Salafi
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A Salafi (Arabic سلفي referring to early Muslim), from the Arabic word Salaf سلف (literally meaning predecessors or early generations), is an adherent of a contemporary movement in Sunni Islam that is sometimes called Salafism and sometimes identified with Wahhabism. Salafis themselves insist that their beliefs are simply pure Islam as practiced by the first three generations of Muslims and that they should not be regarded as a sect. Saudi Arabian Salafis do not like to be called Wahhabis, although this name was acceptable in the past.
The word Salaf means predecessors (or ancestors) and refers to the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (the Sahaba), the early Muslims who followed them, and the scholars of the first three generations of Muslims. They are also called Al-Salaf Al-Salih or "the Righteous Predecessors".
The Salafis view the first three generations of Muslims, who are the prophet Muhammad's companions, and the two succeeding generations after them, the Taba'een and the taba Tabe'een as perfect examples of how Islam should be practiced in everyday life. These three generations are often referred to as the pious generations. This principle of law is derived from the following hadith (tradition) said to have been spoken by Muhammad: "The best of people is my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them (i.e. the first three generations of Muslims)." (Bukhari 3:48:819 and 820 [1] and Muslim 31:6150 and 6151 [2].
One tenet of Salafism is that Islam was perfect and complete at the days of Muhammad and his the Sahaba, but that much undesirable "innovation" (bid`a) was added to Islam afterwards. Since Islam was perfect before, such innovations are unnecessary, so that Salafism seeks to revive the understanding of Islam according to what the "Pious generations" believed.
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Distinctive beliefs and practices
Salafis claim to preach a purified Islamic monotheism, or tawhid. Salafis believe that widespread Muslim practices such as venerating the graves of Islamic prophets and saints are wrong. Photographs of any living being that possesses a soul are forbidden. Celebration of Muhammad's birthday (Mawlid) is discouraged. All these practices are considered shirk (a comprehensive term which is commonly translated as polytheism), or as bidah (innovation). Salafis in general are opposed to both Sufism and Shi'a Islam, which they regard as heretical.
In matters of theology and law, most Salafis do not follow mainstream dogmatic theology (kalam), as they consider this to be based on a Aristotelian philosophy. Some Salafis do not adhere to any of the four recognized schools of traditional legal interpretation (madhabs), though the jurisprudence of the strict Hanbali madhhab is viewed less unfavorably than the others. Instead they wish to base their jurisprudence directly on the Quran and Sunnah. They believe that literal readings of the Qur'an and the hadith (or oral traditions), are sufficient guidance for the believing Muslim. However, Salafis do have high regard for the teachings of the 14th century Syrian scholar Ibn Taymiya, and his students Ibn al-Qayyim and Ibn Kathir.
Because Salafis see themselves as practicing "pure" Islam, Salafi teachers and adherents will not necessarily identify themselves as Salafi. They can be identified as part of a particular current of contemporary Islam by their characteristic beliefs, by their use of catchwords like "the Salaf" or "Qur'an and sunnah", and often by a style of transliteration of Arabic into English, in which long vowels are indicated by doubling, emphatic consonants are doubled, and words that end with a ta marbuta in Arabic are rendered with a terminal h.
History of Salafism
From the perspective of the Salafis themselves, their history starts with the Prophet himself. They consider themselves direct followers of his teachings, and wish to emulate the piety of the earliest followers of Islam (the salaf al-salih). All later scholars are merely revivers (not 'founders').
Historians who are not Salafis see them as a loose grouping of Muslims influenced by three movements with a complicated history.
The term Salafi was first used for an Islamic modernist movement of the 19th century, a movement associated with the writers Muhammad Abduh and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. Both men believed that Muslim communities could resist the incursions of Western colonialism and the corroding influence of Western civilization if they returned to the pure Islamic values believed to be best displayed by the earliest Muslims. This involved rejection of centuries of tradition (including innovations like Sufism and saint worship) and a rethinking of how Islam should function in a modern world. Abduh in particular believed that a purified Islam would be democratic and progressive.
