Abdurrahmaan Al-Qaddaary

One reason is that it is because it takes effort to switch. They already made the lazy decision of not bothering with figuring out the truth, and they only take what they are given and be done with it. So, if you try to tell them they need to put in the effort, they see that as a threat to the comfort they feel entitled to. How dare I challenge a view they held for so long and make them think or make effort. You would feel puzzled, why are they so set on that clearly wrong saying? Well, you are looking at them through the wrong angle. Consider them again by thinking they are people who are defending their laziness, and boom, their dismissal of your points make sense. "So, you know more than my imam?" *puzzled face expression* إذا علم السبب بطل العجب. This, again, is just one reason, but it helps figuring out the rest more easily, إن شاء الله. It's also good to know this is isn't specific to just the blind followers. It's a general concept, and this is just one ex...

How do you find your people? It's simple: Just be yourself. Meaning, work on yourself, cultivate it, build it, nourish it, and let it be authentic. Allow it to grow while adhering to the truth. Finding your people is something you get by…not chasing it. It's weird like that. اعملوا فكلكم ميسر لما خلق له. You do you, they do them, and if Allah wills, your paths will intersect, whether you like it or not. It's beautiful, to anyone willing to wait and do the hard silent work. Delayed gratification, again. الأرواح جنود مجندة، ما تعارف منها ائتلف، وما تناكر منها اختلف. It's true that this means "believers and kuffar", but it also means how people are built and what their tendencies are. Even the people who share the same values might not align, and that's fine, we're not supposed to, anyway, as is very apparent from the observable reality. Do you like everyone? Once you have these guidelines, it is easier for you to move forward and enjoy exploring reality,...

The kuffar want things, and pursue them, and Allah grants them that. the fussaq want things, and pursue them, and Allah grants them that. Allah grants them that even though they don't ask Allah nor rely on Him nor do they believe in "seeking means and letting go of the results". With that amount of idiocy and weakness, they still get what they want. Now, imagine you, someone who has repeatedly refrained from haram, and if you lapsed, you return again and again، and you fear losing the favor of Allah. You seek means and believe that Allah is with you. You have that advantage over the deviants. An immense advantage! What do you think of Allah? ما ودعك ربك وما قلى. We're so used to quick results and immediate feedback.

When I was a child, I wanted to be like Bill Gates, have a big company and be one of the top people out there. He was inspiring, and I knew about him because he was the richest man in the world, and because he was in the software field. What more could a nerdy child want? A few years later, a teenager, I realized that that kind of money comes with problems and constraints, and so I decided it was not worth it. I just want to be in the software field but I don't need to have a big company nor be the richest man in the world. Few years later, I realized I have better role models, and a better goal in my life, as a Muslim, all of this did not matter if I died tomorrow. This realization comes with the understanding that most of the world does not operate this way. Ironically, though, this is exactly how Bill Gates succeeded, he didn't care about how the world operated, he wanted something and he went for it, and he did it. I could at least give him that. As a Muslim, I have greater...

As parents, teachers, or any adult with a sense of responsibility, we carry the burden of nurturing the next generations and preserving them as they grow. We want our children to grow upright, stay away from what is harmful, and have an eye for what is beneficial. This means we implicitly know they are driven by curiosity, and they constantly discover the world around them. That curiosity is what demands our attention, care, and worry, and so we strive to nurture that curiosity by planting seeds of knowledge, so they can grow upright, and be from those who act from understanding rather than mere imitation. And that’s where I would like to chime in: It helps to remember that children are born upon the fitrah (sound nature), naturally attuned to what is right and what is wrong. They sense harmony and dissonance instinctively, but they’re unable to explain it, as they have yet to acquire enough expression skills. Think of a baby crying out loud if they are hungry. They feel something is o...

