Muqbil Bin Hadi Al-Wadi'i
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Muqbil ibn Hadi ibn Muqbil (193321 July 2001), commonly known as al-Wadi'i, was a
Yemeni Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to the north, Oman to the northeast, the south-eastern part of the Arabian Sea to the east, the Gulf of Aden to the south ...
Islamic scholar In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...
. He was the founder of a
madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...
in Dammaj which was known as a centre for
Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retu ...
ideology. Muqbil was noted for his fierce criticisms of the
Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...
Islamist writer
Sayyid Qutb Sayyid Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Qutb (9 October 190629 August 1966) was an Egyptian political theorist and revolutionary who was a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood. As the author of 24 books, with around 30 books unpublished for differe ...
.


Biography

Wadi'i was born sometime during the late 1920s and early 1930s near the city of Sa'adah in northern
Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...
. He was said to be from a Zaydi tribe, and he was initially a Zaydi Shia. He left Yemen as a young man and travelled to
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
to work and became acquainted with
Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...
works of Islamic scholarship.Bonnefoy, L. (2009) in Meijer, R. (ed.) Global Salafism


Education

After finishing primary education in Yemen, Wadi'i spent roughly two decades studying Islam in Saudi Arabia. In 1963 he began by studying at the Salafi teaching centre developed by
Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin (; 9 March 192910 January 2001), commonly known by his Ibn al-Uthaymin (), was a Saudi Islamic scholar. Family Background and Birth Shaykh Muhammad bin Salih Al-Uthaymin Al-Wuhaybi Al-Tamimi was born during the ...
in
Najran Najran ( '), is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is the capital of Najran Province. Today, the city of Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As of the 2022 census, the city population was 381,431, wi ...
before then being accepted to study at the Islamic University of Madinah where he attended Halaqas led by
Hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...
scholar Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani and Abdul-Ghaffar Hasan Al-Hindi as well as former
Grand Mufti A Grand Mufti (also called Chief Mufti, State Mufti and Supreme Mufti) is a title for the leading Faqīh, Islamic jurist of a country, typically Sunni, who may oversee other muftis. Not all countries with large Sunni Muslim populations have Gra ...
Abd-al-Aziz ibn Abd-Allah ibn Baz while also studying under Muhammad al-Sumali. Wadi'i is said to have graduated from the Islamic University of Madinah with a master's degree in the science of hadith.


Return to Yemen

In 1979, his stay in Saudi ended abruptly when he was indicted on suspected involvement in the Grand Mosque Seizure. After spending a few months in prison, Grand Mufti ibn Baz negotiated his release, though Wadi'i was forced to return to his home country where he would eventually become known as the father of the modern Salafi movement within Yemen. It was there that he began to spread the Salafi Da'wah in Yemen, with much initial opposition from the local
Shafi`i The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionist al ...
s,
Ismaili Ismailism () is a branch of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor ( imām) to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelver Shia, who accept ...
s and Zaidis. Wadi'i went on, soon after his return to his native region, to found and establish an institute that he named Dar al-Hadith al-Khayriyya in Dammaj. It would become one of the most important and influential educational institutions for
Salafism The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a Islamic fundamentalism, fundamentalist Islamic revival, revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" ...
in the world, teaching tens of thousands of students ranging from the
Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...
to
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
to
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
and the
Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...
. It was during this time that Wadi'i, along with Ja'far 'Umar Thalib, established close ties between Yemeni and
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
n Salafis. In the 1980s Wadi'i accepted grants from various sources such as Ibn Baz and the Saudi Government of 15,000 Saudi Riyals every two months. However, his continued critique of the Saudi monarch, due to his believed wrongful imprisonment, led him to be more independent in the financing of the institute's operations. He stated that managing the mosque and institute in Dammaj required little funding and was easily covered by local donations and
zakat Zakat (or Zakāh زكاة) is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Zakat is the Arabic word for "Giving to Charity" or "Giving to the Needy". Zakat is a form of almsgiving, often collected by the Muslim Ummah. It is considered in Islam a relig ...
. Wadi'i was opposed to the rapid expansion of the
Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...
movement across Yemeni schools in the 1980s, and opened the ''Dar al-hadith'' religious institute in Dammaj in order to rebut Islamist movements. In 2014, Wadi'i's institute, Dar al-Hadeeth would be shut down after a long Siege of Dammaj by Houthi rebels. The manager of the institute,
Yahya al-Hajuri Yahya ibn Ali al-Hajuri is a Yemeni preacher. He leads the Hajoor tribe which is the dominant tribe in northern Yemen. On January 19, 2020, renewed clashes between the Houthis and the Hajoor occurred. The first clashes between the two was in 201 ...
, as well as thousands of foreign students were forced to relocate to Al Hudaydah Governorate.


