A brother among those who like to listen to Shaykh al-Sha'rawi, who appears frequently on television, so we want to refute him or some of the points taken against him

The questioner : I have a question, if you please.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner : Brother Muhammad ... the manager of the support services department here.

The Shaykh : Welcome.

The questioner : One of those who like to listen to Shaykh al-Sha'rawi,The Shaykh : al-Sha'rawi appears frequently on television, so we want to refute him or some of the points we take against Shaykh al-Sha'rawi; so if you would be kind enough to clarify some of the points against him onThe Shaykh : al-Sha'rawi?

The Shaykh : We must first hear from him what made him trust al-Sha'rawi's words, so that the path opens for us to draw his attention to what he may say in agreement or disagreement with the Book and the Sunnah; because if we simply dismiss him based on our opinion regarding al-Sha'rawi, his mind might be empty.

The questioner : al-Sha'rawi?

The Shaykh : al-Sha'rawi, yes.

Another questioner : Muhammad Mutawalli al-Sha'rawi.

The Shaykh : The well-known Egyptian from al-Azhar; because the al-Sha'rawi who ... on television [everyone laughs] but this was a slip of the tongue, a word that preceded the thought. What we know about him is that he is a Khalafi Ash'ari. Do you, brother, have a prior idea about the Ash'aris and the Khalaf, who are in disagreement with what the Salaf were upon, or not? I don't know, because this is the first time I am meeting you, so I want to know what information you have about this specific point?

The questioner : In fact, I previously listened to Shaykh al-Sha'rawi in Islamabad, and chance brought us together, and the following conversation took place between me and him.

The Shaykh : Very good.

The questioner : He said to me: Do you pray? This was at the time, twenty years ago. I said to him: I pray intermittently. He said: What do you mean, intermittently? I said to him: I am not consistent.

The Shaykh : Meaning, sometimes you pray and sometimes you leave it.

The questioner : Yes, so he said: My son, how many hours are there in a day? I said: Day and night, 24 hours. He said: How do you divide them? I said to him: I divide them into three parts: a part for work, a part for sleep, and a part for neither work nor sleep. He said: Fine; how much of that does prayer take? I said to him: By Allah, I would guess half an hour. He said: Is it not reasonable that you turn to your Creator and pray to Him for half an hour, intermittently, out of 24 hours? Naturally, I was very pleased with this speech, and at that time I committed myself to it and truly became convinced.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.

The questioner : My master, now I see him on television. Frankly, the style in which he presents is engaging, and he brings out what is between literature and religion and so on.

The Shaykh : ... .

The questioner : Yes; so he attracts his viewer or listener in a way that he truly enjoys his talks; meaning, he brings new things in tafsir, new contemporary things that align with the era. So I came to Brother Nasser and spoke to other brothers, and he said to me: My brother, this is dangerous, dangerous for you and for the generation. This man does not adhere to anything, and he invents things in his speech, which may be wrong; so do not adhere to him.

Another questioner : ... in the interpretation of the Qur'an.

The questioner : So on the occasion of your honoring us with your presence here, I hope to hear the appropriate thing, which is whether I should continue or stop?

The Shaykh : Welcome.

The questioner: Welcome.

