Shaykh Salman was born in the village of Al-Basr near the city of Buraida in 1375 A.H. / 1955 A.D to a rich family which was known for its nobility and good name.
The Shaykh became known for his intelligence at an early age. After completing his secondary studies, Shaykh Salman enrolled in the Arabic language faculty at the university of Imam Muhammad Bin Saud in Riyadh. He studied there for two years before transferring to the *Shari'ah* Faculty where he obtained his degree. On receiving his degree, Shaykh Salman returned to al-Qaseem where he studied at the Academic Institute at Buraida. He then transferred to the * Shari'ah* and *Usul ad-Deen* Faculty at the Imam Bin Saud Islamic University - Qaseem Campus, where he worked as a lecturer and continued his university studies. He received his Masters degree with a thesis on "*The Estrangeness of Islam*". Shaykh Salman is a father of more than six children. His pupils and friends have known him as a generous man, confident in himself and his treatises, distinguished with his eloquence, good character, and awe. These attributes were translated into a popular reality which went beyond the area where he lived. In the field of Study and Call to Islam Shaykh Salman is a multi-talented individual, distinguished in Jurisprudence, Hadith, *Tafsir*, and Creed. If he was to talk about contemporary issues, you would wish that he would not stop. When he talks, he raises elaborate issues and deep analysis through eloquent speech the equal of which is difficult to find. He is distinguished by his talent as an educator, his daily program would begin after the *Fajr*prayer, then he would go to his lectures in the University halls where he worked as a lecturer -before his sacking- until midday, he would then rest for a little time, and then take questions over the telephone, he would receive people after Maghrib prayer if he did not have any lectures in that evening. He was a frequent traveler as he would not reject an invitation irrespective of its origin. Shaykh Salman presented his masters thesis before the Gulf War on the estrangeness of this religion; in this thesis, he offered a comparison between the predecessors and the contemporaries in a study which was first of its kind and first in its style, depth, and relevance. His book " *A Quiet Dialogue with Shaykh al-Ghazzali*" is fit to be an intellectual and practical model for discussing differences with those holding conflicting views. Shaykh Salman boldly confronted the American presence in the Peninsula; he regarded this presence as a catastrophe which befell the Muslim land. After the end of the Gulf War, Shaykh Salman immersed himself in the program of reform with all his powers. He held lectures, workshops, demonstrations and made a call for reform and to fight the spread of corruption. His voice was high, and his star raised in the heavens, the first few years after the Gulf War were full of effort in the quiet revolution of reform which ended with Shaykh Salman and his brothers Shaykh Safar al-Hawali and Shaykh Nasser al-'Omar in prison. However, this revolution set the element of reform which would no longer be satisfied with sitting idly in its own niche. The arrest Sunday 6/4/1415 (11/9/1994) Shaykh Salman was called to the Qaseem principality. He was asked to sign an undertaking that he would not talk, give sermons, or verdicts... etc at any place or time. Shaykh Salman refused to sign this undertaking which interfered in his personal affairs. He offered his point of view to the governor saying: "you have one of three choices, either give the word of Islam its freedom, or permit me to travel to another country, or put me in prison." After this, Shaykh Salman returned to his home with a number of his students. He found a large gathering at the Mosque which was near his house. There were about seven thousand people gathered inside the Mosque and in its courtyard. There was a speech where Shaykh Muhammad al-Dikhi, Shaykh Ibrahim al-Bayan, Shaykh Ali al-Khudayr, Shaykh Sulayman al-Rashudi, and some others said a few words. After this, Shaykh Salman gave a sermon for about one and a half hours where he gave his point of view with respect to the excesses of the regime and its confinement of the word of Islam and those who call to it; he also talked about the state of the economy and some other issues. All this is available on video and audio tapes which people can view or hear. Then on the morning of Tuesday 8/4/1415 (13/9/1994) around 6:00 am, the area containing Shaykh Salman's residence was surrounded by about 1,000 security personnel, and the Shaykh was arrested. He spent over 5 years in prison before his release. ** ** ** *Another biography from wikipedia:* *Salman al-Ouda* (Arabic <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language>: سلمان العودة ) (or *Salman bin Fahd al-Oadah*) سلمان بن فهد العودة -alias *Abu Mu'az* (أبو معاذ)- is a Saudi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia>cleric *Sheikh*. He is a director of the Arabic edition of the website Islam Today and he has a number of TV shows and newspapers articles. *Life:* Al-Awda was born in 1955 in al-Basr, near the city of Burayda in Qasim Province, in central Saudi Arabia. He had a classical Islamic education in the Wahhabi tradition, beginning at the Burayda Institute, where he studied Arabic grammar, standard Wahhabi treatises, Hanbali jurisprudence and hadith under the personal guidance of local shaykhs. He completed a B.A. and M.A. in Islamic jurisprudence at Imam Muhammad bin Sa'ud University. Incarcerated for five years for inciting opposition to the Saudi government, al-Awda emerged rehabilitated in 1999 to become one of the kingdom's most respected