Post-Salafism: Is Salafism Beginning to Fragment? | Dr Besnik Sinani: Blogging Theology- Oct 3, 2026

 YouTube Video:

https://youtu.be/IbiGM6R-JaE?si=-DYlu31omOyktxTk

The Wahhabi Roots of Saudi Nationalism and the Persistence of Religious Nationalism: https://themaydan.com/2024/03/the-wah... Konak Institute: https://www.konak.org/besnik-sinani-bio  / besnik-sinani-067992353

Article:The Wahhabi Roots of Saudi Nationalism and the Persistence of Religious Nationalism
By Besnik Sinani // March 13, 2024- Maydan:An online publication of the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University

Full Article:https://themaydan.com/2024/03/the-wahhabi-roots-of-saudi-nationalism-and-the-persistence-of-religious-nationalism/

"In January, 2022, Saudi Arabia announced that the following month, on February 22nd, 2022, the kingdom would begin celebrating a new national holiday. This celebration, termed “Founding Day,” pushed back the inception of the nation almost three decades prior to the fateful meeting in 1744 between Muhammad Ibn Saud, the then head of the small Saudi clan, and Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the religious reformer convinced that most Muslims had become idol-worshipers. The new celebration presents an alternative account, which removes the Wahhabis from the founding narrative of the nation, a further indication that nationalism is replacing Wahhabism as the legitimizing ideology of the kingdom. This observation reflects the history of ideological tension between nationalism and Wahhabism. Has that relationship, however, always been confrontational?
Nationalist ideology was long considered irrelevant in Saudi Arabia, due to seemingly two opposing forces, the country’s tribal fragmentation, which precluded a sense of national unity, and to the prominence of religion, which promoted a sense of brotherhood that transcended national boundaries. Saudi ulama have regarded nationalism as an expression of atheism. In the midst of the Cold War, Saudi Arabia spearheaded an ideological battle against Arab Nationalism, and King Faysal (d. 1975), aided by the ulama, emerged as the celebrated leader of a competing form of mobilization, known as Pan-Islamism. When King Abdullah (d. 2015) first recognized the Saudi National Day in 2005, and later declared it a National Holiday, he did so against the verdict of the ulama. In this context, the state promoted nationalism in an attempt to curb the power of religion in society. Taking place in the backdrop of the Islamist opposition movement of the 1990s, known as the Sahwa, the celebration of the National Day, together with major educational and cultural projects were part of a larger state policy aimed at what Rosie Bsheer has depicted as a de-centering of religion from the public sphere and from its historical role as the ideological backbone of the kingdom. The contemporary state promotion of nationalism aims to dramatically reduce the role of religion, and bring the focus of loyalty to the Royal Family, especially the Crown Prince, MBS.

Besnik Sinani is the author of the forthcoming monograph “Sufism in Saudi Arabia Since 1979: the Politics of Orthodoxy in Contemporary Islam” to be published by Brill in 2024. He is an AIWG fellow at the Center for Muslim Theology, Tübingen University. A version of this article was first presented in “The Religious Dimensions of Nationalism” Conference, at the Cini Foundation in Venice in 2021.

PhD Thesis PDF: The Future of Sufism in Saudi Arabia Under Salafi–Sufi Polemics and Vision 2030’s Adoption of Wasaṭiyya: Khalid S. Al Nassar MA ,Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of PhD Theology and Religious Studies School of Critical Studies College of Arts University of Glasgow 

