Al Maghrib Salafi? SunniForum Sufi? - CONCLUSION
Published by Haseeb January 23rd, 2006 in Abdallah Adhami, Islam, PersonalInshallah this is a continuation, (and hopefully a conclusion) to my last post.
But this time I wont say anything. Again Im just a student, and I dont have any real knowledge. I will just quote a great scholar, Shaykh Abdullah Adhami (may Allah 
mercifully bless and reward him), who briefly spoke about this very issue during one of his talks last month at the RIS conference. (Full lecture available to buy at the RIS Convention site, or can be downloaded at Shaykh Abdullah Adhami’s beautiful site, Sakeenah.org)
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Shaykh Abdullah Adhami |
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The present notion of extremism and sectarianism is factually UNPRECEDENTED in the Ummah. Its a sad reality. At one point our grandparents, our predecessors, had over 300 madhabs. Vibrant and dynamic. Everyone behaved not only with impeccable civiilty and decorum with each other, but heres the real dynamic and revolutionary thing that we need to revive again: each of them behaved as if they were convinced that the other persons perspective is valid. This is one of the major burdens of our time. No matter what schools of thought is promoting this sectarianism. (For example:) And you dont need any schools of thought, and you need to go back to the Quran and Sunnah and extract for yourself. Or you think that you should only follow this. Or that you should convert from wahabbism to sufism. I actually heard somebody converted to salafism, or converted to sufism. You dont convert to these things. Subhanallah. Its just so preposterours. Our grandfathers would be furious with our shortsightedness. Allah made us one ummah and devoted us to connectedness and to honoring the kinships thatbind us and connect us and we debase ourselves by moving away from the jammat that Allah intended for us to have on a spiritual level universally and insist on debasing ourselves. And insist on dividing each other. And keeping the hearts asunder to the delight of only shaytan and the enemies of Islam who have nothing left to do when they look upon us from above.
- Shaykh Abdullah Adhami “Partners in Faith,” (RIS 2005)
i blame the knowledgable MSA students. wallahi when i was in high school, i didnt know anything about sufi or salafi or aqeedah or madhab or fiqh. i just knew i was a muslim and sunni. we prayed 5 times a day, fast in ramadan, give zakat, and do hajj. then when i entered the MSA freshman year, i was overwhelmed by my older brothers and sisters with these new terms like fiqh and aqeedah and madhab. and then the groups started to pile on, salafi, sufi, hizb ut tahrir, ikhawaani, tanzeemi, etc. it’s a good thing but also a bad thing for some young brothers and sisters. if you get really caught up into these discussions, you’ll end up really confused.
my final point. whatever you are, whatever you are part of. thats good. i dont care. let’s work together and bring Islam to the non-Muslims and the Muslims who haven’t yet understand it.
since we’re mostly americans here, lets make an Islamic America.
The terms “Sufi” and “Salafi” are like apples and oranges. Sufis do not have “Sufi dawah” nor do they have their own manhaj. They follow the four mainstream schools of fiqh and two (or three, depending on how you want to see it) schools of aqida. Salafis have their own manhaj, their own fiqh, and their own aqida. Sufi is just a term for those who are masters of tasawwuf just like a faqhi is a master of fiqh. It would be more appropriate to say “Salafi vs madhabi” or “Salafi vs Ash’ari”, etc…
I, generally speaking, personally would not take my knowledge from Salafis when it comes to aqida and mostly fiqh. Although, I admit I would attend a “Fiqh of Love” course but never attend their aqida classes.
Some of these differences are important I think they should be acknowledged. But I think it is not for the laymen (especially those who are not particularly knowledgable) to be tackling those issues but rather the scholars. But ya, at the same time, for me at least, it is difficult to not say anything when I hear things like “Allah
sits on His throne” or “indeed, all but Allah 
’s face WILL perish… but in way unlike His creation” (yes, a “Salaf”i did tell me that when I asked him about the ayah about Allah 
’s face perishing.
