Towards an Ecumenical Conception of Salafiyyah

Yasir Qadhi

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Channel: Yasir Qadhi

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Episode Notes

Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi delves into a topic that is marred by uncertainties and it is Salafism. In this lecture, he takes on the challenge to dissect the doubts in our mind regarding the Salafī movement and we are also provided with answers on how to maintain unity in the wake of this predicament.

In earlier era,the term ‘Salafī’ resonates with an Islamic methodology whose primary motive is the emulation of the Prophet ﷺ. In this, the era of the Prophet ﷺ, his teachings, the Revelations and similar facts are put into use to perfect the pure and perfect religion of Islam.

Despite this, the people who follow make or break a methodology as is the case here. The textual ideals of Salafism devoid of imbibing practicality in the real world we live, makes it a problem and errors are bound to surface. This is exactly what has happened over the years  and these inconsistencies have cost the pillar of Salafism to be surrounded by doubt.

Hence, Shaykh Yasir Qadhi implores the followers of Salafism to adopt a more ecumenical approach so that their heritage doesn’t crumble and holds firm.

 

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is not your typical spiritualities It's a topic that deals with some water issues in a contemporary context, deal with modern science is a bit of a sensitive topic, and over the weekend is by highlighting, in my opinion, six eras of Islamic history when it comes to intellectual thoughts. Six, if you like that box six timeframes, each one of which was indicated by certain trends, not every time you divided history into trends, there's always problems, exception to the rule. But it's safe to say that certain things happen we have a we have electricity or the steam engineer, or we have the global era of internet, you can say there are certain trends that are common in every

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single era. And if you look at our 14 centuries of Islamic history, this is one categorization scheme and others are to give their categorization schemes. The first of the six epochs was the Progressive Era. And of course, this is the golden era, this was the era where the Prophet was alive. As long as those who love some of us is alive, you cannot have any difference of opinion, you cannot have any two opinions about the same issue, you will take it back to him, he will tell you exactly what needs to be done. In other words, there is an ultimate point of reference. And that is the property of optimism.

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And therefore all mantras, theological, political, social, every interpretation of the Koran, everything that the process of says becomes the word of law. So there were two groups in his time of nature that now exist, there couldn't be you either believed in him, or you pretended to believe in like the hypocrites or you didn't believe in. And that was really the only groups that were there, you either believe, or you pretend to believe that Allah knows you're protecting other people.

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Or you did not believe that the second iraq team and I have called this a year of organic flourishing. The second year is really when all of the seeds are laid for differences of opinion is the year of organic flourishing, what is organic flourishing differences occurred. And these differences were not demarcated in lines, this is so and so that is so and so rather, there was a fluidity, rather there was a continuum is organic is flourishing. And we find differences of opinion and every area, the earliest difference of opinion that ever occurred in Islam was of a political nature, who's going to take charge after the death of the process of the unsought and then a bit of

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attention? Who's going to make decisions? What if we disagree with political decisions, they'll have a disagreement amongst themselves with political decision, those who haven't even went to war with one another over political decisions. They fought each other over political decisions. And those decisions are tolerated as being within the spectrum of Islam. Neither group considered the other to be undecided. They said, this is a wrong opinion, politically, but they didn't say this is basically not to correct for not a good Muslim. Also, early differences occurred over the role of the caliphate, who should be the Taliban, what is the role of the caliphate, and this was the early

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issues, and that really, is that the wishes of

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the cabinet is a religious figure appointed by Allah directly is not just a challenge. It is, in fact, an email with a capital I he has a role he has a god given mandate, and whatever he says it is that simple luck of speaking to mankind, basically very similar to the Catholic Pope, that the pope is infallible in all that. He says, similarly, we had this notion earlier, that the island banks are basically chosen by a lot to be leaders and they have certain privileges. And of course, mainstream ours was a Sunni Islam disagree, and they said, politics is something a lot has been basically relegated to choose boom, and to run the affairs. This is something that is not sanctioned directly

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by Allah subhanho wa Taala. And these differences, again, existed and it's the second year of theological differences also began in the second year in the year we're getting flourishing. theological differences were dimension centers. And perhaps the earliest theological difference was, what does it mean to be able to slip? If you disobey a law or you're not so hot, a child said, If you drink, you're not, if you lie, if you cheat, if you steal, you're not Muslim, whereas mainstream Sunday said, No, these are sins and allies forgiving, you're not disqualified from Islam. You're simply a Muslim was committed to sin. And the only thing that keeps you out of Islam is basically

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major ship or major over so this was a theological debate. Also, we had the issue of very early on in the title of the Sahaba. The first idea was to look it up the very first person even though as the old man is doing wrong

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And somebody comes up to me. And he says, Oh, you know, we have a group that denies other and says that things are spontaneous.

