This concise article will clarify two issues – inshā Allāh. The first is that the position of the Salafī scholars towards the Muslim Brotherhood was not dictated by current events in the Middle East or regional politics, as some erroneously claim. The second is that Shaykh Muqbil (rahimahullāh) was among the sternest and most outspoken critics of the Muslim Brotherhood and its head, ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Zindānī, in Yemen. Whoever claims contrary to this either does not know Shaykh Muqbil or they are misrepresenting the Shaykh’s position in an attempt to justify their flawed stance towards the Muslim Brotherhood and similar groups and individuals, whilst feigning a connection to this eminent Imām.1
The response to the aforementioned issues can easily be found by opening and reading one of Shaykh Muqbil’s books like al-Burkān Lī Nasf Jāmiʿah al-Īmān [The Volcano to Demolish Īmān University2] for example, or Iskāt al-Kalb al-ʿĀwi3 Yusuf al-Qarḍāwī [Silencing the Barking Dog Yusuf al-Qarḍāwī]. Will they be bold enough to now accuse Shaykh Muqbil of being extreme? This was sincere advice to all those who adopted this innovated methodology.
For the sincere reader, I will provide a few of many available quotations.
Shaykh Muqbil used to call al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn “al-Ikhwan al-Muflisūn,” which translates to mean the bankrupt brotherhood.
For the record, Imām Muqbil (rahimahullāh) died in 2001 (1422H), so his position obviously could not have been influenced by current international relations and politics. The same applies to the warnings of Shaykh Ibn Bāz, Shaykh Albānī and others.
It is true that the Committee of Senior Scholars in Saudi Arabia recently released a clarification about this group, saying:
“The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization that does not represent the methodology of Islam. Rather, they pursue their partisan goals, which oppose the guidance of our true religion.”
However, various scholars have been warning against this organization decades prior to this edict.
Shaykh Muqbil (rahimahullāh) said: “They [the Muslim Brotherhood] are bankrupt as it relates to knowledge and bankrupt as it relates to Daʿwah [calling to Allāh].”4
He (rahimahullāh) said: “As for their methodology then it is an innovated [Manhaj] from its inception and from its very beginning. The founder of this group – which is Ḥasan al-Bannā – used to make Ṭawāf around the graves, call to unity between the Sunnah and the Shīʿah and celebrate the Prophet’s birthday…”5
The Shaykh’s criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood was based on their innovated beliefs and practices, not global politics, as the reader can clearly see.
He (rahimahullāh) said: “They [the Muslim Brotherhood] are prepared to cooperate with the Devil against Ahl al-Sunnah.”6
As for ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Zindānī, then the Shaykh would advise him sternly.
Shaykh Muqbil said: “Yesterday they used to say and spread among the people that Muqbil b. Hādī declares Zindānī to be a disbeliever. I used to say at that time: ‘I do not declare him to be a disbeliever, but I say he is misguided.’ As for now, then I say: ‘He is a Dajjāl from the Dajjājilah.’ Let those present inform those who are absent…”7
He (rahimahullāh) said: “He is misguided, leading others astray.”8
He (rahimahullāh) said: “He is a person of desires.”9
He (rahimahullāh) said: “ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Zindānī has malice in his heart towards Ahl al-Sunnah, and he mocks them…”10
He (rahimahullāh) said: “ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Zindānī is bankrupt…”11
Hassan Somali
March 10th, 2021 [26th Rajab 1442H]
1 It is unfortunate that some of those who claim to be proponents of Salafīyah in the West are silent about the current onslaught against Salafīyah and its scholars like Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, Ibn Bāz, Albānī, Ibn ʿUthaymīn, Fawzān and others, yet they add to the confusion by directing their public rants towards the Salafīs.
2 This was the university founded by ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Zindānī in Sanaa, Yemen.
3 There are numerous examples of scholars from the Salaf using harsh terms when warning against the innovators and their harms. Sometimes scholars mention actual names and sometimes they suffice with descriptions.
4 Al-Burkān, p. 46.
5 Tuḥfah al-Mujīb, p. 96.6 Tuḥfah al-Mujīb, p. 53.
7 Al-Burkān, p. 77.
8 Al-Burkān, p. 102.
9 Ghārah al-Ashriṭah [2/412].
10 Tuḥfah al-Mujīb, p. 331.
11 Ghārah al-Ashriṭah [1/271].
