Safar al-Hawali

سفر بن عبد الرحمن الحوالي

b. 1950 · Saudi Arabia · Theologian and writer, leading figure of the Sahwa (Awakening) movement

Safar ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Hawali was born in 1950 in the Bahah region of southwestern Saudi Arabia. He studied at Umm al-Qura University in Mecca, where he wrote his master’s thesis on secularism under the supervision of Muhammad Qutb, and completed a doctorate in Islamic theology there in 1986. He went on to teach at the same university.

During the 1980s and early 1990s he became, together with Salman al-Ouda, one of the best-known voices of the Sahwa, a religious reform current that combined Salafi doctrine with open criticism of Saudi policy and of Western influence. In 1993 he was among the founders of the Committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights; he was imprisoned from 1994 to 1999, and he was arrested again in July 2018.

His books, mostly in Arabic, deal with creed and the history of theological ideas, with secularism and the encounter between Muslims and Western civilisation, and with contemporary political questions. They include a study of secularism (al-‘Ilmaniyya), a work on the phenomenon of irja’ in Islamic thought, and a treatise on Muslims and Western civilisation which he made freely available for reproduction. A text on the Palestinian uprising of 2000 has appeared in English as Day of Wrath.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Biography sources: en.wikipedia.org · archive.org

Works

Language:

Books 5

BOOK Arabic

Al-'Ilmaniyya: Nash'atuha wa-Tatawwuruha wa-Atharuha fi al-Haya al-Islamiyya al-Mu'asira العلمانية نشأتها وتطورها وآثارها في الحياة الإسلامية المعاصرة

A study of secularism, tracing its origins and development in the West and its effects on Muslim life in the modern period.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive

Cite

al-Hawali, Safar. Al-'Ilmaniyya: Nash'atuha wa-Tatawwuruha wa-Atharuha fi al-Haya al-Islamiyya al-Mu'asira. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/20210216_20210216_0529. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/safar-al-hawali/#safar-al-hawali-al-ilmaniyya-nashatuha-wa-tatawwuruha-wa-atharuha-fi-al

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BOOK Arabic

Al-Muslimun wa-l-Hadara al-Gharbiyya المسلمون والحضارة الغربية

A book on the relationship between Muslims and Western civilisation, issued with a free-reproduction notice and a closing appendix of three pieces of advice.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive

Cite

al-Hawali, Safar. Al-Muslimun wa-l-Hadara al-Gharbiyya. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/lib_nasehoon_201810. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/safar-al-hawali/#safar-al-hawali-al-muslimun-wa-l-hadara-al-gharbiyya

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BOOK English

Day of Wrath

A treatise on the Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, available in English in an independently published edition.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

al-Hawali, Safar. Day of Wrath. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/safar-al-hawali/#safar-al-hawali-day-of-wrath

No free copy online

BOOK Arabic

Kashf al-Ghumma 'an 'Ulama' al-Umma (Haqa'iq hawla Azmat al-Khalij) حقائق حول أزمة الخليج أو كشف الغمة عن علماء الأمة

A work with the double title "Facts about the Gulf Crisis" and "Lifting the Gloom from the Scholars of the Community", addressed to the religious and political questions raised by the Gulf crisis.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive

Cite

al-Hawali, Safar. Kashf al-Ghumma 'an 'Ulama' al-Umma (Haqa'iq hawla Azmat al-Khalij). Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/0763ZPdf. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/safar-al-hawali/#safar-al-hawali-kashf-al-ghumma-an-ulama-al-umma-haqaiq-hawla-azmat-al

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BOOK Arabic

Zahirat al-Irja' fi al-Fikr al-Islami ظاهرة الإرجاء في الفكر الإسلامي

An academic study of the phenomenon of irja' (the Murji'ite doctrine on faith and sin) in Islamic thought.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive

Cite

al-Hawali, Safar. Zahirat al-Irja' fi al-Fikr al-Islami. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/Www.jadidpdf.com_20180804. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/safar-al-hawali/#safar-al-hawali-zahirat-al-irja-fi-al-fikr-al-islami

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