If I were to sit with scholars while they discuss knowledge, I would be like a toddler holding a piece of bread learning how to chew, and they would be the adults having the actual meal. I sometimes would have my episodes and make a scene asking for the delicious looking stuff, and they entertain me from time to time, and when I calm down, they go back to their meal. Now, someone could see this as humiliating. I won't comment on that; instead, I'll give you this perspective: The toddler is safe and being prepared for having bigger meals. In a world where everyone speaks and confusion is abundant, who wouldn't want to be a toddler safe among adults who know what they are doing? It is quite amazing to have other people take care of the real deal while you enjoy the other stuff in peace and with no responsibility. That's how we are. Well, at least those of us actually humble enough to see it, and I would advise you to assume you are not, even if you are. Can you now see (a...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم، Before I say anything, I would like to assure the author that my writing here is not about them. So feel at ease.  The “duʿāt” who only go out to study for one year and then start teaching—years later, you see them at the same level, while the people they used to teach come back, correct them, and have more knowledge. It shows they didn’t grow. No, it shows they didn't seek knowledge nor were they teaching. Sheikh Muqbil once said, "people could study with us for a year and a half, and then they could go and do their own daʿwah". Sheikh Abdu al-ʿAzeez ar-Rayyis was once asked by someone who claimed to be a beginner and only had two years under his belt, and so the sheikh said, "What?! No, no, that is not little, two years? You are already in and spent a good amount of time on this path", or something to that meaning. Sheikh Abdu al-Ḥamīd once said, "Three (or two) years and still hasn't authored a book? What is he doing?", o...

And it is from the mercy of Allah that you are ill, chronically ill. That makes it easier for you to believe and realize that this life is not for bliss, the best it could be is a somewhat burned meal, you could still eat it but the burnt smell and flavor is borderline unbearable. Sometimes you find a piece having less of that, and you, for a few moments, forget the previous horror and savor those less horrible bites. They're over, and you're back to the burnt bits. Why are you still eating? That's all I have, and I need sustenance. Why are you still eating? Idk, I guess I like the slight dopamine and neurons-tickling the flavors give me. I know, pathetic, but I'm quite weak. Being chronically ill makes it easier for you to eat less burnt food, it forces clarity into you, strips away the fog. As soon as you get some relief, you forget again. You then have your episodes back, and you remember yet again. The loop continues, and the contrast is almost constant, you can see...

An acquaintance: a person whom one knows but who is not a particularly close friend —Merriam Webster This is what we have, and what we call a "friend" or a "brother". An acquaintance smells like a friend, but isn't. The same way strawberry flavored products are not actual strawberry. Today we tell ourselves strawberry-flavored is actual strawberry and then believe that lie and then act surprised when reality gives us a reality check. We should use that word more often, as it's more accurate. It is from justice to put things where they belong. Every time we call a passing interaction a "friendship", we commit a small act of injustice. We burden that person with an implicit intimacy they never promised nor agreed to. That's corruption, which leads to further corruption. Floridity is not generosity, it is gravity, and gravity warps the field around me. When I dispense "friend" for a casual exchange, I inflate my own currency. The real on...

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته We have to be incredibly careful not to fall into the trap of endless debating. It is so easy to find yourself active in a gazillion groups (WhatsApp, Telegram, and social media) completely convinced that spending hours typing back and forth is daʿwah or defending the Sunnah. But we need to check our intentions, because this is a very subtle delusion. It is the trap of trading high-value deeds, like actually memorizing the Qur’ān, pursuing structured knowledge, or rectifying your own character, for a mere illusion of productivity. It feels virtuous to win an argument online, but if it doesn't bring you closer to Allāh or build real knowledge, it produces absolutely zero fruit, and might even produce thorns tearing your deeds away. If you look at the people of actual knowledge, the scholars we claim to follow, they do not behave like this at all. At all . You will not find them camping out in comment sections or debate threads. In fact, they frequentl...

