What kind of a muslim I am

Two articles on brother Suhaib’s log caught my eye:

1.) “Suhaib! Where do you stand? What kind of muslim are you?”: http://www.suhaibwebb.com/blog/counseling/suhaib-where-do-you-stand-what-kind-of-muslim-are-you/

2.) “Drop the prefix: I’m just muslim”: http://www.suhaibwebb.com/personaldvlpt/drop-the-prefix-i%e2%80%99m-just-muslim/#more-6554

This is me and this (and Allah) is enough for me. I’m a MUSLIM. I’m thankful to be a muslim – alhamdulillah – and I don’t want to be associated with any other hizb than that of islam. I’m sick of all those subdivisions and affiliations people ascribe themselves to, whether Salafis or Sufis or anything else. I am a muslim who follows the Salaf and who recognizes the science of tasawwuf (purely based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah) as an integral and important part of islam, that’s it. I do recognize the four Sunni schools in fiqh and the three schools in ‘aqidah but as a layman I don’t follow any of these schools, I do study them, because I put my trust in a scholar from one of these schools whether in fiqh or ‘aqidah when I want to know something. I’m closest to the Shafi’i and Maliki madhhab and in ‘aqidah to the Athari madhhab. I’m a moderate or try to follow the middle road/path, al-wasatiyyah, as advocated by shaykh Yusuf al-Qardawi and others like imam Ahmed Saad.

Leading contemporary scholars and students of knowledge for me are:

- al-Qardawi

- ‘Ali Jumu’ah

- Bin Bayyah

- Salman al-Awdah

- Muhammad Hasan al-Dido

- Haytham al-Haddad

- Hamza Yusuf

- Zaid Shakir

- Suhaib Webb

- Muhammad Akram Nadwi

- Samir al-Nass