Abduh, an Egyptian, had a great deal of influence on thinkers in Egypt and north Africa. His student Rashid Rida published an influential journal Al-Manar. Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, is said to have been influenced by the ideas of Abduh and Rida. Al-Banna was influenced by another movement as well, the Wahhabism of neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The Wahhabis, or, as they called themselves, the Ikhwan, or Brethren, followed the 18th-century teacher Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, of Nejd in Arabia. They were were instrumental in the rise of the House of Saud to power. Al-Wahhab himself professed to be simply reviving the teachings of the 14th century Syrian scholar Ibn Taymiya.
Both Abduh and al-Wahhab had advised Muslims to return to the source directly, and to jettison centuries of popular Islamic practices. Abduh, however, had limited his activities to writing and speaking; al-Wahhab had participated in the formation of a state that enforced his principles. Al-Banna combined these two approaches by creating an organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, that organized within an existing state with the hope of eventually capturing the state, as in Saudi Arabia, and recreating the Muslim utopia of 7th century Medina.
The members of the Muslim Brotherhood devoted themselves to missionary and social service activities, building clinics and schools to serve poor Muslims. They were quite successful at first, and spread to many other countries in the Middle East, as well as inspiring student groups throughout the world. However, the involvement of the Brotherhood in an attempt to overthrow the Egyptian government resulted in the suppression of the Brotherhood in Egypt and then in many other countries.
Saudi Arabia gave sanctuary to many members of the Brotherhood who had been exiled, or fled persecution, and a further mingling of Wahhabi and Salafi ideas and practices followed. Saudi Arabian Muslims who were unhappy with Saudi government policies (seen as being increasingly worldly and non-Muslim) tended to explicitly define themselves as Salafis. However, even pro-government clerics and laity started to adopt the term Salafi, when pressed to describe themselves, in preference to the terms Ikhwan or Wahhabi. The mingling of the Wahhabi and Salafi strains of Sunni Islam was further accelerated by the Saudi attempt to "Wahhabize" or "Salafize" the rest of the Islamic world. Saudi money funded clerical training (in Saudi Arabia), mosques in many parts of the world, printing, websites, and other missionary activities.
Contemporary Salafis do not acknowledge any indebtedness to Abduh and al-Afghani. If they are willing to concede any historicity at all to their movement (and many do not believe that it has a history, being merely "pure" Islam), they would trace the Salafi revival to the Muslim Brotherhood or the Wahhabis -- or to some teachers in those movements, but not all.
Contemporary Salafis
Because there is no one organization that enrolls all Salafis, it is best described as a current of thought within Sunni Islam, one which includes many groups and beliefs. It is strongest in the Middle East, in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, etc., and increasingly important to diasporic Muslims in Europe, Canada, and the United States. There are Salafi groups in Indonesia. There are also Salafi groups in South Asia.
Salafis tend to differentiate themselves not so much by matters of Islamic practice, such as prescriptions for prayer (salat) or Islamic dress (hijab), but by their attitude towards the state.
- Some Salafis urge believers to support or endure the state under which they live. Believers are encouraged to spread Salafism non-violently, by missionary activity, social work, and political organization. Above all, they should help each other lead lives of true Islamic piety. (Rabei Al-Madkhaly)
- Some Salafis believe that violent jihad is permissible against foreign, non-Muslim, occupation, but not against governments that claim to be Islamic. Those governments are to be reformed, not violently overthrown. Civil war (fitna) is to be avoided. (Salman Al-Auda)
- Other Salafis believe that it is permissible, even required, for believers to engage in violent jihad to overthrow oppressive regimes, even if they claim to be Islamic. One of the strongest proponents for violence was Sayyed Qutb, an Egyptian member of the Muslim Brotherhood. After the Egyptian Brotherhood assassinated the Egyptian leader, the Brotherhood was suppressed and Qutb went to jail. There he wrote a long treatise on political Islam called Milestones. This book was and is widely read, and has had a strong influence on various Islamist or jihadi movements. Hence these Muslims are sometimes called Qutbis. They are often linked with terrorism. The teacher Abdullah Azzam is also said to be a proponent of violent jihad.
