“Madkhalism” … Group of Reverence and Obedience to the Guardian

By: Walid Mansour

Madkhalism was introduced in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991. The Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, sought the help of the United States to remove the Iraqi army from Kuwait.

The “Madkhalism” came as a reaction to the opposition of the so-called Sahwa movement in Saudi Arabia, or the so-called Sururi movement, which mixes in its ideology between the Salafist and the Muslim Brotherhood. It was founded by Muhammad Surur, one of the leaders of the former Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. One of its most renowned preachers was Salman al-Ouda. The Sururi movement was established upon the approval of the rulers of the Gulf on the participation of foreign forces in the war against the army of Saddam Hussein, according to the book “The Difference of Islamists” by Ahmed Salem, issued by the Namaa Center for Research and Studies.

The use of the US military raised the issue of the rule of seeking the help of non-Muslims in the fight against Muslims. Sheikh Rabee Al-Madkhali, the founder of the Madkhalism, wrote “Repelling the Aggression of Atheists and the Rule of Seeking the Help of the Non-Muslims.” He also mentioned the Islamic movements opposing the American intervention and opposing the fatwa of the Council of Senior Scholars in Saudi Arabia. He also claimed that the heresy is an accusation Salafists call on those who oppose them, in the sense of violating the instructions of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be upon Him), or the new trend in religion, which was developed by the people and did not exist at the time of the Messenger of Allah. It is the fact that all the movements are opposing the rulers of the Gulf.

This school of Salafist movement is called Madkhalism in relation to Sheikh Rabee bin Hadi Al-Madkhali. Born in 1932 in Saudi Arabia, Al-Madkhali is one of the professors of Hadith at the Islamic University in Medina. Madkhalism is also called the Jami movement, in relation to Sheikh Muhammed Amanullah al-Jami. Al-Jami is of an Ethiopian origin, was born in 1931 and worked as a teacher at the Prophet’s Holy Mosque.

As a result of the heresy excessiveness of the Madkhalism movement, a more heresy excessive trend emerged. The trend is called so-called “Haddadism”, which belongs to the Egyptian Mahmoud el-Haddad. El-Haddad lived in Riyadh and then moved to Medina. He also prohibited pleading for mercy on those who say heresies according to a research paper published by Sheikh Rabee Al-Madkhali through his own site entitled “Methodism of Haddadism”

In the late 1990s, he moved to Egypt via Osama al-Qusi, one of the preachers of Al-Madkhalism, who traveled to Yemen and studied on the hands of Sheikh Muqbil al-Wadi’i, one of the scholars of Yemen. He met with Sheikh Rabee al-Madkhali in Saudi Arabia, came back to Egypt and took over the management of the library and printing press of the two holy mosques. He also disseminated the Madkhalism ideology, and attacked the advocates of Salafism movement which is operating in Cairo and following in its political ideology the Muslim Brotherhood (founded by Hassan al-Banna). He also entered into a major clash with them.

The book “The Islamic Controversy” indicates that the Madkhalism movement is distinguished from the Salafist movement by the excessiveness of obedience to the rulers, and the rulings which came in the books of the Islamic sharia law in the first three centuries period – the period of the Companions, the followers and the good predecessors, despite the great change in the regime and the rulers, and so on.

This trend is also characterized by the exaggeration in the attack against the preachers and sheikhs who oppose them, and the use of the Science of Narration or the Knowledge of Men used in the acceptance and rejection of the Hadiths in the first centuries – in an exaggerated way. This has led to calling any violator or opponent as someone who disseminates heresies. The movement is also characterized by dissidence; each trend splits itself into groups and each division rejects the other for doctrinal differences that requires attacking the violators and accusing them of heresy and misguidance.

The book, “The Islamic Controversy,” confirmed that the Madkhalism movement uses the Knowledge of Men – a science which refers to a discipline of Islamic religious studies within hadith terminology in which in the narrators of hadith are evaluated. The movement uses this science in the severe attack against the Salafist currents, the Muslim Brotherhood, Tablighi Jamaat, jihadist groups and al-Qaeda terrorist organization. The movement also dismisses all those who disagree with its Salafist approach, and describes itself as “pure Salafist”. It also accuses those who oppose them of heresy and describes them as heretics and dissidents. Some of them are mentioned by name while the others are only being hinted at.

