IMAM MUHAMMAD IBN ABDULWAHAB AND WAHABISM
Q1: I have recently come to Islam, and people have told me to stay away from Wahabis. Who are they and what do they preach?
Praise be to Allaah.
It is obligatory upon the Muslim to follow the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), according to the way of the righteous salaf who followed the guidance of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), the Sahaabah and those who followed them - may Allaah be pleased with them all. These people are called Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jamaa'ah (the People of the Sunnah and the Community). Everyone who follows the way brought by the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) is one of them. The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) brought the message of Tawheed (absolute Oneness of Allaah) and rejection of shirk (polytheism, or association of others with Allaah); he called people to worship Allaah alone and none other.
With regard to the word "Wahhaabis", some people use this word to refer to the message of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhaab ibn Sulaymaan al-Tameemi al-Hanbali (may Allaah have mercy on him), and they call him and his followers Wahhaabis. Everyone who has any knowledge of the movement of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhaab (may Allaah have mercy on him) and his message knows that he sought to spread the message of pure Tawheed and to warn against shirk in all its forms, such as attachment to the dead, or to trees and rocks, etc. In his 'aqeedah (belief), he was following the way of the righteous Salaf and the Taabi'een [i.e., the earliest generations of Islam], as is indicated by his books and fatwas, and the books of his followers among his sons and grandsons and others. All of these books are in print and are in circulation among the people. His message was in accordance with the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Wahhaabism is not a new way or a new school of thought; rather it is a call to Tawheed and the revival of aspects of the religion that had been forgotten.
What you have to do is to beware of those who warn you against the Wahhaabis, because they are warning you against following the truth and the early generation of this ummah. Applying the word "Wahhaabis" to those who adhere to correct belief and warning people against them is the way of the ignorant and biased. We ask Allaah to keep you safe and sound.
See Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him), 3/1206.
And Allaah knows best
Source: http://islamqa.info/en/10867
Q2: Why is so much of what is said about Shaykh al-Islam Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhaab so hostile, and why are his followers called Wahhabis?
Praise be to Allaah.
You should note that one of the ways in which Allaah deals with His chosen slaves is to test them according to the level of their faith, to show who is sincere and who is not. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
"Alif-Laam-Meem.
[These letters are one of the miracles of the Qur'aan, and none but Allaah (Alone) knows their meanings.]
2. Do people think that they will be left alone because they say: 'We believe,' and will not be tested.
3. And We indeed tested those who were before them. And Allaah will certainly make (it) known (the truth of) those who are true, and will certainly make (it) known (the falsehood of) those who are liars, (although Allaah knows all that before putting them to test)"
[al-'Ankaboot 29:1-3]
Those who are most severely tested are the Prophets, then the next best and the next best, as it says in the saheeh hadeeth of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).
If you study the seerah (biography) of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), you will see that he went through severe tests; he was even accused of being a liar, a sorcerer and a madman; garbage and filth were thrown on his back; he was expelled from Makkah; and his feet bled in al-Taa'if. This was the situation of all the Prophets who were rejected before him (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).
Shaykh al-Islam Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhaab (may Allaah have mercy on him) suffered the same as other sincere scholars and daa'iyahs, but in the end the message of truth that he brought prevailed. How could it be otherwise? How could the light of truth be extinguished? Think about this man and how Allaah helped him to sow the seeds of Tawheed throughout the Arabian Peninsula and put an end to all kinds of shirk. If this indicates anything, it indicates that he was sincere in his call and made sacrifices for that cause as far as we can tell, and of course his efforts were supported and helped by Allaah.
But the enemies of this call have spared no effort to make false accusations concerning it. They claimed - falsely - that the Shaykh claimed to be a prophet, and that he did not respect the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) properly, and that he condemned all the ummah as kaafirs... and other fabrications and lies that were told about him. Anyone who examines these claims will realize for sure that they are all lies and fabrications. The books of the Shaykh which are widely circulated bear the greatest witness to that, and his followers who answered his call never mentioned anything to that effect. If the matter were as they claim, his followers would have conveyed the same ideas, otherwise they would have been disloyal to him. If you want to know more details about this and to clarify the matter, you should read the book Da'aawa al-Manaawi'een li Da'wah al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhaab by Dr 'Abd al-'Azeez al-'Abd al-Lateef, which will answer all your questions, if Allaah wills.
