Suhaib Webb – Accountability, Cohesion and A Concern A Response To This Moment
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I hope you all are doing amazing. For
those of you who are first time visitors,
I want to welcome you and ask Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to increase you in the
khayr in this life and the next. Of
course, the context at hand demands that some
things be spoken to, if I ask Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for tofiyyah and sidded.
First, I want to address something that I
think is a mistake on my part and
a failure on my part, and that is
the challenge it is to serve a humongous
demographic
of people.
And someone who raised Islam in 1992
started a religious service, I think, in the
mid nineties from that time till now.
You know,
a a a huge number of people,
whether online or on life, that I serve.
And as someone who who
very early on, after 10 years of study
with my teacher
was was asked by him and give her
permission to become an imam,
it is
obviously going to be difficult to serve
a community perfectly.
And to admit that I'm an imamah for
everybody.
Whoever comes to me, no matter who they
are,
within the realm of Islam
who needs help,
I'll be there for them, be it as
best I can. And there'll be failures in
that, and I'll make mistakes in that.
The role of the imam, as Imam Ibn
Taymiyyah says, is to achieve the 2 best,
Hayra Hayraini or Hayra
Shalrayni,
to achieve the 2 best or the 2
worst. And
I
I have made some mistakes in this area.
And I think it's important that
there are 2 things that need to be
said about this. And I'm speaking now to
the people of the ilm, the people who
are more conservatively leaning or the people who
are more leprosy leaning.
I think that this is an opportunity to
acknowledge mistakes on my end so that we
can think about working together more in the
future
and contributing to the Dua. We want to
leave the Dawah in a better shape
than it was we found in B'Nilah.
And that is, for example, the issue of
the *,
interview, which happened, I believe, in 2017,
2015. I believe * stopped issuing news at
that time,
that the interview took place. That was one
of the reasons that I didn't have a
issue with it. They were not publishing *
photos.
The individual was not on the cover of
the magazine. This is a a failure
by, the brother in his research that we'll
talk about hopefully a little later.
And that's turned into, of course, now Eli
and Gainstein.
But on my end, and some some brothers
that I haven't talked to in a while
contacted me and and shared with me their
concerns just yesterday,
from from a Ilmi perspective.
And I and my argument's, of course, not
comparing her to Malcolm, but noting how Malcolm
is a precedent.
I believe there have been other religious leaders
across Tunisia perspectives that appeared in magazines,
that are questionable.
But that's a failure on my part. But
it was an attempt to try to serve
someone in my community who I know. I
did her marriage.
I know her family. I know her to
be a decent person,
and it's not her fault, and she shouldn't
be blamed.
And and also, I shouldn't be
deemed irredeemable
in an attempt to serve somebody,
and to serve someone in a way that
is not as it is portrayed. It was
not by any means encouraging people to look
at * because there was no * in
that magazine at that time,
as well as just have that assumption about
a religious teacher. I find it
really
just out of pocket.
But my mistake
was to communicate correctly, and I own that
mistake. And I own the mistake of that
decision. I am owning the mistake of that
decision,
to support that because in hindsight, it was
wrong. I have no problem saying that.
I do have a problem with people attacking
her,
you know, saying things about her that are
unacceptable.
She is our sister, alhamdulillah, she's married,
and we should, I think, show greater respect
and restraint.
But that's an example.
At that time, nobody communicated with me. Nobody
contacted me. Nobody reached out to me. The
individual himself,
is mistaken in thinking that you shouldn't reach
out to people first if a person who
commits apostasy, used to tab,
right, should be contacted and given an opportunity,
what about people who make mistakes in these
areas and people who even have knowledge?
The second, example I think I could give
is the Lupe concert where I tweeted, and
this is a mistake I made,
look at the north. But there is a
context here, and and people begin to attack
me. People begin to say things about me,
and people begin to feel very aggressive. And
I'm, of course, not going to respond nicely
to that. You show up on my comments
box and begin to bully me or bully
the people who follow me or my students.
I'm not gonna give you the time of
day, man. And
that is showing me that you're not someone
that has the year edition,
dated to to gain and
to discuss and engage.
