Why I Am a Salafi

by Michael Muhammad Knight

The Salafi movement invests supreme Islamic authority in the precedents of the Salaf, the first three generations of Muslims, who represent a “Golden Age” from which all subsequent eras can only decline. In Why I Am a Salafi , Michael Muhammad Knight confronts the problem of origins, questioning the possibility of accessing pure Islam through its canonical texts.

Why I Am a Salafi is also a confrontation of Knight’s own origins as a Muslim. Reconsidering Salafism, Knight explores the historical processes that informed Islam as he once knew it, having converted to a Salafi vision of Islam in 1994. In the decades since, he has drifted away from Salafism in favor of an alternative Islam that celebrates the freaks, misfits, and heretical innovators. What happens to Islam when everything’s up for grabs, and can an anything-goes Islam allow space for reputedly intolerant Salafism?

In Why I Am a Salafi , Knight explores not only Salafism’s valorization of the origins, but takes the Salafi project further than its advocates are willing to go, and reflects upon the consequences of surrendering the origins forever.

Genres: Islam, Religion, History, Spirituality, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Memoir

384 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2015

About the author

Michael Muhammad Knight (born 1977) is an American novelist, essayist, and journalist. His writings are popular among American Muslim youth. The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "one of the most necessary and, paradoxically enough, hopeful writers of Barack Obama's America," while The Guardian has described him as "the Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature," and his non-fiction work exemplifies the principles of gonzo journalism. Publishers Weekly describes him as "Islam's gonzo experimentalist." Within the American Muslim community, he has earned a reputation as an ostentatious cultural provocateur.

He obtained a master's degree from Harvard University in 2011 and is a Ph.D. student in islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been a few years since a book got inside my head like this one did. It’s admittedly a book that you’re going to have to have a certain pre-disposition for, either by being a Muslim or being open to universal patterns of how religion functions in the world. But with those foundations, be prepared to have your thought challenged. With Salaf, Knight plays a bit on meaning, ranging from a historical reference to the first three generations from the Prophet Muhammad’s time to the stated desire to return to the purity of that time to the more derisive term used for violent extremist/terrorist “Muslim” types in our day. Keep in mind though, that one of the main goals of the book is to deconstruct terms which we thought had clearly defined meanings. Interpretation is inescapable – not only in religion, but in every area of life. When you realize the full ramifications of this, there’s a danger to your entire structure of “Islam” (or any faith structure). By claiming that we can know what it was like during the time of the Prophet, we’re claiming to be able to get past not only 15 centuries, but even our own subjectivity should we be in the physical presence of the Prophet. Every interpretation, subject to the limits of interpretation, risks promoting the inauthentic. But inauthentic compared to what? When I call out others for their problematic readings, is it because I still cling to this idea that a greater authenticity awaits us out there? Where is this perfect Islam against which I measure all imperfect simulations? (33) What is the holder of the divine knowledge in our time? The Qur'an? The Hadith? Who interprets its meanings? Knight would argue this about isnad (the memory chain of Hadith authentication) Memory is not politically neutral. Things are remembered because people deem them worthy of remembering: first the original rememberer, followed by those with whom s/ he shares the memory, and in turn those to whom they transmit the memory. (113) This is true no matter how “pure” the intentions of those in the chain. Interpretation of course applies to the Qur’an itself: Every interpreter reverses the Qur’an’s flow of power, telling Allah not what to say, but rather what to mean when He speaks. This cannot be helped by calling your reading “literal.” Reading is writing, every time (p 82).

By telling his own story and putting his own belief patterns up for examination, it made my own “faith” seem more organic and authentic to me. And the deconstruction that Knight uses only further seemed to reinforce my own sense of Tawhid. Much like him, I can’t internalize a great deal of what’s been handed to me from those who claim to represent “Islam”, even ancient representatives of Islam. But also like him, this is somehow the tradition that I’ve arrived at, and I identify with that broader tradition even if to be real to me I must accept it on my terms. A number of years ago an insightful relative told me that “Religious conversion is as much a social/cultural decision as a metaphysical/theological one”. I guess it depends on how we apply all those terms, but to me that’s one core way of defining it. I needed to step away from American Christian evangelicalism to discover whatever it is that God was/is.

The biggest personal lessons from the book are the humility it inspires when I might think about speaking for what religion means and the deep internal search that then implies for my own arrival at truth. This forces me to strive to be humble, compassionate, loving when dealing with others and open to new possibilities of a Reality or God that I claim to be “bigger than I can imagine or even define”.