With regard to calling his followers Wahhaabis, this is just another in a long series of fabrications made up by the enemies of his call, to divert people away from the call of truth and to place a barrier between his call and the people so that the call will not reach them. If you study the story of how al-Tufayl ibn 'Amr al-Dawsi (may Allaah be pleased with him) became Muslim, you will see the parallels with what happened in the case of Imam Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhaab.
Ibn Hishaam narrated in his Seerah (1/394) that al-Tufayl set out towards Makkah, but Quraysh intercepted him at the gates of the city and warned him against listening to Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). They made him think that he was a sorcerer who could cause division between man and wife... they kept on at him until he took some cotton and put it in his ears. Then when he saw the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), he thought to himself that he would take out the cotton and listen to him, and if what he said was true then he would accept it from him, and if he what he said was false and abhorrent, he would reject it. When he listened to him, all he could do was become Muslim on the spot.
Yes, he became Muslim after putting cotton in his ears. Those who oppose the call of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhaab fabricated lies the same way Quraysh did. Quraysh understood full well that the call of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) had the power to reach people's hearts and minds, so they exaggerated in their lies about the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) in an attempt to stop the truth reaching people. Similarly we see that those who speak against Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhaab and his followers repeat the same lies that were told against the original call.
You should - if you follow the truth - not pay any attention to these lies and fabrications. You should look for the truth of the matter by reading the books of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhaab, for his books are the greatest proof that these people are lying, praise be to Allaah.
There is another subtle point that should be noted, which is that the Shaykh's name was Muhammad, the attributive of which is Muhammadi. The word Wahhabi is the attributive derived from al-Wahhaab (the Bestower), who is Allaah, as He says (interpretation of the meaning):
"Our Lord! Let not our hearts deviate (from the truth) after You have guided us, and grant us mercy from You. Truly, You are the Bestower [al-Wahhaab]"
[Aal 'Imraan 3:8]
As al-Zajjaaj said in Ishtiqaaq Asma'-Allaah, p. 126, al-Wahhaab "is the One Who gives a great deal. This form (fa''aal) in Arabic is indicative of something that is done to a great extent. Allaah is al-Wahhaab (the Bestower) Who gives to His slaves one after another."
Undoubtedly the path of al-Wahhaab is the path of truth in which there is no crookedness or fabrication, and His party is the one that will prevail. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
"And whosoever takes Allaah, His Messenger, and those who have believed, as Protectors, then the party of Allaah will be the victorious"
[al-Maa'idah 5:56]
"They are the party of Allaah. Verily, it is the party of Allaah that will be the successful"
[al-Mujaadilah 58:22]
Long ago they accused al-Shaafa'i of being a Raafidi (Shi'ah) and he refuted them by saying:
"If being a Raafidi means loving the family of Muhammad, then let the two races (of mankind and the jinn) bear witness that I am a Raafidi."
We refute the claims of those who accuse us of being Wahhabis by quoting the words of Shaykh Mullah 'Imraan who was a Shi'i but Allaah guided him to the Sunnah. He said:
"If the follower of Ahmad [the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)] is a Wahhaabi, then I affirm that I am a Wahhaabi
I reject the association of any other with Allaah, for I have no Lord except the Unique, the Bestower (al-Wahhaab)
Those who were called by the Prophet accused him of being a sorcerer and a liar."
(See: Manhaaj al-Firqat al-Naajiyah by Shaykh Muhammad Jameel Zayno, p. 142-143.
And Allaah knows best.
Source: http://islamqa.info/en/36616
MUHAMMAD IBN ABDULWAHHAAB
[Kitab At-Tawheed, p. 9-22]
Muhammad ibn 'Abdul-Wahhaab was born in 1703 in the city of al-'Uyaynah, seventy kilometers northwest of Riyadh, the current capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His father, 'Abdul-Wahhaab ibn Sulaymaan, was himself a notable scholar and the judge of al-'Uyaynah and his grandfather, Sulaymaan ibn 'Alee, was one of the leading scholars of the region during his lifetime.
Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhaab acquired his primary Islamic education from his father; and by the age of ten, he had memorized the whole Qur'aan by heart and had begun the study of the major books on Tafseer (exegesis), Hadeeth and Fiqh. When he began to speak out against the innovations and pagan practices in 'Uyaynah, his father was dismissed from his post and the family was obliged to leave al-'Uyaynah for the nearby town of Huraymilah in 1726. Muhammad remained for some time in al-'Uyaynah attempting to rectify the polytheistic tendencies of its residents, before joining his father in Huraymilah.
On attaining the age of maturity, he went for Hajj and later proceeded to Madinah, where studied under, 'Abdullaah ibn Ibraaheem an-Najdee and Muhammad Hayaat Sindee (teacher of Shah Waliullah Dihlawi) for an extended period. In Madeenah, much of his time was spent studying the works of Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328). Muhammad travelled extensively to the centers of learning to the north of Arabia. He first went to Iraq and spent four years in Basrah in a village called al-Majmoo'ah. There he preached against innovations and pagan tendencies, without much success. He then intended to visit Damascus, but lost the money needed for the journey, and instead returned to Huraymilah by way of al-Ahsa. There is an anonymous account that he spent five years in Baghdad where he got married. He then went to Kurdistan for a year, two years in Hamadhan after which he went to Isfahan in Iran at the commencement of Nadir Shah's reign (1736). There he studied Sufism for four years before journeying to Qumm [Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam p. 618].
By the 18th century, the practice of Islam in Arabia and much of the Muslim world was particularly degenerate. Grave worship was rampant involving veneration of tombs, performance of religious rites at such tombs, praying to saints, angels, prophets and even the Jinn. Fortune telling and magic were popular forms of entertainment and Sufism in its most corrupt forms was also wide spread with individuals claiming divine inspiration and the right to discard the obligatory rites of worship. In Najd, reverence was even being paid to sacred trees and gifts of food were placed on graves.
On Muhammad ibn 'Abdul-Wahhaab's return to Huraymilah, he began, once again, to call to his doctrines of reformation; a return to Islam of the first three generations, as set forth in a manual, Kitaab at-Tawheed, which he compiled there. He met with some initial success but also with much opposition. After his father's death in 1740, he returned to al-'Uyaynah under the protection of its governor, 'Uthman ibn Mu'ammar, who swore loyalty to the propagation and defense of Tawheed which he was preaching. The alliance was cemented by Muhammad's marriage to al-Jawharah, the aunt of 'Uthman ibn Mu'ammar. Muhammad then ambitiously embarked on a program to free al-'Uyaynah from the numerous tombs, caves, and trees, etc., which were worshipped by Muslims of that area. The most ambitious project was the demolition of the tomb of Zayd ibn al-Khattaab, a companion of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and brother of the second caliph, who had died in the battle of Yamaamah against the false prophet, Musaylamah. However, his own brother, Sulaymaan, wrote a tract against him, declaring him to be a heretic [As-Sawaa'iq al-Ilaahiyyah fee ar-Raad 'alaa al-Wahhaabiyyah; reprint: Istanbul, 1976]. During this period, a woman came to him for purification from the sin of adultery; and after investigation proved her to be of sound mind, he ordered that she be stoned to death. People began migrating to 'Uyaynah to seek his guidance in increasingly larger and larger numbers.
His views attracted attention outside 'Uyaynah; and Sulaymaan ibn Shamis al-'Anazee, prince of al-Ahsa, sensing potential danger, wrote to the governor of al-'Uyaynah, demanding that he be expelled. Muhammad departed with his family and was received at Dar'iyyah (at the time, a village of 70 houses near present-day Riyadh) where the chieftain, Muhammad ibn Sa'ood, welcomed him, accepted his doctrines, and pledged to him its defense and propagation. The alliance of Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhaab, as religious head, with Muhammad ibn Sa'ood, as political and military chief, was sealed by the marriage of Ibn Sa'ood's daughter to the reformer.
