and his sect the Ahbash of Lebanon
(“Association of Islamic Charitable Projects”)
Markaz al-Nasr li Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaah
Jakarta
ﺑﺴﻢ اﷲ اﻟﺮﲪﻦ اﻟﺮﺣﻴﻢ
In the Name of Allah All-Beneficent Most Merciful
Praise belongs to Allah. Blessings and peace on the Prophet Muhammad, his Family, and his Companions. This is an exposure of a man called ʿAbd Allah al-Harari (1910-2008) and of his sect the Ahbash of Lebanon, also known as Habashis, also known as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects (AICP) who have tried to spread their influence in the Muslim world. It is hoped that this information will serve as a warning to Muslims everywhere to beware of this sect who are posing as Sunnis but who have in reality been working for half a century to divide the Ummah, attack prominent scholars, and spread false beliefs while pretending to teach correct beliefs. Success is from Allah. Al-Harari was born in Harare, Ethiopia where he studied hadith and followed the Qadiri path, then the Tijani, then the Qadiri path again after he declared Tijanis to be unbelievers, then finally the Rifaʿi path. He took part in a strife in which he worked with the government of Haile Selassie against the Qur’anic schools in Harare after which the scholars denounced him as an agitator. He left Ethiopia in the Fifties to come to Damascus where he acquired fame as a Sufi scholar of hadith writing rebuttals of Nasir al-Albani and ostensibly defending the beliefs of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaʿah. After he was expelled from Damascus he moved to Lebanon where freedom then the confusion created by the war allowed him to spread his fitnah unchecked. By the time civil war broke out in 1975 he had gathered about 150 followers. He took over a charity named “Association of Islamic Charitable Projects” and used his unlimited funds to surpass even government schools with his own influence. He was helped in this by local followers such as Nizar Halabi, a man notorious for cursing others and declaring them apostates; Husam Qaraqira their present leader, who is nearly beardless and is closer to the uneducated; parliament deputies Adnan Trabulsi and Taha Taji; and the the foul-mouthed Usama al-Sayyid. Harari’s disrespect of the Companions (Allah be well-pleased with them) ʿAbd Allah al-Harari authored many books in which he attributes sinfulness and depravity to the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (upon him blessings and peace) who fought against ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (Allah be well pleased with him). Among those books is one he entitled The Legal Evidence for Establishing the Sinfulness of Those of the Companions or Successors ʿAli Fought Against (al-Dalil al-Sharʿi ʿala Ithbat man Qaatalahum ʿAli min Sahabi aw Tabiʿi) in which al-Harari openly attributes sinfulness, rebellion, oppression and rebellion to the Mother of the Believers ʿA’isha, Talha, and al-Zubayr. He takes the same stance in his books Sarih al-Bayan, Izhar alʿAqida, al-Matalib al-Wafiyya, al-Dalil al-Qawim, Bughyat al-Talib, and alMaqalat al-Sunniyya. In all the above-mentioned books he also attributes these traits to Khalid ibn al-Walid, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs, and Muʿawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, except that he says that the first group repented while the latter group, in his view, died the death of Jahiliyya. This is shiʿism.
Harari’s violation of the Sunni agreement on the obligation of respecting all the Sahaba
Al-Harari claims to follow al-Shafiʿi, al-Ashʿari, and al-Rifaʿi but this is a smokescreen to camouflage his deviancy. In reality he rejects them and the rest of the Imams of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaʿah who explicitly said that whatever took place between the Companions was the result of interpretation and ijtihad on their part such as Abu al-Hasan al-Ashʿari, the Four Imams, and all the Imams of al-Salaf and al-Khalaf particularly those of the Shafiʿi and Ashʿari Schools such as al-Muhasibi, al-Khattabi, Ibn Furak, Imam alHaramayn, al-Amidi, al-Nawawi, al-Zarkashi, Ibn Arslan, al-Laqani and others. All of the above Imams said that it is obligatory to respect all the Prophetic Companions and that anyone who disrespects any of them in the least is a heretic or a hidden apostate (zindiq, munafiq). Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaʿah consider that Amir al-Mu’minin ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (Allah ennoble his countenance) was the rightful fourth caliph and after that they firmly refrain from any disrespectful mention of the Companions. Imam al-Shafiʿi said to alRabiʿ ibn Abi Sulayman: “Do not probe the Companions of the Prophet because your prosecutor will be Allah Himself on the Day of Resurrection.” Whenever ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz was asked about the battles of Siffin and al-Jamal he would reply: “Allah kept my hands away from those matters, therefore I will not involve my tongue in them.” He would also say: “Allah kept me absent from such blood; I will not attend it with my tongue.”