But I
I I at that time was serving in
a community,
was asked Lupe as someone who I've answered
questions to. Lupe is his own man. I'm
not responsible for Lupe. He's his own man.
I'm not responsible for Nora. She's her own
woman.
But I have responsibility
when
asked to do my best to serve
and have had interesting discussions with him over
the years, alhamdulillah,
someone that I I see as a friend.
And
find it problematic to label him as a
Fussarq and brother Ariat. I know it's to
be a very committed Muslim, alhamdulillah.
But, you know, went to the concert. And
at that concert, the very beginning, Lupe said
that there's an imam here,
and this imam, I wanna encourage you all
to go to his mosque. And this is
at the time that I took the picture
and said the nur. Look at the nur.
I I think that context is important. I
didn't explain that context well, and that lent
it to being misunderstood, and that's my fault.
And I wish I had remembered the hadith
of the prophet sallallahu while he was salam
when he was walking with his wife at
night and he say this is my wife
but you're the messenger of Allah no one
would ever assume
evil. We said that shaytan, you know, shaytan
moves to the veins of people, moves their
blood. And that is my fault. And I
own that. And that is something that I
have a responsibility as best I can, although
trying to serve large numbers of people
and moving really rather quickly, not having a
massive team,
to help me and to support me. I
have a team of maybe 2 people right
now,
to do the work that I do.
A mistake was made, and I should have
communicated the context of that.
Again,
there was no communication from even people who
read into it what wasn't there.
I will not apologize though for being in
a place where
I believe we have
Me as someone who was guided to Islam
and understands how beautiful Islam is
to spread Islam. Hassan al Banda went into
shisha houses to spread Islam. The prophet made
a tawaf around the Kaaba that was surrounded
by idols, and his companions were there. And
there was there was * happening.
But I believe we have to spread the
Haqq.
And I've given shahadas to people in trap
houses, 4 brothers, 4 bloods, 1 night.
I've I've pulled a Muslim out of a
pub. I've gone I'll go to AA meetings
with Muslims. I I believe that I have
a responsibility
to
help not because I'm great,
but to help people see the beauty of
Islam. Not through me, but through
that experience of learning and growing and sharing
together and being there for people.
I am not gonna apologize for that. And
if people have some issues with that, that's
something we can discuss.
But the way that I portrayed it and
the way that I presented it
was was not right, and I own that
mistake.
The third issue is the term American Islam
as an example.
Immediately, I was sort of castigated, and I
understand why.
It certainly can be triggering and cathartic, and
that's my fault not to be sensitive around
it. But there's only been 2 instances where
people have asked me what I meant. One
was at that time, now he's a scholar,
a student of knowledge in Mecca who contacted
me. We met and had coffee. And then
another was a scholar who called me to
his home. And and that scholar, in both
instances, by the way, when I explained what
I meant,
they were like, there's nothing wrong with that.
And what did I say was that you
have Fatwa Hindiyah, you have Fatwa Masriya, you
have Fatwa,
you name it. Right? You have different
specific books written for fatwas of people of
specific countries.
And so my usage of the term was
in the area where the urf is applicable.
Al Uf al Muhaqam is one of the
greater actions of Islam.
And and we find this in our text,
you know, if you study
I think in the word of hearts, the
basic text, right, when he talks about al-'am,
You know, when al-'af and lam is given
to
it means an. But then why do scholars
always use the example of talaq, the word
to show that this is an
but as, Isaiah
and and Imam Al HaTab al Mariki mentioned
that the I'm it can be
that the word talap should not be understood
to be universal or general here, but it
has to be restricted to what someone implies
by when they say it in that context,
in this context, not all situations
in the context I'm talking. The point is
we have this history of cultural negotiation when
acceptable
that the Aaraf, the Orf,
can come into play the 1st PhD done
in Eshar in 1992 by ibn Abi Sunnah.
I believe it's his name, Abu Sunnah. Al
Khalafi was on Alarf, who will add, was
on custom and how it impacts Islamic law.