The Shaykh : I say - may Allah bless you - and without offense, I assume you are one of two men; either you are the man who, as they say now in the modern era, has a scientific background in Salafi creed; in that case, when you are like this and have knowledge - for example - of what is authentic and what is not authentic from the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him); if you listen to such a person, you benefit, like the example you gave regarding prayer, so his speech is captivating ... and this is what makes the general public gather around him when he sits in a lecture or similar, and then it is broadcast on television. But if you are the other man who does not have this scientific background and the religious insight that we were commanded to have in some verses of the Qur'an, such as His saying - Blessed and Exalted is He - : , then when the person who listens to thisThe Shaykh : is from the second category, it is feared that his foot will slip; because he does not have what distinguishes his correctness from his error. And I, for my part, do not blame you for being taken in by him; because the truth, as it is said in some poetry:
You are not the first traveler deceived by the moon
Many are like you, even among our brothers, like this brother of ours and others; meaning, our Salafi brothers, do you hear, the jihad of the word is necessary, right?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : When he came to Jordan, they were taken in by him, and they became ... wherever they go, they are the creed. One of our brothers is still alive, he is from Nablus, and it was mentioned to me exactly as you mentioned it; he was impressed by the wordsThe Shaykh : of al-Sha'rawi and his eloquence and his clarity and the examples he gives and so on. I said to him: Good, did you test him regarding his creed? He said: No. So our friend, this same person, mentioned to me later, he said: I was with a friend of mine in his car when he went toThe Shaykh : al-Sha'rawi, and attended his session, then he took him with him in the car to take him to a place. He said: So I took the opportunity, and rode with my friend, and conducted the following conversation between me and al-Sha'rawi, why? To test him in his creed. He said to him: Professor, I want to clarify to you His saying - Exalted is He - in the Noble Qur'an, in more than one verse: , what is the meaning? He said: Istawa means to dominate. Our friend had some of the correct creed, so he started to discuss with him; meaning, he discussesThe Shaykh : , and usually people ... respond to him that a young man is arguing with an old Shaykh; this is dangerous and very dangerous; because the custom is that, as it is also said:
If Hudham speaks, then believe her *** For the truth is what Hudham says
How is it that this does not happen with Hazam, and he takes and gives and discusses? That was too much forThe Shaykh : , but our friend endured it, so he directed to him a sensitive question for us, the Salafis, which is when he interpreted the verse for him with that interpretation; and it is a false interpretation, as I will mention shortly, if Allah wills. He said to him: Fine; Professor, if someone said to you: Where is Allah? He said: I seek refuge in Allah, it is not permissible for a person to say: Where is Allah?! Allah is everywhere. He said: At that moment, I knew that his creed was deviated from the Book and the Sunnah, so I no longer paid attention to him as I did before. This is a story that happened.
The point now: that the phrase or verse: has two statements among the scholars of the Muslims in its interpretation: the statement of the Salaf, and the statement of the Khalaf.
The Salaf say: meaning: He rose above; and therefore we say in every prostration: Glory be to my Lord, the Most High; applying His saying - Exalted is He - : .
The second statement: is whatThe Shaykh : al-Sha'rawi said: ; meaning, he dominated. This interpretation is among the most false of falsehoods; why? Because it depicts this meaning that there is a struggle between Allah and others, but Allah overcame him and dominated his kingdom; and would a Muslim say this? Do you understand me well?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: He interpreted it to mean he dominated, so who was dominating him before? Are there creators with Allah? Far be it from Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - !! Then came the other, as it is said, a straw on a camel's load, when he was confronted with the previous question: Where is Allah? He bristled and his hair stood on end, and he said: It is not permissible to direct such a question; knowing that this question came from the Messenger - may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him - , and in the most authentic of the hadiths narrated by Imam Muslim in his "Sahih", perhaps you hear that the most authentic books after the Qur'an are "Sahih al-Bukhari" and "Sahih Muslim", you must hear this, right?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : The hadith I am about to mention is narrated in *Sahih Muslim*. It concerns this noble man, al-Sha'rawi, who captured the hearts of people. There is no doubt that, regarding this hadith I am about to mention, he is one of two types: either he knew it and denied it, or he was ignorant of it and did not act upon it. As they say, "the sweeter of the two is bitter!" I mean, if he knew it and deviated from it, that is more dangerous than if he did not know it. However, his not knowing it might be excused for the general public, but for a person who takes charge of the entire Islamic world and its guidance, it is extremely ugly for us to imagine that this authentic hadith never reached his ears. What is this authentic hadith?