https://theses.gla.ac.uk/85207/4/2025alnassarphd.pdf

ABSTRACT: In the aftermath of the poor reputation acquired by the government-supported Salafi establishment as the principal source of political Islam’s fundamentalist ideology behind Islamic terrorism, the Saudi government was compelled to rethink its internal socioreligious policies and imposition of the austere Salafism on the heterogenous Saudi society. Societal pluralism was promoted when different groups within society, Sufis, Shīʿa and liberal modernists, were all invited to participate in national dialogue forums. These forums were precursors to major socioreligious reform, as expressed in the country’s Vision 2030. Pluralism is sought in the controversial Qurʾanic concept of wasaṭiyya (middle way), hoping to provide a solid Islamic foundation for the unprecedented socioreligious change of attitude. Wasaṭiyya would achieve two premises, as advanced in this thesis. First, it would instil an intraIslamic and societal pluralism within the heterogeneous composition of Saudi society. Second, it would promote public acceptance of harmonious coexistence across cultural and religious worlds. The prevailing Salafi establishment’s definition of wasaṭiyya is not conducive to fulfilling the two premises mentioned above. Instead, this thesis proposes that an alternative Sufi-defined wasaṭiyya, grounded in taṣawwuf’s two principles of sulūk (behaviour; conduct) and akhlāq (ethics), would better fulfil the two premises. Yet, in a country known for its deeprooted Salafi abhorrence of taṣawwuf (Sufism), Sufism’s approach to wasaṭiyya cannot be addressed outside the context of the Salafi‒Sufi polemical relationship. Through a review of the literature and multimedia sources, a comparative analysis was conducted, and Salafi‒Sufi refutations and counter-refutations were identified. The research revealed that the Sufi interpretation of wasaṭiyya was inclusive, promoting pluralistic intraIslamic and a disposition towards modernist schools of thought. Taṣawwuf’s wasaṭiyya underlines a new comprehensive approach to an Islamic philosophy for life that naturally fulfils the two premises of the socioreligious-cum-political aspect of Vision 2030. Although the state of taṣawwuf in Saudi Arabia is far from widely accepted, government-supported intellectual efforts and official public media programmes about taṣawwuf target the country’s intelligentsia. This highlights the intellectual acknowledgement of true Sufism, in contrast to pseudo-Sufism, as essential to Islamic ethics. Consequently, this thesis advocates including Sufism’s two principles, sulūk and aklāq, in the country’s religious education system.

Article:In Saudi Arabia, a Resurgence of Sufism: Faiza Saleh Ambah:Special to The Washington Post-May 2, 2006
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050101380.html

"Salman al-Odah, the country's most popular puritanical cleric, who was jailed in the 1990s for opposing the presence of U.S. troops in the kingdom, accepted an invitation to visit Sufi cleric Abdallah Fadaaq's mawlid and lesson last week. The scene at Fadaaq's house was an obvious sign of conciliation.Al-Odah sat with his hands neatly folded in his lap, wearing a red-and-white checkered headdress and clear wraparound glasses and sporting the short scraggly beard that indicates a conservative. Fadaaq, who at 39 is emerging as the new symbol of Hejazi Sufism, wore the white turban, the white overcoat and shawl typical of Sufis, wooden prayer beads resting on his lap. "It's true that there are differences between the way people practice their faith in this country, and this is an indication that people are using their minds and thinking, which is a good thing," Fadaaq said. "But what we should concentrate on are the expanses that bring us together, like the prophet. We must take advantage of what we have in common."

Article:Visiting H.E. Al-Sayyid Abdallah Fadaaq, the highest ranking Sufi cleric of Arabia:Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin Wordpress
https://ahmedamiruddin.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/visiting-h-e-al-sayyid-abdallah-fadaaq-the-chief-sufi-cleric-of-arabia/

Al-Sayyid Abdallah Fadaaq is the leading Sufi cleric of the Hijaz and the cheif of the Husayni line of the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace and blessings be upon him) descendents in the Hijaz. Al-Sayyid Abdullah comes from a family of Islamic scholars from Makkah Al Mukkaramah. His grandfather was amongst the leading scholars of the Hijaz during the Ottoman and Hashemite era and served as Imam at the Grand Mosque of Makkah. Differences arising with the current Wahabi regime forced him to leave teaching at the Grand Mosque in Makkah like his ancestors, to teach privately from his home in Jeddah. Shaykh Abdullah has authored many books and regularly appears in the Arab media and was a close student of the late Sufi scholar and sage of Arabia; Imam Al-Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi Al-Maliki Makki (rah).
Al-Sayyid Abdullah Fadaaq invited Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin, a Deputy of Shaykh Mehmet Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, to his home during his Hijaz tour.