So my usage of American Islam
was 1 in the context of ishtihad,
where accessible
and permissible,
not fundamental. And only 2 people in all
these years have ever asked me
what I meant by that. And I sit
now on a North American faith council. I
sit on Ittihadul Ulamad Al Adami. I sit
on councils of scholars, hundreds of scholars.
It never declared me as a deviant or
thrown me under the bus
or done these things. I've been welcomed with
open arms and people that have concerns always
are able to engage me. But the point
is that it's my fault that I did
not explain that well. And I hope that
the people of Dean, people of knowledge, the
people who have of your audition who are
listening to this and I've made that mistake
in the past too, not contacting people.
Contact me.
I'm happy to have these conversations. Do I
support LGBTQ?
No. Do I support same * marriage? Absolutely
not. Have I had to work through negotiations
at times in my career where I made
mistakes
that did not sacrifice the foundations of the
community,
but important allyships had to be maintained?
Absolutely. And we find a precedence for this
is Sahih al Bukhari.
When the prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, on the
way to Mecca, he points at Mecca after
his camel,
stops. And he says, those people, if they
call me to Maru, for salutarraham, or sha'arullah,
I'll work with them. These people ask me
to work towards something which is noble, to
work towards establishing family values,
to work towards
the sacred. I will do so. And Imam
Ibn Qayim says this means that a Muslim
can ally with anyone as long as we
don't sacrifice the tenants and non negotiables of
Islam with anybody, then he gives a list
of people. So in that vein,
I tried to serve. And in that vein,
I definitely made mistakes.
But
in no way, shape, or form
did I intend or explicitly ever say
that these things are permissible because they're not.
There's no need to say that. There was
an article written, I think the elephant in
the room,
a gay Muslim wrote it from our website
talking about what it was like to be
a gay Muslim.
I have no problem with someone who openly
struggles with something that they they are dealing
with in their life. There is a difference
between welcoming and affirming. And so I I
have
never
in any shape or form explicitly said these
things are allowed, would encourage people to think
so.
And and again, my mistake and my failure
to communicate effectively, although I've done it in
the past with Baruj de Tour some years
ago, I answered these things,
but always willing to have discussions
with people. I was
misrepresented,
specifically misrepresented in 2 articles in America. One
of them, I got them to take it
back. And I said, like, I didn't say
this, and you're describing me as as as
what is a description. I believe both are
descriptions. I didn't say it. And we have
to be careful of the media, man. That
they will they will set us up. And
I learned a lesson from that, Alhamdulillah. I'm
an agent for the US government. I I'm
I'm poor person, meh. I don't have I'm
not a by any means someone who is
financially,
living a great a great life.
I have never been supported, never taken money
from any government, and in fact have pushed
in many ways governments to be honest.
In America, you have separation of church and
state. You don't have separation of church and
mosque. And we are under tremendous pressure.
So I want to sort of emphasize that
this moment is not so much about that
individual.
That's sort of a waste of time. His
followers, unfortunately,
I worry about them and I worry about
their, their, their
centering as Muslims,
But more so a message to the people
at the ilm who I may have
offended inadvertently or intentionally,
to you to forgive me,
that I've made these mistakes, and that I
want to encourage you to contact me in
love and brotherhood and sisterhood
to have conversations.
And that's why I I mentioned, you know,
I saw the post of 5 Pillars Media
numerous times, I think, few times, I'm not
sure, but I've been betrayed by them in
ways that are not true.
And I've now reached out and said, hey,
I'm on your podcast. Let's talk through Afiyyah
Sadeefi. Let me tell you what happened. That's
not true. That's not what happened. Let's talk
about
was was I
somehow
approached
at that event. I instigated the salaam to
that brother.
I I met him actually twice and gave
salaam. So that takes me to the situation
that,
again, people of ill, people of warah, people
of knowledge,
contact me. You have concerns, I'm happy to
have conversations and benefit benefit from you.
The second now is the issue that took
place this weekend, and it happened in a
way that I had not intended.
