The following is the story of brother ZH in his own words.  It has not been edited in any way.  Only his initials are posted here in order to protect him from reprisal by Majdy Wardah (مجدي  وردة) and to prevent damage to his reputation due to his association with Wardah.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

            I first met Majdy Wardah in the spring of 2004 when he came to give a guest lecture in a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania mosque.  As usual, the topic of the lecture was gheebah (backbiting), which is the common lecture topic Majdy Wardah discusses when he first comes to a community or soon afterwards.  I attended the lecture with one of my close friends, AE, and we both were impressed by Majdy Wardah's knowledge.

            At this time, Majdy Wardah was living in northern New Jersey.  My friend, AE, and I were both keen on increasing our Islaamic knowledge so we would travel nearly 200 miles round trip every other weekend to attend Majdy Wardah's classes in Jersey City, New Jersey.  This pattern went on for a few months until Majdy Wardah left for Egypt at the end of the summer of 2004. 

            Towards the end of 2004, Majdy Wardah returned from Egypt and decided to move from New Jersey to Philadelphia, PA.  Majdy Wardah attempted to buy a house valued at approximately $300,000 in Philadelphia (despite owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to Muslims throughout the world).  At this point in time, I did not know Majdy Wardah's history so I was keen to help him because I thought I would get reward from Allaah for helping someone I thought was a scholar. The house Majdy Wardah was interested in purchasing needed some fixing up so I personally observed him invest tens of thousands of dollars into the property.  I saw him buy a brand new washer and dryer (which he forced my friend to put in his name because Majdy Wardah's own credit was rejected).  I also saw him spend thousands of dollars on wall to wall carpeting for this new house (which he put in another person's name).  He also remodeled the bathrooms upstairs and downstairs and the basement.  In retrospect, for someone who owes as much money as Majdy Wardah does, these purchases were extremely extravagant and clearly reflect a lack of sincerity to repay his debts.   

            Eventually despite all of the work Majdy Wardah had done on the house, he had a falling out with the owner.  I do not know the exact circumstances of what happened here so I can not say who the truth was with.  Some of Majdy Wardah's own close students and friends sided with the original owner, and one of them even had a permanent falling out with Majdy Wardah over the issue.

            While he was getting evicted from this new house in Philadelphia.  Majdy Wardah was commuting between Pennsylvania and one of his children's house in New Jersey.  At this time, he was driving an old Buick Sedan, which he claimed was hurting his knees because he had to bend over to get in and out.  Due to this, Majdy Wardah decided to rent an SUV, which he drove for many weeks eventually racking up a bill of $3,000 (almost as much as a new car and in my view wasteful for someone with so much debt). 

            While all this was going on, Majdy Wardah was giving weekly classes as well as the Friday khutbah at a masjid in Philadelphia.  The masjid was in very poor shape.  Toilets did not work and routinely overflowed spilling waste into the masjid.  The walls had mold and water damage and needed to be painted; the carpets were full of large stains among other things. 

            During a lecture in February 2005, Majdy Wardah announced on the mimbar (pulpit) that a loan was needed for the masjid.   He said that giving a loan for this masjid project would be as trustworthy as putting the money directly in the hands of Allaah (remember this as you read what actually happened).  I trusted Majdy Wardah and wanted the reward from Allaah for giving the masjid a loan and helping the dawah.  The next day I called him and said I could loan the masjid $5,000 for this project (which was most of my life savings at that time).  Majdy Wardah told me on the phone that he would call me back about the masjid loan later.  After a few days, I got a call from Majdy Wardah while I was at work telling me he really needed the loan for a car for himself, instead of for the masjid.  I said I was at work and did not have my checkbook so it was not possible.  He said he needed the money for the car loan that day, or the car would be sold to someone else.  He told me to give him all the money I could afford.

            Therefore, I went to two banks to get the money, which totaled $6,000.  This was almost all the money I had, and despite being a college student, I gave it to Majdy Wardah trusting him and believing that he would never take advantage of me.  Right after I gave Majdy Wardah the money, he made me swear to Allaah on the spot not to tell anyone about the loan; I was young and stupid at the time and did not know better so I agreed.  I know now that this along with everything else should have raised serious alarms.