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Things are spontaneous, that Allah doesn't know is going to happen. So they do not order they deny predestination. This is an old man, 78 years old. So he's still alive. And he sees the First Division. So he says, Go tell them that the Profit System has nothing to do with it. I you're not.

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Because you've denied. This group eventually became the president much later on. In the third year, we also have differences in understanding the nature of God, the nature of the data. And by the way, these differences began when Muslims first interact with Christians. Christianity at this time was undergoing its own development. And there was a huge controversy in early Christianity over the nature of Jesus Christ, and the relationship of Jesus Christ with God and the relationship of the word. You know, the first sentence of the Bible, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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And the Christians of this era, were contemplating were debating what is this word? What is this speech? How is Jesus linked with this speech, and this was translated into Islamic peoples by talking about the nature of anatomy, what is the law is, the law created and created. This was a classical controversy. This eventually led to the biggest controversy that eclipsed all others for 700 years. And it still existence is not, and that is the nature of the attributes of God. This is to be very blunt, and frankly, important controversy. Christians were having it, we were not having it. The other controversy was coming from within us the amount of controversy was coming from within

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us. As for the controversy over a lot of names and attributes. This was an important Christian controversy that then became central to Islamic theology, Islamic theology developed his own notion, some groups denied other groups interpreted, other groups affirmed other groups affirmed in a very literal manner, an entire spectrum came about, again, this is the era of organic ecology. We also this year Islamic law, organic flourishing, all of the major humans are living in this time, and more than the four that were, in fact, hundreds of 1000s of great scholars, each one of which had their own legal opinions. And it was understood that these legal opinions were not going to make

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somebody a bad Muslim, it's okay to have differences in Islamic law. In this era of organic origin. We also have the beginnings or the seeds of variant practices of Islam, especially when it comes to Zoom's asceticism, how much you would be detached from this world. And this eventually became for some of the earliest Zohan, the earliest photo. Selfies basically existed in this time. And they lived a very different lifestyle, a very ascetic lifestyle, they started developing a theology as well. But again, this is the era of organic flourishing. So you could be a Sufi with tendencies to the Godfather, you could be somebody on this matter, and we proceed. So there's an organic

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flourishing is not demarcated into clear cut groups. There's a fluidity, there's a continuum, this leaf, and what is this, this is basically the first the second, and really, the third is a century of organic flourishing in the next era. And I call this era of crystallization begins from the late third, early fourth, and last for around two centuries. This is the era where really everything crystallizes and becomes demarcated. This is the Sufi machinery. This is kind of the embodiment of it, all of the law is quoted by the performance of you have different trends, the decree, the decree of divorce, decree, all of these screens, you have different grades and different sects being formed

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in the era of crystallization. Before this, the genesis of the sex existed, the thought existed, but it was much more fluid, you could have a mixture of a person, and then the year of civilization was when really everything became clear cut, and the major founders really of these movements lived and died. And they wrote their words, this is the era of crystallization. The next year is the year of development. And we can say this is from the late to really end of the 17th century, the year of development in this era of development. All of these movements basically develop their theology, their books of law, if you look at the classical Islamic law, they go back to this Europe, if you

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look at the classical books of theology, the

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the athanasian Creed, they're all writing their books. 400 500 600 This is the era really Oh, basically, crystallization they're solidifying themselves and that kind of a tradition are also called the entity tradition, also called the ethnic heavy tradition. This tradition clearly has his luminaries throughout this era, culminating really with the final great luminary, and that is entertaining and that's the end of the development phase. We haven't increased as well.