Within a year of Muhammad ibn 'Abdul-Wahhaab's arrival at Dar'iyyah, he won the assent of all the inhabitants except four, who subsequently left. He proceeded to build a simple mosque with a floor of uncarpeted gravel, where he taught his doctrines of reform. The people of Dar'iyyah, beginning with Ameer Muhammad ibn Sa'ood and his family, became his students. Dar'iyyah became a bustling center of learning with a constant flow of students eager to learn from the Shaykh. Scholars from Makkah, Madinah, and Yemen, who had responded positively to his communications, supported his call to reform and some of them joined him. People started migrating to Dar'iyyah in large numbers. Shaykh Muhammad lectured continually in the various branches of Islamic knowledge, namely 'Aqeedah, Tafseer, Fiqh, Hadeeth, Seerah, and Arabic language. His enemies accused him of sorcery, heresy, blasphemy, and some excommunicated him. However, this did not deter the Shaykh. Instead, he debated with his opponents logically and respectfully and managed to win some of them over to his mission. Delegates from every corner of the Arabian Peninsula visited Dar'iyyah to pledge their support to the Shaykh, to study with him and return to their areas to teach the same to their people.
Shaykh Muhammad continued to write letters to the rulers and scholars of Eastern and Western Arabia as well as the scholars of Syria, Iraq, India, and Yemen, drawing their attention to pagan practices which had become rampant among Muslims. In 1746, Jihaad was officially declared against all who did not accept the correct understanding of Tawheed which the Shaykh taught, as they were considered non-believers, guilty of shirk and apostasy. The movement soon became involved in a military struggle with the ruler of Riyadh, Dahhaam ibn Dawwaas, which, commencing in 1747, lasted for 28 years. During this period, Ibn Sa'ood and his son 'Abdul-'Azeez, who proved a capable general, gradually expanded the realm of the emerging state to include most of the town of Eastern Arabia.
A year after Ibn Sa'ood's death in 1765, 'Abdul-'Azeez sent a deputation to Makkah, which was honorably entertained by the Shareef, and satisfied theologians appointed to discuss matters with it that the "Wahhaabee" doctrine accorded with the mathhab or legal system of Ibn Hanbal. In 1773, the most stubborn opponent of the movement, Dahhaam, fled from Riyadh, which was occupied by 'Abdul-'Azeez, who was now ruler of the whole Najd, from Qaseem in the North to Kharj in the South. Meanwhile, relations became strained with the new Shareef of Makkah, Suroor, who banned Wahhaabees, as they came to be called by their enemies, from making pilgrimage. However, owing to difficulties that resulted to pilgrims from Iraq and Persia, this prohibition was withdrawn in 1785.
In 1792, Muhammad ibn 'Abdul-Wahhaab died at the age of 89. As a result of his continued Da'wah, vigorous struggle, and Jihaad in the way of Allah for almost 50 years, the entire region of Najd was purified of grave worship and innovation; and Sharee'ah was established and mosques were filled with worshippers.
Most of the Shaykh's time was spent in teaching and leading the emerging reform movement; consequently, his writings are few, and they mostly took the form of brief compilations of hadeeth and Quran verses as well as sayings of the Companions and their students, and some condensed classics.
Kitaab at-Tawheed, Kashf ash-Shubuhaat (Riyadh, 1968), Massaa'il al-Jaahikiyyah (Madinah: al-Jaami'ah al-Islaamiyyah, 1975), al-Usool ath-Thalaathah [The English translation of its commentary by Shaykh Salih al-'Uthaymeen], and Mukhtasar Seeratur Rasool (a condensation of Ibn al-Qayyim's Zaad al-Ma'aad). A compilation of his works was made by Imaam Ibn Saud University entitled, Mu'allafaat ash-Shaykh al-Imaam Muhammad ibn 'Abdil-Wahhaab.
Source: A Commentary on "The Book of Tawheed", Part One; Dr. Bilal Philips; p. 7-12