Al-Maqdisi is likely to have had a modest but nevertheless important impact on Saudi Salafi-Wahhabi scholars and activists with regard to al-istiʿāna bi-l-kuffār. This is not the only dimension of al-walāʾ wa-l-barāʾ in which al-Maqdisi has been influential, however, nor have only Saudis been influenced by him in this respect. This chapter deals with one of al-Maqdisi's main themes, namely al-walāʾ wa-l-barāʾ as a tool to frame the legislation of ‘man-made laws’ as kufr and the laws and their legislators as ṭawāghīt in order to legitimise takfīr of and jihad against the rulers. It also shows how and why non-Saudi authors have been influenced by his use of al-istiʿāna bi-l-kuffār.

The chapter starts with an analysis of al-Maqdisi's views on al-walāʾ wa-l-barāʾ as a means to frame laws and the rulers that apply them as guilty of un-Islamic loyalty that should be fought by means of jihad. It then deals with the Jihadi-Salafi scholars who have probably been influenced by al-Maqdisi in this respect, as well as with the non-Saudi authors who seem to have adopted his modern-day application of al-istiʿāna bi-l-kuffār. Finally, the chapter focuses on how al-Maqdisi's influence on both groups can be explained through framing. Throughout the chapter, we will see how al-Maqdisi takes an inherently subversive and thus very un-quietist idea (jihad against Muslim rulers) and incorporates it into his own Salafi discourse through the use of al-walāʾ wa-l-barāʾ. By reframing the excommunication of and the jihad against the Muslim world's rulers in a Salafi way – indeed by ‘Salafising’ them – al-Maqdisi again shows his close adherence to quietist ideas, underlining his own position as a quietist Jihadi-Salafi.