God knows best.
yeah well i took Light of Guidance, to see wat AlMaghrib was about. and i’m only taking fiqh of love because there is hardly and difference of opinion on love, hahahahaha.
wait love is bidda3, haha just kidding.
ur taking fiqh of love because of a certain some1 in maryland
One more point, I would like to add, is that AlMaghrib Institute is only labeled salafi, because of there one seminar called the Light of Guidance. It’s there aqeedah class. All the rest of the seminars are non-aqeedah issues. The Purification Act is a seminar about Taharah (purification) and they gave all 4 opionions of each madhab. Ustadh Muhammad alShareef (the founder of AlMaghrib Institute) is acutally shafi’ himself. He also studied hifz in a Hanafi Deobandi Madrasah, thus has respect for the Ulema. An AlMaghrib hard core student (one who takes 3 or more AlMaghrib seminars) will never tell you, don’t follow a madhab but instead they tell you to follow your madhab correctly and learn everything about it. They may have the aqeedah of the Salafi, but they respect those who follow a madhab. Many of the AlMaghrib students follow a madhab and are not salafi in aqeedah, including myself.
there is a war for muslim minds. Sufis, salafis and modernists are battling it out and it is happening right here
Asslamu ‘alaykum wa’rahmatullahi wa’barakatuhu brother (I already posted this somewhere else in this site but it goes perfectly here aswell)
“If only we could take half a Salafee with their correctness and half a Sufi with their spirituality (and add a dash of modernist adaptability) and put them together in one body, then we would have the perfect Muslim!”
This above is an excerpt from the enlightening article titled “The Fight for the Soul of Islam in America” : Amidst the competing agendas of Salafees, Sufis and Modernists, Yahiya Emerick calls on “everyday Muslims” to remember that ISLAM IS A BALANCED WAY OF LIFE.
to read the whole thing: http://www.islamfortoday.com/emerick12.htm
Fee ImanAllah
Asslamu ‘alaykum wa’rahmatullahi wa’barakatuhu
a quote i just read and thought about mentioning it here:
“A Tasbih is used to keep count of dhikr. It is usually made up of 100 beads which are held together in a necklace form by a thread. As long as the tasbih remains in its original form, it can be used for doing good deeds.
However, what happens if the thread rips? The beads fall all over the place and create a mess. Similar is the example of this ummah.
As long as the Muslims remain united together, good results will come out of them. However, as soon as they are divided, they will create a big mess, which is clearly visible in these days.”
just wanna correct Danya above,
she makes it seem as salafees follow a different religion, which they do NOT!!!!!
okay as far as aqeedah goes, salafees do follow aqeedah one of the three aqeedah branches of sunni islaam.
The aqeedah of Imaam Ahmed bin Hanbal. Just to clarify.
It is not a different aqeedah!!! !!!!!!!!
And salafees are not anthromophists, Allaah does nto resemble the creation, why are you going into little things. And if you did more research, many of the sahaabah believed in this same aqeedah or understood it such.
They were confident enough not to mistake resembling of creation with creator.
Secondly, we dont make up our own fiqhs, for crying out loud(what can I say, women are always weak of mind anyways). The fiqh is following of the four madhaahib and their madhaahib rulings. Some salafees as was already mentioned follow one madhab. I follow shafi’ie madhab mostly.
Only the methodology is different. If anything it is a lot harder to be a salafee, because you have to do a lot more reading and research and seeing sides and opinions on a fiqh issue if your madhab ruling is not very strong.
And as far as people that follow madhaahib I have seen them do contradictory things.
Hanafi sister would say, you should not cut your hair according to hanafi madhab, yet after one or two years, she says, ” oh I got tired of long hair.” And she cut her own hair.
Whereas a salafee would say, well what is the ruling on cutting hair, you cannot do it if you imitate the kuffar, but you can do it to beautify yourself for your husband so far as you do not resemble a man.
Bingo, doesnt matter whether you are hanafi, shafii, hanbali, maliki. You are not fooling yourself or contradicting yourself, or being hypocritical when you told others that a certain madhab doesnt allow hair cutting, yet you went against your madhab and did it.
And this is just one small example, there are many, many.
So message of BR.Haseeb,
do not be arrogant and think the other person is a kaafir, thank you very very much.
Salamcafe:
I never said nor implied that Salafis follow their own religion. I am simply stating what they themselves state. Cmon, we hear the term “Salafi dawah” and “Salafi manhaj” thrown around all the time. (Manhaj just means methodology”).