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Have you have an Azure AD consult your mother Jamie, you have a sandy, you have other scholars out there and finally an annuity then you get the combination. That is awesome. You know, fuzzy logic really signifies the end really of the development and the change of thought. And this year has really

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solidified. These are the seven hundreds of 600 majors only because they solidify, and you have genetically, supers and then you have any other types of Sufism. You have the intoxicating Sufism and the silver, Sufism, all of this basically comes in this hero. This is the next eRA Commons. And that is an era of ossification, and I call this or I call this fear of ossification, and this is from the eighth to the 12th centuries. And this is also called a pre modern era. And the fact of the matter is being very generic, but there's not much developments taking place is stagnant. It's ossified, whatever existed, prevents India is exactly what the tradition continued. Whatever Rossi

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finished up with the Chinese continued our whatever a theology was developed, it basically continues now with very little originality, it simply passing that heritage down, then we come to the file arrow. And again, I'm being very simplistic here what can be said much has been written about this, or these arrows that come to the final Europe and that is modernity from the western sense of the word crashing into a super imposing itself on to Islam. modernity is a Western construct. modernity is something to do with European civilization and modernity developed independent basically of the stock when modernity crashed with Islam. When modernity super imposes upon itself. This really

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begins the modern era of our thoughts to the final platform or the sixth Europe, and that is modernity in Islam, as one can embody or signify this

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spectacular incidence of our modernity, and that is Napoleon Bonaparte, and his invasion of Egypt. Napoleon Bonaparte was decided to

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invade Egypt. And when he invades Egypt, he is coming with a Western army with cannons with mercenary reinforcement is coming with guns. And quite literally, the people he's fighting are the mon loops, quite literally with skin sores. Yes, there were a few guns here. And there was a man who did not really have a convention, they didn't have tenants that were basically organized the way the bowling party was organized. And we're lucky I think this is a snapshot of the reality of the oma on the one hand, you have the audience. On the other hand, you have the mom groups, and the groups go back 700 years, and they're still around struggling. This was the end of the mongoose. napolean

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eliminated the bundles. Can you imagine, on the one side, you have the French version of the French artillery, the French military, and they're invading Muslim lands, the beginning of colonialism. And they have all the weaponry of 18th century France. And on the other hand, you have people on horses with skin tars trying to defend their land. And obviously, that did not work. Eventually, of course, that's a different tangent. But really, this embodies modernity. And I have given an entire lecture that I encourage you to listen to the rise and fall of the overthrow the history of the printing press that the printing press was basically shut off from the Obama the Obama did not once the

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printing press to visit as intended to be an invention of the tractor, we're not going to take from the top of anything but the top of the dozen, we will reject it. So for 350 years, when, when Isaac Newton, when Galileo, when others of this nature are printing and publishing their books and ideas are being disseminated across Europe, most of them still are handwriting until they are printing presses in Hawaii, in in so many faraway lands before the first printing press began in Egypt. This is beginning to close mindsets of the rest of the world. Now the point being in this modern era, when quote unquote, modernity was thrust onto the Muslim world This sparked this was the catalyst

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you had to do something you couldn't just sit there and let status quo remain there had to be original thought. And so what happened 1850 onwards took a while, 78 years as 70 It took a while, eventually the Muslim woman really had to react intellectually. And this really sparks to the end of most movements that we in 2014 are currently familiar with. Right? We have we have for example, the energy movement, the salary of the candidate, necessary revival, and this was really the one movement that had the least to do with foreigners because Sunday we have a lot of protected Mecca and Medina for really being invaded directly by the western lines by and large, it was isolated and

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this is the wisdom from a lot so then this the revival, the modern, Wahhabi was set as the that was the like, and I don't like using it or why it is an academic term as an academic I'm using it otherwise the term is draw your trend. I don't like it. So the next the doctor well what is an example of

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Basically one more that what but this is not connected with modernity, it was really an internal revival. But some examples of revivals that are, that are affected by Europe and the European civilization is, I think the quintessential example most of us in this country have to deal with the school. The school is a direct result of the failure of those limbs, to end the political mutiny and the uprising against the British in 1837. The Muslims, along with some Hindus, they tried to rebel against the British mutiny, and there was a severe massacre, there was a backlash. And in fact, the global emperor was, in fact, charged with treason, and he was then exiled to the fallen, united,

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miserable, that's a default, and the moral Caliphate was abolished.

