Arab Salafi Shuyukh
 

Why are all the Big well known shuyukh of the arabic world, Salafi? Muhammad Al Arifi, Muhammad Hassan, Nabil Al Awadi and so forth.

Walaikum asalaam warahmatallahi waabarakatu

What do you mean "Unknown"?

there are non salafi shuykh who are famous like ali jumah, buti, wahbah zuhayli and many more

Promotion, promotion, promotion. They run TV-channels, they run fatwa-websites etc. But there are many non-Salafi who are famous, although in todays world the Salafis seem to have the upper hand in that. Either way, fame is not the criteria according to which we judge the reliability of a speaker.

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Yep.

Remember that even the Salafis do not consider those famous shuyukh to be amongst their elite. But their ability to promote themselves (or have their followers do it for them) has allowed them to take the spotlight.

amr khalid is famous...so what...qardawi...salman awdah...buti...etc...Some of the ones I mentioned are not salafi enough for most salafis...fame is nothing.

I think one of the major factors in the popularity of the salafi da'wah is the lack of a better alternative in many places.

Things I have witnessed in *some*, not all, sufi-oriented 'ulama that turn me and many others away from them:

Some of the famous sufi shuyukh seem to either openly or tacitly approve repressive regimes, are lax in practicing outward sunan or at times even belittle them (I've seen personally a number of big sufi scholars who are clean shaven or have a five-o-clock shadow and wear suits and I've seen scholars belittling and mocking people who have long beards and keep their garments about the ankles), encourage dhikr with dancing, musical instruments, and calling upon deceased awliya for help (they certainly are not without precedent but many educated Muslims are turned off by such practices), ghulu in praising their shuyukh (including having huge posters of a shaykh in a masjid in the direction of the qiblah), crypto shiism (attacking Mu'awiya, doing tafdil of 'Ali (ra) over the Shaykhayn (ra)) etc.

Salafis, despite having many faults, come across as very sincere and their da'wah is very simple and makes perfect sense on the surface. Who doesn't want to return to the Qur'an and sunnah and abandon bid'ah?

السلام عليكم
Well said.

The "famous" one's have alot of money power (petro dollars) behind them, but there are SUNNI shayks today that attract millions to their gathering when they go on a tour of any country.

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We should realize that the Arab Salafis tend to not be so antagonistic against the madhahib as the Urdu-speaking or English-speaking Salafis tend to be. As long as they don't talk about aqaaid (and even then, they usually don't go much into depth since their target audience is the layman), I don't see any problem in listening to these Arab Salafis, especially when talking about history or established laws or commentate on societal issues (e.g. riba, music, Western influence, etc.). I really like al-'Arifi, even if he is somewhat misinformed about Jamaat at-Tableegh.

You seem to be projecting your experiences with 'ahle-hadis' in the Subcontinent onto the salafi movement in the Arab world. Also, I said their message of following Qur'an and sunnah seems to make perfect sense on the surface. I never claimed that they actually live up to that message.

ASA,

Arab 'salafees' are 'salafees' in the sense of aqida (where they differ with Ashari/Maturidi) not when it concerns fiqh (however the are laxer as to taqlid in fiqh and may take opinions outside the Hanabila.)

Sufi shaykh with clean-shaven face ? Are you kidding ? Only in some repressive countries such as Turkey , you may find a clean -shaven sufi shaykh .But , that is a special issue.

If you are really serious , then you should mention those sufi orders and we should start a thread with this title " Controversial sufi orders one should avoid "

It's not so uncommon you know, it's also quite present in the Maghrib.
But then they are also "sufis" with a long beard with bling-bling attire doing shirk, are they any better?

Allah guides us.

seeker_ikb: I try and make it a point to attacking specific individuals. I just wanted to offer a possible explanation for the popularity of the salafi movement based on my observations. I'm not against tasawwuf in principle, even though I am very wary of most sufi claimants, and I do not ascribe to the salafi da'wah. Like I said, *some* of the sufi shuyukh I have come across exhibited those traits, not all. Also, you see some Salafi groups who also share some of the traits that I mentioned, like supporting repressive regimes and ghuluw in praising their shuyukh (like the madkhalis).

Does his holiness Shayk Nazim Al-Haqqani count as a prominent sufi scholar?

Its not the case anymore http://discussworldissues.com/forums...ies/alhamd.gif. They have stopped gifting the URDU translation of Junagadhi. Only the Sub Con script Mushaf is distributed

If certain sufi shuyukh tacitly approve of repressive reigimes, al-'Arifi certainly approves of essentially every aspect of Saudi foreign policy, which the public fall for, hook, line and sinker. It's funny how from day 1 he was supporting the Syrian revolution (which I also support), but staying silent regarding Yemen. Then when the so-called Mubadarah Khalijiyyah came, he encouraged the Yemenis to stop protesting and allow the khalijis to sort it out! al-'Arifi is a nice story teller, waa'idh and TV star (which, of course, are major factors contributing to his celebrity status) - I'll give him that much.

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Maybe he does not believe in overthrowing a Muslim leader (Zaydis are still considered Muslim, even by the Wahhabis)?

Why does he praise the overthrow of Mubarak and Ben Ali then?