What the Salaf did is not what the Salafis do today. The Salafis did tafweed where they would not deny what Allah
says about Himself and consign the meaning to Allah 
. Salafis, on the other hand, often insist it is literal “but unlike creation”…
As for madhabs, well that’s complicated and a whole debate that I don’t want to go into. That and my female mind is feeling rather weak.
edit: I mean the SALAF (not Salafis) did tafweed in the first line of the second paragraph…
ok im confused ,
somebody please put a glossary up or an idiots guide to …….
Yeah im ignorant, shame on me.
Jars need labelling , not people.
Asalamualaykum,
yeh i agree with ‘mujahideen ryder’- there was once a time when all i knew was muslims-sunnis and shias.
in college i came across the ’salafi’ kind who would always ask “wheres the proof for so and so?!” “show me where in the quran and sunna”, or “your praying wrong!!” etc..
i went for some advice and was told madhabs are meant to make our lives *easier* and differences of opinion are a mercy…sometimes i find it hard to see the merciful side when all people seem to do is diss those who follow other opinions
then i came across the HT’s…
then the Ahmadiyya pple
then the ikhwaanis
then the Berelwi
then the sufis
and they all just kept coming and yeh i did end up confused, all i wanted to be was a Muslim..was that asking for too much?
gosh all this is depressing..look at the state of us-pathetic, we want to show non muslims what islam is all about but cant even get along with fellow muslims and agree to disagree on certain issues…
God help us
Speaking of Shaykh Abdullah Adhami, you don’t notes from his lecture in your RIS notes
Assalam-alaikum,
Fully agree and can understand with Usma.
Its something I find laughable personally. I remember being asked where’s the proof, for such and such, and I actually gave the books name with the well renouned publisher name, then she was like… well, many publishers are unreliable…blah blah blah so I just laughed.
Why can’t people just discuss differences, with cool minds, quit trying to act so scholarly and regimental, then just agree to disagree (as Usma said).
(SWT), and HE (SWT) knows you better than anyone. Poor young Muslims feel they have to play follow my leader to the head sis/bro at Islamic Soc at uni or can’t reach Allah 
(SWT) because of the position of their hands and arms during prayers. Come on man.!?
(SWT) has gone out the window unfortunately, and I sadly don’t see it changing.
Don’t forget that ultimately its the individual and Allah
Common sense, (aql), a gift given by Allah
Wasalam
who cares about these labels?? The white man wantsa put labels on everything. He wants to label parts of new orleans so the federal government won’t help. He wants to label food so we discriminate against black bread with all the calories. Because america hates black people.
Now the arab man also wants to put labels on everything. If you really want to be separate and distinguished, do it with some other aspect of your life - become a rapper who’ll go to jail but won’t snitch like lil’Kim, or a big man budda rapper like Notorious who complains about “all you people who called the cops on me just because i was slangin’ dope on the corner so i could feed my baby daughter”.
You divide the religion just so you can make a name for yourself. I thought one of the best things about islam was that it was united as opposed to christianity. Now im thinking i was wrong.
And all your internet lovers, sportin backwards caps, online acting thugged out, sendin each other love aim messages, go sell some vacuum cleaners posers! Im Kanye West! i dont care about nothing! it all came from jesus! all my gold crosses and gold pens and gold chains, all from Jesus cuz he loves me more than you! im kanye West!!
yo kanye, asalamualykum akhi:
Kanye West: Muslim?
Danya salafees do the same as the salaf did, they accept it as it is without giving convoluted explaination. Whether they accepted, literally, that is the way sahaaba did it anyways. They were simple Bedouins, barefooted, illiterate. They were not philosophers like teh ancient Greece or theological like the Persians.
So if salafees accept it as it is but offcourse not resembling creation, why do other people have a cow about that and why they are labeling that anthromorphists?
astaghfirullahil adheem.
salamcafe, i dont know about u, but in new york, salafis range from sheesha smoking thugs, to hardcore wife beaters, to calm and cool soothing muslims.
SubhanAllah, I think I’ve read the word “sufi”, “salafi”, “salafee”, soofie” so many times I’m going to go nuts and turn into a “soolafee”. I think I already am a Soolafee actually (I’d prefer the spelling Sulafi though).