[j v r · Rating 5 out of 5]

extraordinary, beautiful, perfect, feels like MMK writes for me, he speaks to the pain and hope many (most?) of us share

[Recep Pehlivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first half in 15 days and the second half of the book in 5. Some very interesting info, informative at times, totally lost me at other times. MMK would probably not mind if i called him a crack pot. Very eccentric, not your average conforming muslim, i still don’t know if he continues to call himself a muslim but he has pointed out some very valid issues in regards to certain problems we face as muslims today. I certainly enjoyed the read even if i did not agree with his eccentricities.

[Frater · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all those interested in spiritual transformation and the history of Islam. Prepared to be challenged and inspired at the same time. Michael Muhammad Knight as done it again. Truly amazing.

[Sagheer Afzal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Michael Muhammad Knight’s ‘WHY I AM A SALAFI’ is actually a misnomer. Having read the book you are not all clear as to what denomination the author is but you are convinced that he is very far from being a Salafi in any conventional sense of the term. In his book the author sets out to deconstruct the edifice of Islam. The points he makes are valid but they are not exactly new; hadith fabrication is a widely known and scarcely acknowledged fact, and yes the Quran does not follow the linear narrative you commonly associate with a book leaving the uninitiated reader with the idea that it is disjointed and incoherent. This in itself is not an insurmountable barrier for the author but his analysis seems to show the mindset of someone who is looking to confirm his initial beliefs. In his attempts to affirm these amorphous beliefs he goes off on a lot of tangents; some relevant and others eccentric.

The author’s background gives you more insight into the reasons for his deconstructive approach. He appears to have spent an inordinate amount of time with fringe groups such as the Five Percenters whose beliefs are far beyond the pale of Islam. People who gravitate towards such groups in my experience are believers who are looking to find credence for their already established beliefs. They don’t want to yield them to any doctrine or custom they would much rather rip apart the doctrine and customs and re-stitch it in accordance to their beliefs.

And this is what Michael Muhammad Knight sets out to do. He is endeavouring to create the conditions for a sensual engagement with the Quran. He wants the words the Quran to give him that ultimate dopamine hit. For him the veracity of the Quran is commensurate with the intensity he feels when reading it and to heighten this intensity he drinks Ayahuasca; a psychedelic drug. So now religion is reduced to a succession of subliminal ‘highs’ because this according to him is what a divine revelation should feel like.

Strangely, the illogic of this approach does not dawn on him. Nor has he considered the fact that verses of the Quran and indeed any Holy book can appear to be contradictory when you read them without knowing the context. And it is really reprehensible maybe even deplorable that an academic tries to validate taking drugs as a way of gaining insight.

Surely a Harvard graduate would realise that after drinking Ayahuasca and realising God is feminine does not mean God is actually feminine. Surely a Muslim who drinks Ayahuasca and as a result has conversations with Holy Prophet Muhammad’s daughter would realise the lunacy of his actions.

In the final pages of the book the author does touch upon the reactions of the Muslim community to his methods. But he adopts the unrepentant air of a defiant teenager determined to do whatever he wants because its his life and he’s not hurting anybody by drinking Ayahuasca.

I remember reading that the author Ken Kesey advocated taking LSD because in his words: ‘it can change the way you think.’ It seems that in ingesting Ayahuasca, Michael Muhammad Knight changed the way he thought as well and that unfortunately has vitiated a lot of his arguments.

[Michael Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book title is ironic, despite not necessarily intending to be so. Its more a deconstruction of salafism, not why the author is a literal salafi. Part confessional, part academic. Great prose, a very Islam is heavily postmodernised in this book. Five Percenters, Ismailis, Shia, Ibn Taymiyya, Orientalist Scholars, Edward Said, Malcolm X, an Ayuahasca Journey, Hadith Scholarship, Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Ayatollah Khomeini, Pakistam, Sufism, Ibn Arabi, Salafism. The book is a serious journey.

[alli k · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Rafael Suleiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling examination of a segment of the Islamic faith.

[Shameer Ks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was making a ride with Knight. There are points where we meet and points where we depart. Unapologetic. honest. And tongue-in-check

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a great fan of the authors work, but I felt that his voice was stifled a little bit by the requirements of academic writing. But just like all of the authors works I have ever read I came away having learned several new things, I wish more Muslims would read his work, and not judge him by a narrow understanding of the "Taqwacores"

[Ashur]

This seems to be a book specifically intended at me as a target audience, which is awesome for me but maybe not so accessible for a lot of people.

If you're going to read this, be familiar with Islam and ideally Islamic theological concepts in Arabic.