# “I Received Death Threats From Is*s!” - Tough Questions To Yasir Qadhi @YasirQadhi

- Language: en
- Published: 2026-08-26
- Canonical: https://blog.towardseternity.com/en/blog/i-received-death-threats-from-iss-tough-questions-to-yasir-qadhi-at-yasirqadhi
- Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ3NG8NeBoo
- Channel: Towards Eternity

This is the cleaned transcript of the source video. The speech is unaltered.

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What would you say to someone who says, "I have everything in my life, why do I need God?" What do you think is the biggest crisis of the Ummah and what's the solution for this? You say Islam is religion of peace and tranquility but there's the concept of Jihad. How can these two things co-exist? Have you ever received death threats? I have received multiple death threats. Not just one. After I give that khutbah so ISIS released a... They released a call for assassination with my picture on it. And we see what is happening in the Western world. They might have achieved the pinnacle of some sciences, they've gone to the Moon and back, but spiritually, let's be honest, they're banktrupt.

Morally, they are lost. They have lost their religion of Christianity. They have lost it completely. The West has lost belief in God! They're eating, they're drinking, they're satisfying every bodily urge. But they still do not find happiness. Assalamu alaikum Dr. Yasir Qadhi. We're very honored to have you with us. Welcome. Wa alaikum assalam. It's my pleasure and honor to be here. I want to start with, who is Yasir Qadhi? Can you tell us about your life story? Hm... Uh, how much time do you have? Uh, so very quickly, I was born in Houston, Texas. My parents came from Pakistan. And I was born in the 70's.

Came to age with my engineering degree, and decided to go study Islamic Studies overseas. This was in the early 90's. So I went to the Islamic University of Medinah in Saudi Arabia, spent 10 years over there. 9/11 happened, and I decided that I had to come back for my people. So I came back and I did a PhD in Yale in Islamic Studies. And I have been active and preaching and teaching Islam for almost 30 years now, Alhamdulillah. Have you ever received death threats? Is there a risky event you've experienced because of your purpose and goal? I have received multiple death threats. Not just one. - Name one of them. From disparaged people and different groups. So, um...

When I was a professor at Rhodes College, multiple times we would receive death threats from the far right. That was in Tennessee, which is a state that, uh... It is known for, the Bible Belt, yeah. It's known for a little bit more Evangelicals and they have a misunderstanding and fear of Islam. They don't know what Islam is. And so they felt that anybody who's a public Muslim is basically spreading Jihad and, you know, terror. But uh, perhaps more pertinent to your interview, I also got threats from ISIS. From Al Qaeda, ISIS. So, I gave a khutbah in which I deconstructed the theology of ISIS. And I explained that they are mistaken in what they do.

You know, this is a fanaticism that is linked to Kharijism of the past. This is not mainstream Islam. And so I gave a khutbah where I deconstructed their theology and I said that the modern day ISIS, you know... Yes, there are grievances that colonialism, or whatever. The grievances, a lot of them are legitimate. We sympathize with the grievances, right? But their methodology is illegitimate. And theologically, they are mistaken. After I give that khutbah, so ISIS released a... In it's online magazine, Dabiq Magazine, they released a call for assassination with my picture on it, you know that? I am murtad and whatnot. So that was, you know, it was a bit, you know...

Because religious fanaticism is a very dangerous thing to deal with. And I have to deal with that. Whether the fanaticism is non-violent or violent, it is a problem. And as I said, many Muslims that are practicing Islam they find comfort in simplistic fundamentalism. And I'm against this, right? So I know this mindset, and I know that fanaticism that leads to violence is a very, very real phenomenon, and it is one that only Allah can protect us against. So yes, that was a death threat I had to deal with. You're a resident scholar of a big masjid in the US, Epic Masjid, and you're also travelling a lot.

Having all these interactions with Muslims, what do you think is the biggest crisis of the Ummah and what's the solution for this? So the question of what is the biggest crisis, I don't think we can answer as only one. There are multiple crises, depending on which group you're talking to. So those that are not committed to Islam, those that are not observing an Islamic lifestyle, in their rituals, in their haram and halal, in their eating and drinking, they have two main issues we need to deal with. The number one is which is the common problem of all times and places, is the ease of following your desires versus the rigorousness that following Islam demands of you.