This trend sets aside politics and considers the talk about political affairs as a dissidence from the ruler, and a violation to the approach of Sunni Islam, as Mohammed Saeed Raslan – one of the most important advocates of intervention in Egypt, and has lessons and speeches in Menoufia – said in a Friday sermon on December 16, 2017, religiously prohibiting President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s competing in the upcoming presidential elections.

He described President Sisi as a “guardian”, stressing that Islamic sharia law says: “The guardian is not in dispute neither for his place nor does he compete for it. Rather, he remains in it, unless he faced something that prevents his eligibility. In other words, the Islamic sharia law says that the Muslim guardian is not challenged in his position, which God Almighty blessed him with. The Islamic sharia law says and the mind believes. There is absolutely no room to sue and set enmities in the coming period,” he said.

The book “The Islamic Controversy” indicates that the Madkhalism is strict in the matter of not talking about the rulers. So, it is considered that any talk about the rulers, other than the call to them for goodness, is a kind of dissidence and who does that is one of the Kharijites. Even if he does not call it a demonstration or revolution against the ruler, they claimed that anyone who objects is one of the “Kharijites”, who provoke the public against the rulers to revolutionize.

The Madkhalism employs the fatwas of Sheikh Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, the former Mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of the Council of Senior Scholars in the Kingdom – and Fatwa No. 23/406, 407 of the fatwas of the Standing Committee on the right to vote in the elections and to run for it, taking into consideration that our country is not governed by what God revealed. Sheikh Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen, one of Saudi Arabia’s greatest scholars, and Sheikh Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, a 20th-century modern scholar, forbade entering political parties and participating in elections in favor of their cause.

The Madkhalism has several odd fatwas that have stirred up controversy in the Egyptian street, including the fatwa of Mahmoud Lutfi Amer, one of the elders of the Madkhalism, who has lessons and speeches in Beheira governorate. He also served as president of Ansar al-Sunna Muhammadiyah Association in Damanhour. Amer released a fatwa on his website on January 1, 2011, shedding the blood of Dr. Mohamed El-Baradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for announcing his candidacy against President Hosni Mubarak who ruled Egypt for 30 years and stepped down after the January 25 Revolution.

Talaat Zahran, one of the elders of the Madkhalism Movement in Alexandria, said on March 14, 2014 that “President Mubarak was awarded according to the Islamic sharia law for electoral fraud and that electoral fraud is a legitimate duty.”

The book “Islamic Controversy” confirms that Sheikh Rabee Al-Madkhali is the holder of the banner of the Knowledge of Men in the modern era. For Madkhalism followers, he differentiates between scholars and those who disseminate heresies. Moreover, his rulings are accredited according to the Madkhalism movement.

In his definition of Salafism, Rabee al-Madkhali says that “salafism is against modernity and is against the modernity of the Kharijites who came out to Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib after accepting the arbitration in the Battle of Siffin which was held between him, Mu’awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with them) and Mu’tazila which is an Islamic group that emerged in the late Umayyad era and flourished in the Abbasid period, and relied on the abstract mind in understanding the Islamic doctrine for being influenced by some imported philosophies. This has led to deviating from the doctrine of Ahl al-Sunnah wal Jama’a and al- Mu’tazila. It also states that the most fundamental principles of Salafism are obedience to guardians even if they are wronged. His explanation of the principles of the Sunnah is that “the victor must be obeyed in order to prevent bloodshed and if someone else managed to reveal victory, he must be obeyed.”

The book adds that the Madkhalism movement enjoys a large governmental support as this trend supports the government, allowing the advocates of this trend to get backing from some countries to extend and reach Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and most Arab countries.

It is worth mentioning that one of the most famous Salafist preachers in Egypt is Mohammed Saeed Raslan, Mahmoud Lutfi Amer, Khalid Abdulrahman and Talaat Zahran.