How silly a state we slide into,
As we oaf along a dim-lit path,
On one side a torch, on the other, darkness,
Praying the confusion comes to pass.
Hold to the “Rope” God hath provided,
Leaving aside all mal-intent,
Leaving aside all disputation,
Lest from us all our power is sent.
Busy ourselves with righteous action,
We will, build, beautiful huts of strength-
We find, roads, leading to our salvation-
United, with pure methods and intent.
~Saleem
very nice poem, Br. Saleem. Allaah bless you immensely.
You are right, we should all be sulafis,(that is a nice term rather).
And MR, I am from NY for your info and you actually do know me. The sheesha smoking thugs are just cultural.
And how would you know a wife-beater, unless they tell you specifically, my God, all this slander.
wife beaters?? in ny you can hear it through the walls
liar, Kanye West.
Sure, and then what kinda muslim are you
to not tell them otherwise.
The wife beaters are the druggie addicts and the alcohols, not the salafees
and as far as strict husband goes, there are lot of tablighi hanafee strict husbands as well not just the salafee brothers.
Kanya West, you make sure you are not a wife-beater, alright?
Who or what is a Salafi?
The word salafi or “early Muslim” in traditional Islamic scholarship means someone who died within the first four hundred years after the Prophet (Allah
bless him and give him peace), including scholars such as Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafi’i, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Anyone who died after this is one of the khalaf or “latter-day Muslims”.
The term “Salafi” was revived as a slogan and movement, among latter-day Muslims, by the followers of Muhammad Abduh (the student of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani) some thirteen centuries after the Prophet (Allah
bless him and give him peace), approximately a hundred years ago. Like similar movements that have historically appeared in Islam, its basic claim was that the religion had not been properly understood by anyone since the Prophet (Allah 
bless him and give him peace) and the early Muslims–and themselves.
In terms of ideals, the movement advocated a return to a shari’a-minded orthodoxy that would purify Islam from unwarranted accretions, the criteria for judging which would be the Qur’an and hadith. Now, these ideals are noble, and I don’t think anyone would disagree with their importance. The only points of disagreement are how these objectives are to be defined, and how the program is to be carried out. … Click here to read complete article
i know personal stories of wife beaters….its a general statement, not slandering, its a disease amongst the ummah
and if u know me, then u know the ppl too, but u just dont know.
Assalamu alaikum
The problem is adab. It has always been adab. The aqidah, fiqh, and tasawwuf debates are a secondary issue. The adab with Allah
, the adab with RasulAllah (saw) and his Companions (ra) and with the ‘Ulema and with one another.
Allahu alim.
masalama
PS: I think their is a possible solution to the Salafi-Traditionalist disputes. See blog.
salamcafe, your calling me a liar?? i didnt even say it was salafees or whatever variation of Islam your a part of - i made a general statement - you can hear wife beaters through the walls in nyc. i didnt say who -
Its a fact , i guess youve never been in this thing called an apartment building, its a building with aparments inside, its very different from where youu live in the country.
id love to see you go in and say ’stop!’ in the naaame of islam! lol, they would find you outside in a gutter with smashed teeth and you rolling your eyes and foaming ‘duuuuuuurf the 5 pillars of islam are….duuuurf, whats my name? i forget ‘
very funny kid, Kanye West.
And MR, no I do not know wife-beaters, alhamdulillaah for that. If I did i’d definitely give them a mean look or yell at them.
Also, if I did hear through the walls, you bet I’d call the cops on the guy. I aint no joke when it comes to these things, (at least theoretically).
and for the one who pasted Shaykh Nuh’s article on who or what is a salafee
is so not correct.
You dont ask a salafee, who and what is a sufi.
Same way you dont ask a sufi, who or what is a salafee.
Dont be cutting and pasting stuff.
You guys need to cut back on the haterade.
Please respect Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller. Shaykh Nuh knows alot more about Salafism and its origins, per se, than im sure most people who even claim to be salafi do.
I dont care at all about the argument or about differences btw salafis and traditionalists etc etc. As long as they dont try to kill me or force me into following their way of doing thing (salafis I’m lookin at you) I dont care what anybody in the world believes or doesnt believe.