So it is wanting to live just a casual lifestyle, you know, enjoying this life, not worrying about the Hereafter. That's an iman crisis, of spirituality. A second crisis within the same camp is a crisis of actual faith, like, do they even believe or not? Because the first category believes, but it's lazy. This is constant throughout all of history. And that's easier to deal with, right? Like, you just incentivize them, you... Ramadan, Hajj, right? The second category, they're wondering do they even believe or not? And they're exposed to aspects of agnosticism, atheism, Darwinism, liberalism that clashes with Islam. And so they're going through a crisis of faith at a different level.

So these are two crises from outside of the masjid, we're gonna have to deal with that. As for inside the community, as for those that are committed to the faith, I think one of the biggest problems we have is the appeal of simplistic fundamentalism. They don't want to think critically. And they are worried to open up the uh, the possibility that Islam, the fiqh at least, rulings, and certain aspects we need to rethink through for our time and place. And so they revert to a past, a nostalgic...

A memory that they might think they have that, "Okay, let's follow Islam in this manner, this manner, and this manner." And the manners they follow Islam are quite rigid interpretations that go back 100 years, 200 years, 400 years. And in the process they become sectarian. So within the faith-based community, you actually have a problem of extreme, you know, literalism and fundamentalism that hampers the development of Islam. And it's gonna be problematic for the next generation in particular. Maybe even this generation will be able to live it. But you cannot pass a cultish mentality to the next generation. So this is I think a problem from within the community we have to deal with.

We know that there are many injustices and corruptions in the West that couldn't be solved by man-made laws. What solutions does Islamic law bring to these problems? So, the Islamic system, the main aspect that it varies from all other systems, it begins with the soul, with the Ruh. It begins with your own Ta'alluq, your own relationship with Allah (swt). If you don't have a belief in a higher power, if you don't have a belief that Allah created us for a purpose and a wisdom, justice is only gonna be so much in this dunya. So, a simple example.

Malcolm X, and his famous quote about racism, that, you know, when he came and performed the Hajj, and he saw the diversity of the ummah, he had never seen this, right? Malcolm X said that America has a racist problem. The only way it's gonna find a solution is by embracing Islam. Now why did Malcolm link theology, Islam, with racism? Because really the only way to eliminate racism from the root is to believe as Allah says. يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَـٰكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍۢ وَأُنثَىٰ (Al-Hujurat 13) ٰ وَجَعَلْنَـٰكُمْ شُعُوبًۭا وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوٓا ۚ If you believe Allah created us, we're all one family.

And Allah said "I have made you into nations and tribes." Then you cannot be a racist. If you don't believe in this higher power, it becomes so easy to say "My culture did this" and even if you don't become overtly racist, you're still partially, like, "My culture's better" and "My civilization did this" and "My history did that." You have to believe in a higher power. The same goes for the issue of, for example, LGBT, which is a huge issue right now in America. I've given multiple khutbahs about this, right? If you don't believe in a higher power telling you, so intimacy, sex, it's a hotly contested area. When is intimacy permissible, when is it not?

Even the West, as of yet, says between siblings you should not be intimate. They know it's wrong, but on what basis? You have to have a higher power that tells you. And that's what Allah says in the Quran. (Al-Baqarah 216) وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ "Allah knows best, you don't know." So we need a higher source of ethics and laws to really navigate through. One verse I always quote is very beautiful. It's a technical issue, really technical about inheritence between father and son, right? And Allah in the Quran assigns a fraction to the father and a fraction to the son.

Then Allah says, (An-Nisa 11) ءَابَآؤُكُمْ وَأَبْنَآؤُكُمْ لَا تَدْرُونَ أَيُّهُمْ أَقْرَبُ لَكُمْ نَفْعًۭا ۚ "How could you decide, between your father and your son how much is gonna get each?" If you had to decide, and you're writing your will and you have to decide, when I die, this much is gonna go to my father who is an elderly man. This much is gonna go to my son, he has a life ahead of him. And Allah is saying, (An-Nisa 11) ءَابَآؤُكُمْ وَأَبْنَآؤُكُمْ "You can't do this. Leave it to me, I'll do it." We thank Allah that Sharia has come with fractions. Here's this much, here's this much. Allah knows.