Death

After a prolonged illness, and hospital treatment in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Wadi'i died on July 21, 2001, from either
cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, chronic liver failure or chronic hepatic failure and end-stage liver disease, is a chronic condition of the liver in which the normal functioning tissue, or parenchyma, is replaced ...
or liver cancer. His funeral prayer was performed in the
Masjid al-Haram Masjid al-Haram (), also known as the Sacred Mosque or the Great Mosque of Mecca, is considered to be the most significant mosque in Islam. It encloses the vicinity of the Kaaba in Mecca, in the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia. It is among the ...
in
Makkah Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above sea level. Its metropo ...
and he was laid to rest in the Al-'Adl cemetery close to the graves of Ibn Baz and
Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin (; 9 March 192910 January 2001), commonly known by his Ibn al-Uthaymin (), was a Saudi Islamic scholar. Family Background and Birth Shaykh Muhammad bin Salih Al-Uthaymin Al-Wuhaybi Al-Tamimi was born during the ...
. After his death, reports continued to surface of changes in curriculum and power struggles at the Dar al-Hadith, although these rumours were dispelled a few years later by contemporary Muslim scholar Rabee Al-Madkhali.


Links to Guantanamo detainees

Joint Task Force Guantanamo
counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...
analysts prepared Summary of Evidence memos offering justifications for continuing to hold them in
extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...
. Several of the captives had their detention justified, in part, through their association with Al Wadi.Though Shaykh Muqbil never supported terrorism or terrorists as can be seen in his harsh criticism of Usaamah ibn Laden


Views


On Terrorism

Wadi'i made a number of statements against terrorism and attempted to advise
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...
against it, whom he blames - along with older movements like the
Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...
- for many of the problems Muslims face today; he further commented in an interview:
I did in fact send my advice and warning (to bin Laden) but only Allah knows if it actually arrived or not. However, some of those people did come to us, offering their help and assistance in preaching and calling to Allah. Afterwards, we found them sending money, requesting that we distribute it among the leaders of various tribes; they were trying to buy rocket-launchers and machine guns. But I refused them and told them to never come to my house again. I made it clear to them that what we do is preach only and we don’t allow our students to do anything but that.

Waadi'ee had earlier authored a book as well, referring to bin Laden as the head of all "sectarianism," "partisanship," "division," and "religious ignorance," and accusing him putting money into weapons while ignoring his religion. Additionally he was a huge supporter of the controversial Saudi preacher Rabi'i ibn Hadi al-Madkhali. Feircly critiquing the Muslim Brothers, Wadi'i states:
"They he Muslim Brotherhoodare bankrupt as it relates to knowledge and bankrupt as it relates to Daʿwah... The founder of this group – which is Ḥasan al-Bannā – used to make Ṭawāf around the graves...They he Muslim Brotherhoodare prepared to cooperate with the Devil against Ahl al-Sunnah.”

Wadi'i was also a staunch critic of the scholar Muhammad ibn Salih al-Munajjid, said that he's a misguided "'' Sururi''". His Dar ul-Hadith
seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...
and
institute An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...
of Dammaj was known to oppose
al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...
and other radical extremist organisations, as Wadi'i himself stated in an interview with Hassan al-Zayidi of the Yemen Times in 2000.


