Sulaiman Al-Alwan
Saudi Arabian scholar
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Shaykh Sulaiman al-Alwan (Arabic: سليمان العلوان) is a Saudi Arabian Islamic scholar and a 'Muhaddith' (hadith specialist).[1] Sulaymān bin Nāṣir bin ʿAbdillāh al-ʿAlwān, born 1969) is a Saudi Islamic scholar and Salafist preacher.[2] He is known to have memorised the Nine Major Books of Hadith. At a young age, he memorised a lot of texts in different Islamic sciences alongside the explanations of these texts.[3][4]
Sulaiman ibn Nasir al-Alwan | |
|---|---|
سليمان بن ناصر بن عبد الله العلوان | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Sulayman ibn Nasir ibn Abdillah al-Alwan 1969 (age 56–57) |
| Era | Modern |
| Region | Middle East |
| Main interest(s) | Hadith, politics, Jihad |
| Notable idea | Jihad |
| Notable work | Forty Hadith Jihadiyyah - Sulaiman Al Alwan |
| Other name | Abu Abdullah |
| Occupation | Islamic scholar, Muhaddith, Allamah |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Hanbali |
| Creed | Athari |
| Movement | Salafi, Jihad, Salafi Jihadism |
| Muslim leader | |
| Disciple of | Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin, Ibn Baz, Al-Shu'aybi |
Influenced | |
Fatwa
In 2000, he issued a Fatwa endorsing the use of suicide bombings against Israel, and in 2001 he supported the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban.[5] Al-Alwan's mosque in Al-Qassim Province was criticised by moderate Islamic scholars as a "terrorist factory". Among his students was Abdulaziz al-Omari, one of the plane hijackers in the September 11 attacks.[6] After the September 11 attacks, al-Alwan issued two fatwas (21 September 2001 and 19 October 2001), in which he declared that any Muslim who supported the Americans in Afghanistan was a disbeliever, and called on all Muslims to support the Afghans and Taliban by any means, including jihad.[5] In January 2002, Alwan and two other radical Saudi clerics, Hamoud al-Aqla al-Shuebi and Ali al-Khudair, wrote a letter to Taliban leader Mullah Omar praising him and referred to him as the Commander of the faithful.[7]
Prison
On 31 March 2003, 11 days after the start of the Iraq War, al-Alwan published an open letter in which he called on the Iraqi people to fight the American soldiers and use suicide bombings against them.[5] On 28 April 2004, Saudi authorities arrested al-Alwan[8] and after being held for nine years without trial, he was released on 5 December 2012.[9]
In October 2013, Alwan was sentenced to a 15-year prison term; charges included questioning the legitimacy of the country's rulers. He was due to be released in 2019.[10][11]