Reality of the Madakhilah

 

بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

Within the modern-day movement of Salafism there are numerous tendencies. The so-called Madkhali strain of Salafism is perhaps the most moderate and benign from our mainstream Sunni perspective. This tendency is named after Shaykh Rabi al-Madkhali, an influential Salafi scholar based in Medina, though technically this strain of Salafism owes its existence to one Aman al-Jami. It is a reaction to the infiltration of Ikhwani (Muslim Brotherhood) presence and thought in Saudi Arabia, which started in the 1970s. Much credit is due to Aman al-Jami and Rabi al-Madkhali for their intellectual and academic refutation of the Ikhwani ideology, which is indeed a distortion of Islam and quite opposed to normative Sunni orthodoxy. The Madkhali strain of Salafism became somewhat popular among Muslim youth in the Anglosphere beginning in the 1990s. It pioneered Islamic proselytizing on the internet along with circulating English language literature to attract young Muslims and converts. While the Madkhalis will passionately disagree, it is a fact that their strain of Salafism is a break with the violent Wahhabi movement of Ibn Abd-ul-Wahhab and his early followers. Whereas the Wahhabis made mass-Takfir of much of the Ummah, and for all intents and purposes considered themselves alone to be the true Muslims, the Madkhalis have appealed to the classical Sunni tradition in intellectually repudiating mass-Takfir and neo-Kharijism. The Madkhalis have been instrumental in scholastically defending moderation and classical Sunni thought from the violent and terrorist tendencies of the neo-Kharijites influenced by the likes of Sayyid Qutb.

Now there is no doubt that the Madkhali strain of Salafism was more suitable to the interests of the ruling Saudi elite as it emphasized obedience to the Muslim ruler despite his corruption, as opposed to the violent and Kharijite nature of the original Wahhabism which would openly challenge the House of Saud periodically for its perceived lapse and embracing of modernity. Hence, the Wahhabi revolt against the House of Saud from 1927-1930 and Juhayman’s Mahdist uprising in 1979 are clear examples of the latter phenomenon. So while the Saudis initially supported, and presumably continue to, the Madkhali strain of Salafism, other Arab States like the Emirates, Egypt and Jordan have also found the Madkhali strain useful for the same reason. So favorable is the Madkhali strain to the Arab regimes which have problems with Ikhwani style challenges to their authority that the Emirati and Egyptian backed Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar recruited many Madkhalis to fight for him during the recent civil war in Libya.

However, among the faults of the Madakhilah is that they tend to splinter over the relatively petty internal disagreements among their Shuyukh, which breeds division and factionalism. Now there are three main camps of this particular Salafi tendency; the group that has remained with Rabi al-Madkhali, though he is now quite elderly and has become reclusive but another scholar of this camp is Ubaid al-Jabiri; the group that was based in the Dar-ul-Hadith Madrassah in Dammaj, Yemen, before it was overrun by the Houthis, led by Yahya al-Hajuri, considered the successor to the well-known Salafi scholar of Yemen, namely, Shaykh Muqbil; a group that is led by al-Albani’s student Ali al-Halabi based in Jordan. Another problem with the Madkhali tendency is that it is overly defensive of the corrupt rulers in the Gulf, particularly the Saudis and the Emiratis. While we mainstream Sunnis are opposed to making Takfir of these rulers, despite their corruption, tyranny, and betrayal of the Palestinians, and we therefore also oppose any violent insurrection or terrorism directed against their regimes, it has to be said that we have no love or attachment to them either.