Salman al-Awdah Biography

 

Salman al-Awdah is a Saudi religious scholar and preacher, considered one of the symbols of Islamic moderation and one of the most daring Saudi religious scholars.

Birth and upbringing

Salman bin Fahd Al-Awda was born on December 14, 1956, in the village of Al-Bar in the city of Buraidah (Al-Qassim region) in central Saudi Arabia. He spent part of his childhood in his village and then moved to Buraidah to continue his education.

Study and training

Al-Awda studied primary, intermediate and secondary levels in Buraidah, then joined Imam Muhammad bin Saud University in Qassim, where he obtained a BA in Sharia. He obtained a master's degree from the Department of Sunnah and its Sciences at the Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion, on the subject of "Ahadith of Alienation".

Al-Awda was a student of eminent scholars such as Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, Abdullah ibn Jibreen, and Sheikh Salih al-Bilahi.

In 2004, Al-Awda received a doctorate in Sharia from Imam Muhammad bin Saud University for a four-volume paper on the purity part of the book “Buloogh Al-Maram”. The research was surrounded by a scientific impetus, as prominent scholars such as Abdullah bin Jibreen, Abdullah bin Bayh and Khaldoun Al-Ahdab participated in its discussion.

Functions and Responsibilities

Al-Awda began his working life as a teacher at the Scientific Institute in Buraidah, and worked as a teaching assistant and then a professor at Imam Muhammad bin Saud University in Qassim until he was dismissed from it in 1994 because of his political stances.

Al-Awda (2016) is currently responsible for several advocacy responsibilities of an international nature, as he is the Vice-President of the International Al-Nusra Organization, and the Assistant Secretary of the Union of Muslim Scholars. He is also a member of the European Fatwa Council, in addition to his roles in several scientific and charitable societies and institutions in the Islamic world.

In 2000, he founded the "Islam Today" group and supervised it for ten years.

Scientific experiment

The name Al-Awda emerged in the 1980s as one of the most important symbols of the religious awakening. In 1991, he was among the sheiks who strongly criticized Saudi Arabia's cooperation with the United States in the second Gulf War.

At that time, he collected the signatures of scholars on a statement refusing to allow foreign soldiers to set foot on the Arabian Peninsula, and he called for this in one of his speeches, which caused him to be summoned for investigation more than once.

In June 1992, Al-Awda was one of the signatories to the "Memorandum of Advice" addressed by scholars and university professors to the late King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, which included a demand for legal, administrative, social, and media reforms within the Islamic legal framework.

In September 1993 al-Awda was prevented from giving public speeches and lectures, then he was imprisoned on August 16, 1994, where he spent five years without trial.

Before his release in April 1999, al-Awda reviewed his ideas by a large number of scholars who interviewed him in prison. After leaving it, Al-Awda developed his speeches and issued a video text entitled "Yes, I will change."

Al-Awda says that isolation in prison gave him freedom and moved him from narrowness to spaciousness and from regression to life, and made him see bright faces and read the positive side of others.

In the post-prison period, the call to "Islamic moderation" has become an important part of the return sermons and lectures, until it is seen as one of its most important symbols in Saudi Arabia. He has more than once expressed his rejection of extremism and extremism and his opposition to currents of violence in the Arab and Islamic worlds.

He stopped al-Awda with the change in the events of the “Arab Spring” and supported the people in their peaceful movement, which resulted in him being deprived of the platforms through which he used to address his audience, and he was prevented from traveling abroad.

On March 15, 2013, Al-Awda sent an open letter to the Saudi regime calling for the release of prisoners of conscience, and for absorbing the growing popular anger regarding the detainees' file to ward off the danger of sedition.

In the same year, he launched his own YouTube channel (DrSalmanTv), in which he presented a program entitled "Wassem", and a satellite channel called "Salman TV" was established.

Al-Awda is considered one of the Saudi scholars who are closest to the Muslim Brotherhood, which he praises and is proud of knowing some of its symbols and being a student of them, but he has more than once denied affiliation to any Islamic movement.

After the Houthis seized power in Yemen in late 2014, Al-Awda said that what the Houthi group was doing went beyond the definition of terrorism only, considering that Iran poses a threat to the region because it exploits minorities.

He added - in an interview with Al Jazeera - that the reality indicates that there is a Shiite minority trying to take the lead in the Arab world.

Al-Awda regularly participates in scientific and political conferences in the Arab and Islamic worlds, in Europe, and in the United States. He appears in the media from time to time and is hosted by Al-Jazeera on political and religious topics. He also presented programs on "MBC", "Al-Majd" and other channels.

In early 2016, Al-Awda's wife, Haya Al-Siyari, one of his sons, and one of his relatives died in a traffic accident, after the car they were traveling in collided with a truck.

Al-Awda mourned his wife in a tweet posted on his official account on Twitter, in which he said, "When you left, I realized that I do not deserve you, God is in your hospitality and near you."

He also lamented his wife, son, and one of his relatives with a touching video entitled “Complete the story,” in which he consoled himself with their memory and their spectrum that roams in his mind, and depicts moments of great sadness, as he said, “Peace be upon your soul, come on. It was a sunset."

Al-Awda presented - during his “Wasm” program on YouTube - an episode in the sympathy and solace of the human soul, in which there is a lesson for every bereaved or bereaved relative and dear, and the video achieved nearly one million and one hundred thousand views within 48 hours, with a very high follow-up rate.

He reviewed the moments he experienced after parting with his loved ones and burying them under the dirt, and the impact of their loss on him and his life, and reviewed the void they left with a tour of his home, remembering what his wife does, and it is one of the most influential scenes of the story for the followers.

On September 10, 2017, tweets and various media outlets circulated the news of his arrest by the Saudi authorities amid a deep crisis between Qatar and the Gulf states, led by Riyadh.

The tweeters said that the arrest of the sheik - along with about twenty others - came after a tweet in which he called for a "composition of hearts" following the publication of the news of the phone call between the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. There has not yet been any confirmation of the news of the arrest from Saudi official sources.

Al-Awda is considered one of the most popular Muslim religious scholars who exploit social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and has hundreds of thousands of followers.

Literature

Al-Awda has authored dozens of books on jurisprudence, interpretation, hadith, politics, and social reform. Many of these publications reflect his political and religious orientation.

Among his most prominent books are Solitude and Mixture, From the Morals of the Preacher, The Literature of Dialogue, Twenty Ways of Hypocrisy, One Nation, A Quiet Dialogue with Al-Ghazali, Thank You, Enemies, How to Differ, Childhood of a Heart, Me and Her Sisters.

After the outbreak of the Arab Spring revolutions in late 2010, Al-Awda issued a book entitled "Questions of the Revolution" in which he expressed his vision of the revolutions and his position on them, but the Saudi authorities banned the book's circulation. It also banned the circulation of his book "A Dungeon", a cultural work that deals with customs, their impact, and change.