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And it was abolished. And Her Majesty Queen Victoria basically took India for herself, and she became the emperor of India, and they became the Indian Raj. So this resulted in a defeatist type of mentality that callbacks resulted in a number of members being the most predominant example is that to be the one that is that the reason why this is happening, is because we are not good enough. So what must we do, we must study the text, memorize the Quran become Muslim, and then from this is also we need to send people into their villages, make them pray, make them practice. So this was a great movement for science. But what needs to contextualize it, to understand where it came from?

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What were the causes of the rise of the urban desert, and from the earth is a branch of busy religion, and culture of encountering to deal with the baby moving again, all of this one needs to contextualize because for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction when they want the same preaching the type of Islam that was not popular in some circles. So then the lives also began with their preaching, and another trend began in Egypt. And that is really the triad of

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resuming obedience here, because this is an advanced topic. But if you can take those look these people up. And this was basically the first time in the Arab world where people wanted to synthesize European modernity with Islamic thought, What is unique about the body after the middle there, one is, by and large, were isolations that wanted to cut themselves off from the British, and the original one, the founders considered impermissible, by and large, to have anything to do with the British don't learn their language, don't learn their sciences, you know, dress in the upper, you know, put your culture of 1817 they will button which is why they still dressed in that manner that

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they think this is the more dishonored, you're not going to wear the clothes of the British, you're not going to dress like your British, you're not going to speak the language of the British. So the by and large attitude was these people are bad, they ruined our country and land. Why should we follow their ways? Of course, by the way, there was a counter reaction to this. And that is saying that McConnell, and I think the university went the exact opposite extreme. And he said, the reason why the Muslims have failed is not because we didn't read the text and whatnot, is because we didn't know technology. We didn't develop the British language and the British culture and the British

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Heart. So what should we do, we should study the hearts of the British, the size of the British, the language of the British, so he founded a liberal University point being again, you have these things on the spectrum happening in India and Egypt, you also have the same type of spectrum. But

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beyond it, all of our movements taking place was you mentioned the need to bond ism and behind them, and eventually they the foundation for Khomeini's political shears. And by and large shears, it was a very quiet movement for the last 400 years in that they didn't really get involved in politics just wanted to live their life because she isn't by its nature is a way to do it. And because you're waiting for the Holy Spirit to come, there's nothing you can do. And what he did was he revolutionized cheers in his own way. And this is a factual statement is neither a phrase nor a disparage is simply a factual statement. So don't read into my statement when he changed the course

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of Shiism, by politicizing it by talking about before the magic comes, we have the concept of

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needing to take charge before the nothing comes. Even if there's no money, we need to do something. And that's really what brought about this idea of Republic of the art. This is also a product of modernity

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is a product of modernity. So what is all right, well, now we get to the body of the demo strength and probably we get to the term selfie. So

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they're trying to synthesize from their perspective. They're trying to synthesize

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a body and out you are talking about the and this notion that we still talk about, by the way to this day. We are so proud to mention that Europe's advances are due to Islamic causes. We invented the astrolabe. We in Europe, the books of

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Aristotle and Plato. We were the ones who translated the Greek text we carry the heritage of the ancients. We did we did we did Where did this notion come from? Who was the first to verbalize it. This is really a little bit of a

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tricky this and by the way, everyone

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In this wherever we realize whether or not you are taking the spot from a body and outdoing the noodle, they're the ones who began. And frankly, I'll be very blunt here. There's an element of defeatism here, like your success is due to us. Right? There's an element of trying to impress the other, like, all of you are great because of us. Right? I'm not saying that's wrong, much of what you're saying is right. But look at the others remotely say, right fact of the matter is they took our sciences and went to the moon quite literally with it, right. And we didn't do that. So we have to also, you know, be frankly, to survive. But this notion of trying to synthesize modernity, with

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Islam, trying to say that modernity is, in fact, Islamic is what our main premise was, right? What Europe is on is what we should have been on. Ideal Islam is Europe, as he said in his famous statement that when he came back from France, he said that I visited the land, I saw Islam, but roselands this is France, and I came back to Egypt, they were Muslims.