Now, please pay attention; it is a long story, but I want to take from it what is appropriate for the occasion now. A man from the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him), named Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami, came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said to him: "O Messenger of Allah, I have a slave girl who tends my sheep in Uhud in Medina. One day, a wolf attacked my sheep, and I am a human being who gets angry as humans do, so I struck her a blow—meaning, I slapped her on her cheek." Mu'awiyah said this: "And upon me, O Messenger of Allah, is the freeing of a slave." He was inquiring and seeking clarification from the Messenger whether freeing this slave girl would suffice for him because he had struck her... without right? The wolf attacked; what can a man do about a wolf, let alone a slave girl? So he was remorseful for that slap or blow, as he called it. He (peace be upon him) said to him: . When she came, he said to her: —here is the point. The Messenger of Allah said to her: . She said: "In the sky." He said: . She said: "You are the Messenger of Allah." So he turned to her master and said to him: . So who said: ? The Messenger of Allah, and the slave girl answered that Allah is in the sky.
Al-Sha'rawi and many of the scholars of al-Azhar like him do not believe that Allah is in the sky, even though every Muslim reads His (Glorified and Exalted is He) saying in Surat al-Mulk, the Surah of Blessing: . So, from this perspective, the slave girl is more knowledgeable than al-Sha'rawi and his like; because she was able to give the answer for which the Messenger of Allah testified that she was a believer. And based on that, he said to her master: . She testified that Allah is in the sky; that is, High, and not as many like al-Sha'rawi and others say. This is a famous phrase among the general people, and you will mention it, that one is sitting in a gathering like this, and in what? ... Silence, what do I say? Allah is present in every place, Allah is present in every existence; this is disbelief!! But people, as He (Glorified and Exalted is He) said: Why is it disbelief? Because it is contrary, first, to what we previously mentioned, such as His saying: , and to the hadith of this slave girl: . She said: "In the sky," believing in what came in Surat al-Mulk, and the hadiths and verses are many and very many; such as his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: . So the descent of Allah from the sky means that He is above the sky, and that He is not in every place as the common people say; this is, on one hand, a contradiction of the verses and the authentic hadiths.
On the other hand, if the rational Muslim asks: Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the Self-Sufficient, having no beginning, as He said: , whereas creation has a beginning, as he (peace be upon him) said: . Before Allah created creation, was He in a place, and they say: Allah is in every place?! The place was not a partner with Allah; because Allah is the one who brought it into existence and created it with the word: as He (Glorified and Exalted is He) said: . So by "Be," the heavens and the earth were created, and beauty was, and place was. So what is the meaning of these people when they say: Allah is present in every place? Allah was, and there was no place. Does that mean that when Allah created creation, He entered into it; so it became a refuge for Him, and a shelter for Him, and He was surrounded in this place? Did the place become... for Him?! Exalted is Allah above what they say, greatly exalted; because they say: Allah is in every place!! This is one point.
And the other is that places are not equal in terms of purity and cleanliness, in terms of elevation and nobility and filthiness, but they differ from place to place. It came in the authentic hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . Do you see our Lord, in their expression, present in every place, present in the mosques, and present in the markets? Is it fitting for Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), the Most High, the All-Powerful, to be in the worst of places? And it is not only this; in the markets are houses, and in the houses are latrines, and the latrine has its curves and its channels that flow into the sea or the valley or the like. These are all places. Indeed, we do not go far; if the human belly full of filth is a place; as evidenced by the fact that it breathes air and eats food and drinks drink, all this is a place. So is our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) in these places truly as they claim?! Allah is present in every place!! How did this come about? And Allah says: the verse as we mentioned earlier, , He does not descend upon every place! Likewise , all these texts are in the mind ofThe Shaykh : al-Sha'rawi completely inactive, so he does not believe in them. And therefore, he criticized our man when the Prophetic question was directed to him: "Where is Allah?" He said: "I seek refuge in Allah!! This is not a question to be asked!" Well; if it were said: What is the answer? Allah is present in every place. Al-Sha'rawi is like another Shaykh, with different sources, no doubt, this one called Kashk, you have heard of him, you must have.