(Al-Baqarah 216) وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ The same goes for every other issue. So we need religion. To not only teach us ethics, teach us good from bad, teach us. الطيب من الخبيث Allah says in the Quran, "The Prophet has come to you, to allow the pure to be permitted, and to forbit the impure." Who is gonna tell us pure from impure? So the religion teaches us what is haram and halal. Ethics, and then the religion gives us an incentive, a motivation. It gives both of these things. The law, and the incentive to live up to the law. No wordly system can possibly do this. And we see what is happening in the Western world.

The fact of the matter is, they might have achieved the pinnacle of some sciences, they've gone to the Moon and back, but spiritually, let's be honest, they're banktrupt. Morally they are lost. They have lost their religion of Christianity. They've lost it completely. The West has lost belief in God. So Islam offers solutions both at the physical and the metaphysical level. So why do Muslims then seem to be defeated and left behind? We know that this was not the case in the past in the Ottomans and the Andalus. It gives the idea to non-Muslims that Islam is not the truth. How would you explain this? Why do you think we experience... So I actually push back at this.

I say that we should not be this simplistic that uh, Muslims are left behind, and Muslims have... Success is not judged simply by the products that we produce. Success is also judged by morality, by ethics, by law. Success is also judged by kindness and hospitality. So, perhaps it is true that GDP-wise, Nobel prize winners, perhaps for the last, you know, decades or so. Yes, they have been from other faith civilizations. And if you look and you judge based upon that, that overall, where is the more kindness, where is the more charity, where is the more compassion?

Where is the more, I mean, I remember, you know, when I was a student in Medinah, this was 30 years ago, right, that our collegues, my collegues from other countries could not understand the concept of an old people's home. You just abandon your parents and a stranger takes care of them. They couldn't understand that society allows this to happen. Having, taking care of your parents is a mark of success. This is how you judge success. It's not just the quality of the products you produce. It is taking care of the orphans, it is being generous and hospitable and kind. And nobody can compete with the Muslim ummah when it comes to generosity, and when it comes to hospitality to strangers.

We all know this, right? These are cycles. Some eras, some civilizations rise. In fact, in the time of the Sahaba themselves, the Prophet (saw) himself, GDP-wise, they couldn't compete with the Romans and the Persians. But they were the most successful civilization. Right? So time allows certain civilizations to rise, and others to fall, and Allah (swt) is the one who has told us. We know that as comfort of life increases, people start thinking that religion won't add anything extra. What would you say to someone who says, "I have everything in my life, why do I need God?" I believe this person knows deep down inside they don't have everything in life.

I am a firm believer that there's something called the fitra. And the fitra is a Quranic concept. The fitra is the subconscious soul within us. It is a desire, it is a knowledge, it is an innate desire to want something more noble than living like an animal. The fitra is something unique to us as humanbeings. And so anybody who lives a life that is purely animalistic, will find something missing. And the reason they're gonna find something missing they haven't satisfied their fitra. They're eating, they're drinking, they're satisfying every bodily urge. But they still do not find happiness. I actually do not believe this person.

And I will say, "This is words coming out of your mouth, deep down inside, there is an emptiness." When you deny a higher purpose, when you deny a Creator, when you deny resurrection, then this world becomes your end all and be all. And therefore you wanna maximize your pleasure in this world. And so you resort to a hedonistic, a nihilistic lifestyle, where you want to just engage in every pleasure that is imaginable to you. But you see, the people that are living such lifestyles as I told you, deep down inside they know something is missing. And it's our job to preach them, teach to them that there is a higher purpose.

And that's why fundamental Quranic aqidah (creed) is belief in Creator and belief in Akhirah (Hereafter). Because when you believe in an Akhirah, in a Hereafter when you believe in life after death, all of a sudden your entire paradigm changes. That you have something to look forward to and you have to account for this life over here. So this is why the Quran, if you look at for example, iman-bil-Akhirah (Believing in the Hereafter), it is actually mentioned more than any other concept except Tawhid (Oneness of God). When you believe this world is not the end, then all of a sudden you want to live a life that will give you a better life in the Akhirah (Hereafter).

