Wallahi as a young man growing up in the UK, Mohammed Hijab has helped me more than anyone in learning more about my deen. When I've been convinced by various sectarian groups his videos always bring me back to the middle ground. He makes mistakes and corrects himself as he learns, unlike the cultish behaviour we see from others. Nothing but respect, admiration and gratitude. May Allah swt bless you in the dunyah and akhira, ameen
The journey of every ex-Salafi. Mine too. Was filled with sectarianism, ego, jealousy and feeling superior and looking down upon other people and scholars
I always thought “salafism” as weird because to disparage 1000+ years of incredible, diverse classical Islamic scholarship for a small band of modern scholars is absolutely ridiculous
I am 70 years old, and have watched our religion here in America go from something very unknown to now something phobic. The religion is simple but the people in our religion complicate it in many ways and many times. Stick to the roots of the religion and please don't complicate it. Allah SWT knows best but I think he wants to make it easy on us, yet we are always complicating it and arguing sometimes with and without knowledge. Please be respectful of each other as an example for our brethren and those considering Islam. Love you all for the sake of Allah SWT.
When I first started practicing Islam, my brother who is a strict Salafi-Madkhali, almost made me give up on Islam wallahi. Alhamdulillah once I left these Madkhali mindset, I started feel better and started to love Islam with my heart. I totally agree with brother Mohammad and I‘m glad that he’s pointing out these things.
Finally you explained your stances in a way that I completely agree with you and to be honest I was feeling the same lately. Hope you’ll post this on your main channel. I like your akhlaaq in this video as well. May Allah guide you and continue to guide you and guide me and the whole ummah 🤲🏽
Jazakallahu Khairan Brother Hijab. You really highlighted the Crux of the issue that not all but a significant portion of this so called 'Salafi' Movement has. They claim to have a desire or want to go back to the Salaf, the pious predecessors, yet their actions are ironically in direct contrast to their claims when they make their scholars infallible and anyone that disagrees with even a single opinion of their Sheikh is automatically considered a deviant by them. Whereas in the Muslim Ummah and even amongst the salafs disagreements have happened yet they remained fairly united and cordial towards each other and respected each other's opinions. Same goes for their view on Taqleed, the criticize other for doing it yet they are the staunchest Muqliads around in reality, only changing the scholars they do Taqleed of. May Allah guide all of us and unite us for his sake. May Allah make them understand that not everyone that disagrees with them is a deviant and let them understand that Islamic history and knowledge and literature is much more vast and diverse as opposed to what they take it as.
subhanAllah, i want so badly to call myself salafi but this is EXACTLY why i hesitate and don’t, literally feel the exact same way, very well said Allahumma Barik
My bro, thank you for having the courage to openly being so honest about your journey. Life is a journey and we learn/transform/grow. A lot of scholars of past changed their opinions on things throughout their life. Maybe its openings from Allah, maybe Allah gives the Hikmah and maturation for man to see things as they are for their steadfastness on sincerity. I personally see so many so called wahhabi/salafi scholars coming to a realisation that classical islam is the most balanced way. Allah guide us all. Love. From your brother in Islam.
Man, I relate to this soo much. It was never the main idea to follow the Qur’an and Sunnah and Salaf that was an issue. It was the arrogance, sectarianism, double standards, and allegiances which were were a huge turn off for me. It‘s just really frustrating because they’ll just brush you off as someone who does not like the way of the Salaf as if the way of the Salaf entails that garbage behavior.
I come from a Hanafi background who grew up with classmates and teachers who were pseudo”Salafis”. I was a mere observer who didn’t join them but listened to them to learn what they say. Some of the things they said could be applied to some fringes of society but they were wrongly tying it to Taqleed of the 4 Imams of Madhahib and calling every deviant person a Muqallid and then all the Muqallideen as Mubtade. I didn’t antagonize these pseudo”Salafi” movements until they started to work against the mainstream Muslims and even sided with secularists against the Muslims. That’s when I understood this movement is a cancer for our Ummah. May Allah heal us all.
I can totally relate to this. I used to be proud of being a "Salafi" for their pure Aqeedah but now after I have seen the dark side of these movements which has little to do with the Salaf but a lot more to do with their brand of Salafism, I no longer associate myself with this term. I'm a Muslim first and foremost Alhamdulillah.
MashAllah . Inshallah others can save themselves from the najdi trap you almost fell into. I too noticed how they are the biggest perpetrators of everything they accuse others off. Alhamdulillah every madhab has 1200 years plus of scholarship were mistakes have been ironed out and proofs collected. Yet they tell us not to blind follow and take hold of words of ibn taymiyyah, MIAW and the 3 recent ones like their words are wahi. One even told me Albaani is superior to imam Abu hanifa (ra).
May Allah bless you brother I reverted over 2 years ago and you plus a couple others in speakers corner opened me up to Islam man. I can see the sincerity and honesty bro. They are going to try and break this video down and cut it up and misrepresent you agian bro but trust me There are brothers who see straight through their tactics bro . May Allah bless you bro even though we all make big time mistakes
You've just crushed it man, I cannot agree more with everything you have said. Great video, keep up the good work, you're doing fantastic things for the religion of Islam.
