafi Culture.
It will be a good back fire to use the same Quranic verses against him and the Salafi faith. Let’s give examples and short comments:
1- In page 5, he mentions the Quranic verse: “O you who believe! Do not put yourselves forward in taking a decision before God and His Messenger; and fear God. Verily God is All- Knowing”[ 49:1]
The question is; if you believe in this verse, then why do you violate the real Islamic commandments of Jihad? [Please look at the attachments]
2-In the page 26: the Quranic verse: “Then who does more wrong than who invents a lie against God, to lead mankind astray without knowledge. Certainly, God does not guide a wrong-doing people.”[6:144]. This Quranic warns are confirmed and repeated in many verses. [As examples: 6: 21-93-157//17: 37// 10: 17//11: 18//18:15// 29: 68//39: 32]. This confirmation in itself means that the Salafi Muslims and others were warned in advance from attributing Hadeeth to God and His Messengers.
3-In page 56: The Quranic verse: “This day I have perfected your religion for you, complete My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam [Submission] as your religion.”[5:3]
As the religion of Islam has been completed by the end of the revelation of the Quran and the death of the prophet Mohammed, then all these Hadeeth, Sunna, Shiites and Sufi have nothing to do with the religion of God and His Jurisprudence in the Quran. So, all the Salafi culture is not a part of Islam because it was fabricated some centuries after this Quranic verse. To know that the Salafi faith contradicts Quran and Islam, it is the very reason to abandon it as it is impossible to believe in it or in the Islam in the same time.
4- In page 58, the Quranic verse: “And We have revealed to you the Book explaining every thing; as a guidance, mercy, and glad tiding to the submitters.”[16:89]
If the Quran has every thing we need in the field of religious life, then we do not need what they call Hadeeth, Sunna and all these sacred books which are upheld by different Muslim sects and cults.
5- In page 59, the Quranic verse: “Or do they have partners that legislate for them from the religion which God has not given permission for?”[42: 21]
This is exactly what their scholars have done as Fatwa [verdict] or Hadeeth. Because they consider them sacred religion, no one can discuss those old scholars like Ibn Abdel Wahab and Ibn Taymeya.
6- In page 91, the Quranic verse: “Then in which Hadeeth [saying] after this [Quran] will they believe?” This verse is repeated twice in the Quran,[77: 50]
[7:185] and this meaning is confirmed in the Quran many times. Read these verses: [45:6][4 :87& 122][39 : 23]. If the Quran is the only Hadeeth which we should uphold and believe, then why they believe in these Salafi Hadeeth?
7-In page 101, the Quranic verse: “Verily, God enjoins justice, the doing of good, and giving to kin; He forbids all shameful and bad deeds, and oppression. He admonishes you, that you may take heed.”[16:90].
These are some of the high Islamic values which have been abandoned by Muslims since they invaded and occupied other people’s lands and enslaved them. These Islamic values are upheld now in the Western civilization, not in Muslim world which is controlled by tough dictatorship, the most notorious one of them is the Saudi State which is owned and by the family of Saud. Is it Justice?