Prophet'Muhammad's ﷺ Barzakh Life:The Seerah 71: Shaykh Fouad Elgohari: The Majlis-Jun 11, 2025

 YouTube Video:

https://www.youtube.com/live/abZRfFyAmaE?si=y0PFtVejlTGarB6P

1.Shaykh Fouad Elgohari narrates in Arabic with English Translation the famous text by the Shafii Jurist Imam Ibn Hajar al-Haytami RA(d. 974 AH / 1567 CE), outlining the state of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in Barzakh (the intermediate realm after death), is captured in his concise treatise and poem titled "Dafi'at al-Shiqaq wal-Khilaf bi-Qawl al-Mustafa wa Ahl al-Insaaf fi Hayat al-Anbiya fi Quburihim" (The Expeller of Discord and Disagreement via the Words of the Chosen One and the People of Justice Regarding the Life of the Prophets in Their Graves). Source: Google AI Mode

The Poem: Arabic & English Translation

Original Arabic	English Translation
تَوَاتَرَتِ الأَدِلَّةُ وَالنُّقُولُ فَمَا يُحْصِي المُصَنِّفُ مَا يَقُولُ	The textual evidences and narrations are recurrently transmitted, Such that an author cannot fully enumerate all that is stated.
بِأَنَّ المُصْطَفَى حَيٌّ طَرِيٌّ هِلَالٌ لَيْسَ يَطْرُقُهُ أُفُولُ	Proving that the Chosen One is alive and fresh, Like a crescent moon that is never overtaken by setting or eclipse.
وَأَنَّ الجِسْمَ مِنْهُ بِقَاعِ لَحْدٍ كَوَرْدٍ لَا يُدَنِّسُهُ الذُّبُولُ	And that his body at the bottom of his resting chamber Is like a rose, completely untouched by withering or decay.
وَأَنَّ الهَاشِمِيَّ بِكُلِّ وَصْفٍ جَمِيلٍ لَا يُغَيِّرُهُ الحُلُولُ	And that the Hashimi Prophet, in every single description, Remains beautiful; his essence is unaltered by occupying the grave.
وَأَنَّ الدُّودَ لَا يَأْتِي إِلَيْهِ كَذَا الآفَاتُ لَيْسَ لَهَا وُصُولُ	And that worms do not approach him, Just as pests and afflictions find no access to him.
وَلَمْ تَأْكُلْ لَهُ الغَبْرَاءُ لَحْماً وَلَا عَظْماً وَأُثْبِتُ مَا أَقُولُ	The dusty earth has not consumed his flesh Nor his bones—and I stand firm in what I affirm.
وَتَأْتِيهِ المَلَائِكُ كُلَّ حِينٍ تُحَيِّيهِ وَتَسْمَعُ مَا تَقُولُ	The angels come to him at every moment; They greet him, and he hears what they say.
وَتَأْتِيهِ بِأَرْزَاقٍ حِسَانٍ وَبِرٍّ حَيْثُ يَأْمُرُهَا الجَلِيلُ	They bring him beautiful, pure provisions And goodness, exactly as ordered by the Majestic Lord.
يُطَهَّرُ لِلصَّلَاةِ بِمَاءِ غَيْبٍ وَيَقْضِيهَا بِذَا وَرَدَ الدَّلِيلُ	He is purified for prayer with unseen celestial water, And performs it, as transmitted in scriptural evidence.
يُصَلِّي فِي الضَّرِيحِ صَلَاةَ خَمْسٍ دَوَاماً لَا يَمَلُّ وَلَا يَمِيلُ	He continuously performs the five obligatory prayers inside the tomb, Never tiring, and never wavering.
كَذَا الأَعْمَالُ تُعْرَضُ كُلَّ يَوْمٍ عَلَيْهِ كَيْ يَسُرَّ بِهَا الرَّسُولُ	Likewise, the deeds of his nation are presented daily Unto him, so that the Messenger may rejoice through them.
فَإِنْ كَانَتْ صَلَاحاً قَامَ يَدْعُو إِلَى المَوْلَى وَيَسْمَعُ مَا يَقُولُ	If they are righteous, he stands invoking blessings, Directing prayers to the Lord, Who hears his speech.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī al-Makkī  رَحْمَةُ ٱللَّٰهِ عَلَيْهِ (1503-1566)

