Yasir Qadhi

Yasir Qadhi (formerly known by his kunya Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi) (born January 30, 1975) is a Pakistani American Muslim scholar and theologian. He is dean of The Islamic Seminary of America and resident scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center in Plano, Texas. He was formerly the dean of AlMaghrib Institute and taught in the religious studies department at Rhodes College. He currently serves as chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America.

Born in Texas to Pakistani Muhajir parents, Qadhi studied chemical engineering at the University of Houston, before studying Hadith and Islamic theology at the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia. He earned his PhD from Yale University where his dissertation focused on the writings of Ibn Taymiyyah. Qadhi has written books and lectured widely on Islam and contemporary Muslim issues, and is considered one of the most influential Muslim scholars in the United States. He has also consistently been listed in the annual listicle The 500 Most Influential Muslims.

Qadhi was previously affiliated with Salafism, but has since left it. He now identifies himself as a Wasatist and has been described as such.

Early years

Qadhi was born in Houston, Texas to Pakistani Muhajir parents.
His father, a doctor by profession, founded the first mosque in the area, while his mother is a microbiologist, both from Karachi in Pakistan and whose ancestral homeland is Uttar Pradesh in India. When he was five, the family moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he attended local schools. By 15 he had memorized the Qur'an and graduated from high school two years early as class valedictorian.
Elliott, Andrea (April 17, 2011)
"Why Yasir Qadhi Wants to Talk About Jihad"
, ''The New York Times''. He returned to the United States, where he earned a B.Sc in Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston.

Professional career

After a short stint working in engineering at Dow Chemical, in 1996 Qadhi enrolled at the Islamic University of Medinah in Medina, Saudi Arabia. There, he earned a bachelor's degree in Arabic from the university's College of Hadith and Islamic Sciences and a master's degree in Islamic Theology from its College of Dawah. Qadhi returned to the United States after working and studying for nine years in Saudi Arabia. He completed a doctorate in theology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Qadhi taught in the Religious Studies Department of Rhodes College, in Memphis, Tennessee. He previously was the Dean of Academic Affairs and an instructor for the AlMaghrib Institute,
a seminar-based Islamic education institution founded in 2001. The instructors travel to teach Islamic studies in English. He moved to the Dallas metropolitan area in early 2019, becoming the resident scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center. He is the Dean of Academic Affairs at The Islamic Seminary of America.

Qadhi was a guest on an episode of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates's television genealogy series ''Finding Your Roots'' on PBS.Profile: "Yasir Qadhi"
, ''Finding Your Roots,'' PBS

Views

Salafi movement

Yasir Qadhi’s formative scholarship and early career were firmly rooted in the Salafi tradition: after earning a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston, he studied Hadith and Islamic theology at the Islamic University of Madinah, and later served for fifteen years as Dean of Academic Affairs at the Salafi-oriented AlMaghrib Institute in Houston, Texas.
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and throughout his doctoral studies in Islamic theology at Yale University (2005–2013), Qadhi began to question what he saw as Salafism’s methodological rigidity and exclusivist frameworks. By the mid-2010s, he had formally distanced himself from the movement and adopted a wasaṭī (middle-way) approach within Sunni Islam, seeking to balance textual fidelity to the Qur’an and Sunnah with thoughtful engagement in contemporary social and intellectual contexts.

Jihad

Qadhi has presented papers on ''jihad'' movements. In 2006, at a conference at Harvard Law School, Qadhi presented a 15-minute analysis of the theological underpinnings of an early militant movement in modern Saudi Arabia headed by Juhayman al-Otaibi. The movement had gained international attention when it held the Grand Mosque of Mecca hostage in 1979.

In September 2009, he presented a paper at an international conference at the University of Edinburgh on understanding ''jihad'' in the modern world. He said the specific legal ruling (''fatwa'') of the 13–14th century theologian Ibn Taymiyya on the Mongol Empire has been wrongfully used in the 20th and 21st centuries by both ''jihadist'' and pacifist groups to justify their positions. The paper has been critiqued by some Salafi commentators, who say that they in fact did not revise the definition of Jihad.

Sufism and veneration of the saints

Qadhi believes that the practice of some Sufi Muslims visiting the graves of Sufi saints and calling upon Muhammad and calling upon them for help or guidance is not shirk (polytheism) but said it is haram, sinful, an evil innovation, and called it a stepping stone and gateway to shirk but not shirk in and of itself. Qadhi has also stated that these Muslims should still be regarded as Muslims, though misguided. He believes that questioning whether veneration of Sufi saints at gravesites can be called shirk is highly problematic because that would mean accusing many Muslim scholars who hold affirmative views towards it of committing shirk and being out of the fold of Islam. He has said it is not shirk in and of itself unless they believe they are calling out to a god, intend to worship or believe in the saints to have independent powers in and of themselves. He has also stated that Sufi Muslims that participate in the practice do not believe in the saints to be gods and don't intend it to be worship when calling upon them, nor do they believe that the saints are giving assistance to them completely independently from God.

