This Salafist Father

Was published in Arabic in June 12, 2015

Translated by Ahmed Fathy

 Firstly:

  We have received this message which we copy here, with a change in its original title, along with our reply.

   (Message title: "My Father Is a Cursed Salafist Sheikh!" The message: If you please, Dr. Mansour, I ask you to write in reply to my message an article with the title of my message. This cursed Salafist man is my biological father who has tormented me and my late mother for a very long time. He has caused me to hate Islam! But later on, a friend of mine has told me about the Quranist website. Consequently, I have converted to true Islam. I have become a Quranist Muslim. I am currently reading your articles regularly since last February. The more I read your archive of articles, the more my hatred to my father increases. He made me earlier to hate both life and religion. I do believe that my late mother died out of grief because of him! My late mother was my father's paternal uncle's daughter, the mayor of an Egyptian village in the countryside. My father used to be an orphan under the care of this paternal uncle. This paternal uncle confiscated the inheritance money of my father and coerced him to marry his daughter, my late mother, and that is how I was born. She later on underwent a hysterectomy and consequently I became her only offspring. My grandfather and his only male heir died in a car accident. Suddenly, my parents inherited all my grandfather's possessions, lands, and money. This is how the tragedy of my mother began. My father never loved her despite her being docile and obedient to him. He hated her because he hated his paternal uncle who did not give him his inheritance share. He began to beat my mother after the death of her father and brother. He forced her to cede all her inheritance to him. He sold all lands and possessions. He later on bought a flat in (the Cairene upper-class district) Madinet Nasr owned by him alone. He became the imam of a grand mosque. He put on the habit of a preacher in the mosque, while keeping his real vicious character at home. He used to beat my mother severely for trivial reasons, taking sadistic pleasure in that! I have lived a miserable childhood amid my mother's crying and screaming and pleading for mercy. On many occasions, I used to wake up to find her face bruised. I felt terrified. I had my share of his beating sessions; he hated my being sympathized with my mother. I used to cry a lot because of her miserable condition. Eventually, my mother got severely ill, and she was totally neglected by my father. I used to sleep beside her to take care of her during her ailment. One day, I woke up to find her dead! I cannot forget my father's rejoicing for her death, as if a heavy burden was removed from him! He beat me severely when he saw me crying and mourning for her death. I was in high school at the time. Once I got my high school degree, I left home immediately. I never felt safe with my father at his house. I felt safe when I spent my first night in the train station in Alexandria, where I lived and worked in petty jobs to earn my living. I began to learn Italian, and later on, I travelled to Italy to live and work there, for ten years. I returned to Egypt with a good fortune that I invested in a project in Cairo. I forced myself to forget my father. Yet, news of his fame in preaching and the countless followers reached me. I went to his mosque out of curiosity to find out what has become of him. I found out that he became a fat-bellied old man with a white and very long beard. People followed him and kissed his hands. This scene made me hate religion and clergymen. In Italy, I used to live as an atheist. I continued to be an atheist in Egypt. I had many cultured friends in Italy who have been atheists. My atheism continued when I have seen my unjust father, who left my mother to die lowly and wither away, being treated as a 'holy' man or a saint whose hands are kissed. Later on, I ran across a former Egyptian atheist who converted to Quranist Islam. He advised me to log on your website. At first, I felt animosity toward your long, complicated articles which I have not understood at first. I have been attracted to the sections of Q&A. Later on, I read your historical research articles that I admired immensely. I am currently reading the rest of your archive of articles. The more I read deeply, the more I am addicted to Quranism. I felt faith returning to my heart and mind. I learned that people of the type of my fathers are human devils. I have been fascinated by your articles against the terrorist MB group, the Salafists, and the Wahabis who deceive gullible people. I once again began to pray regularly, and I intend to fast next Ramadan. I actually intend to perform pilgrimage in the way you have described in your book about pilgrimage. As for my cursed Salafist father, I knew from some people who frequent his mosque that he got married secretly to a number of women successively. One of these women got pregnant, and he divorced her and forced her to undergo an abortion. She tried to scandalize him, but he threatened her to keep silent. She disappeared suddenly. I reached her later on and we talked. She told me horrible stories of his savage manners, monstrosity, lack of faith, and hypocrisy. She used to wear the full veil (niqab), but now, she is an atheist. A few days ago, I got news that my father has been taken ill with cancer. He is now very weak. He can no longer go to his mosque. Some of his followers served him for a few weeks, and then deserted him eventually; this occurred when they knew about his scandals and his women and the fact that the mosque's papers show that he is a thief who stole a lot of money! He lost everything: money, mosque, followers, and wives. Regardless of my hatred and despise toward him, am I to pay my duty for him as his son? Or shall I continue my boycotting him? I feel he is being punished by God due to the crimes and sins he committed: my mother's early death, his hypocrisy, his theft, and his deceiving people by the Wahabi creed. Am I to help him? Or shall I leave him to divine justice that he deserves of course? I never cared for him. I do not care for him now. I care only for the fact that I do not want to be a sinner by neglecting him. I want to help him for the sake of God, not for the sake of his own person. I hope that he will reside in Hell after his death!)                    