Shihab al-Din Abu al-’Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn Hajr al-Haytami al-Makki al-Ansari. He is al-Azhari in scholarship, al-Ash’ari in doctrine, al-Junaidi in the tasawwuf path, a Hadith master, and a brilliant scholar of in-depth applications of Sacred Law. He was born in the end of 909 H in Abu Haytam, western Egypt. He was the Shāfi‘ī Imām of his time.
He studied under many well known students of al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, the utmost among them, Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya al-Ansari (926 H). Imam Ibn Hajar al-Haytami mentioned, “Whenever I met Qadi Zakariyya, he would supplicate for me, “May Allah give you deep understanding of din (religion).”” He was given authority to issue fatwa (legal verdict) at the end of 929 H.He was a master in the field of Tafsir, Hadith, Kalam, Fiqh, Usul, Fara’idh and Arithmetic, Nahw, Sarf, Ma’ani, Mantiq, Bayan, Tasawwuf, and was blessed with an excellent memory retention, for which he was well-known.

Source: Ahlus Sunnah Forum  https://ahlussunnah.boards.net/thread/87/shaykh-islam-haytami-shafii-ashari?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic

2.Shaykh Fouad Elgohari narrates Ahadith from The Life of the Prophets in their Graves by the  Muhaddith of Haramain Sharifain, Sayyid Muhammad ibn al-Alawi al-Maliki (Alayhi Rahma): Translated by Gibril Fouad Haddad 

Podcast: The Life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ by Shaykh Fouad Elgohri: The Majlis (71 Videos)

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAiybqS_Z2huRCshWhmo7d7OsqQpvgAfF&si=dxQ4CnJ__Qns2S6k

The Prophet ﷺ in Barzakh:The Special Life of Our Prophet ﷺ by Sayyid Muhammad ibn `Alawi al-Maliki: Ahlus Sunnah Forum-Mar 19, 2017
https://ahlussunnah.boards.net/thread/606/prophet-barzakh?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic

Amazon:Life of the Prophets In Their Graves:Sayyid Muham Ibn Al-'Alawi Al-Maliki (Author), Gibril Fouad Haddad (Translator)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GR5S456M?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

The Life of the Prophets in their Graves by the late Muhaddith of Mecca, Sayyid Muhammad ibn al-Alawi al-Maliki is a simple yet profound overview covering the subject matter at hand. Sayyid Muhammad tackles the issue by addressing the following:
His ﷺ Saying {Verily You Shall Die} (39:30)
The Isthmus-Life of Prophets: Proof-Texts
Commentary and Further Proof-Texts
The Special Life of Our Prophet ﷺ
The Prophet ﷺ Answers Whoever Calls Him
The Sending of Salām by Courier to the Prophet ﷺ
Salām and Adhān Heard from the Noble Grave
The proof-texts for the life of Prophets in the grave are numerous. It is hoped that by the completion of this book, readers will be able to firmly understand introductory level concepts on this subject matter.
About The Author
Sayyid Muhammad Ibn al-Alawi bin Abbas al-Maliki al-Hasani was one of the foremost traditional Islamic scholars of contemporary times, and without doubt, the most highly respected and loved scholar of the holy city of Makkah and the entire Hijaz region (Western Arabia). He is a grandson of the Prophet ﷺ, a leader of the Ahl al-Bayt, the Imam of Hadith in our age, an authority of the four Madhhabs, a spiritual leader of the highest caliber, a caller to Allah par excellence, and unparalleled in his standing in the world of traditional Islamic scholarship. Visiting him was considered imperative for the ʿUlama who would make the journey to Makkah.

Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad is a well-known Lebanese-American scholar and religious leader and has emerged as one of the clearest voices of traditional Islam in the West and is quickly earning a reputation as a respected translator and interpreter of the sacred Islamic texts.
Born in 1960 in to a middle-class Lebanese Catholic family in Beirut, Lebanon, and schooled in England, he declared his shahadah in 1991 as a graduate student at Columbia University in New York where he obtained his PhD degree in French literature.
The same year, he met his teacher, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani of Cyprus, from whom he took the Naqshbandi tariqa. He taught at the State University of New York at Stony Brook for 2 years and in 1997 moved to Damascus where he studied the Islamic disciplines for 9 years.Among the teachers he has been honoured to read with are Shaykh Dr. Nur al-Din `Itr, Shaykh Adib Kallas, Shaykh Wahbi al-Ghawji, Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya`qubi, Shaykh Adnan al-Majd, Shaykh Mu`tazz al-Subayni, Shaykh Dr. Samir al-Nass, Shaykh Dr. Wahba al-Zuhayli, Shaykh `Abd al-Hadi Kharsa, and Shaykh Muhammad Muti` al-Hafiz. He also holds ijazas from Shaykh Dr. Muhammad ibn `Alawi al-Maliki and Shaykh Husayn `Usayran, the last of the close students of the pious Qadi Shaykh Yusuf al-Nabhani, as well ijazas from more than 100 shaykhs from Algeria to Yemen – Allah reward them all and continue to benefit us through them.
Shaykh Gibril is an accomplished and influential Islamic scholar, religious leader, author, and Arabic translator of classical Islamic texts. He is also a teacher on the traditional online Qibla Islamic institute (formerly SunniPath) [website]. He was listed in the inaugural edition “500 Most influential Muslims” and was referred to as “one of the clearest voices of traditional Islam in the West”. He is also a contributor to the website eshaykh.com, which offer guidance and traditional teachings on various aspects of Islam.

Source:Osmanisnin Wordpress

https://osmanisnin.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/shaykh-dr-g-f-haddad/

The Hidden History of Muslims in Europe:Tharik Hussain (Book Talk: Muslim Europe: A Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History): Kianistan-Oct 1, 2026

 YouTube Video:

https://youtu.be/qPE3t2x2cVY?si=61ASjbp4dJdbAvIq

In this episode of the Kianistan Podcast, host Tafhim Kiani is joined by author and journalist Tharik Hussain to explore the history of Muslims in Europe, from the arrival of Islam to the present day. They discuss Muslim communities in Spain, Sicily, the Balkans, the Volga region, Poland and Lithuania, as well as the influence of Muslims on European food, culture, science, architecture and law. The conversation also examines how this history has been remembered and forgotten, including the story of the Moriscos and the perception of Muslims as a recent arrival in Europe. Tharik also discusses Muslims in Europe today, demographic change, populist and far-right politics, and the future of Muslim communities across Europe. WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE • The arrival of Islam in Europe • Muslim Spain, Sicily & the Balkans • Muslims in Eastern Europe • Muslim influence on food & culture • Science, art, architecture & law • Córdoba, the Mezquita & Alhambra • The forgotten history of European Muslims • The Moriscos and their legacy • Muslims in Europe today • The future of Muslim Europe

Amazon:Muslim Europe: A Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History:Tharik Hussain

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DY1D7HL9?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