His Fiqh

In terms of
Islamic jurisprudence ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica
''Fiqh'' is of ...
, al-Wādi'i did not follow any established
school of thought A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement. ...
in Islam and opposed the practice of
taqlid ''Taqlid'' (, " imitation") is an Islamic term denoting the conformity of one person to the teaching of another. The person who performs ''taqlid'' is termed ''muqallid''. The definite meaning of the term varies depending on context and age. Cla ...
, or subordination to higher legal authority. His views on the
principles of Islamic jurisprudence Principles of Islamic jurisprudence () are traditional methodological principles used in Islamic jurisprudence (''fiqh'') for deriving the rulings of Islamic law (''sharia''). Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence elaborates how the scri ...
were almost identical with those of the
Zahiri The Zahiri school or Zahirism is a school of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was named after Dawud al-Zahiri and flourished in Spain during the Caliphate of Córdoba under the leadership of Ibn Hazm. It was also followed by the majo ...
school; he rejected the usage of
Qiyas Qiyas (, , ) is the process of deductive analogy in which the teachings of the hadith are compared and contrasted with those of the Quran in Islamic jurisprudence, in order to apply a known injunction ('' nass'') to a new circumstance and cre ...
, or analogical reasoning, in deriving rulings in Islamic jurisprudence entirely, recommending the books of Zahiri scholar
Ibn Hazm Ibn Hazm (; November 994 – 15 August 1064) was an Andalusian Muslim polymath, historian, traditionist, jurist, philosopher, and theologian, born in the Córdoban Caliphate, present-day Spain. Described as one of the strictest hadith interpre ...
in the principles of jurisprudence for details on the topic. al-Wādi'i was fond of the works of Ibn Hazm, to the point that, when asked about Ibn Hazm's Zahirism, he advised every Muslim "to be a Zahiri." However, al-Wadi'i declared following a ''madhhab'' a ''
bid'ah In Islam and sharia (Islamic law), ( , ) refers to innovation in religious matters. Linguistically, as an Arabic word, the term can be defined more broadly, as "innovation, novelty, heretical doctrine, heresy". It is the subject of many hadith ...
'' (religious innovation) within Islam.


On Yemen

Wadi'i believed that even the sinful and corrupt leaders must be obeyed by the Muslims while advising the leader must be done by the learned scholar in private. Additionally, the Muslims are commanded to endure hardship and be patient until
Allah Allah ( ; , ) is an Arabic term for God, specifically the God in Abrahamic religions, God of Abraham. Outside of the Middle East, it is principally associated with God in Islam, Islam (in which it is also considered the proper name), althoug ...
removes the burden of an oppressive ruler for that of a better one. Wadi'i thought that South Yemen's colonial rule by Britain was better than its independence in 1967, due to the fact that independence had allowed a socialist government to come to power and also resulted in the unnecessary death of Muslims. Although claiming to be neutral by assuming a neutral or apolitical stance, Wadi'i maintained excellent relations with the Yemeni government after unification. This was in fact done by his de facto support of the Yemeni government via his stances on issues such as not partaking or calling to elections and political parties or candidates as well as cooperating with the Yemeni government against common enemies such as extreme Zaydi militias and the Muslim Brotherhood's local chapter.Meijer (2009) Global Salafism


On Saudi Arabia

While critical of the Saudi government throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Wadi'i never compromised by siding with the Sahwa movement and its preachers. He vocally opposed them and their methods of overtly calling to politics and labeled them with hizbiyyah, or partisanship. He harbored hard feelings against Saudi Arabia up until toward the end of his life, when he would ultimately recant his criticism, speaking highly of the country and its authorities.


Works

* ''al-Ilhad al-Khumayni fi Ard al-Haramayn'' or the Impudence of Khomeini on the Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries (criticism of the
Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...
)


Notes


References


External links


English translations of his worksTranslations from the students of MadinahHis autobiographyIndonesia His autobiography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wadi'i, Muqbil bin Hadi 1933 births 2001 deaths Converts to Sunni Islam from Shia Islam Hadith scholars Salafi movement Yemeni Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Islamic University of Madinah alumni Saudi Arabian Salafis Zahiris Yemeni Salafis Salafi Quietists Yemeni emigrants to Saudi Arabia