# Has the Salafi movement done more good or harm?

*The Salafi dawah: some opportunities, but overall great damage*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/7/
- Date: 2021-01-12 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #197 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (32:40–35:08)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgHntbMPis&t=1960s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/

**Topics:** Salafism and Wahhabism; Legal theory and method

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafi dawah revived interest in hadith and forced a re-evaluation, but its dislodging of the tradition did far more damage overall.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the biggest problem of the Salafi dawah was that it dislodged the entire tradition that was the general understanding of Islam.

**Evidence, his words at 33:53:** “the biggest problem of the salafi dawa was to dislodge the entire tradition of which was our general understanding of islam” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgHntbMPis&t=2033s)

## Longer summary

Picking up a chat comment about a level-headed Salafi, Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafi or Wahhabi dawah is a huge problem, though, like most things, it also brought some opportunity, joking that nothing is wholly bad except colon cancer. He says it gave a chance to review stale fiqh that was out of sync, and he accepts that it forced Muslims to re-evaluate things and revived interest in hadith studies. But he says its biggest problem was that it dislodged the entire tradition that was the general understanding of Islam, and that overall the damage was great. He adds that some Salafis keep their Salafism low-key, which he says was his impression of the preacher just discussed, though he could be wrong; he then jokes about a question on wearing an earring.

## Sources and names cited

- Salafi
- Wahhabi
- fiqh

## Transcript (machine tier, 32:40–35:08)

[32:01] haram and he was an advocate of that foundation and it was like yes what's this politics because there's always there's always always always always more going on behind the scenes i was trying to at that time that's the last thing i remember actually um the main thing that he'd been in between there were you know one two little things but yeah so yeah i mean i i wish him well um but i'll have to follow up

[32:39] yeah so what's going on people a level-headed salafi yeah i mean you see salafi dawa the wahhabi dawa is obviously it's a huge problem obvi naturally any problem with it brings some opportunity as well that's you know nothing in this world is usually 100 bad unless it's colon cancer

[33:17] then it's pretty much 100 percent bad imagine the the doctor saying you know like how nothing in this world is 100 bad and you're like he's like well um well this is an exception i'm afraid so anyway right so the thing is that like anything it brings it's um so some things the the salafi that our brought were were an opportunity to review

[33:53] stale fig out of sync but you have to remember something that the biggest problem of the salafi dawa was to dislodge the entire tradition of which was our general understanding of islam and because it dislodged that now you could say well one benefit was it forced us to reevaluate things which is fair enough i accept that it also revived an interest in hadith studies and i accept that but overall the damage was so

[34:30] wow but you can get sometimes some selfies who don't uh mention much of the selfie thing as much they kind of like keep it uh keep it underground so that's been my impression with abu isa but i could be wrong because i've not been so exposed to a lot of his stuff are we allowed to wear earring at a a i mean okay i mean if you're gonna add the alcoholics anonymous then you know i think we've got bigger problems to deal with

[35:07] than the earring but cello i have that as your 13th step to to remove the earring but work your way up there let's take some questions people yeah mufti do you believe that islam in the post-modern era has become more polarized between the puritans and the liberals definitely definitely i feel that um

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 1zgHntbMPis/s/7. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/7/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.