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته My advice to myself and to my brothers who are convinced of the impermissibility of taṣwīr is simple: let go and move on from this issue. You seek knowledge to benefit yourself, those around you, and those who ask you. You yourself have benefited, al-ḥamdu lillāh. But those around you? Maybe not. Should you exhaust yourself responding to every single doubt they throw at you? Absolutely not. It is from lack of ḥikmah (wisdom) to not realize the type of people you are dealing with; there are two completely different categories of people: * The Common Folk : These are the people drowning in a world where modern photography is normalized. For them, accepting that taṣwīr of animate beings is ḥarām is incredibly heavy. With them, you hold the "cord of Muʿāwiyah"—you go soft, you show deep empathy, and you remain gentle to keep them connected to the truth. * The Bad-Faith Polemicists : These are the ones actively digging in the mud and fishing in murk...

A mirror tries to reflect what everyone else wants to see; a lighthouse just shines its light, helping the right ships find the harbor. Be yourself, and the right ships will follow the resonance and meet you. Be yourself and stand tall between the crashing waves of the ocean. Shine your light bright and do not dim for ships who complain about being blinded. A lighthouse doesn't check the weather app or look at reviews from the incoming ships to see if they like the wattage of the bulb. It just shines. The ocean is vast, and ships are many. Don't be a mirror. People stand in front of mirrors and smile, and the mirror thinks the smile is because of itself. Poor mirror.

أقول: هذا الاختلاف وهذا النزاع لم يقف عند حدود البلاد البعيدة عنا، ولكنه قد وصل أيضا إلينا نحن أنفسنا، ونحن السلفيون الذين نزعم أننا نتمسك بالكتاب والسنة الصحيحة. I say: This disagreement and conflict did not stop at the borders of lands far away from us; rather, it has even reached us ourselves—we, the Salafis, who claim to hold fast to the Book and the authentic Sunnah. ولا ننكر فضل الله تبارك وتعالى علينا بما تفضل به من هدايته لنا إلى التوحيد وإلى العمل بما ثبت في الكتاب والسنة، ولكن أليس من الثابت في الكتاب والسنة ألا نتحاسد، وألا نتباغض، وأن نكون إخواناً كما أمرنا الله عز وجل في كتابه ونبيه صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم في سنته؟ نعم، ذلك مما عرفناه معرفةً ولم نطبقه عملياً، وعسى أن نطبق ذلك ونسعى إليه حثيثاً. We do not deny Allāh's blessing and favor upon us, for He has guided us to at-Tawḥīd and to acting upon what is authentically established in the Book and the Sunnah. But is it not established in the Book and the Sunnah that we should not envy one another, that we shoul...

Most of us have something we keep making duʿāʾ for, something we keep thinking about, or something that always reminds us about its existence, or inexistence.  Marriage, a job, a child, healing from an illness, getting out of debt… We want it yesterday, right now! We keep checking here and there and standing on our toes hoping for good news. We read stories of people who got their duʿās answered overnight and we think, "Okay, but when is my turn…?" Oh…how dare we…how dare we think like that?! Where is my patience?! I’m such a bad Muslim for wanting this so badly…aren't I? Well…eh, maybe you are, and maybe you aren't. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how much you want something. The problem is how you're handling the wait. Here is the flawed mindset most of us have: we think patience is just sitting around, gritting our teeth, and counting the days until our duʿāʾ finally shows up in our inbox. Like we’re standing at a bus stop, checking our watch, gett...

Build Infrastructure, Not Content Content decays. Infrastructure compounds. A quote card lives for one scroll, where people see it, maybe like it, and it's gone. That doesn't scale, nor last. A plain text file, on the other hand, is a different beast. It can be searched, copied, translated, indexed by a machine. It can be rebuilt into something else five years from now, by someone who never met you. There's a huge difference between content and infrastructure. A difference we're choosing not to see. It's not about how it looks, it's about whether it survives. Those manuscripts and scrolls left by scholars centuries ago certainly did not worry about which font to use in Canva, did they? Every time you trap knowledge inside an image, you're choosing the first option. You're making something disposable and calling it a post, a benefit, or whatever the current trend imposes. Don't ask "does this look good". Start asking "does this survive...

