Salafi movement

Not to be confused with Salaf.

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The Salafi movement or Salafism (Arabic: السلفية, romanized: al-Salafiyya) is a revival movement within Sunni Islam,[1][2][3][4] which was formed as a socio-religious movement during the late 19th century and has remained influential in the Islamic world for over a century.[5][6][7] The name "Salafiyya" is a self-designation,[8] to call for a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (salaf), the first three generations of Muslims (the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the Sahabah [his companions], then the Tabi'in, and the third generation, the Tabi' al-Tabi'in), who are believed to exemplify the pure form of Islam.[9] In practice, Salafis claim that they rely on the Qur'an, the Sunnah and the Ijma (consensus) of the salaf, giving these writings precedence over what they claim as "later religious interpretations".[10][11] The Salafi movement aimed to achieve a renewal of Muslim life and had a major influence on many Muslim thinkers and movements across the Islamic world.[12][13]

Salafi Muslims oppose bid'a (religious innovation) and support the implementation of sharia (Islamic law).[14] In its approach to politics, the Salafi movement is sometimes divided by Western academics and journalists into three categories: the largest group being the purists (or quietists), who avoid politics; the second largest group being the activists, who maintain regular involvement in politics; and the third group being the jihadists, who form a minority and advocate armed struggle to restore the early Islamic movement.[14] In legal matters, Salafis usually advocate ijtihad (independent reasoning) and oppose taqlid (adherence) to the four or five schools (madhahib) of Islamic jurisprudence while some remain largely faithful to them, but do not restrict themselves to the "final" edicts of any specific madhhab.

The origins of Salafism are disputed, with some historians like Louis Massignon tracing its origin to the intellectual movement in the second half of the nineteenth century that opposed Westernization emanating from European imperialism (led by Al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, and Rashid Rida).[15][16] However, Afghani and Abduh had not self-described as "Salafi" and the usage of the term to denote them has become outdated today.[17] Abduh's more orthodox student Rashid Rida followed hardline Salafism which opposed Sufism, Shi'ism and incorporated traditional madh'hab system. Rida eventually became a champion of the Wahhabi movement and would influence another strand of conservative Salafis.[18][19][20] In the modern academia, Salafism is commonly used to refer to a cluster of contemporary Sunni renewal and reform movements inspired by the teachings of classical theologians—in particular Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328 CE/661–728 AH).[21][22][23] These Salafis dismiss the 19th century reformers as rationalists who failed to interpret scripture in the most literal, traditional sense.[24]

Conservative Salafis regard Syrian scholars like Rashid Rida (d. 1935 CE/ 1354 AH) and Muhibb al-Khatib (d. 1969 CE/ 1389 AH) as revivalists of Salafi thought in the Arab world.[25] Rida's religious orientation was shaped by his association with Syrian Hanbali and Salafi scholars who preserved the tradition of Ibn Taymiyya. These ideas would be popularised by Rida and his disciples, immensely influencing numerous Salafi organisations in the Arab world.[24] Some of the major Salafi reform movements in the Islamic world today include the Ahl-i Hadith movement, inspired by the teachings of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi and galvanized through the South Asian jihad of Sayyid Ahmad Shahid;[26][27] the Wahhabi movement in Arabia; the Padri movement of Indonesia; Algerian Salafism spearheaded by Abdelhamid Ben Badis; and others.[28]