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Both are storytellers, and the storytellers' nature is to gather people around them and they enjoy their talk. But no matter how many sessions of these storytellers one attends, ask him after years what knowledge he has gained regarding the knowledge of the lawful and the forbidden, the disliked and the recommended, and so on of the legal rulings? You will not find anything at all in him, but he has stories and he has tales and he is comfortable and at ease completely; because he does not hear anything but something new and beautiful, but the conclusion is that he does not come out of these lessons with anything. First of all, he corrects his creed, and this is the example before us, and there are examples I do not want to delve into now, because if I asked the general public, let alone the people of knowledge: The Qur'an is the speech of whom? All Muslims say: The speech of Allah. But if you investigated with al-Sha'rawi and his like of the Ash'ari and Maturidi, they will twist and turn with you until they take you out of this creed, and say: The Qur'an is not the speech of Allah, but what... frankly, so that their stench does not come out, the Qur'an is the speech of Allah , like the Torah and like the Gospel, all books that Allah sent down upon His chosen and noble messengers.
So the point is that the creed that must be taught by all scholars in all occasions, al-Sha'rawi and this Kashk do not sing about it.
Descend to the second level; have you heard al-Sha'rawi explain to people this prayer that we were commanded in many verses, such as His (Glorified and Exalted is He) saying: , his benefit to you—may Allah reward him with good—this cannot be denied; when he asked you how you are and do you pray or not, and so on of what you mentioned, but did he tell you: How should you pray? I am telling you in advance: No. Why? If you are wrong, tell me: I was wrong.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, this is obligatory. Why? Because I am as certain as I can be that he, Kashk, and others do not know how to pray. They pray, but they do not know how to pray. Why? Because their prayer, as they read in their school of jurisprudence, is such that a Shafi'i raises his hands when bowing, for example, and a Hanafi says: No, this is... and there are many, many examples. Meanwhile, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ... These storytellers hum around teaching people the correct Salafi Sunnah that the Messenger of Allah and those after him and the four Imams were upon. They hum around this, just as they do not hum around... the prayer of the Messenger to let the Muslim know to follow the previous hadith: Why? ... through the interpretation of the Qur'an and especially the foundations of modern sciences that have undoubtedly revealed some of the scientific puzzles of the Qur'an. So he is not free to correct his own prayer according to the Sunnah, let alone to be free to correct the prayers of others, and...
Like these storytellersThe Shaykh : Ahmad Kiftarou. You attend a session and find the mosque is full to... What is the reason? Because his speech is sweet and delicious, and there is no forbidding of evil regarding what those around him do. He is pleased with them and they are pleased with him, and this is what is required: that he extends his hand and it is accepted... This is how he acts. And what I fear most—and I said this in Syria—is that a day will come when his congregation cannot offer their hands. So what I fear most is that he will extend his leg, just to catch up. If you saw what you saw, it was amazing: they stand in a chain. We have this in Amman, in the crowd on the buses, you find them standing... meaning a long line. A bus comes, the bus is full, poor things!! And so the group, these are the ones infatuated with such a person.The Shaykh : They stand in a row, and to catch up, he extends his hands, a row from here and a row from there. Is this the affair of the scholar? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was not like that! The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), as is established in the books of al-Shama'il, would sit with his Companions. He did not have a special dress like a Bedouin who does not see a king, does not see a ruler, does not see a great emir, while people sit on his head to serve him. So the Bedouin asks: Where is Muhammad? I do not see this man who moved the whole world with his correct call. They tell him: This is the one lying on his right side. This is the man whose appearance is simple. He does not love this greatness that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has made him great and granted him. So here, we observe that the scholars, truly, are those who study the Book in its entirety, and especially what concerns the details of creed and then worship. As for the scientific, cosmic, natural aspects, these undoubtedly benefit and increase the believer's faith in the power of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and His wisdom. But before that, it was obligatory for them to know how to worship Allah and not associate anything with Him.
Today, if I tell you: in every land in the world you find Muslims who intentionally visit graves, and some of them take the grave of a wali or a righteous person as a Ka'bah and circumambulate around it. Did you go to Egypt in your time?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : Did you see the maqam of al-Husayn and Sayyida Zaynab and Ahmad al-Badawi?

