Salafist Preachers Struggle to Affirm Allah Attributes in Anthropomorphism Verses on YouTube

Abstract

The issue of anthropomorphic verses that describe God with human characteristics has been the subject of a long debate between the Ash'arism and Salafist groups. Ash'arism interprets these verses using ta'wil, but the Salafis reject this opinion because Allah can explain Himself, so ta'wil is prohibited. This kind of debate has become public consumption in this era because it spreads through social media, including YouTube. In this article, the author will discuss Salafist preachers' efforts in confirming Allah's attributes in anthropomorphic verses on YouTube, using a three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) from Fairclough's perspective: micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level. In a micro-level analysis, the author concludes that Salafist affirm Allah's attributes in anthropomorphic verses without takyif and tahrif. In the meso-level analysis, Salafist preachers have an audience mainly Salafist followers. However, some viewers disagreed with the Salafism of NU followers and wrote criticism in the comments column. In macro-level analysis, the Salafist rejection of ta'wil is part of the spirit to secure the authority of Islamic texts, based on the understanding of the salaf. Many people follow the Salafi ideology because The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia supports the Salafists by creating cadres from each country through education so that their ideology spreads throughout the world.