religious spokespersons. With a television program and a Web site that disseminates opinion in four languages, he has also become a spokesperson for the regime, operating under its protection and in competition with the government-sponsored establishment ulama (clergy). [1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_al-Ouda#cite_note-0> He is married and has a number of children, the oldest of whom is Mu`âdh. *Education:* He spent his early years in al-Basr and then moved to Buraydah to study. He spent his first two years there completing elementary school, then he transferred to the Academic Institute in Buraydah where he studied for six years. This institute had gathered together an impressive group of the region's noteworthy scholars, among them Sheikh Sâlih al-Sukaytî, Sheikh `Alî al-Dâli`, and Sheikh Sâlih al-Bulayhî and many others like them. This education afforded him the opportunity to sit with them and benefit from their knowledge and their mode of conduct. His enrollment in the institute also gave him the opportunity to benefit from its library which at that time contained a large number of books. There was also a library from which books could be borrowed and which was constantly acquiring new books that the people needed. He committed to memory a number of short treatises on various subjects. Among these were: - Al-`Usûl al-Thalâthah, al-Qawâ`id al-Arba`ah, Kitâb al-Tawhîd, and al-`Aqîdah al-Wâsitiyyah, all of which pertain to Islamic beliefs. - Matn al-Ajurrûmiyyah in Arabic grammar, which he memorized and then taught to his young pupils in the mosque. - Matn al-Rahbiyyah in the laws of inheritance. - Zâd al-Mustaqni` which could possibly be the most famous and most comprehensive treatise in Islamic Law according to the Hanbalî school of thought. He studied a large portion of its commentary in the Academic Institute and studied its commentary with a number of scholars, notably Sheikh Sâlih al-Bulayhî and Sheikh Muhammad al-Mansûr. - Nukhbah al-Fikr by Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalânî in Hadîth terminology. He memorized it in his student years and then taught it to his own students and assisted them in memorizing it. - There are a number of treatises that he has partially memorized, among them Alfiyyah Ibn Mâlik in Arabic grammar and a number of treatises in jurisprudence and other subjects. He received his Masters <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters> degree in the Sunnah and its sciences from the faculty of `Usûl al-Dîn (Principles of Religion). His Masters <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters> thesis was entitled "The Strangeness of Islam and its Legal Rulings in the Light of the Prophetic Sunnah." He also received his Phd <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phd> degree in 2003. His Phd <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phd> was in the Sunnah. *INFLUENCES AND CONTRIBUTIONS:* Al-Awda identifies himself with the Saudi Arabian Sahwa intellectual movement that arose in the 1970s. Sahwa (Awakening) is grounded in the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam that views true Islamic government as based on an equal partnership between ulama (clergy) and state, and Islamic law as derived solely from the Qur'an and Sunna (the customary behavior of the Prophet as illustrated in books of his collected sayings and deeds [Hadith]) According to Madawi al-Rasheed in her book Contesting the Saudi State , in al-Awda's view Sahwa specifically incorporates the idea of individual responsibility for carrying out the Qur'anic injunction to command what is good and condemn what is wrong, a responsibility that should not be abrogated in favor of state agencies and official ulama. While individuals who identify themselves with Sahwa neither subscribe to a particular political organization nor express a uniform viewpoint, as a way of thought the movement is overtly political, underpinning a discourse of contestation that draws from religion to solve contemporary concerns. Al-Awda's views on government and society were influenced by the circumstances of his birth. He was raised in an agricultural village near Burayda, which, like Qasim Province as a whole, is poor and underdeveloped in comparison to the capital region and the cities of the Hijaz, the northwest quadrant of the Arabian Peninsula. Burayda is known historically as a stronghold of Wahhabi conservatism and for its active opposition to some government-sponsored development projects that impact local cultural values, such as girls' education when that was first introduced in the early 1960s. Al-Awda's sermons from the start expressed an ideology of resistance to cultural challenges arising from globalization and development, as well as opposition to the monopoly of power held by Saudi Arabia's ruling family and its failure to invest in the economic development of Qasim.