I am an "athari" as well but I LOVE the mathab traditions ...few things are as exciting as fiqhi differences across the mathabs. So it really puzzles me why someone would want to abandon our rich mathab heritage.
I've lived in Birmingham for 17 years. I can relate to this. It's a big relief somebody is talking about this. JazakumAllahu Khayran Ya akhi Kareem. May Allah SWT preserve you. Upload this on your main channel, please
Asalaamu'alaikum. Great to hear your viewpoint. I follow the Ashari school of thought but respect Athari and Maturidi madhabs. You are spot on. Nowadays blind following in creed or in a particular scholar is incorrect. I love you brother. You are doing great works. Would be great to see you do a podcast with Shaykh Asrar Rashid
I can relate to soo much of what he said as someone who adheres to the salafi manhaj i also adhere to the shafi'i madhab and i remember as I was teaching safinat an-naja i had a female student ask me " why are you only teaching the shafi'i madhab"? after I explained to her this is madhab I follow she and some other students left without saying excuse us and made it out as if I was doing a munkar
May Allah make it easy for you brother. I also went through a very similar journey where the salafi movement or at least what they brand themselves as, is what i gravitated towards at first but i only became more confused as i got deeper in that rabit hole and now I feel much more ease at heart and mentally calm by just following a madhab because I know i am relying on a thousand year worth of scholarship instead of ambiguous hadiths which can't be applied or is very difficult to apply to contemporary problems by myself or by the salafi methodology.
I'm a born Salafi from India though I dont carry this title. I only call myself a muslim, but I never came across any Salafi imam who follows any scholar blindly. Even one of the imams I met said Shaikh Albani made a mistake about some issue. Salafis dont even have a problem with people who only call themselves muslim. They just get too furious when they see shirk and bidah which are very common in my country.
Islam is a very simple religion. There is a lot of arrogance with people who love to make tekfir over small difference of opinion. I belive in a merciful God, who made the true religion so simple that even an uneducated villager in 12th century will understand its message.
Bro Keep doing the good work dont give up brother Im salafi and I have been muslim for 13 years I know what these guys are like not very intellectual they try just to follow shaddows of giants. However they dont understand what they say or how to actualise islam the real way.
Wallahi me and him went through a similar experience. Traditional Muslims NEED to get on the social media dawah game of these salafis so people don’t keep falling into these toxic paths
Brothers and sisters learn from watching your journey. I don't mean just this video explaining your journey, I mean your progression of thought over time. It's a great khidmah for the ummah. Allahumma barik
May Allah swt bless you brother. It’s not easy in today’s day and age of social media. Everyone can say something behind the screen, laypeople giving opinions etc… im sure the great scholars of the past would have had crazy backclash if their works would have been available to the masses like its today. May Allah swt grant us jannat al firdaws❤️
As for people, the wheel of time will fold them, and their remembrance will not remain.. The truth will not be blamed for the mistakes of some people, rather the truth will remain apparent and clear, and an argument against those who turned away from it and knew it regardless of their excuses.
I think so many people can relate to this. Quite sad we still have those issues i remember like the beginning of 2000's the uprise of those cults and it look like they did not change a bit i additute.
Being open to all sunni works, opens your mind and allows you to appreciate diversity and realise difference of opinions are a mercy since muftis can switch between them upon necessity
Subhanallah this is what I always thought about Salafis. How ironic is that they say they do not do Taqleed but in fact they are the biggest Muqalids around
this was a great video akhi please do not think all atharis are like this, as an athari myself majority of the things you said he was correct, the world is way bigger then these scholars though they are good in their own right, but there are way more scholars who are way greater.
Woooow. MashaAllah at that time the only person I used ot listen to, I remember was amro khalid ... lol what a difference hehe. He was and still is an amaaazing man. Love this man and my memories with his lessons. May he be blessed.
Been there brother.. I totally agree with you.. they always stress that they are the only ppl follow the SUNA and Hadith, but never crossed their minds where other scholars got their opinion from .. may Allah guide us all ..
What you highlighted in your journey is adab al Iktilaaf(etiquettes to differences of opinions). Alhamdulilah the madhab followers are usually taught to respect each other and to know we are upon the truth, with possibility of being incorrect and the other madhab being correct instead. Many salafis lack respect for valid differences of opinions
I had a friend who was a hardcore madkhali.. after studying in medina he came back and he was telling me that he was wrong about madkhali and that this path was wrong.