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Right. And that's basically the map to summarize, in one sentence, and from after the students received little energy, because I was, again, an interesting figure died. 1935. So very recently, literally yesterday, right? There are people who were born, you know, maybe even in this audience, you know, you know, before 1935, right, the 1935 is our century less than 100 years ago. And so I'm delighted 1935 and I'll do was really the first person to really invent

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this new term called Semitism. And racism was basically a reaction to what he considered to be the ossification of other universities. He criticized the attitude of the Buddha for simply ignoring the political problems of the British for ignoring these major Issues and Controversies. And still teaching classical textbooks have actually created a short period that he wanted a revival. He wanted to go back to the organic synthesis phase, which was the actual base of the setup, right? Actually, the first 300 years of the stock didn't just do the job for one time, it was an organic flourishing of many theologies and trends. So I said, let us respond to my dirty tea by going back

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to the books and reinventing the wheel by being center beam meaning thinking outside of the box, jumping the ossification phase, going back to when there were no muda. There were no no demarcated theological schools, let's think things afresh. So, self ism, has nothing to do really, with what modern societies hold themselves to think about this point

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of the term is the same, but what I meant by Salafism is nothing that was modern. Yeah, there's a little bit of overlap just a little bit. What is that little bit that I've developed as Sufism was superstitious. So he was anti suit. And he had arguments for this element. Therefore, he had to simply continue, but he was very moderate, and liberal, they are very productive. And he was very liberal in theology. He wasn't a hardcore preaching. The names and attributes wanna, yeah, you sympathize with that, but it wasn't his main message. And so Abdo was really the first people to begin the strength center visit. Ironically, after this movement really eventually became what we

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now call modernist.

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Movement is still around, there are still people it's very small, as a movement that

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directly tastes nutrition. But there are elements of our own as a progressive Muslims, that yes, their initial Genesis goes back to a body and

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these progressive Muslims are more open to reinterpret the Koran and completely normal ways completely unprecedented. They might not, quote, outdoor body or love, really, this is the genesis of this group of modernity. What do you find groups that are justifying same sex marriages through the Quran? This is normal in Islamic history. Never in Islamic history. Did anybody say the Koran preaches this type of toleration? Never, this is completely new, really, the genesis of this was back to avani. And others of this nature even though they didn't obviously do this, right. But we can say we trace it back to that era now.

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of the died in 1935. He was publishing perhaps the first International Journal of Islam, and that is Magellan monopol. The lighthouse. This was the first Journal of its kind, because remember, the printing press is a recent addition to the oma Remember, the printing press goes back to the 1850s or so. So it's very recent, you cannot have an international journal, whereas Europe has hundreds of journals in the 1700s you have the Journal of this Asiatic study here in England right? And I myself will host a deal I looked up an article 17 or 1802. An article printed in the bulletin of

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Red Flag representing about wahabism is calling I was looking at about that 1802. And they're talking about a lot of improvements on bench, right? There's a journal, the SEC around the world. We didn't have any journal. We didn't have anything like that because we have shut off the printing press. Eventually when it comes, it takes a while. I will give you the cons. The first one is journal. So this journal is being sent across the globe, to all the way to Malaysia to Timbuktu to Middle East to India, we have copies of these journals around the world for the first time and he's spreading his idea. We need a need. That's what his name is teacher was as deep as he is renovation

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is rethinking, and he said this is a typo seldovia basically, a Salafism term, as we said, was to basically go back to the organic phase of Islam.

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In the late 1930s, a young scholar of Albanian heritage, whose father had run away from the communists, and therefore has fled from a communist and soft refuge in the autumn in Damascus. And this young budding, self taught scholar would study books and reading and whatnot. His name is Mohammed Nasser al Abadi, and how you read this agenda as an adult, and he took this term selfie, and he fell in love with it just turned 70. He loves this firm. And he adopted it for his own movement, which was a movement that mentioned purified from the authentication, he wanted to go back to the original gift and that is nonverbal. And for the rest of his life, his main thrust was not

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theology, his main interest was not was names and attributes. His main thrust was not creed, his main thrust really was understanding fifth through heavy literature. And that's really one strand is consistent also from the very beginning. So he started calling himself set a fee, and he preached that it is obligatory, to call yourself. And because you had an interest in heading sciences, he was invited to the Islamic University of Medina, and his very inception was in 1963, or so when it was first formed. And the hope to Saudi Arabia eventually

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invited him to teach it. He stayed there for two years at the University of Medina, which is my alma mater, I studied there for 10 years. And I'm very, very proud that I find a lot of soldiers that I studied there, and I have nothing but the best memories. And some people think that I have flipped and change above as well, like it was the best time of my life to study there and then cycle by and I am who I am, because of a lot of us to study in Medina and then to go on and be who I am. So the shepherd body was the first professor of MD, along with a person who's the father of relationships, and will be here, as long as you're part of the first two scholars of Medina. And that's where

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Advani meets the legend, the doctor for the first time. And he began screeching the name said to them, otherwise, before this time, this that was this trend did not call us.