A more ethical and more moral... And also, the pleasures of this world then don't become your main goal. Because you realize, you know what? I have to think of a permanent bliss. Whether I have this world, whether I don't have this world, I will have everything I want in the next life. And Allah created you to have a higher purpose than just to live like an animal. And when you live only like an animal, you're not gonna attain that ultimate happiness. So this is gonna be my frank answer to somebody who says "I don't need anything else." I'll say "No. You do need, and you know you need." How could you manage to survive from a university like Yale as a Muslim?

Isn't religion being mocked and ridiculed there? I wouldn't say it's being mocked and ridiculed. I would not say that. Rather, the academy challenges the religion from angles and sources and methodologies that perhaps many Muslims have not been exposed to. So, we need to master how to defend the religion from their paradigm. Their epistomology and their paradigm is at odds with our epistomology and paradigm. So you need to be cognizant, when you walk into the Western academy, what exactly it's offering you. If you wish to build your iman, if you wish to live a simple, you know, life as a pious Muslim, the academy's not for you.

Well then, if you're able to take the best of both worlds I believe you can accomplish a lot. But you must remain faithful to your tradition and your religion. Too many people enter the academy, and they lose their faith. And that's a danger we have to be cognizant of. When you don't have a sense of pride and izzah (power) from who you are, it is very easy for the academy to bring about doubts and to cause you to feel a sense of, maybe, inferiority complex. So you will then capitulate.

And in the process you will either become a type of Muslim that is unrecognizable to the mainstream, you know, basically a type of Muslim that does not believe that the Quran itself has a message for all of mankind, and that the Quran can be interpreted for all times and places however malleably you wanted to make. Or you actually become agnostic and atheist, right? So this is a problem we have to be cognizant of. In my particular case, Alhamdulillah, Allah blessed me to memorize the Quran and to be somebody who kept on reciting it. And so I never once in my life, not even for a milisecond doubted that Allah revealed a Book to our Prophet (saw) in Mecca.

This was something, it is as certain to me as the light that's shining right now outside. I never had a faith crisis, Alhamdulillah, in my life. What I did have was what I was taught, I realized that I needed to rethink through. That's a lower level of crisis. And I've been very public about my journey. I no longer believe that one narrow interpretation of Islam is the only valid interpretation, right? I actually believe that there's a lot of diversity which is healthy for the ummah, okay? So I have transformed in the process, but I have not at all lost my faith or wavered in my commitment to the religion.

If you were a president of a Muslim country, what would be the top 3 decisions you would make? Firstly, I seek refuge in Allah from ever being involved in politics. I don't like politics. But you're asking a hypothetical question. Uh... So, I think that, number one, for a Muslim land to be successful, there must be a sense of Adl (Justice), of security, of justice. That if something happens to me, I can go to the court and I'll be given my rights. Allah Azzawajal says: Allah has sent down the Book and the scales. So that mankind establishes , justice. So to have a sense of justice, your society has to be a just society. There cannot be corruption at every single level.

There cannot be a sense of, it's not fair. Just because his tribe did it, he's gonna get away with it. And that's why the first Quranic message was was that of equality. Another point, a second point here, to have a society in which you are safe to walk. Safe, you're not gonna be robbed. So, hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari: When the Muslims were being tortured and persecuted they complained to the Prophet (saw). "Ya Rasulallah, for how long?" And He stood up and He said, "Are you in doubt as to this deen?" ليَبْلغنَّ هذا الأمرُ ما بلغ الليلُ والنهارُ "This religion will go wherever there is night and day." And then what did He say?

"And a time will come when a lady will take her sheep from Sana'a to Hadramaut, alone, fearing none except Allah (swt) and then the wolf to attack her sheep." A time will come when your civilization will be so safe that no one will take advantage of somebody else. Even a lady who might be taken advantage, Would she, people want us to... Nothing's gonna happen to her. What is this showing us? Safety in society, right? So when we have an Islamic society, justice and safety. But unfortunately, this is what happens. Look at some countries, no need to mention names but as soon as they come to power, the first thing they do? Enforce the hijab. People are not even praying.