[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_al-Ouda#cite_note-1> *BIOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS:* Name: Salman ibn Fahd ibn Abdullah al-Awda (Oadah) Birth: 1955, al-Basr, Saudi Arabia Family: Married; twelve children Nationality: Saudi Arabian Education: Imam Muhammad bin Sa'ud University, B.A., M.A., Islamic jurisprudence *PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:* 1990: Teaches, Burayda mosque 1994: Imprisoned for anti-government activities 2001: Director, Islam Today website The 1990–1991 Gulf Crisis and War, in which an American-led coalition of forces aligned against the Iraqi regime of SADDAM HUSSEIN in response to its seizure of Kuwait, proved an opportunity for al-Awda and others to tap into an already-existing current of discontent within the kingdom. When the then-Grand Mufti Abd al-Aziz bin Baz issued a fatwa lending Islamic justification for the regime to invite American forces to defend Saudi Arabia from Hussein, al-Awda raised questions about the incapacity of the Saudi military to defend the kingdom when so much of its resources had been invested in American-made weapons. During the war period al-Awda was a moving force behind two reform petitions addressed to the king. The first, in 1991, was known as the Letter of Demands and was signed by leading Saudi religious, mercantile, and socially prominent figures seeking changes in the form of government, notably the establishment of a Shura (consultative) Council. A year later, the second petition, known as the Memorandum of Advice, which was signed by more than one hundred religious scholars, including establishment ulama, called for individual freedoms and a Shura Council, but also media censorship under religious guidance and review of all the kingdom's laws to insure their conformity with shari'a. Both petitions expressed loyalty to the house of Sa'ud while opposing the lack of representation in the existing government. Meanwhile, audiotapes of al-Awda's sermons gained wide circulation and gave encouragement to other opposition voices during the years following the war, as the United States military settled in for a long stay at an airbase outside the capital. [3]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_al-Ouda#cite_note-2> *Activities:* Among the roughly fifty books that he has published are: - *The First Strangers*, - *Characteristics of the Strangers*, - *Withdrawing from Society and Participating in It'*, - *A Discussion with Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazâlî*, - *Who has the Right to Engage in Independent Juristic Reasoning?*, and - *Guidelines for Studying Islamic Law*. These publications are all currently available on the Arabic pages of the Islam Today <http://www.islamtoday.net/> website. He used to give weekly lessons for the general public in the main mosque of Buraydah as well as other lessons where he taught the commentary of the book Bulûgh al-Marâm. He also gave daily lessons after the Morning Prayer, where he gave a commentary on the authoritative collections of hadith - Sahîh al-Bukhârî, Sahîh Muslim, and some commentary on the Qur'ân. In addition, he taught such books as Kitâb al-Tawhîd, al-Usûl al-Thalâthah, and Nukhbah al-Fikr. These lessons were lost, along with other beneficial works of the Sheikh, during the crisis that had to endure along with a number of other Islamic workers. Dr. al-Ouda was imprisoned for five years, from 1994 until the end of 1999 on account of some of his books and some of the lessons that he had given. He was quoted by Osama bin Laden<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden>in his 1994 Open Letter to Shaykh Bin Baz on the Invalidity of his Fatwa on Peace with the Jews<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Shaykh_Bin_Baz_on_the_Invalidity_of_his_Fatwa_on_Peace_with_the_Jews>. He was released along with his colleagues and resumed his activities from his home, giving lessons after the Sunset Prayer from Wednesday to Friday weekly on topics such as Qur'anic commentary, ethics, education, and personal reform. He is currently supporting peace <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace> and coexisting with other religions. He announced that this was a result of deeper understanding of Islamic teachings. Dr. al-Ouda is supervising the popular website Islam Today<http://www.islamtoday.net/>, which is the first website in the Kingdom to offer such a high level of diversity in its subject matter and material. He gives classes and lectures over the Internet and by phone to a wide range of listeners [4]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_al-Ouda#cite_note-3> . He works daily in answering the questions that people send to him in addition to compiling and preparing a number of his writings for publication. Also, he has a show in MBC TV [5]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_al-Ouda#cite_note-4> . His fame had become sufficiently widespread by 2006 to draw a crown of around 20,000 young British Muslims in London's East End whom he addressed in a speech. "Dr. al-Ouda is well known by all the youth. It's almost a celebrity culture out there," according to one British Imam. Dr. al-Ouda is known for not only criticizing the September 11 attack, but delivering a personal rebuke to Osama bin Laden<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden>. In 2007, around the sixth anniversary of September 11, he addressed Al Qaeda<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Qaeda>'s leader on MBC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Broadcasting_Center>, a widely watched Middle East TV network, asking him: *My brother Osama, how much blood has been spilt? How many innocent people, children, elderly, and women have been killed ... in the name of Al Qaeda<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Qaeda>? Will you be happy to meet God Almighty carrying the burden of these hundreds of thousands or millions [of victims] on your back?*[6]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_al-Ouda#cite_note-5> The full letter can be viewed from Islam Today website. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Nor can Goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (evil) with what is better; then the enmity between him and you will become as if it were your friend and intimate! Visit: sultan.org Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Post to group: [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