All i wanted to say is that its foul as hell for somebody to take advantage of another person’s generosity then turn on them over something frivolous like endorsing a fiqh of love event
You know who you are, this message is for you: I dont care how holy you are, you’re still a herb
ws
my uncle is an instructor for Al-Maghrib…and I, and other personal students of Shaykh Muhammad, can tell you Al-Maghrib is basically salafi. does it really matter? nope. I didnt even know this until someone told me. I still dont think of Al-Maghrib differently. It still has excellent courses.
“Learn to take good from everything..and leave what is bad,” Al-Falah from MM.
Assalam alaikum,
If your aqdeeah is strong and you follow the quran and sunnah, as our Prophet (PBUH) said and I paraphrase ” I have left you 2 things: Quran and my sunnah, and also, whoever He who innovates something that is not in agreement with our matter (religion), will have it rejected.” [Al-Bukharee and Muslim].
That alone should suffice, and if you choose to follow one of the 4 great Imams (May Allah
be pleased with them), then let it be, they were great men, and the fiqh between is not the issue, its the individuals who choose to follow them blindly and critize others for not “praying the hanafi way” or the “shafi way”, then thats an issue. You should never follow anyone blindly except for our beloved Prophet (PBUH). Also, if you choose to go with the strongest hadith instead on 1 school of thought, that is acceptable as long the hadith is a sahih hadith or a has a good chain of narators. Some times as muslims we tend to focus on little things. such as “where we put our hands when we pray”. The act and actions of the prayers are significant, dont take me wrong, but there are different views on it, and they are mostly correct.
Assalaamoalaykum,
May Allah
protect us from this fitnah. The major cause of dispute and disagreement between these two groups is provoked by the aggressive and ignorant rants of the salafis. The school of though that is on the Sahih Manhaj and understanding of this Deen are the Deobandis and others who follow a Madhab apart from Barelvis and Salafis etc. or people with messed up beliefs. Although there is a Sufi element in the Deobandis, they have the right understanding of Tazkiya and Tasawwuf. They have a balance between the proper ‘amaal and love of Allah 
and RasulAllah (saws). Deobandis , Shafis, Malikis and Hambalis all stay within the boundary of the Qur’an and Sunnah. And Tazkiyaa is undoubtedly a part of the Qur’an and Sunnah.
Salam Alaikum
We muslims should follow four Madahibs , such as Hanafi, Shafi, Malaki and Hanbali. These Imams are the greatest in term of knowledge (Ilm). Myself coming from a Hanafi background as do many asians. Is the most logic and detailed islamic jurisprudence in the modern world today. Why are we muslims like salafs so crictical of madahabs, even the salafs main ulema such as tirmidi, ibn kathir taymiyyah, etc come from several madhab (shafie and hambali) even hanafi scholars such as Ibn Aziz.
Lets be Unted (Amaliya Etihad wahidun)
AA.
Wow, some of these posts are hilarious. I can’t believe people actually care about arguing with those who clearly don’t know what they’re talking about.
It seems like most of these generalizations are based on a few people within a particular sect or madhhab. But from the way some people write, you’d think they had PhD’s on the subject.
Asalaamu ‘alaikum
This is a “great scholar”? Honestly, may Allaah protect us from these people who raise themselves up and speak for the sake of speaking.
It reminds me of the saying of Abdullah ibn Mas’ood: “How many intend good, but they will never be able to achieve it.”
salaam, does it all really matter, ii mean what u r wat u believe in? as long as ur muslim, believe in theo= oneness of Allah
and his messenger (saw), then why rnt muslims concerned about trengthenng their own belefs, perfecting their own characters, bringing up their children well,a ccording to good slamic law, reading the Quran etc. But instead all we’re concerned about is labeling each other, and judging others and ether they’re “right” or “wrong”. Surely Allah 
(swt) should be the only judge?
btw y does it say im from France? I am from the UK.
P.S, i think all sources of knoweledge are great, and i have recently take my first ever AlMaghrib seminar called The Shephards Path. It was fantastic and i think people that study Islam for their whole lives, teaching others about it should not be undermined by anyone, especially those who probably don’t have half the knoweledge of these shaykhs.
…And with knoweledge comes humility…