Salafi Research Institute SRI
Debunking Yasir Qadhi(ism)
Point by Point on Debunking Yasir Qadhi (ism) In light of his DISPATCH: Yasir Qadhi on Salafis and Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab, Science and Miracles, Yajuj and Majuj.
Part 5
Compiled, Translated and Annotated
Abu Khuzaimah Ansari
Timestamp 1:35
Yasir Qadhi: I will be honest with you bro I don’t really listen to English podcasts nothing against you guys per se…. Ill be honest with you I typically don’t listen to English podcasts overall…..
Contradiction
In another lecture that Yasir Qadhi delivered on the 7th December 2013 (and he stills holds and propagates this view) which was titled, Looking back as we Look Forward – Change & Modernity
(YouTube: Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJmrPh2sRuw).
Yasir Qadhi offers his humble opinion to the western world, that we should insource scholarship and legal edicts and we should refer to scholars who are living our lives and so on. He humbly offers what he thinks is perhaps one of the reasons for the stagnation of the Ummah and that is, outsourcing scholarship to Muslim lands. Essentially the whole lecture, is filled exaggerative statements and selective quotation of certain aspects of the scholarship of the Muslim world.
During the same lecture he also refers to himself as a, quote unquote “Sheikh”. The clear contradiction is that Yasir Qadhi would have the western Muslim focus on the west in terms of their learning, academia and listening to podcasts, while he happily and quite openly says that he never listens to English podcasts, meaning that he does listen to them but just not the English ones.
He clearly listens to the Arabic podcasts himself while telling the western Muslim world to focus on the west. Is it also not contradictory that as a western “Sheikh” it would be pertinent and important for him to listen to podcasts in English, meaning those that are disseminated from the west which mostly discuss issues affecting the western Muslim world, as this is his principle. This is an example of clear contradiction and what I believe an attempt to keep the western Muslim world ignorant. This is exactly what the people of other sects and groups do, where they restrict knowledge to the elite while the masses are kept ignorant.
The virtuous and noble scholars have, with all praise to Allah alone, answered this narrative, many years before Yasir Qadhi and others presented thi. For example, refer to the speech of:
Shaykh Muhammad Aman al-Jami | Response to Yasir Qadhi’s Innovated Teachings;
YouTube: Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c6yXMxMdE4
Shaykh Muqbil b. Hadi al-Wadi’i | Yasir Qadhi! The Scholars are the Leaders of the Ummah!
YouTube: Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEHODGMZyfs
Shaykh Saleh al-Fawzan answers and rebuts this narrative as well;
YouTube: Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m5nr0KTtAE
The huge problem with this narrative and other such theorems is that Yasir Qadhi has a long term plan or a dream of setting up a seminary where he can train a breed of scholars in the west and to abandon “imported” scholars. He also puts forward a number of incorrect points in this short clip. This clip, in and of itself warrants a further detailed critique. The YouTube clip is titled “This is Yasir Qadhi’s New Breed of Western Scholars are Coming”.
YouTube: Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SSM7NqDLLM
In conclusion of this part, we find that Yasir Qadhi is not impulsive or brash, but rather there is a concerted and premeditated plan which is being subtly executed in our midst and this is being done in stages or phases. Yasir Qadhi thinks it is acceptable for him to brand, label or formulate theories, for example his wild imaginative theory of the “third phase of the Najdi Da’wah”. So let us present a hypothesis of the long term Qadhi-ism theory of “Islamic Liberalism and Religion fraternization” and its stages are as follow:
- Denounce orthodox Sunni Islam i.e. Salafiyyah after having studied and propagated it for almost a decade
- Build and strengthen networks with all misguided sects of Islam with full co-operation. (the pact of mutual agreement and cooperation – of which Yasir was a signatory and promoter).
- Organise modern learning institutes that contradict established Islamic seminaries. (al-Maghrib & al-Kauthar)
- Sever ties, mock and undermine Islamic scholarship of the Muslim world and at times launch a tirade of attacks on Orthodox Sunni heritage.
- Edification, self admiration and building a scholarly profile to justify and support fringe, isolated and odd views.
- Challenge and refute established Sunni creed and methodology.
- Create a modern breed of scholars based on ideas of both the East (Islamic sciences) and West (Secular sciences).
And so on. Most of these points are very easily evidenced by Yasir Qadhi’s lectures on YouTube. This is further supported and acknowledge by Yasir Qadhi himself –when he mentions in the podcast, that in the age of social media, his transition is well documented and he has been very open about this. Essentially this translates as the different stages and phases of the Qadhi-ism.
Timestamp 3:00
Host SIM: He asks Yasir Qadhi for his help in understanding his progression of thought about his transition and distancing himself from a “strain” of Muslims who call themselves Salafis.
Comment
It is quite clear, this is a highly loaded question and even Yasir Qadhi acknowledges this by saying, you’ve just dived right into it. The world of social media is often hidden behind a smokescreen of deliberate controversy, click bait, likes and popularity.
It is a well known fact in 2019 that Yasir Qadhi has stopped identifying himself as a Salafi and similarly openly denounced Salafism for many years. From the perspective of the Salafi’s, they have never held Yasir Qadhi to be from the rank of the Salafis from the time he emerged on the da’wah circuit. This is evidenced by a personal narrative and observation by Abu Yahya Farhat Abbas when he first encountered Yasir Qadhi in Madinah at the Islamic University. This detailed observation with real life accounts also supports the points I listed above, for example the belittling of scholars (point 4). In this account Abu Yahya begins by saying how he first met Yasir Qadhi in the Prophets Masjid in Madinah, a year before Yasir started studying at the University.
[The] Reality of Yasir Qadhi described by Abu Yahya Farhat Abbas [his class fellow in Madina University]
YouTube: Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_2m-SuAmhA
We know that Yasir Qadhi enrolled at the Islamic University of Madinah in 1996 and therefore we can naturally conclude, he has been upon this path for almost 23 years.
Muslims generally have nothing personally against Yasir Qadhi, although he likes to frequently remind the listeners of the haters, people jumping on him, rocking boats and other such statements. He reminds the listeners of the behaviour of the “critics” in attempt to dismiss any viable response to him. This is yet again another contradiction in theory. InshaAllah, this will be discussed in subsequent parts.
