Aid al-Qarni

In May 2019, appearing on a talk-show, he apologized for his previous "hardline interpretations" of Islam and called for a modernization of the religion. Previously associated with the radical Sahwa movement, he says that after reading interpretations of the Qur'an by classical scholars, after travelling to "40 countries" and having "read thousands of books", as well as meeting intellectuals, religious scholars and poets, he now embraces the reformist Islam of crown-prince Mohammad bin Salman.

On 1 March 2016, Al-Qarni was shot and wounded in an assassination attempt in Zamboanga City in the Philippines, where he held a lecture at an auditorium of the Western Mindanao State University. He was shot by a man wearing a school uniform of the institution's engineering college as the cleric left the auditorium after the lecture.

Al-Qarni is on the United States do not fly list and was barred entry in 2012 and 2015 to attend a convention in Chicago.

The 2011 published book: (لا تيأس) "Don't despair" is a 90% copy of the Saudi writer Salwa Al-Ódaidan (سلوى العضيدان) "Thus overcame despair" (هكذا هزموا اليأس) published previously, in 2007. After an unsolicited friendly complaint, the writer Salwa Al-Ódaidan turned to the justice that issued and confirmed the plagiarism, condemning "the thief" to financial compensation and the withdrawal of his book from bookstores.

His book: (لا تحزن) "Don't be sad" is very similar to Dale Carnegie's book ("How to Stop Worrying and Start Living", 1948).