Secondly: Our reply:

1- The Quranic orders for everyone to care for their parents are not linked with their being pious, religious, or unbelievers. Parents deserve care in their own right as parents. Your Salafist father deserves your care and help however badly he had behaved.

2- Caring for one's parents comes in the Quran after the testimony of Islam: "We made a covenant with the Children of Israel: "Worship none but God; and be good to parents, and relatives, and orphans, and the needy; and speak nicely to people; and pray regularly, and give alms." Then you turned away, except for a few of you, recanting." (2:83) and "Worship God, and ascribe no partners to Him, and be good to the parents, and the relatives, and the orphans, and the poor, and the neighbor next door, and the distant neighbor, and the close associate, and the traveler, and your servants. God does not love the arrogant showoff." (4:36). The same divine order is repeated within the first five of the Quranic ten commandments: "Say, "Come, let me tell you what your Lord has forbidden you: that you associate nothing with Him; that you honor your parents; that you do not kill your children because of poverty-We provide for you and for them; that you do not come near indecencies, whether outward or inward; and that you do not kill the soul which God has sanctified-except in the course of justice. All this He has enjoined upon you, so that you may understand."" (6:151). We admire most the Quranic style in the order to bear with parents in old age: "Your Lord has commanded that you worship none but Him, and that you be good to your parents. If either of them or both of them reach old age with you, do not say to them a word of disrespect, nor scold them, but say to them kind words. And lower to them the wing of humility, out of mercy, and say, "My Lord, have mercy on them, as they raised me when I was a child."" (17:23-24).

3- We cannot forget that even if one's parents are polytheists or atheists, one should care for them without obeying them in following their creed: "We have advised the human being to be good to his parents. But if they urge you to associate with Me something you have no knowledge of, do not obey them. To Me is your return; and I will inform you of what you used to do." (29:8) and "We have entrusted the human being with the care of his parents. His mother carried him through hardship upon hardship, weaning him in two years. So give thanks to Me, and to your parents. To Me is the destination. But if they strive to have you associate with Me something of which you have no knowledge, do not obey them. But keep them company in this life, in kindness, and follow the path of him who turns to Me. Then to Me is your return; and I will inform you of what you used to do." (31:14-15). Hence, not following their creed does not prevent being good to them: "But if you turn away from them, seeking mercy from your Lord which you hope for, then say to them words of comfort." (17:28).

4- Consequently, you have to help your father and care for him in his ordeal. Do not repeat his evildoing. Do not imitate him; be better than he has been. His current punishment is enough. Besides, your standing by him in his ordeal might cause him to repent for the rest of his days. Remember that you might reach the senile age and might or might not find someone to care for you in your old age. By helping your father, you will get rewarded during your lifetime and in the Afterlife.

5- If you forsake your father, you are sinning; you thus have chosen to prevent yourself from doing good deeds by being a bad progeny. You might receive the same punishment by a future son of your own. This is your chance to do good with your nearest relation: your father. Make haste and make use of this last chance; your father might die soon before you seize this opportunity and feel terribly sorry for losing it.