Alhumdulillah 10 years as a convert and I have gone through the same thing. I confront this in my recent video. Unfortunately at a point in my spirituality I wanted to be even more practicing and started researching niqab and this brought me to a Salafi thought. I found myself being very arrogant and harsh towards other Muslims despite my intentions being good to spread truth. Alhumdulillah 5 years ago a sister opened me up to mathaheb. I've been studying them ever since...I leaned towards Shafi until i studied Hanbali and now I emotionally and mentally feel like I'm in such a better place. I don't follow madheb 100% but I do my best to understand and learn. Too many Muslims sisters have told me of their disheartening experiences with Salafi sisters or Musjids. At the time I felt Salafiyyah gave me a lot of clarity as well but as the years went on I realized it just made me a bit closed off and less knowledgeable to be honest. I kept mentioning teachers I was learning from or benefited from to my female teacher or salafi sisters and evertime they would say, no they have a refutation against them....before I knew it every person I learned from outside of your Uthaymeen, Bin Baz ect was refuted and I couldn't learn from any of them anymore. The suggestion was...learn Arabic because all the English teachers have been refuted. I was so turned off....I do follow Athari agueedah and it's what I believe to be the truth alhumdulillah but it's a shame that it's automatically connected to salafiyyah. Their is a sheik here yu should invite him on the channel from the channel at Al Madrasa Al Hanbaliyyah, Shaikh Muwaffaq Al Din Yusuf bin Sadiq al Hanbali.
When someone asks you "Are you a salafi?" Just say: what do you mean by "Are" what do you mean by "you" what do you mean by "a", and what do you mean by "salafi"? Lol
This is why you should do Taqleed of 1400 years worth of research and not taqleed of salafism which only came about recently. People are dumb if they think the Ummah was wrong for 1400 years and we suddenly have woken up and we will tell you what is right..hence important to stick to your routes. Follow one mathhab and don't mix and match. Simple. You won't go wrong. If you start following million opinions you will go million miles in a million directions so cannot mix and match and pick and choose what you find easier.
I am from Jordan and I grew with the salafi school I agree completely with you. We have two common salafi schools one follows Alabani without questioning and the other is more moderate.
salam brother Mohammed, i totally agree with you. thank you a lot to bring out these facts. it is true that todays salafi is much more politically motivated than actual salafs teaching of Quran and Sunnah. they create more confusion in the minds of young muslims. May Allah keep us steadfast on the seerat al mustaqim... amin
After being in different religious movements for past 30 years, I have come to a conclusion that The people on Haq are those who are critical of themselves And the people on Dhalala are those who are critical of others It is as simple as that....find people who are self critical and self correcting
Alhamdulillah. Our brother speaks the truth. For some people a little knowledge can lead to kibr. It is all a test for us. The sahaba hardly were found inspecting others, they were always judging themselves. Looking at the dawah channels by far the biggest objection and roadblock to Islam are the Muslims. Our bad actions have made others shy away from Islam. So we need to both engage in dawah and reform ourselves at the same time.
Bro Hijab. I would like to request you to put English subtitles, only for this video. I like your explanation, but only can understand halfway of it, and I believe there are still many people like me who can't understand thoroughly of the discussion. May Allah bless you and Ali Dawah...
I think Mohammed Hijab summed it up in the best version of my life, believe me I've heard and observed many things. Beautifully said, I hope this video goes viral, I'm very sure you will get a lot of flack after this video, but I regard you as a rock even though in reality you are a gentle giant. May Allah keep you strong and firm
May Allah preserve Mohammad Hijab. He makes a lot of sense, the opinions of contemporary scholars of Saudi Arabia hold more weight to the Pseudo-Salafis than the actual Salaf. They only accept khilaaf between their own scholars. They can call every one else deviants but their scholars cannot be critiqued.
My experience with salafi brothers is that they are good brothers but they are so focused on calling out muslims within the ummah instead of giving Dawah to non muslims
Masya Allah what an important video, maybe one of the most important videos about clearing up what it means to be a Muslim. Thank you very much Mohammed Hijab, insya Allah I'll learn a lot from this.
Brother can you please explain to us how we can learn the athari creed. I really want to learn it and learn the hanbali madhab but I have know idea where to learn that.
Salaam Mohammed Hijab at the end of day shouldn't we go back to basics? As we all agree the 4 madhabs are all correct so we should just pick a madhab and carry on all these new sects that came after clearly are innovations! thank you for The great work you have been doing especially the amazing interview with Andrew Tate Kind regards
Brother you should not pay too much attention to these so called "salafis", They are far from the salaf. Trust me the educated Muslims around the world are figuring out their hizbi ways. You are an intelligent individual and an asset to the community. If you allow them to infect your mind with their disease you will lose brain cells. Save it for the ilm.
Guys seriously, take it from someone who went through all this toxicity just like brother' hijab here. I saw the evil and toxicity of this group and alhamdulillah left it before it was too late. Really guys, take from the 4 schools of thoughts. You can't go wrong with it. All 4 of them are agreed upon with centuries of excellent scholarship involved. Just grab a madhab that's more common in your land in the issues of fiqh ..and keep calling yourself muslims. Straight and simple.
I love Allah n I love n follow my Leader Muhammad (PBUH)..if these 2 are set in heart..u have everything in place brother..u will have guidance from your Lord ..u won't have any hatred to any Muslims as they are from u n u r from them..one body
That's the main problem these neo salman kids have, on one hand they'll do debates of Imam abu hanifa wasn't much qualified to pronounce or give any futwa so we shouldn't do any taqleed , on contrary they'll quote albani or ibni tamiyah or those people who are from their sect only 🤦♂
