Rabee Al-Madkhali

Rabee' Ibn Haadee 'Umayr al-Madkhalee (ربيع بن هادي عمير المدخلي) is a former head of the Sunnah Studies Department at Islamic University of Madinah. Madkhali is a well-known Salafist Muslim scholar, considered one of Salafism's most radical thinkers and the founder of the Madkhalism movement.^[1][2][3]

Biography

Education

Madkhali was born in 1931 in al-Jaraadiyah, a small village to the west of the town of Saamitah, in the southern area of Saudi Arabia, though his tribe is originally from Jizan.^[4]

In 1961, he entered the Faculty of Sharia in Riyadh for two months and then switched to the Faculty of Sharia at the Islamic University of Madinah, graduating four years later.^[4] Having been an opponent of the House of Saud and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood for most of his adult life and a supporter of Juhayman al-Otaybi, Madkhali was forced to renounce his views after the Grand Mosque Seizure in late 1979.^[5][6] Having turned strongly pro-establishment by the early 1990s, the Saudi government promoted al-Madkhali to lead a countermovement against growing criticisms of the Kingdom's socioeconomic ills, late deliveries of farm subsidies and normalization of ties with Israel.^[7]

Current activity

After completing his Doctorate at Umm al-Qura in 1980, Madkhali returned to the Islamic University of Madinah where he taught at the Faculty of Hadith and later became the head of the Department of Sunnah in the Department of Higher Studies. He held the chair until his retirement in the mid-1990s.^[8] Currently, he lives in on the outskirts of Mecca. Madkhali is the father-in-law of anti-government cleric Musa al-Qarni.

In 2012, the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought named Madkhali as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world.^[1]

Contemporary Evaluation

Political scientist Gilles Kepel has described Madkhali as being the perfect example of pro-regime "court scholars" in the Middle East, as opposed to more radical trends within the Salafist movement.^[9] In contrast to his early opposition to the Saudi Arabian government, Madkhali is now considered one of the Saudi royal family's staunchest defenders.^{[5][8][10][11][12]} While politically quietist within his own country, Madkhali has supported violent conflict in other areas, having called on Muslims both inside and outside Indonesia to participate in the Maluku sectarian conflict.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Madkhali's source of religious authority within the Salafist movement is unclear. He has not been involved with official religious bodies of the Saudi government, does not belong to the significant line of 20th-century Salafist scholars including Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz and Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, and has been described as below the level of contemporaries such as Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen or Saleh Al-Fawzan.^[4] Despite this, Madkhali's followers have what is seen by analysts as an obsession with his defense, often claiming praise from these scholars, though such praise is contested by Madkhali's detractors.^[17] Though once a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and ideological follower of Sayyid Qutb, Madkhali is now a harsh critic of the Brotherood, Qutb and the Islamic revival. He is frequently the target of the Salafist mainstream's ire, to the point where political and security analysts have actually referred to Madkhali as an opponent of the Salafist movement as a whole.^[18]

