Shabir Ally

Shabir Ally (born 1953) is a Guyanese-Canadian Islamic scholar. As of 2020, he was President of the Islamic Information & Dawah Centre International in Toronto.^[2][3][4][5] He promotes a contextual interpretation of Qur'anic verse, and justification of them in similar expressions within the Christian Bible.^[6][7]

Shabir Ally
Shabir Ally in 2013
Personal life
Born	c. 1953 Guyana
Main interest(s)	Da'wah
Education	Laurentian University (BA) University of Toronto (MA, PhD)
Religious life
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni
Jurisprudence	Hanafi
YouTube information
Channel	Let The Quran Speak
Years active	2008–present
Genre	Islamic
Subscribers	390 thousand[1]
Views	49 million[1]
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers
Last updated: 2 February 2024
Website	shabirally.com

Ally performs dawah by adopting preaching methods targeted at both the Muslim population and the non-Muslim population.^[8]

Biography

Shabir Ally was born in c. 1953 in Guyana, and moved to Canada with his family in 1978. He received his B.A. in Religious Studies from Laurentian University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.^[9] His PhD thesis was on the exegesis of the Qur'an (Tafsir).^[10]

Views

Despite his conservative upbringing, many views of Shabir Ally differ significantly from the Traditional Conservative Mainstream Islamic scholars.

Hijab

Shabir Ally argues that covering the hair isn't mandatory for women in Islam. ^{[11][12][13][14]}

Stoning

Stoning adulterers is not a part of Islam according to Shabir Ally. ^[15]

Hadith

Shabir Ally questions the process of Hadith classification done by many traditional scholars and doubts the true authenticity of many Hadiths which have been classified as authentic by other traditional scholars.^[16][17][18]

Ijma/Consensus

Shabir Ally calls into question the idea of a scholarly consensus (ijma) as a source of Islamic law. He says there is no consensus on the definition of a scholarly consensus, there is disagreement about whose agreement matters, the time period and location of the consensus, the scope of matters covered, and even the source of the authority of this consensus. ^[19]

Celebrating Non Muslim Festivals

Celebrating Christmas^[20][21] and Halloween^[22] is not prohibited for Muslims according to Shabir Ally.

Evolution

Shabir Ally argues that the theory of evolution is not incompatible with Islam. ^[23]

Publications

• Reply to Robert Morey's source of Islam theories, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia : Dar Al-Hadyan, 1997.
• Is Jesus God? The Bible Says No!, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia : Dar Al-Hadyan, 1998.
• 101 questions to ask visiting Jehovah's Witnesses, Toronto, Canada : Islamic Information & Daʼwah Centre International, 1997. A second volume is entitled Another five questions to keep you going.
• Yahweh, Jehovah or Allah : which is God's real name?, Toronto, Canada : Al-Attique, 1999.
• 101 clear contradictions in the Bible, Toronto, Canada : Al-Attique, 2001.
• What God said about eating pork : & issue for Muslims / Christian dialogue, Toronto, Canada : Al-Attique, 2003.
• Science in the Qur'an, Toronto, Canada : Al-Attique, 2003.
• Common questions people ask about Islam, Toronto, Canada : Islamic Information & Da`wah Centre International, 2008.
• Christianity Vs. Islam : A Muslim and a Christian Debate 8 Crucial Questions, Minnesota, United States : Bethany House Publishers, 2014. Co-authored with James R. White.