Leeds Grand Mosque...salafi?

[nhawan]

I went to Leeds city centre (UK) this Friday and found the closest mosque to pray jumma. It was called the Leeds Grand mosque.

It's the first time I've been there and was quite shocked by the experience. It appears to be a salafi/arab dominated mosque.

The first thing I noticed was that the majority of the people there were not wearing caps or any other type of head coverings.
I sat in the first row just near the imaam and saw that most of the people were sat down reading quran. This was quite pleasing to see but I was shocked to see the guy next to me holding the quran so that the bottom of it is resting on the floor!!

When I saw this I thought I was in a shia or qadiani mosque and started to get a bit worried. Eventually the Imaam came and I was furthur dismayed to see that he had no sunnah beard. The hair on his face was literally 1 cm long. The guy who did the adhan also had a tiny goaty stubble on his chin and was wearing a 3 piece suit...

I didn't walk out because the imaam and the other people were speaking to each other in arabic so at least it suggested that they were most likely not shia.

I thought the jamaat was going to start according to the timetable which stated that it was at 1.00 pm. Instead the Imaam did a khutba in arabic that lasted half an hour and then this other guy in a suit came and repeated it in english. By the time the 2 fard a jumma started it was 1.45pm.
After the salaat the Imaam announced that the time for Asar salaat is 2.05pm so Asar jamaat will be performed in about ten minutes. At this point I quickly got out of there...


It was quite a shocking experience for me since I have never prayed in a non-brelwi/deobandi mosque before.
I've seen salafi/arab prayers on tv and the Imaams and musallees always have sunnah beards and their heads covered. If this Leeds mosque was salafi it doesn't seem to follow the arab way.

The reason I posted this fairly long account is that I want to know what kind of mosque was this? was it a sunni mosque or something completely different?
Was my jumma salaat even valid??

[TripolySunni]

Is this thier website?

http://www.leedsgrandmosque.com/

send them a message and ask them then tell us what they replied.

Salam

[nhawan]

Is this thier website?

http://www.leedsgrandmosque.com/

send them a message and ask them then tell us what they replied.

Salam

Insha-allah I will but in the mean time can someone tell me if some of the things I witness there are acceptable such as placing the quran on the floor, imaam with a short beard, etc.

wasalaam

[Idil_]

Here we go again.Another Beard topic.

[Ali_Hasnain]

Here we go again.Another Beard topic.

If you knew how important the beard was, you would not talk such nonsense. The scholars of Hadith would not even narrate from beardless folks. The judges would not not accept the testimony of beardless people in court. It is waajib. And I say this to myself before anyone else since I am the worst of sinners. May Allah guide us all.

[TripolySunni]

If you knew how important the beard was, you would not talk such nonsense. The scholars of Hadith would not even narrate from beardless folks. The judges would not not accept the testimony of beardless people in court. It is waajib. And I say this to myself before anyone else since I am the worst of sinners. May Allah guide us all.

She's sort of right, since the guy had a beard but they're saying it wasn't big enough 1-2cm . Anyway if they don't look respectable in the mosque then they are disrespecting Allah and that's their fault and we have to give the advice.

[abulayl]

She's sort of right, since the guy had a beard but they're saying it wasn't big enough 1-2cm .

ACtuelly mentioning the beard topics has got with the question being it salafi mosque or not. The salafis i do know, mashallah have perfect sunnah beard and longer than one fist. As also mentioned that arab salafis do have proper sunnah beard also mashallah. Its possible they are bit westernized and not well organized under scholars and so on. Anyway, The brothers salah was valid, there isnt any doubt. Just now try to get info about other issues inshallah

[Sundus36]

salam all

I feel absolutely appaled and sad to see muslims with probably no level in Islam questioning the imam of Leeds Grand Mosque about the lenghth of his beard.
First of all why don't you ask him personally instead of assuming and speculating, he is very knowledgeable and masha Allah one of the best imams we have in Yorkshire so he must know why he beard is "only" one centimeter long.
Do we question you about the way you hanafi allow your women to pray with their arms flat , there is a hadith which says that we should not pray like dogs
No , we don't because we know that Abu Hanifa (RA) allowed this , so just like you respect your scholars try and respect others, no one is forcing to come to Leeds Grand Mosque. Hafiz Asim of Mecca Mosque (a dear and respected imam to me and many attenders of Leeds Grand Mosque) does have a beard similar to the one of cheikh Tahir although he is Hanafi. I think that you need to get out more of your own closed communities .

Secondly of all, I am so sad and I feel despair to see how petty and patronising some muslims have become when there is so much to do to alleviate the pain of our muslim brothers and sisters , they prefer to waste their time on silly things . To those people , I have a list of sistesr whose husbands have passed away and live in financial and emotional difficulties, I dare you do something about it and prove how better you are compared to the muslims who attend the LGM .

We are supposed to follow the teaching of our Prophet and correct each other with hikma (wisdom) so if you see someone do somethign wrong, tell them nicely and bring your proofs from the quran and the sunna and don't go behind their back criticising them, it is called backbitting ! this is a public forum : my husband, me and other people in this forum have attended the jumu'a you 've referred to and you have publicly disrespected not only the attenders but the imam as well, have some taqwa ! I am sure that if I go to your own mosque, I will find a lot to say about, but I won't because I don't feel that I am any better than anybody else and to give advice one requires to build a relationship , a bond with people before you can do that !

I think that you visited the LGM with not so good intentions because instead of reporting to the forum the lessons of the khutbah, you just reported the "negative " things you noticed, why can't muslim people say nice things about each other, come on tell us about the khutba, teach us what you learnt from it ! you could not even guess if it was a shi'a mosque or not by listening to the imam !

there is so much I could say but I will stop here, my last advice is respect the scholars and have some love and compassion for your muslim brothers and sisters . I pray Allah (SWT) to allow me to live long enough to see some kind of unity and love between us muslims, ameen

was salam
Sunduns

[daywalk3r]

If you knew how important the beard was, you would not talk such nonsense. The scholars of Hadith would not even narrate from beardless folks. The judges would not not accept the testimony of beardless people in court. It is waajib. And I say this to myself before anyone else since I am the worst of sinners. May Allah guide us all.

if think what the sister means is yet another topic on the beard - theres so many topics on the beard on the forum. please use the search facility.

[The Fake Shaykh]

[QUOTE=Sundus36;425408]salam all


Do we question you about the way you hanafi allow your women to pray with their arms flat , there is a hadith which says that we should not pray like dogs

can you give refernce for this hadith sister??


Yazid bin Abi Habib (radiyallaahu anhu) reports that Rasulullah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) once passed by two women who were performing salaat. He said: “When you make sajdah, attach your body to the ground, for indeed, women are not like men in this matter”.(Maraseel of Abi Dawood, pg 118, #87, Muassasah Al-Risalah)

(The narrators in the above Hadith are reliable and not rejected-I’laau Al-Sunan, vol 3, pg 26, Idara Al-Quran)

a previous thread on this issue
http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4490

q&a article on differences in salat between a man and women
http://www.central-mosque.com/fiqh/menwmdiff.htm