who are the ruwaybidah?

March 5, 2021

Thriving on Fitnah: The Muslim Controversialist!

THE GREAT SAGE AND scholar of early Islam, al-Hasan al-Basri, once remarked: ‘The concern of the scholar is to cultivate, the concern of the foolish is to [merely] narrate.’1 One hadith foretells: ‘There shall come upon people years of deceit in which the liar will be believed, the truthful one disbelieved, the treacherous will be Continue reading

contemporary concerns, short read

dangers of Muslim controversialists, Ibn Taymiyyah defining Muslim orthodoxy, Muslim controversialists as attention seekers, Muslims seeking controversy on social media, unjustified controversy is huge reason for Muslim disunity, who are the ruwaybidah?

About Me

My name is Surkheel Sharif (aka Abu Aaliyah). Born and raised in London, England, I began my more formal, but gradual studies of the Islamic sciences around the late 1980s (just a few years after having quit my degree in Astrophysics). I also gained an MA in Islamic Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2009.

I’ve translated a few Islamic works from Arabic into English; one of them, a short text on Muslim spirituality, called The Exquisite Pearl (2000). I have also authored a few books, including: More Fish Please & the Earth’s Complaint (2011); Fussing Over the 15th of Sha’ban & the Golden Rule of Differing (2011); A Muslim’s Guide to Modernity (2025); and Salafism Reconsidered (forthcoming)

I am the founder and current Director of the Jawziyyah Institute (est. 1999): a non-profit organisation dedicated to cultivating an Islam true to its time-honoured tradition, relevant to its current context, and of benefit to wider society.

who are the ruwaybidah?

Thriving on Fitnah: The Muslim Controversialist!