Salafism and seeds of extremism: Sanctifying “transmitted knowledge” and neglecting “reasoning”

Salafism was originated by medieval Sunni Muslim theologian and reformer Ibn Taymiyyah who called for the purgation of Islam after Sufism spread superstitions and innovation in Islamic matters.

The word Salafism is derived from the Arab word al-salaf al-salih and refers to the pious ancestors, the first three generations of Muslims who lived in the 7^th century.

Ibn Tamiyya (1263-1328) is a prominent Muslim scholar who lived at a time when the Muslim world had to cope with two heavy defeats.

Ibn Taymiyyah’s curriculum is based on a basic assumption, which is to rely on the text to understand the Islamic Sharia (Law) and how to apply it, assuming that the Holy Quran and Sunna addressed about all the aspects in the life of Muslims.

In the modern age, a number of clerics and preachers brought Ibn Taymiyyah's sayings in understanding Islam back to the surface, in an attempt to amend the failure and frustration of the Islamic world by claiming that the reason behind this setback is turning away from Islam and its laws.

The revival of Salafism in the modern age coincides with a number of political and historical elements, including the rising of non-Islamic ideologies, such as Liberalism and Communism.

During the past four decades, a number of jihadist movements appeared in Arab and Islamic countries, aiming to change social and political situations and demanding the application of the Islamic law in accordance with Salafism.

Salafist groups also appeared to have decaled a war over Muslim communities by excommunicating societies and regimes and trying to impose change by armed force

But to what extent did Salafism influenced the emerging of extremist groups?

To answer this question we need to shed the light on several aspects; namely the definition and significance of Salafism, extremism motives in Salafism, and whether diversity in Salafist schools is considered an enrichment or an intellectual insufficiency.

Definition and significance of Salafism

First, a few aspects and details about the historical and political events that led to the establishment and revival of Salafism should be highlighted in order to deduce a proper definition.

At first glance, we may conclude great similarities between the historical and societal conditions from which the Muslim community suffered during both periods of Islamic history; the first period (1263 – 1328) witnessed an increasing societal frustration and intellectual decay due to a set of political and religious reasons that included:

1- The political weakness that hit the Islamic civilization; especially after the repeated attacks by the Mongols and destruction of Muslim civilizations such as Baghdad.

2- Sufficiency of Islamic knowledge; as by the end of the 6^th Hijri century, the Islamic civilization began to relegate and suffice for what Muslim scholars and scientists introduced in the 3^rd and 4^th Hijri centuries.

3- The spread of controversial Sufi intellectual gaps and religious interpretations.

The case in the modern age, however, dates back to the writings of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab who witnessed a period of dispersion and fragmentation in the Islamic community, not to mention the spread of Sufi and Liberal ideologies.

This pushes us to conclude that Salafism can be defined as a reaction to a state of intellectual decay that the Muslim community is going through from time to time. Salafism is based on a basic assumption that Muslims must resort back to the original meanings of Islam for the sake of rebuilding the Islamic civilization through the application of Quran, Sunnah, al-Salaf al-Sāliḥ (The righteous predecessors) and Sahabah (Companions).

Salafi scholar Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen tried to figure a prober definition for Salafism to address some of the political and methodical faults in following it; he defined Salafim as, “Following the way of the Prophet and his Sahabah for they are our Salaf (predecessors) who preceded us, so following them is Salafism. As for taking Salafism as a special doctrine such that everyone who differs with it is considered astray even if he was on the truth; then this is beyond doubt opposite to Salafism. All the Salaf called to Islam and to unite upon the Sunnah of Allah’s Messenger and they did not declare astray anyone who differs with them (in a certain issue) because of (a different) interpretation (Taweel), except in matters of belief because they considered him, who differed in belief as astray.”

Moreover, Islamic scholar Mohamed Omara proposed another definition for Salafism, which is the “purification” of understanding and applying the religious reference before the emergence of various interpretations and doctrines.

Therefore, we can define Salafism as, “To follow the example of those first three generations, known collectively as the Salaf, namely Prophet Muhammad, his companions and followers, in adherence to the Holy Quran and the Sunna.”