The non-violent Salafis insist that the violent groups are not really Salafis. Those who believe that violence is necessary, as it was in the days of the first Muslims, believe that the non-violent Salafis are not accepting their full responsibility as Muslims.
Saudi Arabia
Some Salafis support the government; others distance themselves from it, or oppose it.
Prominent pro-government Saudi scholars include Ibn Baz (now deceased), Ibn Humaid, Rabi' al-Madkhali, and Ibn Uthaymin. These scholars can perhaps be described as mainstream Wahhabi.
Some Salafis believe that the Saudi government has strayed from true Islamic purity and is to be opposed, albeit non-violently. One such prominent Salafi is the scholar Safar Al-Hawali.
Some Salafis believe that most majority-Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, have strayed and that the only answer to the plight of Muslims today is violent jihad. Osama bin Laden is a prominent example of a Saudi Muslim who has gone from supporting the Saudi regime to violently opposing it.
Egypt
Muslim Brotherhood
Syria
Syrian Muslim Brotherhood al-Qasimi
Iraq
Albania
Muhammad Naasiruddeen al-Albaanee
Yemen
ash-Shawkani Shaykh Muqbil ibn Haadee al-Waadi'ee Abdul Majid az-Zanadani
South Asia
Indonesia
Philippines
Malaysia
Pakistan
Palestine
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin Hamas (originally a Palestinian offshoot of the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen or Muslim Brotherhood)
International and Internet movements
Notable Salafis
- Imam Abu Hanifa
- Imam ash-Shafi'ee
- Imam Malik
- Imam Ahmad
- Imam Bukhari
- Imam Muslim
- Ibn Taymiya
- Ibn Kathir
- Imam adh-Dhahabi
- Ibn Abbas
- Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab
- Ibn al-Jawzi
- Abdul 'Azeez ibn Abdullaah ibn Baaz
- Muhammad Naasiruddeen al-Albaanee
- Muqbil Ibn Haadee al-Waadi’ee
- Ahmad Ibn Yahya an-Najmee
- Osama bin Laden (disputed)
- Ayman Zawahiri (disputed)
- Abu Musab Zarqawi (disputed)
- Abdullah Azzam
- Sayyid Qutb (disputed)
- Salman Fahd al-Audah
- Safar al-Hawali
- Ali at-Timimi (disputed)
- Khalid Yasin
- Abu Qatada (disputed)
- Rabee' Ibn Haadee Umayr al-Madkhalee
- Dr Saleh Ibn al-Fowzaan Ibn Abdullaah Ibn Fowzaan
- Muhammad bin Haadee al-Madkhalee
- Saalih Ibn Abdul-Azeez Aal ash-Shaykh
- Yahyaa al-Hajooree
- Zayd ibn Muhammad ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee
- Mohammed Nasirudeen al-Albani
- Nasir al-Omar
- Nasir al-Fahd
See also
External links
Non-Salafi
Pro-Salafi
- http://www.islaam.com
- http://www.islaam.net
- http://www.islamtoday.com
- http://www.islamtommorrow.com
- http://www.salaf.com
- http://www.fatwa-online.com
- http://www.spubs.com
- http://www.madeenah.com
- http://www.thewahhabimyth.com
- http://www.salafimanhaj.com
- http://www.salafisisters.org
- http://www.allaahuakbar.net
- http://www.therighteouspath.com
- http://www.turntoislam.com
- http://www.salaf.dk
Anti-Salafi
- The Deception of the Devious Salafi Sect (ummah.net)
- Radical Salafism: Osama's ideology (muslim-canada.org)
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