Ghurbat al-Islam (the strangeness of Islam)

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy holds that Islam began as a strange thing and will return to strangeness as it began, and that the second strangeness is harder than the first. ^{1 2}

The Sheikh says that the religion, or the nation, has lived two strangenesses: the first when the religion came as a strange thing, and it will pass as it began, strange; the second is greater than the first (needs_source: the saying he attributes to the Prophet ﷺ about the beginning of strangeness is not sourced in the recording). ¹ He holds that in the first strangeness the Prophet was present and revelation was coming down, and the elite of the first generation followed him; in the second, the religion finds no such support, and it is harder. ²

The Sheikh holds that religion today suffers strangeness, that steadfastness is necessary, and that there are people who defend the religion as it deserves. ³