A Call to Use Real Names: Curbing the Fitnah of Anonymity in Keyboard Warriors

This advice was first published many years ago on the Saḥāb Salafī forum, during a period of fitnah in which Shaykh ʿUbayd ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Jābirī addressed a growing problem: individuals hiding behind pseudonyms while speaking on matters of religion and influencing the Salafī community. Although the original forum is no longer online, the thread has been preserved in the archives of tasfiatarbia.org.

The medium has changed, but the warning has only become more pertinent.

What was once largely confined to anonymous usernames on internet forums has developed into an online culture of faceless social-media accounts, untraceable channels and anonymous platforms. Some attribute themselves to knowledge, Salafī masājid, organisations or media outlets, while their real identities, qualifications and accountability remain concealed. Yet such accounts can now reach tens or even hundreds of thousands of people, shaping perceptions, spreading accusations and influencing disputes within the daʿwah without their audiences necessarily knowing who is behind them.

The scale of that influence is far greater than it was when Shaykh ʿUbayd first wrote these words. His counsel therefore reads not merely as advice belonging to an earlier era of the internet, but as a striking warning for the age of social media.

What follows is his advice to those who write on and administer internet forums – advice whose underlying principles remain as urgent today as when it was first penned.

Shaykh ʿUbayd ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Jābirī said;

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, and there is no hostility except towards the wrongdoers. I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah alone, without partner, the Manifest Truth, and that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger, who delivered the message with utmost clarity. May Allah send blessings and peace upon him, his family, and his Companions.

Having reflected upon what occurred during the recent fitnah and the effects and consequences it produced among our youth and brothers who hold firmly to the manhaj of the righteous Salaf, I observed that the abundance of idle talk from those with little store of knowledge and little acquaintance with the religion of Allah, His Sharīʿah, and the way of the Salaf of this Ummah, has become a fuel feeding this fitnah and inflaming it further. This is especially true given that the majority of these problems trace back to the internet, and to what is said and written there by those described in this way.

The foremost cause of this is concealment behind names, titles, and pseudonyms that hide a person’s true identity.

In order to address the root of this problem, which grows worse by the day, spreading and widening its circle, I call upon my sincere brothers to apply the ḥadīth of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: “Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him speak good or remain silent.” And as Ibn Sīrīn said: “Indeed, knowledge is religion, so look carefully at from whom you take your religion.”

This can be achieved by requiring the real name of anyone wishing to participate and write in these forums, particularly the Saḥāb Salafī forum, as a shared contribution from all of us towards reducing the escalation of these problems and the abundance of idle talk.

From an initial survey, the benefits of participating under one’s real name appear as follows:

1. Deliberation, patience, and deep reflection before writing and publishing an article.
2. Knowing the writer’s level of scholarly grounding and methodological soundness.
3. A reduction in boldness and rashness in publishing anything before verifying it and presenting it to the people of knowledge.
4. An awareness of the consequences and responsibilities that come with writing under one’s real name.
5. A reduction in excessive writing and publishing.
6. Restricting writing and guidance to the people of knowledge and their students, rather than permitting just anyone to take part.
7. Highlighting the people of knowledge, their true standing, and their rightful qualification to guide, teach, and offer criticism.
8. Displaying the Salafi manhaj in its beautiful and complete form, through knowing the individuals involved and their circumstances and identities.
9. Enabling the proper application of legal rulings against those who oppose, obstinately resist, or promote falsehood, along with the ability to verify and confirm matters when the identities of individuals are known, as opposed to the collapse and disappearance of this ability where anonymity, vagueness, and deception prevail.
10. An anticipated increase in beneficial scholarly and methodological articles, and a decrease in empty and weak ones.
11. Rising above the ways of the partisans and the people of secret movements and gatherings, and differing from them in their concealment behind titles and pseudonyms, since this concealment is among their most prominent traits.
12. Demonstrating the clarity and credibility that are among the most prominent features of the Salafi manhaj, through the disclosure of one’s real name.

Among other benefits, results, and fruits that we shall reap through disclosing our real names, we hope to be the first to establish this excellent practice on the internet, and to attain its reward, along with the reward of everyone who acts upon it thereafter.

I return once more and call upon our sincere Salafi youth, those eager to spread good, repel evil, reduce it, and close off its avenues and pathways, to respond to this call and this proposal, and to look with the eye of reason, grounded in the pure Sharīʿah that secures every benefit and repels every harm, upon this proposal, which distinguishes both the individual and his daʿwah, and which reveals his sincerity, the purity of his intention, the soundness of his manhaj, and the excellence of his purpose.

We also ask the brothers responsible for administering the Saḥāb network to join us in conveying this call and this proposal, by pinning the article at the top of the page for a period sufficient for the youth, or the majority of them, to see it, and by opening registration under real names and requiring the changing of existing pseudonyms and titles.

May Allah send abundant peace and blessings upon our Prophet Muḥammad, his family, and his Companions, until the Day of Judgement. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.

Written by His Eminence, the distinguished scholar, ʿUbayd ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Sulaymān al-Jābirī, formerly a lecturer at the Islamic University (of Madīnah).

Saturday, 21st Rajab 1423 AH (approximately 28th September 2002 CE)