For over 1,400 years, Muslims have been an integral part of Europe’s story, yet their contributions have been pushed to the margins or erased altogether. In Muslim Europe, award-winning author Tharik Hussain restores this forgotten history.
In a revelatory journey across the continent, we tread in the footsteps of the first Muslims who arrived on European soil in 647 AD. We travel through Cyprus, Sicily, Malta, Portugal and Spain, learning about the continent’s great Caliphate culture and Muslim commonwealth, encountering red-haired European Sultans and Arabic-speaking Christian Kings, the Sufi lodges of Cyprus and the palaces of Sicily.
Forgotten Muslim pioneers like Abbas Ibn Firnas gave us flight, Ibn Rushd gifted us modern philosophy and the cross fertilisation of faiths and cultures birthed Europe’s Christian Renaissance. For twelve centuries, Muslim Europe was a sanctuary for the continent’s Jews. Recalling the poignant voices of Hasdai Ibn Shaprut and Abraham Ibn Daoud, Jews flourished under Muslim protection triggering the Jewish Golden Age.
For the first time, Muslim Europe lays bare the cause of our collective Islamic amnesia by mapping Europe’s ‘anti-Muslim DNA’ through medieval Crusade narratives and nation-building myths. But Islam was never a sideshow to Western culture; it was integral to its development for over 1,400 years.
Deep, learned and utterly convincing, this first Muslim Eurocentric history of the continent dismantles the myth of Europe’s Judaeo-Christian cultural foundation, and offers nothing less than a profound shift in our self-understanding.
Review:
Tharik Hussain’s travels around the Mediterranean revealed how Islamic culture helped civilise the West . . . Fascinating . . . This is no dry archaeological or architectural study. Much of the human interest here comes from Hussain’s meetings with actual Muslims, both residents and visitors . . . while English doctors prescribed crushed snails and smouldering goat’s hair, learned physicians in Muslim Cordoba were performing successful caesareans and cataract operations — Noel Malcolm, The Telegraph

There is something of Naipaul’s vivid sense of human realities . . . particularly through Hussain’s many many pen portraits of actual European Muslims living their Islam . . . fascinating . . . he hopes to provide a positive charter in in the past for Muslim-Christian relations in the present — Nile Green, Times Literary Supplement

Offers a fresh, bracing perspective on European history . . . Hussain’s mission to restore Islamic heritage to the wider story of Europe’s history is admirable, as are his efforts to foster a “place identity”, a sense of belonging in Europe for European Muslims in general and his children in particular — Justin Marozzi, The Times

A vital, important and sharply observant new voice . . . In an age of growing Islamophobia, when ignorant commentators constantly depict Muslims as the Other, as dangerous outsiders, Hussain reminds us of the long history and the complex, mixed syncretic culture of European Islam, and nudges us to remember the massive debt Europe still owes to the Muslim world . . . A book I’ve been longing for someone to write — William Dalrymple

Fascinating . . . complicates our notion of “Europe” as a closed Judeo-Christian space, reminding us that Muslims have since the early days of Islam been an integral, important part of the continent — Daniel Motadel, New Statesman

Uncovers a world of which few are fully aware — Colin Thubron

A perspective-shattering work showing that, far from being fatal to Western culture, Islam has been integral to the development of Europe for more than 1,400 years . . . Muslim Europe reads as both a revisionist work of history and a voyage of discovery — Caroline Sanderson

Tharik Hussain is the essential second eye we need to get the history of Europe into focus, a brilliantly informed and also charming guide to the often hidden place of Islam in our shared past. He takes us to unfamiliar times and unfamiliar places – some glittering, some domestic – and expertly shows how they shaped us — Michael Pye, author of THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

A vital, eye-opening journey into a Europe we were never taught about. A truly extraordinary work of rediscovery that pulls back the veil on a millennium of forgotten history and shows us that Europe has always been far more diverse, interconnected and culturally rich than we’ve been led to believe. With the curiosity of a traveller and the rigour of a historian, Tharik uncovers forgotten stories that challenge everything we think we know about the continent’s past. An important and necessary book for these times — Levison Wood, author of WALKING THE NILE

Tharik Hussain is just the kind of travelling companion we need in polarised times like these: curious, empathetic, erudite. An absolutely fascinating book, expertly threading past and present with a revelatory light — Sophy Roberts, author THE LOST PIANOS OF SIBERIA

About the Author:
Tharik Hussain is an award-winning author and journalist specialising in global Muslim heritage and culture. He has written for newspapers such as The Times, Guardian and Telegraph, magazines such as National Geographic Traveler, and broadcast media such as Al Jazeera and the BBC. For the latter, he produced award-winning radio program America’s Mosques. Tharik has written or contributed to travel books on areas including the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Europe, and his book on Islam in the Western Balkans, Minarets in the Mountains, was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year, and won the Adele Evans Award.