Views on social issues

Yasir Qadhi has criticized progressive Muslims who interpret Islamic law as supporting homosexual relations, saying these teachings contain "very little Islam".

In regards to religious liberties, Qadhi believes that Islamic teachings don't support or require that Muslim business owners discriminate or refuse service to LGBTQ individuals. Nonetheless, Qadhi expresses concern that Islamic institutions may face issues if they speak in a vulgar manner and employ or fire employees that don't conform to conservative beliefs regarding sexual behaviors.

Death threat by Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria

In the April 2016 issue of '' Dabiq Magazine,'' the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant declared Qadhi, along with Hamza Yusuf, Bilal Philips, Suhaib Webb and numerous other Western Islamic speakers, as murtads, that is, apostates or blasphemers. He was threatened with death for his denouncing of ISIS.

Controversies

Some of his statements have been controversial, including comments in a speech in 2001 questioning Hitler's motives in the Holocaust. He later stated that he regretted those comments and visited the Auschwitz concentration camp with a delegation of Muslim leaders.

In January 2010, the British ''The Daily Telegraph'' reported that in 2001 Qadhi had described the Holocaust as a hoax and false propaganda, and had said that "Hitler never intended to mass-destroy the Jews." The following year ''The New York Times'' reported he said that most Islamic studies professors in the United States are Jews who "want to destroy us."

Qadhi denied stating that the Holocaust was a hoax or that it was false propaganda, but in 2008 admitted that he had briefly held mistaken beliefs about the Holocaust, and had said "that Hitler never actually intended to massacre the Jews, he actually wanted to expel them to neighboring lands." Qadhi said that his views were wrong and said "I admit it was an error". Qadhi added that he firmly believes "that the Holocaust was one of the worst crimes against humanity that the 20th century has witnessed" and that "the systematic dehumanization of the Jews in the public eye of the Germans was a necessary precursor" for that tragedy.
More generally, he said that he "fell down a slippery slope", expressing anger at actions of the Israeli government in the form of anti-Semitic remarks he later recognized as wrong.

In July 2010, Qadhi was selected to participate in an official delegation of eight U.S. imams and Jewish religious leaders to visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau. The imams subsequently released a joint statement condemning anti-Semitism and labeling Holocaust denial as against the ethics of Islam.

''The Times'' newspaper reported that British Charity Commission regulators contacted three Islamic charities about Qadhi's 2015 tour, where he allegedly made controversial comments and told students that "killing homosexuals and stoning adulterers was part of their religion." He also clarified to them that these punishments were only applicable in an Islamic society and were not to be applied in the West.

On June 8, 2020, Qadhi was interviewed by Muslim theologian Mohammed Hijab, where he was asked about the perfect preservation of the Qur'an, in light of different Qira'at and Ahruf. During the interview, Qadhi said, "The standard narrative has holes in it. That's what I'm gonna say. The standard narrative does not answer some very pressing questions." His comments became fodder for Christian polemicists, becoming an Internet meme, and prompted negative reactions from Muslim scholars and proselytizers, leading Qadhi to private the video on his YouTube channel.

Qadhi has since clarified in a video uploaded to the EPIC (East Plano Islamic Center) Masjid's YouTube channel that his statements were referring to the preservation of the Qira'at and Ahruf themselves rather than the preservation of the Qur'an. Qadhi reiterated that disbelief in the perfect preservation of the Qur'an is considered "kufr"; disbelief in Islam itself.

In an April 2024 interview, Harvard University Islamic studies PhD student Javed Hashmi joked that he considered naming his lecture on the preservation of the Qur'an, as part of a course taught alongside New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman, "Holes in the Narrative," as a reference to Qadhi's controversial comments. Hashmi, called JaFed by many of his detractors such as Daniel Haqiqatjou, on the other has faced jokes about himself, considering he cannot recite Ayat Al Kursi and is married to his cousin. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jueBLYJPXdQ

Works

Research papers

Reconciling Reason and Revelation in the Writings of Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328): An Analytical Study of Ibn Taymiyyah’s Dar' at-ta’aarod
PhD Dissertation, 2013, Yale University.

The Unleashed Thunderbolts' Of Ibn Qayyim Al-Ǧawziyyah: An Introductory Essay
,
Oriente Moderno
' vol. 90, no. 1, 2010, pp. 135–149.

A Christian Islamist?
,
Political Theology
', vol. 14, issue 6, 2013, pp. 803–812.
*
Salafı-Ash'arı Polemics of the 3rd & 4th Islamic Centuries
"
The Muslim World
', 2016.

Translations

* Sunan Abu Dawud - first 2 volumes

See also

* AlMaghrib Institute
* Wasatism
*Salafism
*Islam in the United States
* Islam in Dallas
* Omar Suleiman
* Ibn Taymiyya

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qadhi, Abu Ammaar Yasir
1975 births
Living people
Muhajir people
University of Houston alumni
Islamic University of Madinah alumni
Yale University alumni
American Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
American academics of Pakistani descent
21st-century Muslim theologians
Dow Chemical Company employees
American expatriates in Saudi Arabia
Muslims from Texas
People who memorized the Quran