One of the most vocal (mufawwidh) ‘Hanbalis’ of our time is an Egyptian individual who goes by the name of Muhammad Abdul-Wahid al-Azhari ‘al-Hanbali’ (who suffers from ‘Salafi burn-out’).

Muhammad ‘Abdul-Wahid al-Azhari started with some legit critique of the modern-day Salafi da’wah but then ended up waging outright war against the entire Najdi Da’wah and Salafis (similar to what some charlatans do in the English speaking world), attacking the likes of Shaykh al-Albani, Bin Baz, and other profound scholars. Even Shaykh al-Islam b. Taymiyyah wasn’t spared from his long tongue.

Therefore, it is no wonder that his cozy with known enemies of the Sunnah, the likes of al-La Sharif Haqid (‘Hatim’) al-‘Awni (an actual and ideological descendant of the humiliated khurafi Sufis of Hijaz and role model of Yasir Qazi), Sayf al-‘Asri, and other than them from amongst the ‘classical Sunni Islam’ jama’ah who attended a ‘Wahhabi’ bashing conference organized by the pet dog of Putin (who along with the Majus of Iran was busy slaughtering the Sunnis of Syria while the Sufis and Ash’aris met the enemy of Islam, Kadyrov, may Allah curse him).

All of them have little to say about the crimes and ghuluw and shirkiyat of the Rafidah and ghulat of the Sufiyyah. In the words of Muhammad al-Azhari himself:

Translation:

“‘Ali Gomaa (the former khurafi mufti of Egypt who blatantly stated that Invoking Mary, peace be upon her, is from Islam!)

“Muhammad ‘Abdul-Wahid did not understand al-‘Ilm nor the importance of it… except after the lectures of ‘Ali Gomaa.”

“‘Ali Gomaa is superior to all the Salafi scholars of Egypt.”

“Our main aim is the spread the heritage of the madhahib and this requires the elimination of Wahhabism.”

Despite him claiming (like many later Hanbalis) that Ahl al-Sunnah are three i.e. the Asha’irah, Maturidiyyah and the Athariyyah (Hanabilah), Ash’ari leaders of our time like Saeed Foudeh are not on good terms with him (or with any Hanabilah really), which has forced him to reply to them and their attacks against Hanbali giants (whom many Asha’irah accuse of tajsim/anthropomorphism).

Nevertheless, most of his energy, hatred, enmity and grudge are directed to his archenemies, the ‘Wahhabis’. On his main (Arabic) YouTube channel almost every video dealing with his ‘Wahhabi’ foes is accompanied by thumbnails that could have been produced by Arab atheists/secularists and Rawafid (in fact, they are literally taken from those enemies of Islam):

Some gullible souls have started translating his videos into the English language. You know them ‘traditional Sunni Islam’ type of jama’ah, may Allah guide them and us to what pleases Him.

Muhammad al-Azhari’s does not just refer to his Salafi opponents as ‘Wahhabis’, he also refers to them as النابتة/Nabitah/Nawabit. The Nabitah are basically Khawarij, dogs of the Hellfire, who are hostile to the Prophet (ﷺ) and cause more mischief than the idolaters and thus must be killed. Here is an infamous ‘peace preaching’ batini zindiq Sufis declaring Salafis as Nabitah:

These allegations against Ahl al-Sunnah are not new, the heretics have always slandered them with similar nicknames even way back in the time of the Salaf and those who followed them:

وأما الرافضة فإنهم يسمون أهل السنة الناصبة وكذبت الرافضة بل هم أولى بهذا لانتصابهم.

وأما الخوارج فإنهم يسمون أهل السنة والجماعة مرجئة وكذبت الخوارج فِي قولهم بل هم المرجئة

وأما أصحاب الرأي فإنهم يسمون أصحاب السنة نابتة وحشوية وكذب أصحاب الرأي أعداء اللَّه بل هم النابتة والحشوية تركوا آثار الرسول – صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ – وحديثه وقالوا بالرأي رحم اللَّه عبدًا قَالَ بالحق واتبع الأثر وتمسك بالسنة واقتدى بالصالحين وبالله التوفيق. اللهم ادحض باطل المرجئة وأوهن كيد القدرية وأذل دولة الرافضة وامحق شبه أصحاب الرأي واكفنا مؤنة الخارجية وعجل الانتقام من الجهمية

إجماع السلف في الاعتقاد كما حكاه الإمام حرب بن إسماعيل الكرماني

“As for the Rafidah, they refer to Ahl al-Sunnah as Nasibah (Nawasib), and they have lied because they are more deserving of this […]

As for the Khawarij, they refer to Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah as Murji’ah and they have lied, indeed the Khawarij are the Murji’ah […]

As for the advocates of ra’y, they refer to Ahl al-Sunnah as Nabitah and Hashawiyyah and in fact the advocates of ra’y, the enemies of Allah, have lied. In fact, they are the Nabitah and Hashawiyyah who have abandoned the athars of the Messenger (ﷺ) and his hadith and have engaged in ra’y […] O Allah! O Allah, refute the falsehood of the Murji’ah and weaken the plot of the Qadariyyah and humiliate the state of the Rafidah and annihilate the ambiguities of the advocates of ra’y and spare us from the evil of the Khawarij, and hasten the revenge on the Jahmiyyah.”

Source: Ijma’ al-Salaf fi al-I’tiqad kama hakaha al-Imam Harb b. Isma’il

Back to Muhammad ‘Abdul-Wahid al-Azhari who openly said in one of his videos that Mawlid is not just permissible but recommended!

And in another video he raves about his tomb pilgrimages to the saints even during his Salafi (!) times:

“I’ve visited numerous SHRINES even during my Salafi times. My mother was healed after she visited al-Husayn’s (may Allah be pleased with him) shrine.” – Muhammad ‘Abdul-Wahid al-Azhari

In this clip, he tells a story (which could have been told by Abdol-Hossein from Qom or Karbala’) of how his mother used to take him to a tomb pilgrimage; to the bogus shrine of al-Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) in Cairo (a Sufi-Rafidi hotbed and Khurafah factory). One day she took him whilst suffering from some speech problem which miraculously disappeared after she visited the idolatrous shrine in Cairo. His fans celebrate this bid’i grave veneration as ‘tawasul bil-Husayn’! Instead of warning people against such khurafat they relay Sufi fairy-tales and cite some statements of the khalaf (like Rawafid) and are not ashamed to justify khurafat at empty graves and the ‘miraculous effects’ which can be easily explained by the Qur’an:

{By Allah, We did certainly send [messengers] to nations before you, but Satan made their deeds attractive to them. And he is the disbelievers’ ally today [as well], and they will have a painful punishment.} – Qur’an, 16:63

This al-Azhari the ‘al-Hanbali’ who according to his own words used to frequent bid’i shrines even during his ‘Salafi’ times. This individual is supposed to be a former ‘Wahhabi’, والله المستعان.

The calamities of Muhammad al-Azhari don’t end here. He openly encourages his gullible followers to call upon the Ahl al-Bayt, however, not without sophistry (in order to fool the weak-minded and gullible).

All of these arguments are logically incoherent and necessitate an ambiguous God and our reality is the biggest proof of the evil that grave veneration and the invocation of the saints have caused from the West to the East of the Muslim world.

Knowing how the likes of Muhammad al-Azhari would justify his statements (majaz ‘aqli, and even citing some late Hanbali scholars), let’s look at one of his tweets that could have been written by some ‘Abdol-Hossein cleric from Qom:

In the above Facebook post he wrote that: