Yesterday, 26 Dhul Hijjah 1438 (17 September 2017), Shadeed Muhammad, during a three hour speech, said the following: MP3 audio file
So they put a post up (referring to this). O, Shadeed Muhammad called the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) an alpha male. So as if that is a taint on his honour (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam), if anything that is giving him sharaf, honour and nobility, especially amongst people who are, many of the men in America are gay. You understand what I'm saying. Like, I'm talking about the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) in a language that gives him honour in a society where very, a large population of the men in America are gay or bisexual! And I referred to the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) as an alpha male and you say that is dishonouring the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam)?! You got to be kiddin me! You have got to be kiddin me! And then they use some, you know some quote from some psychologist, disbelieving psychologist right. That's the funny thing about it. I am referring to the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) as an alpha male, as you can also be an alpha or a beta. There is no in-between. So if the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) was not an alpha male, then he was a beta male, which is yanqus min sha'nihi, which is talking away from his status. But I am referring to the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) as an alpha male in an environment where the vast majority of the men are either gay or homosexual or bisexual. You know what I saying? That gives the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) honour!! But you guys are so ignorant. You guys are so ignorant, that you don't even understand cultural contexts, you don't even understand! ... Anyway, but, you say that I, or he quotes kuffaar, or he quotes kafirs, right, this is the way you refer to non-Muslims, right. Even though the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) honoured many of the non-Muslims in his environment who aided him and provided resources to him at a time when he could not provide resources to himself, and I am going to give you an example for that too...
Upon this we have a number of comments and observations:
ONE: In the original video (an interview on a Youtube show), in the first 20 minutes or so the discussion was about women allowing their partners to have other women--Shadeed's statement about the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) being an alpha male occurs in the 9th minute. A case was highlighted about a man who has two girlfriends who are very happy about their situation and the man was described by media as "Britain's luckiest man". By the 20th minute another example is given of another celebrity who has two girlfriends. Sandwiched between all of that, Shadeed made his remark about the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) being an "alpha male". The entire program was given a title that references all three cases. The general point being led to was that if non-Muslims can consider this to be OK and acceptable, why do they attack polygamy/polygyny. So the context was to do with marital/sexual relationships.
TWO: In our first article, we gave Shadeed a way out, by giving him a mahmal hasan (carrying his words in a good way) and we even presented him a defence for himself within our criticism, which is that you can come back and say that "I am referring to qualities like courage, bravery and so on". And we said that even if you come back with this, it is not befitting to use this word still because of the degrading baggage that comes with it, and that these positive qualities are framed, in this label of "alpha male" in terms of domination and sexual activity, from an evolutionary, and then cultural perspective (see article to the right). And this is what we thought, that perhaps he has this understanding, where he is referring to these qualities, and despite that, it is still not befitting to use this term, because it is all tainted baggage. However, Shadeed has only come back and shocked us by confirming that actually, he does see this term as one that relates to sexual activity and sexual orientation and that he is defiant in applying this term.
THREE: In this response above, he repeats over and over that he is giving honour to the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) by referring to him as an "alpha male" in a society in wich--and he begins by saying "many", then he moves to "a, very large population", and then eventually he exaggerates and says, "the vast majority of the men"--are gay or bisexual. So there are a few points on this:
First, he could have come from the angle of saying, "I referred to him as an alpha male to distinguish him from those of weak character, lack of courage, lack of determination and so on... and this is a sharaf, a nobility and honour for the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam)" and this is something we already suggested to him in our article.
Second, he did not go for that, and he made the situation more horrendous by being stubborn and choosing to explain away his statement using the issue of homosexuality. He says, "But you guys are so ignorant. You guys are so ignorant, that you don't even understand cultural contexts, you don't even understand!" Sorry, Shadeed we do understand cultural contexts very well. Which is why we advised you not to use this term in the first place. It is you who is ignorant. The worst of ignorants is the ignorant who does not know it, rather he thinks he is enlightened and others are ignorant.
Third, the original clip in that show makes your claim a lie, because there is nothing in that clip, from near or far, which indicates you were contrasting between homosexuality and heterosexuality. Rather, the context was men having more than one partner and sexual relationships.
Fourth, there are to be found those who claim that there are homosexual alpha males, and they cite famous people in history who fit the criteria of "alpha males" and are also homosexual. So these people could dispute you, they will say that gay men can manifest "alpha male personalities" as well, which are simply dominance in social and sexual situations.
FOUR: Shadeed says: "That's the funny thing about it. I am referring to the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) as an alpha male, as you can also be an alpha or a beta. There is no in-between. So if the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) was not an alpha male, then he was a beta male, which is yanqus min sha'nihi, which is talking away from his status.." On this are points:
First, look at how Shadeed treats this babble and nonsense as an accepted foundation. He reads social sciences and popular psychology books and takes their speculations and conjectures and baseless ideas as concrete, despite the fact that the whole "alpha male" concept is challenged and discredited. And then he uses this nonsense to speak of the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam).
Second, within this alpha/beta separation, he is in error, since these people have also coined other terms as well. There are allegedly beta males, omega males, gamma males, sigma males and so on. All of this is pure nonsense and we as Muslims do not speak with this nonsense. Rather, we speak in terms of the qualities that Allaah has praised in the Book and the Sunnah. We are not in need of this drivel. However, Shadeed makes this drivel and trash a foundation for his speech about the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) and then his defence of his speech.
Third, note how he tries to turn it around and say that if we do not agree with him using the "alpha male" label for the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam), then he must be a "beta male" and that this is belittling his status. This argument is laughable and we do not believe that anyone in his audience who has some sense will be fooled by it. We reject these terms from the outset and do not accept them. All of this is from your own pocket. If we object to the use of the "alpha male" label, it does not mean that the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) has now become a "beta male" - that is only in your mind, because you have made these affairs into truths.