The questioner : By Allah, I have heard of them, but I did not go.

The Shaykh : You did not see them! I thought you were Jordanian?

The questioner : Yes, I am Jordanian, but now I am Saudi.

The Shaykh : But your origin is from Jordan and...?

The questioner : My father is Saudi, and my mother is Jordanian, but...

The Shaykh : I say, in answer to the question: Did you live in Jordan?

The questioner : Of course; forty years.

The Shaykh : That is it, that is the point. Do you hear of the maqam of Sayyidi...?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Good; did you see this huge grave they made?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : This is all for... the people; they come and they offer vows, and they seek nearness to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) through it. This calamity exists in every land in the world, andThe Shaykh : al-Sha'rawi and Kashk do not speak a single word; why? Because they do not want to confront the peoples; because it will... from them... it attracts hearts with such sweet, beautiful speech. In Damascus, there is something of this, in Aleppo there is something stronger than this. I... I am an Albanian, then a Damascene, then a Jordanian, so I know the lands, each one has what? ... or a calamity. Of course, Syria has famous capitals like Damascus and Aleppo, and between them Homs and Hama and so on. In Aleppo, there is the great Umayyad Mosque, comparable to the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus in the capital. In the Mosque of Banu Umayyah in Damascus, they claim that Yahya (peace be upon him) is buried in it. In the Mosque of Banu Umayyah in Aleppo, they claim that his father is in it; meaning Zakariyya. And each of the graves is visited, and on each of them is a custodian whose job is that—may Allah will it—he guides people on how to visit this grave and that, and how they must offer vows.
One of them told me in Damascus that a woman came to visit the grave of Yahya (peace be upon him) in the mosque in Damascus, and the custodian heard her. It appears that he had some awareness, but he took the custodianship as a means of living. This man heard a poor woman standing and supplicating, saying to him: I, O Master Yahya, I have come seeking nearness to Allah through you that our Lord heal my son. What did the custodian say, mocking her? He said to her: O lady, a lady came before you [everyone laughs], so Master Yahya went with her. He went with her to heal her son or daughter or so on. This is... very explicit shirk (associating partners with Allah).
In Aleppo, there was a grave—and praise be to Allah—it was removed, not for religious reasons but to beautify the capital. In Aleppo, there was a grave named "The Judge of Needs," which saves you from the misguidance in which people fall. The name of the dead man was "The Judge of Needs," and it was visited from every place, especially by women. A woman would be barren and not give birth, and a year or two would pass, may Allah will it. Go to the Judge of Needs. What does she do? The grave of the Judge of Needs is, of course, in a maqam like the other maqams we are talking about, and the grave has a hump. So Satan, through the custodian there, inspired the barren woman that if she came and rode on the grave like this and did these movements, she would go, by the permission of Allah... pregnant, and... then the matter was discovered that this custodian, with his cunning methods, inspires the women of weak minds that she must spend the night here so that the Judge of Needs appears to her. And indeed, she thinks that this speech is true, and she spends that night, and there is no one inside the maqam but her and him. This is enough for a Muslim to know the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him): , when... the night appears, he is dressed in... with fragrant scents, and he appears little by little to this woman in the form of what? Something with awe. So she had been taught beforehand that she must spend the night so that the Judge of Needs appears to her. The Judge of Needs appears to her, he approaches her little by little until he has intercourse with her and sleeps with her, and it works sometimes, and she goes... pregnant. Who made her pregnant? The wicked, cunning custodian who used the grave to hide behind it and is called the Judge of Needs. For years,Al-Halabi : and men and women believe in this great misguidance, and the shaykhs... from the miracles of the awliya (close friends of Allah), and that Allah gives them, as some say: "What was a prophetic miracle for a prophet was a miracle for a wali." These misguidances go on and no one forbids them except a few individuals who are astonished on earth; because they cry out the truth. And the discussion in this field—unfortunately!—is wide and very wide, but in what concernsThe Shaykh : al-Sha'rawi, that he is, from one side, truly beneficial, but from other sides he misguides people... that they do not know.
This is something of what concerns this question.