Works

• Between the two Imams, Muslim and Ad-Daaraqutnee (Master's Dissertation)
• Remarks on Al-Nukat 'Ala Kitab Ibn As-Salaah [Verification] (Doctorate's Dissertation), an edition of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's comments on the Al-Muqaddimah in Hadith terminology
• The Methodology of the Prophets in Calling to Allaah (Translated and printed in English)
• Methodology of Ahl-us-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah in Criticizing Men, Books and Groups
• The Categorization of the Hadith into Saheeh, Hasan and Da'eef between the actuality of the Muhadditheen and the falsification of the Blind followers (a Refutation of 'Abdul-Fattaah Abu Ghuddah and Muhammad 'Awaamah)
• Exposing Al-Ghazaalee's stance on the Sunnah and Its People
• Preventing the Aggression of the Disbelievers and the Ruling for Seeking Assistance from Non-Muslims
• The Status of Ahlul-Hadith (Translated and printed in English)
• The Methodology employed by Imaam Muslim in Arranging his Saheeh
• Ahle Hadith Ahlul-Hadith are the Victorious and Saved Group (a discussion with Salmaan Al-'Awdah)
• A Study of the Prophetic Hadith
• Shedding Islamic Light on the Creed and Ideology of Sayyid Qutb
• Sayyid Qutb's Revilement of the Companions of Allaah's Messenger
• Protection against the Dangers that are found in the Books of Sayyid Qutb
• The Decisive Border between the Truth and Falsehood (a discussion with Bakr Abu Zayd)
• The Reckless Hazards of (Mahmood) Al-Hadaad
• Clarity in Defending the Sunnah
• One Group (Jamaa'ah) not many Groups (Jamaa'aat) and One Path not Several (a discussion with 'Abdur-Rahmaan 'Abdul-Khaaliq)
• Noble Support in (writing) a Concise Reply
• The Condemned Form of Fanaticism and its (Evil) Effects
• Clarifying the Corruption of the Standard used to Measure
• Warning of the Falsehoods in Tawdeeh Al-Maleebaaree
• A Refutation of the Falsehoods of Moosaa Ad-Duwaish
• Annihilating the Fabrications of 'Abdul-Lateef Bashmeel
• The Onslaught of Salafi Blazing Meteors against the Khalafee encampments of 'Adnaan ('Aroor)
• sharh usool us sunnah

References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Sheikh Rabi’ Ibn Haadi ‘Umayr Al Madkhali. The Muslim 500: The World's Most Influential Muslims
2. ↑ Roel Meijer, Global Salafism: Islam's New Religious Movement, pg. 49. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
3. ↑ Omayma Abdel-Latif, "Trends in Salafism." Taken from Islamist Radicalisation: The Challenge for Euro-Mediterranean Relations, pg. 74. Eds. Michael Emerson, Kristina Kausch and Richard Youngs. Brussels: Centre for European Policy Studies, 2009. ISBN 9789290798651
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Roel Meijer, "Politicizing al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil: Rabi b. Hadi al-Madkhali and the transnational battle for religious authority." Taken from The Transmission and Dynamics of the Textual Sources of Islam: Essays in Honor of Harald Motzki, pg. 377. Eds. Nicolet Boekhoff-van der Voort, Kees Versteegh and Joas Wagemakers. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2011.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 George Joffé, Islamist Radicalisation in Europe and the Middle East: Reassessing the Causes of Terrorism, pg. 317. London: I.B. Tauris, 2013.
6. ↑ Stephane Lacroix, Awakening Islam, pgs. 102 and 212. Trns. George Holoch. Cambridge: President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2011.
7. ↑ Sherifa Zuhur, Saudi Arabia, pg. 66. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011. ISBN 9781598845716
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lacroix, pg. 212.
9. ↑ Gilles Kepel, The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West, pg. 253. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2004. Trns. Pascale Ghazaleh. ISBN 0674015754
10. ↑ Stephane Lacroix, pg. 212.
11. ↑ NATO Science for Peace and Security, Suicide as a Weapon, pg. 18. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2007. ISBN 9781586037956
12. ↑ Natana DeLong-Bas, Wahhabism: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide, pg. 8. Oxford University Press, 2011.
13. ↑ Noorhaidi Hasan, Laskar Jihad, pg. 151. Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 2006.
14. ↑ Muhammad Najib Azza, "Communal Violence in Indonesia and the Role of Foreign and Domestic Networks." Taken from Conflict, Community, and Criminality in Southeast Asia and Australia, pg. 25. Eds. Arnaud De Borchgrave, Thomas M. Sanderson and David Gordon. Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009.
15. ↑ Andrew T. H. Tan, A Handbook of Terrorism and Insurgency in Southeast Asia, pg. 149. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007.
16. ↑ Rohan Gunaratna, Inside Al Qaeda: global network of terror, pg. 201. Volume 3 of the University of St Andrews' Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence series. London: C. Hurst & Co., 2002.
17. ↑ Meijer, "Politicizing," pg. 381.
18. ↑ Yael Shahar for the NATO Science for Peace and Security, "The Internet as a Tool for Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism." Taken from Responses to Cyber Terrorism, pg. 109. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2008. ISBN 9781586038366

External links

• The Official Site of Rabi' al-Madkhali