FIVE: Shadeed says: "Anyway, but, you say that I, or he quotes kuffaar, or he quotes kafirs, right, this is the way you refer to non-Muslims, right?! Even though the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) honoured many of the non-Muslims in his environment who aided him and provided resources to him at a time when he could not provide resources to himself,." First, this is how Allaah refers to non-Muslims in His Book, with the words "kaafir" or "kuffaar". We wonder when was the last time you read the Book of Allah and contemplated upon it. Second, that Abu Talib, the Prophet's uncle shielded him and offered him support does not change the fact that he was an unbeliever (kaafir). Then, contradicting himself, in the above clip, Shadeed says of us: "And then they use some, you know some quote from some psychologist, disbelieving psychologist right. " So here Shadeed uses the word "disbelieving" himself and what is the difference between saying, "kafir" and saying "disbelieving", except that one is in English and the other is in Arabic? So all of this is incoherent blabble from Shadeed, he contradicts himself.
SIX: As for our quote from a "disbelieving psychologist" in our first article, then we quoted a critique of this whole alpha male concept from a psychologist who is basically mocking the whole idea and how it is for losers. Here we will repeat it again:
As for Shadeed who is either happy to refer to himself as an 'alpha male' (a pseudo-scientific concept) or tries to act like one in front of his social media audience, then as we said, this concept is challenged and it is not accurate, and perhaps Shadeed will benefit from the words of Neuroscientist Dean Burnett in his article for the Guardian, 'Do Alpha Males Even Exist?'
Maybe the supposed human alpha male is a combination of disgruntled male wish fulfilment and borderline-pseudoscientific justification for resorting to bullying, intimidation and generally all-round unpleasant behaviour by men hoping to impose their will on a world they find too complex and unnerving so revert to their baser instincts to get what they want, despite knowing deep down they don't deserve it and shouldn't have it?
Shadeed is disgruntled because he was looking for celebrity status and Salafiyyah does not deal in 'celebrityship' it deals in beneficial knowledge and righteous action upon the foundation of Tawhid through a Prophetic/Salafi methodology as a means of rectifying the servant and the land and this by necessity, is a difficult, hard and long path, because the enemies or opposers of Tawhid are many, or those who deviate from it are many such as the Jahmiyyah Soofiyyah, Ashariyyah, Jabariyyah, Baatiniyyah (like the Nation of Kufr),the Ikhwanis and others, and they are out there in the field today. And also for Shadeed, the world, as it relates to al-Khalq wal-Amr (Creation and the Command) and the actions of Allaah and the wisdoms (hikam) behind them, and analysing the world through all of this, is too complex for Shadeed. It is too unnerving for him to read from Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim on these issues, and thus he reverts to baser instincts to get what he wants, as represented by pseudo-scientific babble, trying to be an alpha male.
We did not quote any disbeliever in order to affirm and discuss concepts in social sciences and use them as a foundation in our speech about Islam or the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam). Rather our quote was to show that this whole concept is just gibberish and is not accepted. It only has currency in the personal development marketing field for men looking to become "alpha males" so they can have relations with more women. So here Shadeed is just playing with the minds of his audience.
Summary
- Shadeed is now persisting in his use of the label "alpha male" for the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam), and this now, after he has been advised and it has been made clear to him that this is a degrading term with negative baggage, and comes out of an evolutionary psychology context, is denigrating the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam). This label is a degrading label with horrendous baggage and horrendous connotations. Anyone who learns of the cultural history of this label (read article on the right), will see this clearly. And yet Shadeed says that we are so ignorant, we do not understand cultural contexts, and in his arrogance he claims that he is honouring the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam)!! It is true misguidance that you see what is ma'roof as munkar and what is munkar as ma'roof.
- His attempted defence is feeble and within his attempted defence, he has only revealed that which is worse. We even gave him a good way out in our first article, we spelled out a counter-argument for him, so as to give him the best possible escape. But he ignored it and proceeded to frame this issue in terms of sexual orientation (hetero/homosexual), and then tries to make it appear as he is honoring the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam). He then exaggerates wildly by saying vast majority of America is gay/bisexual. Really? How on earth does he know that?! He started by saying "many" are homosexuals, then "very large number" and then "vast majority" -- he made this exaggeration so that he could justify his use of the "alpha male" label, so as to say, hey look, I am contrasting the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) against homosexuals. All of this is just pure sophistry after it was clear to him that it is not befitting for him to use this label.
- The above is leaving aside the other point we raised that Shadeed claims about the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) that the absence of motherly love (after age six) was a factor in him entering into polygyny. This speech is the type of speech you here from Orientalists, anthropologists and others, and Shadeed needs to recant this as well. It is unbefitting speech. Its another example of how he is bringing the poison he is reading about from the social sciences into Islam. The Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) is not spoken of like this.
We still await your recantation the second time around, this is giving you yet another chance Shadeed, we are going to repeat to you what we said at the end of our first article:
Trust me Shadeed, if you continue down this path, this is not gonna end well for you, and this is not a threat at all, it is sincere advice. Many people have passed before you in the last quarter century whom we have witnessed taking the same path as you, save that your situation is very dire and more serious, and you are nowhere near their calibre. You are studying the social sciences, then you are trying to make the Qur'an and the Sunnah fit into the ideas you are picking up and falling into crimes against knowledge, against the Companions, against the Tawhid of the Messengers. Indeed your situation is a grave one and all we can do is make du'a for you for guidance and for ourselves to be protected from the calamity that you have entered yourself into.
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Here is a good recap of the cultural history of the alpha male concept. It is dishonouring the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) to refer to him using this degrading term which has horrendous baggage and context. Read it with care and ask yourself, is it befitting to label the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) with such terms?
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