  1. ^ Joppke, Christian (2013). Legal Integration of Islam. Harvard University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0674074910. Salafism, which is a largely pietistic, apolitical sect favoring a literalist reading of the Quran and Sunnah.
  2. ^ Joas Wagemakers (2016). Salafism in Jordan: Political Islam in a Quietist Community. Cambridge University Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-1107163669. These men adhere to the Salafi branch of Islam
  3. ^ "The Rise of European Colonialism". Harvard Divinity School. Archived from the original on 9 April 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  4. ^ Esposito, John (2004). The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford University Press. p. 275. ISBN 978-0195125597. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  5. ^ Mahmood, Saba (2012). "2: Topography of the Piety movement". Politics of piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0691149806. 'The Salafi movement emerged at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth in the context of European intellectual and political dominance in the Muslim World'
  6. ^ E. Curtis, Edward (2010). Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History. Infobase Publishing. p. 499. ISBN 978-1438130408. Salafi Muslims: As a social movement within Sunni Islam, Salafi Muslims ARE a global revivalism movement
  7. ^ L. Esposito, El-Din Shahin, John, Emad, ed. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0195395891. Salafism, in its varying guises, has been an important trend in Islamic thought for more than a century.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  8. ^ Ali, Mohamed. "Understanding Salafis, Salafism and Modern Salafism." Islamiyyat: International Journal of Islamic Studies 41.1 (2019).
  9. ^ Turner, J. (2014). Religious Ideology and the Roots of the Global Jihad: Salafi Jihadism and International Order. Springer. ISBN 978-1137409577.
  10. ^ Bin Ali Mohamed Roots Of Religious Extremism, The: Understanding The Salafi Doctrine Of Al-wala' Wal Bara World Scientific, 2015 ISBN 978-1783263943 p. 61
  11. ^ Anzalone, Christopher (6 February 2022). "Salafism Goes Global: From the Gulf to the French Banlieues. By Mohamed-Ali Adraoui". Journal of Islamic Studies. 33 (2): 290–92. doi:10.1093/jis/etac004. ISSN 0955-2340.
  12. ^ L. Esposito, John (1995). The Oxford encyclopedia of the modern Islamic world. Vol. 3. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 463. ISBN 0195096142. Salafiyah ... It aimed at the renewal of Muslim life and had a formative impact on many Muslim thinkers and movements across the Islamic world."
  13. ^ L. Esposito, El-Din Shahin, John, Emad, ed. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0195395891. Salafism has evolved under a number of key reformers, each of whom has brought his own unique insights and vision to the movement in response to the challenges of his national context.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  14. ^ a b "Salafism: Politics and the puritanical". The Economist. 27 June 2015. Archived from the original on 28 June 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  15. ^ Kepel, Jihad, 2002, 219–220
  16. ^ "Understanding the Origins of Wahhabism and Salafism". Jamestown. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  17. ^ Bennett, Clinton; Shepard, William (2013). "6: Salafi Islam: The Study of Contemporary Religious-Political Movements". The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 163, 169–70. ISBN 978-1441127884. It is common to distinguish two kinds of Salafism, which are quite different in many ways. One may be called "modernist" Salafism, or some would say "enlightened" Salafism. This form was... associated with such figures as Muhammad 'Abduh. ... The other form may be called "conservative" or "text-oriented" Salafism. This was the form of Salafism before the mid-nineteenth century and variants of it have become prominent since the mid-twentieth century... Muhammad 'Abduh's views.. are not usually labeled Salafi today... al-Afghani and 'Abduh referred to the salaf and have been called Salafi, they did not themselves adopt Salafi as a label for their thinking in general.
  18. ^ Bennett, Clinton; Shepard, William (2013). "6: Salafi Islam: The Study of Contemporary Religious-Political Movements". The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 170–71. ISBN 978-1441127884. Rashid Rida (1865–1935), moved in the direction of a conservative Salafism... He was more polemical than 'Abduh and more rigid in his thinking. Where al-Afghani stressed the dynamism of early Islam and 'Abduh stressed its rationalism, Rida wanted to apply the model of the salaf as precisely as possible. He was more strongly opposed to Sufi practices and very critical of Shi'is. His basic concerns were Muslim activism (jihad in the broadest sense), unity of the umma (at least moral if not political), and truth, the true Islam that had been taught by the salaf. He did not reject the madhhabs but hoped for their gradual approximation and amalgamation... In the face of the growing secularism of the early twentieth century he welcomed and supported the Wahhabi movement
  19. ^ Djait, Hicham (2011). Islamic Culture in Crisis: A Reflection on Civilizations in History. Translated by Fouli, Janet. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. p. 77. ISBN 978-1412811408.
  20. ^ Wahba, Mourad (2022). Fundamentalism and. Translated by K. Beshara, Robert. London: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 69. ISBN 978-1350228689. Religious fervor crystallized in the writings of Rashid Rida, the pioneer of the new Wahhabi Salafi movement and the editor-in-chief of al-Manar
  21. ^ C. Martin, Richard (2016). Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Publishers. p. 1008. ISBN 978-0-02-866269-5. SALAFIYYA.. Contemporary Salafism can be defined as a Sunni reform movement that finds its roots in the Middle Ages, especially in the teachings of Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328)
  22. ^ E. Campo, Juan (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. New York: Infobase Publishing. p. 601. ISBN 978-0816054541. Salafism (Arabic: al-Salafiyya) Salafism refers to a cluster of different Sunni renewal and reform movements and ideologies in contemporary Islam
  23. ^ Bennett, Clinton; Shepard, William (2013). "6: Salafi Islam: The Study of Contemporary Religious-Political Movements". The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 163, 169–70. ISBN 978-1441127884.
  24. ^ a b Bennett, Clinton; Shepard, William (2013). "6: Salafi Islam: The Study of Contemporary Religious-Political Movements". The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 170–71.
  25. ^ Wagemakers, Joas (2016). "3: The Transnational History of Salafism in Jordan". Salafism in Jordan: Political Islam in a Quietist Community. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 96–97, 101. ISBN 978-1107163669.
  26. ^ Haroon, Sana (2021). "1: Tajpur, Bihar 1891: Leadership in Congregational Prayer". The Mosques of Colonial South Asia: A Social and Legal History of Muslim Worship. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-7556-3444-6.
  27. ^ Qasim Zaman, Muhammad (2002). "II: Constructions of Authority". The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 40. ISBN 0691096805.
  28. ^ Bennett, Clinton; Shepard, William (2013). "6: Salafi Islam: The Study of Contemporary Religious-Political Movements". The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies. London: Bloomsbury. p. 179. ISBN 978-1441127884.