People are not even close to Allah and His messenger. And this is your priority? You're gonna have a backlash. Of course hijab is mandatory, don't misunderstand me. But if you don't have safety, and you're gonna start with something way down on the list, you're gonna turn people away from your program to bring Islam to the system. You begin with the big concepts, of Adl (Justice) and of security. And if you ask me a point number three, that it should be that overall positive morality at a gentle rate needs to be given like akhlaq, and, you know, bring about the preachers and the teachers to be. So, you want change to come from within, not from above.

So you do this by bringing and mainstreaming you know, people that are gonna make Islam you know, loving to the masses. And those that are destructive to the akhlaq, you slowly, you know, you just kind of bring them away from the picture. This has to be done with tadarruj, with graduality, because we've seen in some lands, they claim to be Islamic republics, right? What happens when you use Islam as a political system unwisely? People end up leaving Islam. So those countries that claim to be Islamic republics, amongst those countries, atheism is on the rise.

And the reason it's on the rise is because the version of Islam that has been manifest in society has turned them off from the religion itself. We have to be very careful in this regard. So speaking about jihad, if someone asks you "You say Islam is a religion of peace and tranquility but there's the concept of jihad." How can these two things co-exist? So I don't translate jihad as peace. Jihad is just war. Jihad is fighting when you need to fight. But jihad has a methodology. And just war is something that all nations agree with. There are times and places where you legitimately have to go to war.

In the past, when the world was a very different place, offensive jihad had its role and place. I don't even sugarcoat it. There was offensive jihad. Why did the Muslims end up in Egypt? Why did the Muslims end up in India? My ancestors converted because of offensive jihad. It was a different world, where everybody was warring with everybody else. There was no United Nations, there was no border states, there was no protocols that were governed. In that survival of the fittest, if you didn't invade others, you'd be invaded. You know, Allah (swt) revealed a system that was perfect, and it was infinitely better than anything else. It was perfect for its time and place.

But within that system, Allah (swt) has given us options of how to live our lives. And perpetual jihad is not something in our Sharia, a perpetual, offensive jihad. But, generally speaking, offensive jihad was not a common motif throughout our entire history. So we don't have to apologize for the past, it was what it was, and it was perfect for that time and place. At the same time, we don't have to endorse an interpretation that is not viable in our times. Allah did not make offensive jihad obligatory. It is a tool that is used when the circumstances are right. I'm not embarrassed at that tool. But we can say that for the time and place we live in there is no such thing as offensive jihad.

And we have only defensive jihad. Who can possibly deny when your land is attacked you're supposed to defend that land? This is just war theory, we have nothing to sugarcoat. But the Sharia allows us to have different mechanisms of manifesting it depending on the time and place. This is where I said rigid fanaticism becomes a problem. Because if you're not willing to go there, then it's a huge issue, right? Can you tell us about your dreams and your future plans for Islam and for your work? That's a deep question. Um... My primary focus right now is to think of what Islam will look like in the Western world in 100, 200, 300 years.

And I firmly believe what we do in this generation, for the next 30 years is gonna dictate what Islam is like for the next 300 years. Because we are the first generation born and raised in America fully, we have a footing in both worlds. And our children are not gonna have that footing. Right? This generation is going to be seminal, it is key to the preservation of Islam for the next few centuries. So my focus and goal, what keeps me awake at night, what do we need to do to lay the foundations of Islam such that the tree that will come, that tree that is way beyond when I'm gone, that tree that will come is a solid tree, a firm tree. I have to make that soil, you know, fertile.

I need to plant the right seeds because what vision I have, what version of Islam, because again, look, let's be honest here. There's so many competing narratives within the faith, and I don't believe in sectarianism. But how then do we overcome sectarianism? How then do we preserve the religion and not just a strand within the religion? These are difficult questions. What can we modify? Where do we have to draw the red line at? These are very difficult questions. So for me, my main focus is to think centuries ahead, and to realize what we are doing now in this generation is going to dictate, is going to shape what's gonna happen. So we have a huge responsibility.

All of us, not just me, in this generation, to make sure the foundations that we build are strong enough to carry the building, the skyscraper of Islam for many, many, many centuries to come.