A few days ago, a brother sent me a video of Sheikh Saalih Al-Fawzaan(Hafizohu Allahu) whereby the Sheikh did not castigate Ikhwanul Muslimeen when asked about them; and I told the brother not to share such video because it amounts to shooting himself in the foot (for what goodness he intends to use it for).
I make bold to say those of “us” who share videos of certain scholars around using them as a justification that they support or applaud a certain Islamic movement are making mistakes. Especially those who use Saudi scholars videos on Ikhwanul Muslimeen to prove a point, you are only shooting yourself in the foot because there are other videos of the same scholars where they speak ill of the movement. Which amounts to flip-flop in verdicts.
It is an error sharing Sh. Fawzan’s idea of not castigating Ikhwan. Ikhwanul Muslimeen is far greater than Sh. Fawzan for his opinion to be a basis for judging Ikhwan. Most especially, the fatwa of these scholars changes with the political persuasion of their paymasters. Another person may equally bring a fatwa where he castigated Ikhwan. There had been renowned International scholars of repute among Ikhwanul Muslimeen even before the birth of Fawzan. It is disrespectful to use Fawzan’s opinion to judge Ikhwanul Muslimeen.
All these so call Salafiyyah Sheikhs only became popular post Iraq war. They were all political tools. There is another Fatwa of Sh. Fawzan where he castigated Ikhwan, so these scholars are mere mouth piece of the political establishment of their home country.
There is an erudite scholar in the land of Egba in Ogun State by name Dr. Khidr Mustapha(Hafizahu Allahu), Dr. Khidr was a classmate of Sh. Fawzan; who knows Dr Khidr? Place his statement before a student of Sh. Fawzan and see how he will quickly reject that of Khidr because he is not popular or recognized by a political establishment.
It is people like Dr. Khidr we must popularise so that their scholars who give Fatwa of disunity will be known to be mere mortals.
I have observed the psychological posture of the Salafist; they perceive their sheikh to be superhuman and having direct information from the Prophet. They may deny this with their tongues but their attitudes bear witness to the posture. Don’t you see the one in Amukoko always claimed to be knowledgeable? He always use the Kibar Ulamau in Saudi as a yard to censor and filter the truth. He continually accused the PhD Salafi scholars of going against the policy of the Sheikhs in Saudi as if the Saudi Sheikhs are infallible!
The so called Kibar Ulamau is just a political tool of the Riyadh to clandestinely shroud their obnoxious policies with the garb of legitimacy. A tool to discard the respected views of contrary opinion of other senior learned scholars.
People like Salman Al-Audah, Rahman Khaliq, Aid Qarni and their likes were the real Salafiyah in the Saudi context. In the sixties(1960s) when the senior scholars had lost touch with reality and their capacity becoming redundant, they were not appealing to the Saudi youths, the mosque were only filled by the elders, it was these young salafi guys that galvanize the youths and islamize the outlook from being westernized, they awakened the youths back to the elders. But unfortunately, for political reasons, they are being vilified.
All those periods, you will not hear of Fawzan or Madkhali and others who only found their voice later just to strengthen the monarchy.
Even Abdul Rahman Khaliq while in the Islamic University then will complain that one of their lecturers will come to class, and will admit to them that he had only been mandated to lecture them but will sincerely admit that he knew little about the course he had been given to lecture.
But now they are bragging and vilifying those who played critical role in advancement of their educational curriculum. They are churning out PhD graduates to villify and insult the very foundation of their enlightenment.
Dont you see their products in our own environment! They are also a beneficiary of the enlightenment of the striving callers. When the sincere scholars had galvanized the youths since the early 1980s towards Islam and Sunnah, the so called Salafi Sheikhs only came recently to channel those efforts to themselves and they began criticizing the very Jamaa’ah that strove for the enlightenment.
That is why you have to study these so called Senior Scholars of Sunnah(kibaaru ulamaau) biographies first, because the Salafees consider them as super human next the prophet, not knowing they are ordinary human beings that can be manipulated by the political class.
All these scholars are a product of Islamic resurgence, so they are not in position to judge or condemn it. Fawzan is a graduate of Saudi University, likewise Muqbil, Madkhali and their hero Sheikhs. Which year did Saudi start having universities? Who are the brains behind their universities? Was it not foreign scholars of Ikhwan and others?!
Their scholars are just blind followers and readers of stereotype Ibn AbdulWahabs’ books. They know nothing beyond their acclaimed Tawheed of Takfir and Taqlid of Hambali Mazhab. They lack capacity for Ijtihād. Infact, the first king of Saudi had problem dealing with them because every thing is considered bid’ah and rejected by their scholars, from microphone, radio, telegram etc. No Fiqh but they are just bedioun Arab who lack civilization.
The Madkhali salafism only thrive where there are baby Sheikhs like Southwest Nigeria and European countries where there isn’t history of Islamic scholarship. Even madkhalist in the Arab world are extremely minority. It is for baby Sheikhs where the ignorant muridis flatter the young Sheikh with Hafizahullah!
They do not know that those foreign scholars they consider as kibar are as well baby Sheikhs in the pedigree of global Islamic scholarship. They disrespect those at home and applaud foreign ‘Kibar’. It is simply inferiority complex.
It now look as if Islam just started some 50 years ago, and the Muslim Ummah severed from about 1400 years of Islamic Scholarship. (until Saudi established universities)!
Intellectual stagnancy began to dominate contemporary religious discourse when the positive outcome of Islamic resurgence championed by the Da’iyah of contemporary Islamic movements became saturated with globalized local Fatwas.