Gibril Haddad is a staunch critic of Wahhabism and Salafism.
23 Facts About Gibril Haddad
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Gibril Haddad was born in 1960 in Beirut, Lebanon to a middle-class Lebanese Catholic family.
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Gibril Haddad was raised in a mixed neighborhood and attended a Jesuit school that his father and grandfather had attended before him.
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In 1976, his father died during the Lebanese Civil War and his family was forced to flee Lebanon for the United Kingdom where Haddad completed high school.
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Later his family moved to the United States where Gibril Haddad attended Columbia College in New York City and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
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Gibril Haddad then returned to Lebanon and got a job at his old school.
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Gibril Haddad tried to do so while he was a student at Columbia University.
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Gibril Haddad recalls that he felt the words of the Quran were those of God but "squirmed" at some of the "verses of threat".
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Gibril Haddad read many other books about Islam and eventually became dissatisfied with the Christian way of worship.
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Shortly after his conversion, Gibril Haddad met Shaykh Hisham Kabbani of Tripoli who introduced him to the ways of the Naqshbandi Spiritual Order.
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Gibril Haddad then moved to Damascus where he studied for about 10 years under many Islamic scholars such as Dr Nur al-Din `Itr, Shaykh Adib Kallas, Shaykh Wahbi Sulayman al-Ghawji, Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, Dr Samer al-Nass, Dr Wahba Zuhayli, Shaykh Abd al-Hadi Kharsa, Shaykh Muhammad Muti al-Hafiz, Shaykh Bassam al-Hamzawi and Shaykh Munir al-Hayek.
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Gibril Haddad initially followed the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence after his conversion to Islam but later adopted the Shafi'i school of Sunni jurisprudence.
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Gibril Haddad found it easier to study due to Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller's Reliance of the Traveler; 2.
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Gibril Haddad found it more logical to practice because it is the main school of jurisprudence in Lebanon and because it is the school his wife follows and; 3.
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Shaykh Gibril Haddad is regarded as an accomplished and influential Islamic scholar, hadith expert, religious leader, author, and translator of classical Islamic texts.
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Gibril Haddad holds ijazas from over 150 scholars across the Muslim world and has translated and published over 30 works.
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Gibril Haddad has been a teacher on the traditional online Qibla Islamic institute and is a contributor to the website eshaykh.
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Gibril Haddad is a staunch defender of the traditional Islamic schools of law and an opponent of Salafism-Wahhabism.
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Brown has noted Gibril Haddad to be an orthodox Sunni who has penned abrasive polemics against Salafism and mounted vigorous defense of traditional Islamic law.
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Gibril Haddad has published a complete translation of Qadi Ibn Jahbal al-Dimashqi's refutation of Ibn Taymiyya's Al-`Aqidat al-Hamawiyat al-Kubra as well as a primer on contemporary Salafism titled Albani and his Friends.
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Gibril Haddad has criticized the Islamic Circle of North America, the Islamic Society of North America, and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth for promoting Salafism.
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Gibril Haddad has written a critique of Deobandi scholar Taqi Usmani's fatwa against the celebration of Muhammad's birthday.
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Gibril Haddad has written hundreds of articles and written, translated and published many books including:.