We can also realize that Salafism is firmly based on following the Salaf, rejecting independent reasoning and interpretation (Ijtihad) of religious matters and other ideologies and doctrines that are based on anything else other than the Quran and Sunna, and maintaining the intellectual gap that the Muslim community suffer from.

Motives of extremism in Salafism:

This revolves around wondering about why all the Islamic extremist groups, except for Shiites, are following Salafism, such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda. By looking into the characteristics of the Salafi speech we may notice its “populism”, which tickles the emotions and feelings of commoners and convincing them that what happens to Muslims is nothing but a mere conspiracy to strike Islam.

Another thing is that Salafism kind of “monopolizes” the religion, by presuming that they possess salvation, while others are just infidels, innovators or deceptive; Sufism for example, is being considered evil and a way to polytheism.

The weakness of Salafism references also plays a significant role here, because Salafism targets ordinary people in the society, so whenever an ordinary man embraces Salafism, appears to become religious and memorizes some Quran verses, he can become a Salafist preacher. Salafi jihadism also restored the idea of Jihad (Fighting for the sake of Allah) to protect sanctities and fight tyrants.

Diversity in Salafist ideologies: Enrichment or intellectual insufficiency?

Despite that Salafism calls for unity and refraining from forming multiple Islamic ideologies, the Salafi steam is suffering from being internally scattered, as it is divided into several branches, that are almost similar in ideas, but different in terms of ways of applying these ideas.

One of these groups was Ansār al-Sunnah al-Muhammadīyah (Supporters of the Prophet's Sunnah), founded in Cairo in 1926 by Sheikh Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqi.

This group sees a necessity in fighting religious innovation and polytheism in the Muslim community and following the Holy Quran and the original Sunnah of the Prophet, by following Salafism.

It also considers democracy as “blasphemy” because it gives man the right to legislate, away from God’s legislations. It also believes Salafism will only gain political control through spreading an “authentic” Islam.

Other Salafi groups include; Al Gam’iyya Al Shar’iyya (Founded in 1912 by Sheikh Mahmoud Khattab Al Sobky), and the Salafist Call (In Alexandria) that was founded in the 1970s and was firmly established in the 1980s in Alexandria University after students refused to join the Muslim Brotherhood; Al Nour Party represents its political arm.

The Salafist Call, which considered democracy to be blasphemy, changed its ideology after the January 25 as it sought to take part in the political scene and found a party to represent it in the Parliament elections.

Another steam is the “Madkhalism”, which emerged in Saudi Arabia after the Iraqi invasion in Kuwait in 1991 to oppose other religious steams that supported the involvement of U.S. and foreign forces against Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.

Dynamic Salafism on the other hand was initiated in Cairo and is based on excommunicating the ruler. It is considered a pro-Muslim Brotherhood group.

Sururism is also considered another trend of Salafism founded by Muhammad Surur bin Nayif Zayn al-'Abidin, a former Syrian Muslim Brotherhood member; it is often described as a Muslim Brotherhood stream in Saudi Arabia.

Salafi Jihadism; which can be defined as the Salafist stream that promoted the concept of jihad and allowed the ousting of tyrants for the ultimate dream of establishing an Islamic state.

This only indicates that diversity among Salafist streams can be considered failure to apply its ideology itself, based on the following;

- Salafist streams failed to deal with tyrants; as Madkhalism even prohibited giving an advice, while Salafi Jihadism allowed his ouster.

- Salafist contradiction with political issues; The Salafist Call, for example, prohibited taking part in elections, however, it founded a political party to join the parliament.

- Infiltration by other Islamist groups; for example, the Muslim Brotherhood managed to infiltrate the Dynamic Salafism stream and use it against the Salafist Call, and turned Sururism against Madkhalism in Saudi Arabia.

Conclusion:

Based on the aforementioned, we can conclude that the Salafist stream is facing acute disorders, whether politically or intellectually; there are still many political and social issues that Salafism failed to address until now, such as the empowerment of women and citizenship.

Moreover, we can realize a political turmoil suffered by Salafism, as we can see in Egypt the Salafist Call is being pro-government and supporting the political process that followed the June 30 revolution, while we can see some other Salafist groups excommunicate rulers and try to enforce change for the establishment of the ultimate Islamic State.