            A few days later, I saw Majdy Wardah with the new car.  As soon as I got into it, I noticed it shook and vibrated terribly.  I told Majdy Wardah he needed to get this car looked at by a mechanic because the vibrations were not normal.  He said he would do so.  I later learned that the problem with the car was that it had a salvage title due to a previous accident, and the car's frame was bent.  Majdy Wardah was able to return the car and get the money back.  A normal person would expect that since Majdy Wardah no longer needed the money that he would either return it to me, put it towards another car, or use it for the masjid repairs, which was the original plan for the loan.  What Majdy Wardah actually did was keep it for himself.

            Because of the money I lent Majdy Wardah, I did not have a lot of money for other things like paying for my fees for college or the sort.  I had to ask my father to pay them because I had given Majdy Wardah most of the money I had.  For an entire year, I never brought it up, and neither did Majdy Wardah. 

            Eventually, two things were the final straw that made me resolve to cut off ties with Majdy Wardah once and for all.  In early 2006 (a year after I lent Majdy Wardah the money to buy a car), he bought another SUV.  One time I was riding alone in the car with him, and he told me he had to borrow money from someone else (I know, more borrowing) to buy this other new car. When he said that, I thought to myself, "If he borrowed money from me to buy a car and then returned it and got that money back, why did he have to borrow more money to buy this car?"  This told me that this man was up to no good and was not the honest, pious man he tried to make everyone think he was. 

            Then about a week or two after that, Majdy Wardah called me because he wanted me to help him write a work contract between him and the masjid where he gave classes.  When I had loaned Majdy Wardah the money, he never once recommended or advised we write down the loan.  I knew what the scholars say about how important it is to write down loans, but I trusted Majdy Wardah's knowledge and assumed that he knew better than me.  Then, when he asked me to help him write a contract to protect his rights, I thought, "Why does he care about his rights then neglect mine?" 

            After these two incidents, I felt Majdy Wardah was selfish, insincere, and manipulative.  He has so much knowledge and could be so beneficial, but he wastes it.  Majdy Wardah used to say I was like his son.  However, he just took my money and did not care about me.  No good father would do that to their son.  He just used me.

            I knew for the benefit of my iman, I could not be with or speak to Majdy Wardah anymore.  In response, Majdy Wardah turned all of my friends against me, including brother AE who first met Majdy Wardah with me.  Majdy Wardah had them send me the nastiest emails and stop talking to me. 

            At this point, I started to demand Majdy Wardah repay me what he owed.  I was kind to him at first, and he ignored me.  I eventually became stern with him and said that I would not tolerate being ignored anymore and would not forget nor forgive him.  Majdy Wardah only ever acknowledged my emails once after I became tough with him, and then ignored me thereafter.  Between 2005 and now, I have only ever received $1,000 of my money back.  That money, Majdy Wardah even admitted he borrowed from someone to give to me (so he never really paid anything out of his own pocket). 

            Because Majdy Wardah would not respond to my emails, I had to take him to court in July 2008, and I won my case.  The court ordered Majdy Wardah to pay me the full $5,000 within 30 days.  Majdy Wardah has just ignored the order; Majdy Wardah even told one of the brothers that he would not pay it back because the only thing that could happen to him if he failed to repay is that his credit would be hurt, but since his credit is already ruined, it did not matter.  Majdy Wardah in court said he would be willing to pay me back $100-$200 a month until the debt was repaid, but he has never acted on that or tried to do so.  When I tried to contact him many times about setting up a payment plan, he never responded. 

            I wanted to tell my story because I did not want anyone else to be harmed by Majdy Wardah like I was.  Knowing there are others out there being hurt breaks my heart.  Please, do not be the next victim.  I am posting this even though Majdy Wardah has tried to have those who stood up to him in the past thrown in jail because I do not want to see harm come to you.

            I swear by Allaah that what I have written is the truth.