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And from this in the 60s 70s. And then eventually, as the term set up, he was co opted by the nest.

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And this dialogue is therefore a modern manifestation of a very classical Islamic school, the son of the doctor what is a modern manifestation of a very classical Islamic school. And here is the point that says that Islam as a modern trend, Senator fism has some precedents before it. But as it exists today, it is a very new and novel trend. In other words, every single manifestation of Islam is a manifestation that is contextual. It is a product of its own time. And every trend who wishes to read itself into the back into the previous it basically back protects itself onto early Islam, and no movement by the large of Sunni and Shia Islam, no movement by and large, likes to embrace

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modernity and change blatantly, they all wish to say this is the original, do you think, really thinks that he is a separate movement from originals? Do you think that nobody feels that he is doing something other than what the Sahaba did? Do you think? No, this is the reality. JOHN, I didn't even talk about john Islamia. What do not think that they are also viewed themselves as following what their companions did, from their perspective. And I'm not saying who's right or wrong. I'm just saying, from their perspective, this is what the Sahaba would have done. This is what the reality of this is. So every movement likes to back project itself on to the earliest time

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of the sun. And the fact of the matter is that every water and movement is a product of modernity, and are elements that existed before this movement that you can trace this heritage to. These are no different in this regard. The sun that the movement has certain similarities with previous movements, that he created the three the theology of events, and yet this is something that is very clear, and yet the southern movement is fractured. When it comes to issues of modernity. They don't they haven't yet overcome or unit

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By what they should do with regards to defense. They don't know about methodology in terms of relationship with other movements and other groups. They're still talking about basically issues of political allegiance. How exactly can Muslims live in nation states? What is the role of the president or the king? Does he become a believer that we must obey and here or this or that all of these are basically issues of contention. And also, of course, the issue of jihad as well. And the role of jihad is, as we know, predominantly the jihadist groups ISIS and whatnot, and aq AP, all of these jihadist groups predominantly they come from the center of the spectrum and not from the

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Deobandi not from the intermediate spectrum. And this is because again, Salafism by its nature really was a very independent thought Salafism told his followers be independent breakaway whereas their one these by the way about by and large are structured with the Grand Mufti was a great or I should say, but did a cabinet if your life right if the account the admin said it, it doesn't translate down to the people below them, they have a hierarchy and a structure. And each has their pros and cons. By the way, there's no right or wrong here. There are pros and cons in every movement, there are positives and there are negative. And when you have a hierarchy, one of the

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original thoughts is shut off. And frankly, this is one of the problems of all such as hierarchies. If you have an original thought, a novel idea which is good, it's going to take a lot of difficulty for getting adopted by the movement. Whereas if you have an open license, whether you have a lot of new thought, but you also have a lot of strange thoughts as well. And that's what's happened with the side of the spectrum of things that as contrasted with modernity, many of the fields, we need to basically go back to the classical texts of jihad and conservation and do exactly what

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650 letters will do this a lot right now, they'll call a bachelor from so and so. And this applies right now, and really, is all about applying the text to any modern situation. Anybody can open up a text 300 feature, anybody can read from whatever value somebody writes real means that what is the job of the team, the job of the day is to translate these realities into paternity. What does it mean X, Y, and Z when we do it in 2014? London, what is the reality of this? And that's the job of the Philippines. Anybody can do literally This is not that difficult, but he is the one who translates the literature, the text basically into the context. So no doubt as it's

00:32:22--> 00:32:50

as modern, if you like, manifestation has a lot of good, but the fact that I mentioned some of this article I encourage you to read it is called uncertainty standards. A very recent article, I encourage you to read it has a lot of good but at the same time scientism as well needs to recognize that they are a product of wonderment that the fact of the matter is Salafism, as it exists today is not the Salafism of even 200 years ago, your mama show Daddy will they