I I really feel should I hear my
daughter crying. They're going to have to make
a move here, but,
was deeply
disturbed by how it turned out and and
and felt bad for the community
there
because
I had been attacked by this person, more
than once. And I I thought it was
odd that he never
comes to even have a conversation with me
to do due diligence. And I realized that
there are a number of issues to his
approach that reveal
he's dishonest. He's a liar. And one of
them, he doesn't take the time to contact
people. He said, you know, I don't have
to contact. Yes. You do. I mean, even
someone who commits apostasy,
yusteteb,
should be should be approached. You know, these
are not sins that are anywhere near apostasy,
unless you may think that, brother. But
the the rule of thumb is that there's
no Juh without Tadeel
and that Fatabeyanu
that we communicate. So So I thought it
was strange that you weren't there. And
I, I, emotionally, and I don't apologize for
that. I I called you out and said
come through, and I was very happy that
you came. And that's why I responded and
and and set up a time. I I
thought I made it clear that we're going
to have a man to man conversation
with cameras on, by the way. I didn't
have a problem with that.
Not a debate.
I understand how moderated debates work. It's not
something I like to do.
I like that we talk as men and
that we we illustrate our positions as men
one to 1. And so I I I
know that you came into the Masjid. I
know that the Masjid asked us to leave,
which I agreed to do. I wanted to
respect the Masjid. I gave you salaams first,
as you
know, inside the Masjid. Then on the way
out, you accused me of orchestrating a setup
because I knew the Masjid would not allow
this to happen, but I was like, it
doesn't happen to happen after Masjid. And that's
why the imam assistant
imam invited you to come to his home
invited me to come he told me he
invited you that's what I know you can
let us know if that's true or not.
And invited me to come and meet you
at his home, and I agreed. I was
told that you didn't want to.
So I sat in the parking lot for
for some time. There are people who witnessed
this, and I hope they'll share their thoughts
on social media.
And then I came back and gave you
salam, and then this is where he told
me I had to wear a microphone.
You know,
you don't have the right to tell anyone
what to do. Right? So you told me
I have to wear a microphone. I said,
we, nahriqum ma'afidinq yawrman kachibin. I have Malaika
that can hear everything I'm saying.
And of course, we began to discuss. And
it was interesting, I I find within your
own repertoire, dear brother,
that I believe that you are completely unaccomplished
intellectually and Islamically and you admitted that you're
ignorant and you're not a sheikh and Al
Khuraru saygo Adillah. So that doesn't need to
be addressed. You've said that.
If people are saying that you said that
in humility, then well, like the time I
said, this is my rabbi. That was said
out of humility,
out of a sense of rhetoric. So it's
interesting that there is this misapplication
and it can be an usage of rhetorical
interpretation when it fits people's needs. And I
think that's one thing that's interesting about you.
Very rarely,
are you willing to accept that you're wrong
or that you will
engage with people that believe you're wrong?
But the first, I think, was the tweet
by Blair Imani, and somehow you expected me
to have Keshe and know that she would
become a lesbian, which was impossible.
I honestly did not know what that word
meant. I had to Google it.
And if someone had contacted me and said,
man, this is what this means, I would
have taken that tweet down, man.
If I had known that was the direction
of where that was headed, and that's my
fault. I own that mistake. And I said
that to you. I said, man, that's my
fault, man. Right there in front of everyone,
I said it. Hey. That's a mistake I've
made. But to
amplify it, to say now that I'm supporting
and the way it's portrayed
intentionally
an agenda
is a lie.
The interesting thing is that just last week,
I think, Ashaikh Lipan,
who you've also attacked, a respected scholar and
sheikh,
I think his name is Sajid
Ali Pan, I believe is his name.
You you have attacked him, I've seen now.
I didn't know that you attacked so many
people.
But he actually showed that you shared a
tweet last week, which was fictitious and was
was actually photoshopped. And I think this is
that contradiction that concerns me.
The second was that somehow you tried, and
I noticed as I was continuing to respond
to you, you would kind of jumped from
one issue to another. You wouldn't stay focused.
You were obviously a little bit upset and
angry. And I know because you believe your
truth, and you turned to the audience. I
think some of your family members may have
been there and was told who were kind
of your fans, which is great to see
your family support you. It's a great thing.
But to say that somehow I supported
looking at filthy photos. When you yourself have
pixelated photos of women
that are
in unfortunate,
you know, like the dress code isn't Sharia
compliant.
