Reddit reply in r/MuslimAcademics: dr yasir qadhi on why he left salafi or wahabi — April 9, 2025 | Ali Shukri Amin

There are some key flaws in Yasir Qadhi's issue of istighatha and tawassul here. Admittedly, he is at a disadvantage as neither the proponents of Ibn Abd al-Wah'hab's views (such as Sultan al-Umayri) or his detractors (Hatim al-Awni) discuss these flaws.

1. Throughout this video and elsewhere, Yasir Qadhi, Hatim al-Awni, and even Sulayman b. Abd al-Wahhab incorrectly conflate henotheism and polytheism. There is an unspoken suggestion here that the Quran only condemns polytheism as shirk (assosciation), which is inaccurate.

2. Qadhi has incorrectly assumed that Quraysh had a monolithic or organized religion. This is again wrong. Some of the Quraysh that the Quran rebuts did not believe in any god or afterlife for example, others believed in multiple gods, others were henotheists, and some were even monotheists.

3. Qadhi has incorrectly conflated popular religion with academic religion. He is applying the complex theological mathematics of post-15th century Asharites and their sympathetic Hanbali supporters onto the popular practices of the public. This is a failure from an anthropological lens and an academic study of religion lens. It is inconceivable that the layperson engaging in these practices understands the complex theological calculus Qadhi is outlining here.

I haven't gotten into the details of the Islamic scholarship around this debate because I wanted to mention these three touchstones that Qadhi's arguments rest on. I believe that a failure to address these is a critical blow to his arguments against the Wahhabi condemnation of istighatha and tawassul.