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don't have the same type of Salafism of sexuality, even even Tamia. Each one has a different manifestation of things that are saying that things that are different, there is no such thing as a platonic universal essay. There's no such thing as an abstract reality. There's only the reality that we live. And so selfies deobandis machetes, they are not some abstract reality. They exist tangible in real life, and you see them as they are. And in my humble opinion, the Sufi movement has many positives, and we should embrace these positive and have those positives is the purity of history, the primacy of the sacred texts, the encouragement of critical thinking, the avoidance of

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superstitious if you like rituals, and it's over exaltation of saints, an emphasis on any identification, and emphasis overall on knowledge. All of these are great aspects of Salafism. But Salafism also has some negatives as well. And that is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest negatives is that it has taken issues of theology, abstract issues of theology, and may have the ultimate goal over and above actual religiosity. So it is more important for many studies to affirm attributes than it is to worship a lot through those attributes. It's more important to be tested about the creative, where does a lot and what does it mean when a lot is restored to the throne than

00:34:13--> 00:34:21

it is to actually have religiosity and selfies need to realize, let me be very blunt here, that if

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God was amongst us right now, and they gave him a quiz of Athena.

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The fact of the matter is that tests that you put in front of him, he will feel it. Think about what I'm saying.

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You will ask about what are the categories? What do you think he's going to say? You will ask,

00:34:44--> 00:34:45

what does it mean?

00:34:46--> 00:34:59

explained in detail, you will not have thought about the realities intricacies of abstract issues that they never thought about. You will ask even about basic issues of debt that we're memorizing in our textbooks, right?

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What are the what are the?

00:35:04--> 00:35:04

What are the

00:35:06--> 00:35:11

things in these ways? So the question that I'm asking is, who is the more 70?

00:35:13--> 00:35:26

Think about it, even somebody who has greatness mysterious and would not be thinking along those lines. Why? Because again, this is the era of organic synthesis. The thought is just beginning the seed has been planted.

00:35:28--> 00:35:50

is Newton Did anyone put a number better than me and you, we know this. And yet Deobandi anybody were to quiz him of first year exam from the room from either from us or from any institution, he would fail every single subject, think about it. What does that mean, then, about the realities of these movements? Our movements are a product of what

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our movements have been developed because of certain contexts. And the problem comes when we have this naive assumption that the movement as it exists today is exactly what they themselves would have done. No, that's the problem. So what this leads to is arrogance. Another major problem.

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And that is this assumption that we are right in what we do in everything that we do. And if anyone disagrees with us, they are absolutely wrong. And I disagree with this attitude, every movement, you really think that they don't want to come closer to Allah and follow the Sunnah of the messenger? Do you really think that any movement that loves Allah and loves the messenger has anything in their body other than to come closer to

00:36:34--> 00:37:12

the system? This is the reality. Now, I'm not saying that all of these moments are equally correct. I'm saying every movement has its positives, and its negatives. And the fact of the matter is that this is more than just theology. Another issue that I have with this movement is that in its rejection of extreme dissolvable, they rejected realities that are spiritual in nature, call it one read the whole call it this terms are irrelevant. The fact of the matter is, we should have recovered the law. The fact of the matter is, we should have regenerated. The fact of the matter is, we should have all of these terms that the zoo fees, love to talk about. These are the slavery

00:37:12--> 00:37:39

concepts. These are concepts that the progressives have spoken about. And some of these in their rejection of extreme soup ism, ended up basically neglecting spirituality. And these are stereotypes that every one of us was an activist in Islam, we realize that we don't. And that is that by and large scientism is not enough spirituality. And this is a mistake, because Islam is about spirituality, by and large. in Kochi, these issues of

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basically having a relationship with the loss of Allah also other issues as well, as I mentioned in the article, and there were the factory buyers at once. One has understood that every single modern movement is a product of modernity. And well why do someone like myself, I cannot simply become a card carrying member of any movements, every movement is changing. It is fluctuating with time, every single movement, and the ideal of something called Salafism is really the ideal of doing a real movement, ie what is going up all of a sudden, as I said, asked to do what he asked me to really ask any person that is generally believing a lot and loving the messenger, do you not want to

00:38:21--> 00:38:35

follow a lot of his messenger? Do you don't want to follow the setup of the super Now that doesn't mean everybody's right. But I'm saying as an ideal, that is an ideal that by and large, the majority of Sunni Muslims embrace, and again, I do refer you to the article.

