Rabee al-Madkhali

In 2009, the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, in their list of "The 500 Most Influential Muslims" placed him amongst notable radicals such as al-Baghdadi, and he has consistently made the list since. However, opinions on Al-Madkhali vary between supporters and opponents. Contemporary hadith scholar Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani regarded Al-Madkhali to be very knowledgeable in the field of hadith, particularly in Al-Jarh wa-l-Ta’dil. Al-Albani stated that, “the carrier of the flag of [knowledge] of Jarh wa Ta'deel today, in this present time, and rightfully so, is our brother Dr. Rabee’, and those who refute him do so without any knowledge." He has also received praise from other contemporary Salafist scholars such as Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, Saleh Al-Fawzan, Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymeen, Muqbil bin Hadi al-Wadi'i, and the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia among many others who praised him for being a firm defender of Islam's core values. Roel Meijer notes that some analysts view Madkhali’s followers as having an obsession with his defense and continuously cite scholarly praise of him as a mechanism "for maintaining, defending and enhancing this authority", which is contested by Madkhali's detractors.

Having been an opponent of the House of Saud but then having turned strongly pro-establishment by the early 1990s, the Saudi government promoted al-Madkhali to lead a countermovement against growing criticisms of the Kingdom's socioeconomic ills, late deliveries of farm subsidies and normalization of ties with Israel. After the Gulf War had concluded, Madkhali distributed a booklet justifying the decision of the Saudi Arabian government to allow the presence of U.S. troops (who later withdrew) on Arabian soil and criticizing rival controversial radical cleric Safar Al-Hawali for the latter's opposition to the government's decision. In 2016, he issued a fatwa calling upon "the Salafis of Libya" to rebel against the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in favor of Khalifa Haftar, who has been described as "Libya's most potent warlord".

Al-Madkhali has authored over 30 works in the field of Hadith and Islamic sciences, much of which has been compiled into a 15 volume set In 1984, the book which brought him fame in the Saudi religious field, 'Manhaj Al-Anbiyah Fi Da’wah Ila Allah' (The Methodology of the Prophets in Calling to Allah), caused controversy over Al-Madkhali's criticisms of the Muslim Brotherhood and their methods in Muslim missionary work. According to Lacroix, Al-Madkhali insisted that priority must be given to correcting Islamic creed amongst the people, whereas the Muslim Brotherhood's initial focus was on political reform. Some observers state that Al-Madkhali is most noted for his refutations of Islamic thinker Sayyid Qutb. Al-Madkhali received acclamations for his works refuting radical preacher Sayyid Qutb from other Salafist scholars such as Saleh Al-Fawzan, Muqbil bin Hadi al-Wadi'i, and Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen. Of his four books on Sayyid Qutb, 'Adhwa Islamiyyah ala aqidat Sayyid Qutb wa fikrihi' is considered the most important. Apart from his praised works in refutations, his other authorships include:

In 1961, he entered the Faculty of Sharia at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh for two months and then switched to the Faculty of Sharia at the Islamic University of Madinah, where his teachers included former Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, Abdul-Muhsin Al-Abbad, Muhammad Amin Al-Shanqiti, Saleh Al-Iraqi and Abdul-Ghaffar Hasan Al-Hindi. He graduated four years later with excellence. After working at the University, he returned to complete his higher education. He received his master's degree after publishing his thesis, ″Between imams Muslim and Daruqutni″ and achieved his doctorate with distinction with his dissertation. After completing his Doctorate at Umm al-Qura in 1980, Madkhali returned to the Islamic University of Madinah where he taught at the Faculty of Hadith and later became the head of the Department of Sunnah in the Department of Higher Studies. He held the chair until his retirement in the mid-1990s.