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم، A reminder to me and you. Let's grab a mirror. ——— Compound ignorance is ignorance masquerading as knowledge. The one afflicted with it is unaware of their ignorance and presents themselves as knowledgeable. The more you address it, the deeper and worse it becomes. Because the person absorbs the vocabulary and then weaponizes it to fortify their bubble even further. It's similar to an LLM: outputs nonsense with astonishing confidence and neat grammar. Saving someone from this is like a lifeguard saving a drowning person. They panic and try to pull you down with them. That reflex needs to be neutralized. The intellectual equivalent is cornering their reasoning step by step until reality leaves them with a binary choice: either submit to the truth, or react defensively through emotion, insults, or withdrawal. Another type are those who seem to understand, but over time appear to have only grown deeper into the compound entity. More layers, and thus more c...

When distress becomes intense and the hardship grows severe, relief is, in most cases, very near. Allāh تعالى says: {حَتَّى إِذَا اسْتَيْأَسَ الرُّسُلُ وَظَنُّوا أَنَّهُمْ قَدْ كُذِبُوا جَاءَهُمْ نَصْرُنَا} '(They were reprieved) until, when the Messengers gave up hope and thought that they were denied (by their people), then came to them Our Help.' [Yūsuf: 110] And He said: {أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَنْ تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُمْ مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ مَسَّتْهُمُ الْبَأْسَاءُ وَالضَّرَّاءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا حَتَّى يَقُولَ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ مَتَى نَصْرُ اللَّهِ أَلَا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ} 'Or think you that you will enter Paradise without such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you? They were afflicted with severe poverty and ailments and were so shaken that even the Messenger and those who believed along with him said, When (will come) the Help of Allāh? Yes! Certainly, the Help of Allāh is near!' [al-Baqar...

Real growth doesn't feel like an epiphany. It is painful. You spend months or years comfortable with how you understand something, and then you run into actual knowledge. That deep aching realization that you've been oblivious, unaware, shallow, or lazy. Your existence resists, looks for excuses, deflections, trying to save the bubble from bursting. Your mental muscles need to feel sore, just like a good session of exercise makes your muscles sore. If learning doesn't leave you a little tired, a little humbled, and amazed by how much you still have to unlearn, then it isn't education. It's just entertainment wearing a lab coat, with crossed arms, trying to look serious.

  Not everyone sounds the same when they advise or write. It could be one piece that doesn’t sit well with one person is exactly what draws someone else in, and by the tawfeeq of Allāh it benefits them and helps them improve. Even the companions were like that too—Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه was very soft and calm when he spoke, while ʿUmar رضي الله عنه was more direct and firm. But, both were on the truth and helped the ummah in different ways. Some people needed softness, others needed firmness. And there are some who are blessed with both, a mix of gentleness and firmness. So, yeah, just keep your writing as it is because it feels natural. I received these wise words a while ago after I made remarks about my tone being possibly harsh. It was an intrusive thought that found its way into my mind but has been dealt with, والحمد لله. Perhaps ash-Shayṭān tried to skew my calibration. نعوذ بالله منه. These words helped, even though I'm aware of the meaning, but, two minds are better than ...

― ✦ ― THE CURRENCY OF SINCERITY — On the Decoupling of Expression and Reality — AL-QADDĀRĪ ― ✦ ― بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيم Introduction Ash-shaykh Sulaymān al-Ruḥaylī noted that some people, whenever they meet someone, say "I love you for the sake of Allāh" — despite knowing of no reason that would warrant such love. He called this a mistake. Indeed, it is a mistake. Love for the sake of Allāh is not created by saying the words. The words are supposed to describe a reality that already exists — a reality rooted in the beloved's righteousness, his adherence to the Sunnah, his defense of the truth. The love exists, it has real substance, and the statement merely informs the other person of that. But if the cause disappears and the expression remains, the language drifts away from reality, which is the signature problem of our era's religiou...