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All of the other issues, but the fact of the matter and and I want to basically conclude on this point, and then inshallah leave some time for question and answer that, yes, I went through phases myself, one two years ago, it really was a card carrying member of the movement. People ask me, are you still ascended? And the term to me now is really it depends on what you mean, the term is, quite frankly, whatever you make it up to be. So if you mean, do I still follow the theology that's given to me if you are taught and preached, I say this is the safest extraction, human extraction of theology, because in the end, that is human extraction. As they said, if you were to ask Allah to

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build up all the trees, the three types of tokens, you wouldn't be able to answer. If you were to ask about any of these abstract issues about the realities of this, and what are the alternativa these are not questions that they are they even created for dogs. This is a fundamental issue from others basically separated from us. We believe the bond is not created the speech of a waffle house did not ask this question. The question did not occur to them. And I firmly believe this is my belief. They believe that if you ask the creator not he will take a stupid

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question right. I firmly believe that

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The veteran leader saying where's the love? Where's the love? Where's the love? Have you looked at?

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This is my opinion, Richard causing controversy? And that's exactly what unfortunately, unfortunately, many of

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you asked me am I assumed the term is ambiguous The term is, is really whatever you make it up to be. I believe that Allah Subhana, Allah revealed the bulk of his speech, I believe that the Prophet Mohammed system is the final prophet, I believe that the best people on this earth were the companions, I believe that the movement of the first two, three centuries was the most pristine movement, human movement that was extracted from the divine text. And I believe, therefore, that that is the movement that deserves the most respect. But I also say, modern set of Islam, as it exists is a human attempt to get to that ideal, and therefore it has pros, and it has, and

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therefore, I don't call myself either the beginning or the end, or the or a Sufi, all of these terms have some truth in them. And I encourage it. And once the moderator is, in particular, to think about some of these issues, and realize that the word Islam is broader than any one term, and that if our profit system were alive today, what would his relationship be with the other movements and groups out there? Think about that as well? Let no one be so arrogant as to say that, yes, this is what the process of No, this is what you think this is what you believe, but the other person that you're disagreeing with, he believes the exact same thing about disagree about his beliefs is that

00:41:36--> 00:41:43

they both have the right No, it doesn't. But it means the sincerity can be on both sides. And guess what, Alan Jones is primarily with what by what

00:41:44--> 00:41:57

he alleges, primarily with what is in your heart, and therefore, in my humble opinion, generic Satanism, generic Satanism, because Western is a method by which I mean, I mean, respectable, somehow

00:41:58--> 00:42:35

generic sort of ism is what is the same sex and the creed that the Prophet system predicted would be the victorious I mentioned this, this is what these are, these are vital. And as for the movements that are not generic, and certainly we say that there is issues with them, and we take them on a case by case basis, no doubt, is important. No doubt, it is important. But creed is not the end all be all of this. creed is one element of stuff, there's also a button, there's also a warship. There's also one on there that there's also soup is also how you deal with others. And it's a package that is said that these have some good in one area, and their soup is assembled in other

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areas. And if I put another area, the wise person takes the good from the other, and weighs in with the bad, and this is not the manager, some

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of those guys here, this is the manager of a large surgeon. And on the Day of Judgment, a lot of Georgia will weigh your good and your bad. And we as well, we look at the good. And if a person has more good than bad, we make excuses for the bad that the person has more bad than good. That's a different story. But if a person overall and I always remind myself that I remind you all of

00:43:06--> 00:43:07

our Prophet

00:43:08--> 00:43:10

said my son was

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the one who prays hours for that. And he sacrifices according to our manners of sacrificing animals, and he faces our intellect, that is the one you judged to be and you judge him to be upon him is the protection of a law and His Messenger. So be careful and be aware of rejecting the protection of a lot in his best interest. If a person shows where the Justice he is a person says the hekima the basic ruling is this person is a Muslim, unless and until something comes Other than that, and that is what our Lord has commanded us. That is what our Prophet soloable has commanded us may or must, either grant us that he might and the tough one and the last to recognize your to be worthy of

00:43:57--> 00:43:58

worship and to follow

00:43:59--> 00:44:00

up

00:44:01--> 00:44:01

with Darwin