And are you encouraging now? And with the
same logic, can I say you're encouraging people
to look up? Of course not. Like, I
I wouldn't think that.
But you even have a video of a
woman who's married now, but one time didn't
wear hijab, who repented to Allah, someone who
I know to be a person, who's a
very good person, good family, alhamdulillah, someone I
have respect for.
You have a married woman without hijab in
her video,
and people can go, I'm not gonna share
these things because I don't think it's fair
to make people pawns in these moments.
You can go and look through Daniel's things
and see these things, and it's unfortunate that
you did that. But that is a great
contradiction.
You yourself actually do this.
And then finally, the reason I believe that
you're unworthy of engagement and why, especially people
of Dean, who may be swayed by some
of the things you say should pay attention
to this,
is that you continue to exhibit a lack
of commitment
to the demands of Islamic debate.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, very clearly in the
43rd chapter of the Quran, commands that we
should not use names that are foul or
nicknames.
And you called Sheikht Ipan and myself
a racial epithet,
which is unacceptable
on any level. Right? It's something that the
prophet called a sifat of Jahilia.
And I hope, you know, people can find
it. I think it's on your Telegram,
where where I was shown by someone there
that this should render you incapable
of any type of critique of anyone.
That that that that that type of ethical
approach,
laughing at young girls in Afghanistan who can
go to school,
calling Muslims racial epithets,
using these kind of terms.
In the simple
rules of Adebel Baithful Manatulah. You would be
expelled from the octagons
of the discussions of the people of knowledge.
So as I close, I think this is
an important moment in history. I want to
warn people from following
you.
I find you extremely problematic
for reasons that I've shown
from,
our tradition,
lack of ethics, the inability to do research,
the constant need to lie, stepping into a
situation with bad assumptions. Like when you saw
me in the mosque and you said to
me, you set this up. Like, this is
you projecting, man, using a highly sensitive language,
being, as you admitted,
So that's done. Right? Let's put you into
the recycle bin of of sort of
this moment that comes and goes in history.
More importantly,
for our brothers and sisters in the center
who I've
hurt, on the right and left,
coming to you and admitting my mistakes to
you, on certain issues that have been presented
to me. I ask that you forgive me.
I could have done things a lot better
trying to navigate the left in America, making
mistakes. Absolutely.
The issue on on on on the article,
a mistake that I admit, I audit,
and not being more transparent. And I think
there's a double issue here that when someone
feels they're being attacked, they're not transparent.
And so it sort of feeds itself. So
I want to invite you. As I said,
5 pillars. I'm happy to come on and
have conversations with you. I'm trying to establish
a new Paul from Black King Theology. We
shot to me a few months ago. Someone
I I have a lot of respect for.
I think his podcast is absolutely amazing. And
I hope to come. And not to talk
about this issue
in particular that happened this weekend, but to
talk about the broader issues of
oppression being Muslim in America.
That there's not separation of church and mosque
in this country. That we're experiencing things that
you're not be may be aware of. I've
been banned from countries, not Muslim countries,
countries which are not Muslim. And and the
pressure that that puts on leadership and the
mistakes that will happen and then what are
the structures we can do
to have communication with one another and to
correct one another.
Ask Allah for those of you who have
been with me for these years and agree
with me that I hope this is a
moment of strengthening your resolve. I am committed
to my work. I am committed to pushing
forward. I am committed to learning. I'm committed
to growth, but I'm not going to
sit back and continue to see people irresponsibly
attack,
and dismantle institutions and imams and communities. People
like Sheikh Yas Al Qadis, people like
Doctor. Omar Suleiman, people who I know and
love and have respect for. Adadi al Mogahed,
who I know agree with everything people do,
but I know as the prophet said,
If the water is more than 2.5 liters,
it doesn't hold evil. If people's good is
more than 2.5 liters, it doesn't hold evil,
and we need to appreciate that dynamic. Waraqa
lafiqum.
I'm here to stay committed to the work
and teaching that I do. Wassallallahu wa sallam
madasaydum Muhammad. Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullah.