The content in this article has been taken from the book Al Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhāb: ʿAqīdatuhu al Salafiyyah wa Daʿwatuhu al Iṣlāḥiyyah wa Thanāʾ al ʿUlamāʾ ʿAlayh (Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab: His Salafi Creed, His Reformist Call, and the Praise of the Ulama for Him) by Aḥmad ibn Ḥajar ibn Muḥammad Āl Būṭāmī al Banʿalī and this book has been reviewed by Shaykh Abd al ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bāz.

Navigation Menu For The Summary

Early life, study, and character

Travel for knowledge and main teachers

Basrah, hardship, and the return to Najd

Najd as he saw it, and the start of the call

Al Dirʿiyyah, the pledge with Al Saud, and the spread of the call

Knowledge, conduct, and daily teaching

Books, sons, students, and lasting influence

Creed, the main issues of the call, and important letters

Opposition, labels, and the wider spread

Praise and assessments from ulama, historians, and western writers

Navigation Menu For The Full Book 

Birth, Upbringing, and His Journey in Seeking Knowledge

His Seeking Knowledge

His Scholarly Journeys

His Teachers in al Madinah al Munawwarah

His Teachers in al Basrah

His Return to Najd

The State of Najd Before the Call, in Religion and Politics

What Did He See

The Political State of Najd

The Beginning of the Shaykh’s Da’wah

His Call to His People

The Shaykh’s Knowledge and His Attributes

The Shaykh’s Writings

The Shaykh’s Sons and Students

The Creed of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab and the People of Najd

Tawhid of Worship and Lordship

Belief in Messengers, Prophets, Angels, Books, and the Last Day

Matters of Decree, Compulsion, Irja, and Imamah

His Belief About the Ulama

From His Letters and Creed

From His Letter to al Suwaydi, From the Ulama of Iraq

From his letter to the people of Morocco

From his letter on the Names and Attributes

The issues the Shaykh called to, and the disagreement between him and most people

His forbidding of travelling to any place besides the three masjids

Building upon graves, covering them, lighting them, and similar matters

Affirming the Names and Attributes

His criticism of innovations

The slander of the enemies of the Shaykh against him, and calling his followers “Wahhabis”

The similarity between the era of the Messenger ﷺ and his call, and the era of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab and his call

The effect of the call in the lands of Najd

Its spread abroad

Praise of the ulama for Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, from Muslims and from Western disbelievers

Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ahmad al Hafzi

Elegy of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAli al Shawkani (d. 1250 AH)

Elegy of Shaykh Husayn ibn Ghannam (d. 1225 AH)

Shaykh ʿImran ibn ʿAli ibn Ridwan

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Musharraf al Ahsāʾi

Sayyid Mahmud Shukri al Alusi (d. 1342 AH)

Amir Shakib Arslan (d. 1366 AH)

Shaykh Muhammad Hamid al Fiqi (d. 1378 AH)

ʿAbd al Mutaʿal al Saʿidi

Sayyid Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1354 AH)

Ahmad ʿAbd al Ghafur al Hijazi

Dr Taha Hussein (d. 1393 AH)

Hafiz Wahbah (d. 1387 AH)

Muhammad ibn Qasim

Munah Harun

ʿUmar Abu al Nasr

Muhammad Kurd ʿAli (d. 1373 AH)

Khayr al Din al Zurkali (d. 1396 AH)

Dr Muhammad ʿAbd Allah Madi (d. 1408 AH)

Muhammad Diya al Din al Rays

ʿAbd al Karim al Khatib

Muhammad Bashir al Sahsawani

Muhammad Jamil Bayhum

Lothrop Stoddard

Carl Brockelmann

Mustafa al Hafnawi quoting Williams

The orientalist Sediou

ʿAli al Tantawi

Abu al Samh ʿAbd al Zahir al Misri

A French scholar

The view of an orientalist who spoke badly

The view of the orientalist Gibb

Encyclopaedia Britannica

The view of a group of orientalists

The view of a German historian

The view of Philip Hitti

The view of Ahmad Hussein

The view about Muhammad ʿAbduh

The view of Ahmad Amin

Amin Saʿid

Summary

Early life, study, and character

Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab ibn Sulayman ibn ʿAli ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rashid al Tamimi (d. 1206 AH) was born in 1115 AH, corresponding to 1703 CE, in al ʿUyaynah, north of Riyadh.

He grew up under the care of his father, Shaykh ʿAbd al Wahhab, during the emirate of ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Hamd ibn Muʿammar. He was quick in mind and body, and sharp tempered. He memorised the Qur’an before reaching the age of ten, and reached puberty before the age of twelve. His father said, “I saw him fit to lead the congregational prayer, and I married him in that year.”

Travel for knowledge and main teachers

He studied Hanbali fiqh, tafsir, and hadith with his father, and was devoted early to the books of tafsir, hadith, and creed. He gave special care to the works of Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) and Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH), reading them repeatedly.

He travelled intending Hajj, then went to al Madinah al Munawwarah, entered the Prophet’s masjid, and visited the Messenger ﷺ and his Companions. In al Madinah, he took much knowledge from Shaykh ʿAbd Allah ibn Ibrahim ibn Sayf of Al Sayf al Najdi, a leading man of al Majmaʿah. A strong bond formed between teacher and student through shared creed in tawhid and shared grief over what people in Najd and elsewhere had fallen into of false beliefs and false practices.

Shaykh ʿAbd Allah granted him authorisation in the well known musalsal of first narration, “The merciful are shown mercy by the Most Merciful,” through two routes: one through Ibn Muflih (d. 763 AH) from Shaykh al Islam Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah, ending at Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal; and one through ʿAbd al Rahman ibn Rajab from Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH), from his shaykh Shaykh al Islam, also ending at Imam Ahmad (d. 241 AH).

He also received authorisation for what was recorded in the thabat of Shaykh ʿAbd al Baqi al Hanbali, including Sahih al Bukhari with its chain to al Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and the commentaries on the two Sahihs, the Sunan of al Tirmidhi, al Nasaʾi, Abu Dawud, and Ibn Majah, the works of al Darimi (d. 255 AH), the Musnad of Imam al Shafiʿi (d. 204 AH), the Muwatta of Imam Malik (d. 179 AH), and the Musnad of Imam Ahmad (d. 241 AH).

He was connected to Shaykh Muhammad Hayat al Sindi (d. 1163 AH), and was introduced to a pure creed and strong dislike for widespread innovations, major shirk, and minor shirk.

His travel was for seeking knowledge and strengthening religious means for what he was resolved upon: establishing the call and jihad in the path of Allah. Among those named from whom he benefited were Shaykh ʿAli Afandi al Daghistani, Shaykh Ismaʿil al ʿAjluni (d. 1162 AH), Shaykh ʿAbd al Latif al Afalqi al Ahsāʾi, and Shaykh Muhammad al Afalqi al Ahsāʾi, with authorisations linked to what was in the thabat of Abu al Mawahib.

Basrah, hardship, and the return to Najd

He travelled to Najd, then to al Basrah intending al Sham. In al Basrah he studied with a group of ulama, including Shaykh Muhammad al Majmuʿi, reading grammar, language, and hadith, writing much, and spreading beneficial knowledge and strong views against innovations, superstitions, and placing supplication and needs with the inhabitants of graves.

He supported his words with clear Qur’an verses and clear proofs. He faced denial and harm and was expelled. See: “Safeguarding the Human Being from the Whispering of Shaykh Dahlan”, p. 461, third edition, including the letter of Shaykh Sulayman ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab and replies connected to that place.

After harm reached his shaykh, he went to al Zubayr in intense summer heat on foot, nearly perishing from thirst, until a man of al Zubayr called Abu Humaydan carried him on his donkey into the town. He then set out toward al Sham, but his spending became little, so he returned, went to al Ahsāʾ, stayed with Shaykh ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al Latif al Shafiʿi, and read with him what Allah willed.

He then returned to Huraymila because his father had moved there, stayed close to him, and worked with him in tafsir, hadith, and other matters. He devoted himself again to the books of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al Qayyim, which increased him in knowledge and insight and strengthened determination.

Najd as he saw it, and the start of the call

He saw in Najd and in regions he visited misguided beliefs and corrupt customs, with special emphasis on practices connected to graves, trees, caves, vows, and seeking rescue.

Najd was divided politically into districts ruled by amirs, with no binding authority, with constant conflict and raids, and with rule driven by rulers’ desires rather than Sharia.

Specific examples include graves attributed to some Companions, with people going to them as pilgrims and seeking needs and rescue; visits in al Jubaylah to the grave attributed to Zayd ibn al Khattab; claims of graves in al Dirʿiyyah; and a practice in al Manfuhah seeking a means through a male date palm, with the line, “O stallion of stallions, I want a husband before the year ends.”

Caves and graves were also mentioned, including a cave in al Dirʿiyyah and the grave of Dirar ibn al Azwar in Shaib Ghubayra. He also saw in al Hijaz exaggerated conduct toward graves connected to the Companions, the people of the household, and the Messenger ﷺ, and he heard of similar patterns across Iraq, al Sham, Egypt, Yemen, and elsewhere.

He began his call in Huraymila, calling to worshipping Allah alone, and forbidding slaughtering, vows, and seeking rescue directed to other than Allah, describing such acts as misguidance and falsehood. Dispute and argument occurred between him and people, including with his father. After his father died in 1153 AH, he spoke more openly. His brother Sulayman later became convinced after dispute and replies.

An attempt on his life came from slaves who climbed the wall to reach him, then fled when noticed. He left Huraymila for al ʿUyaynah, where the ruler ʿUthman ibn Hamd ibn Muʿammar received him with honour. With the ruler’s support he spoke openly, cut down venerated trees, destroyed the dome over the grave of Zayd ibn al Khattab, and carried out a legal punishment on a woman who confessed to zina repeatedly.

A letter from Sulayman ibn Muhammad ibn ʿUrayʿir, ruler of al Ahsāʾ and Banu Khalid, threatened ʿUthman ibn Muʿammar with cutting off tax unless he killed the Shaykh. ʿUthman then expelled him. The Shaykh left on foot in intense summer heat with only a fan, with a horseman behind him who intended to kill the Shaykh but trembled and was restrained. The Shaykh repeatedly recited:

وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُ مَخْرَجًا ۝ وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ

“Whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out, and provide for him from where he does not expect.” (Surah At Talaq: 2–3)

Al Dirʿiyyah, the pledge with Al Saud, and the spread of the call

He arrived in al Dirʿiyyah at ʿAsr in 1158 AH as a guest of ʿAbd al Rahman ibn Suwaylim and Ahmad ibn Suwaylim. Ibn Suwaylim feared the reaction of authority, but the Shaykh remained calm and full of trust in Allah, giving encouragement and promising relief and victory. People visited him secretly and learned from him tawhid.

Amir Muhammad ibn Saud (d. 1179 AH) visited him after encouragement from his brothers and his wife. The Shaykh called him to tawhid and to what the messengers were sent for, described the condition of Najd as shirk, ignorance, division, bloodshed, and looting, and spoke of uniting people and establishing authority. The amir accepted and promised support, placing two conditions: that the Shaykh would not leave him if Allah granted victory, and that he would not stop the tax on fruits.

The Shaykh answered, “As for the first: blood for blood, and demolition for demolition. As for the second: perhaps Allah will open for you conquests, and you will obtain from booty what will make you rich without the tax.” A pledge was made upon calling to Allah, jihad, holding to the Sunnah, enjoining good, forbidding evil, and establishing religious rites.

Delegations came, students worked by night for wages and attended lessons by day, and teaching focused on the meaning of “There is no god except Allah,” with negation and affirmation, and the meaning of uluhiyyah. He taught the three foundations, wrote to leaders and judges calling them to obedience and leaving shirk, and faced accusations, mockery, and slander.

Conflict then escalated into armed struggle alongside the call, as defence and removal of obstacles. Reference is made to reading “Unwan al Majd” for details. After expansion and the conquest of Riyadh, he handed over public affairs and booty to ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn Muhammad ibn Saud (d. 1218 AH) and devoted himself to knowledge, worship, and teaching, with rulers consulting him for Sharia rulings.

Parenthetical historical notes came about the conquest of Riyadh in 1187 AH, the death of Muhammad ibn Saud in 1179 AH, the pledge to ʿAbd al ʿAziz, the raid on Karbala in 1215 AH, and the killing of ʿAbd al ʿAziz in Rajab 1218 AH.

He died in Dhu al Qaʿdah 1206 AH.

Knowledge, conduct, and daily teaching

He was a major imam, a supporter of the Sunnah, and a strong refuter of innovations, with ability in tafsir, hadith, fiqh and its foundations, and Arabic sciences such as grammar, morphology, and rhetoric. He was clear in proof, effective in wording, generous with people, constant in remembrance, and active in worship.

He was humble and gentle with rich and poor, and patient and forbearing, with anger only when the sanctity of religion was violated. He held multiple daily gatherings for teaching tawhid, tafsir, hadith, fiqh, foundations, and related sciences.

His family background was strong in knowledge: his grandfather Sulayman ibn ʿAli was the scholar of Najd in his time; his father Shaykh ʿAbd al Wahhab was a complete scholar and judge in multiple places, including al ʿUyaynah and Huraymila, with writings and letters.

Books, sons, students, and lasting influence

Books, sons, students, and lasting influence. His writings include: Kitab al Tawhid, Kashf al Shubuhat, al Usul al Thalathah, Mukhtasar al Sirah al Nabawiyyah, Mukhtasar al Insaf, al Sharh al Kabir in fiqh, Nasihat al Muslimin bi Ahadith Khatam al Mursalin, Kitab al Kabair, Adab al Mashy ila al Salah, Usul al Iman, Mukhtasar Zad al Maʿad, Mukhtasar Sahih al Bukhari, Masail al Jahiliyyah, Istinbat min al Qur’an in two volumes, Ahadith al Fitan, and many letters, most of them about tawhid.

“Unwan al Majd” names his sons and students. His four scholarly sons were Husayn, ʿAbd Allah, ʿAli, and Ibrahim, each with a school near his house; a fifth son, Hasan, is mentioned as not being among the great students of knowledge, with a note about trade. Many students gathered around him, from al Dirʿiyyah and from elsewhere.

Named students and judges include: Hamad ibn Nasir ibn ʿUthman ibn Muʿammar; Saʿid ibn Hiji; ʿAbd al Rahman ibn Nami; Ahmad ibn Rashid al ʿUrayni; ʿAbd al ʿAziz Abu Husayn; Hasan ibn ʿIydan; and ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn Suwaylim.

Later descendants and office holders are mentioned, including Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim (d. 1389 AH) as mufti, and other descendants in religious institutes and bodies of enjoining good.

Creed, the main issues of the call, and important letters

His creed matches the creed of the righteous Salaf, aligned with the imams of guidance, with emphasis on tawhid, belief in the messengers, angels, books, the Last Day, and decree. Allah’s names and attributes are affirmed as they came in the Book and authentic Sunnah, without distortion, negation, asking how, or likening.

Obedience to rulers is affirmed when they do not command disobedience, and jihad continues with every imam, righteous or sinful, with congregational prayer behind them being permissible. Takfir for sin is denied, and intercession is affirmed with the condition of permission and approval, with tawhid as the basis.

Multiple letters appear. In one, he testifies to belief in what Ahl al Sunnah wa al Jamaʿah believe, affirms Allah’s attributes without distortion or negation, and describes Ahl al Sunnah as a middle path in Allah’s actions between Qadariyyah and Jabriyyah. Qur’an verses are quoted for judgement and the scales, including reference to (Surah Al Muʾminun: 102–103).

He affirms the basin, the bridge, Paradise and the Fire, and the believers seeing their Lord on the Day of Resurrection, while keeping within the language of affirmation without asking how.

In a letter to al Suwaydi of Iraq, he insists, “I follow and do not innovate,” and makes clear that the central dispute is calling to tawhid and forbidding shirk in worship acts such as slaughter, vows, reliance, prostration, and related acts, rejecting the slander that he made takfir of all people except his followers.

In a letter to the people of Morocco, he connects the call to making worship sincere for Allah and forbidding turning to the dead for needs, using Qur’an verses, including reference to (Surah al Zumar: 2–3).

In a letter on the names and attributes, affirmation without likening and without asking how is emphasised, with Qur’an verses for following the believers’ path, unity, and Allah’s incomparability, alongside statements attributed to earlier imams regarding “rising over,” and extending the same method to the rest of the attributes.

The main issues called to include: affirming Allah alone in worship, forbidding directing acts of worship to graves, trees, caves, and persons; distinguishing between a permissible tawassul through faith, Allah’s names, and righteous deeds, and an innovated tawassul through the status of persons; forbidding travel for devotion to places beyond the three masjids while excluding travel for knowledge, relatives, and provision; forbidding building, covering, lighting, writing, and appointing attendants at graves, and forbidding visits containing shirk; rejecting innovations in worship forms and customs such as Mawlid practices, pre adhan reminders, and loud practices after adhan as not established; and insisting that worship stops where proof stops.

Opposition, labels, and the wider spread

Opposition moved from argument to propaganda and war. The label “Wahhabis” came as an external label used by opponents, tied to claims that the call was a new madhhab, that it opposed the four madhhahib, and that it disrespected the Messenger ﷺ, alongside insistence that these are slanders and false rumours. Ottoman and Hijazi political roles appear, including calling for armies, directing some writers to author against the call, and using both pen and sword.

The effects in Najd include removing superstitions, reviving the signs of Sharia, spreading security, and making al Dirʿiyyah a centre of learning, with historians describing knowledge spreading widely.

The spread outside Najd is linked to the Saudi entry into Makkah in 1218 AH and the influence on pilgrims. Movements appear in Sudan through Shaykh ʿUthman ibn Fodio (d. 1232 AH), in India through Sayyid Ahmad ibn ʿIrfan (d. 1246 AH), in Sumatra through a returning pilgrim and subsequent wars, and in North Africa through the Sanusi movement linked to Sayyid Muhammad ʿAli al Sanusi (d. 1276 AH). Influence is also tied to Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1354 AH) and Jamʿiyyat al Irshad. A recurring theme runs throughout: fighting superstitions, innovations, and grave directed worship, and calling to the Qur’an and Sunnah.

Praise and assessments from ulama, historians, and western writers

=Praise comes from Salafi ulama, poets, and historians, including poems by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil al Amir al Sanʿani (d. 1182 AH), Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ahmad al Hafzi, Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAli al Shawkani (d. 1250 AH), and elegies by Shaykh Husayn ibn Ghannam (d. 1225 AH). Praise also comes through Shaykh ʿImran ibn ʿAli ibn Ridwan (d. 1280 AH) and other poets, and through historians and writers such as Sayyid Mahmud Shukri al Alusi (d. 1342 AH), Amir Shakib Arslan (d. 1366 AH), Shaykh Muhammad Hamid al Fiqi (d. 1378 AH), ʿAbd al Mutaʿal al Saʿidi, Sayyid Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1354 AH), Dr Taha Hussein (d. 1393 AH), Hafiz Wahbah (d. 1387 AH), Muhammad Kurd ʿAli (d. 1373 AH), and Khayr al Din al Zurkali (d. 1396 AH), with repeated emphasis on tawhid, returning to the Qur’an and Sunnah, rejecting innovations, and rejecting the claim of a fifth madhhab.

Western and orientalist writers also discussed the movement and its effects, including Lothrop Stoddard, Carl Brockelmann, Gibb, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Philip Hitti, and others, with descriptions centred on reform, opposition to innovations, and the political reaction of the Ottoman state, alongside internal critical notes that reject inaccuracies and insist on careful distinction between permissible adornment and unlawful forms, and between Sharia based visiting of graves and innovated, shirk containing practices.

Full Book Translated

Birth, Upbringing, and His Journey in Seeking Knowledge

Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab ibn Sulayman ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rashid al Tamimi (d. 1206 AH) was born in the year 1115 AH, corresponding to the year 1703 CE, in the town of al Uyaynah, located to the north of Riyadh. He grew up under the care of his father Abd al Wahhab in that town, during the time of the emirate of Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Hamd ibn Muammar. He was quick in his mind and in his body, and sharp tempered. He memorised the Qur’an before reaching the age of 10, and reached puberty before completing the age of 12. His father said, “I saw him fit to lead the congregational prayer, and I married him in that year.”

His Seeking Knowledge

He studied Hanbali fiqh, tafsir, and hadith with his father. In his childhood, he was devoted to the books of tafsir, hadith, and creed. He used to give special care to the books of Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) and Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH), and he read their books frequently.

His Scholarly Journeys

He then left his land intending to perform Hajj to the Sacred House of Allah. After completing the obligation, he headed to al Madinah al Munawwarah, went to the Prophet’s masjid, and visited the Imam of the Messengers ﷺ, and his righteous sincere Companions.

His Teachers in al Madinah al Munawwarah

At that time, there were scholars there who acted upon knowledge, among them Shaykh Abd Allah ibn Ibrahim ibn Sayf of Al Sayf al Najdi. He was a leading man in the town of al Majmaah. Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab took much knowledge from him. Shaykh Abd Allah loved him, showed him care, and put great effort into cultivating him and teaching him.

One of the greatest causes for strengthening the bond between them, and establishing love, was that his thinking and principle matched his student’s, in the creed of tawhid, and in feeling pain over what the people of Najd and others were upon, of false beliefs and false practices. Shaykh Muhammad benefited greatly from his companionship.

Shaykh Abd Allah granted him an authorisation in the well known hadith that is narrated as a musalsal of first narration, “The merciful are shown mercy by the Most Merciful,” through 2 routes.

The first is through Ibn Muflih (d. 763 AH) from Shaykh al Islam Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH), ending at Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241 AH).

The second is through Abd al Rahman ibn Rajab (d. 795 AH) from the great scholar Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH), from his shaykh Shaykh al Islam, and it also ends at Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241 AH).

He also granted him authorisation in everything found in the thabat of Shaykh Abd al Baqi al Hanbali, the leading shaykh of his time, in reading, knowledge, and teaching: Sahih al Bukhari with its chain to its author al Bukhari (d. 256 AH), Sahih Muslim and the commentaries on the 2 Sahihs, and the Sunan of al Tirmidhi (d. 279 AH), al Nasai (d. 303 AH), Abu Dawud (d. 275 AH), and Ibn Majah (d. 273 AH), and the works of al Darimi (d. 255 AH), with its connected chain to the author. He also granted him authorisation in the Musnad of Imam al Shafii (d. 204 AH), the Muwatta of Imam Malik (d. 179 AH), and the Musnad of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241 AH), and other works that were recorded in the thabat of Shaykh Abd al Baqi.

Then Shaykh Abd Allah ibn Ibrahim ibn Sayf connected Shaykh Muhammad’s link to the link of the hadith scholar Shaykh Muhammad Hayat al Sindi (d. 1163 AH). He introduced him to him, and to what he was upon of a pure creed, and to what his own self was filled with of disliking the widespread practices in every place, of innovations, major shirk, and minor shirk.

He explained that he had only left Najd to travel in seeking knowledge, and to seek increase in strong religious means that would help him in what he was resolved upon: to establish the call and jihad in the path of Allah.

Among those he took from, and benefited from their companionship, were Shaykh Ali Afandi al Daghistani, Shaykh Ismail al Ajluni (d. 1162 AH), Shaykh Abd al Latif al Afalqi al Ahsai, and Shaykh Muhammad al Afalqi al Ahsai. Shaykh al Daghistani and Shaykh al Ahsai granted him authorisation similar to what Shaykh Abd Allah ibn Ibrahim granted him, from what is in the thabat of Abu al Mawahib.

Then he headed to Najd, then to al Basrah, intending al Sham, to seek more beneficial knowledge.

His Teachers in al Basrah

He stayed in al Basrah for a period, and studied there with a group of scholars. Among them was Shaykh Muhammad al Majmui. He read much grammar, language, and hadith. He also wrote much during that stay, from beneficial discussions and valuable books, and he spread his beneficial knowledge and valuable views on the issue of innovations and superstitions, and on placing supplication and needs with the inhabitants of graves who are decayed bones and torn limbs. He strengthened his words with clear Qur’an verses and clear proofs.

They met him with denial and harm, and he was expelled from the land at the time of the Hijrah. (See: “Safeguarding the Human Being from the Whispering of Shaykh Dahlan”, p. 461, third edition. The letter of Shaykh Sulayman ibn Abd al Wahhab to Ahmad ibn Muhammad al Tuwayjiri, and Ahmad and Muhammad, sons of Uthman ibn Shiyalah. It mentioned how he advised them to stand with the truth more than they stand with falsehood, and he openly said that shirk is the greatest thing Allah forbade. See the answer of those 3 to Shaykh Sulayman ibn Abd al Wahhab, p. 461, in their return from what they were upon.)

They caused some harm to his shaykh al Majmui. So he headed to al Zubayr in the summer, in intense heat, walking on his feet, and he nearly perished due to severe thirst. Allah then caused a man from the town of al Zubayr, called Abu Humaydan, to come to him. He saw him as a man of knowledge and righteousness, so he carried him on his donkey until he brought him to the town of al Zubayr.

He then headed to al Sham on foot to drink from the scholars’ sources and be nourished by religious learning, seeking more.

His Return to Najd

However, his spending became little, so he returned, and came to al Ahsa. He stayed there with Shaykh Abd Allah ibn Abd al Latif al Shafii, and read with him whatever Allah willed for him to read.

Then he headed to Huraymila, a village in Najd, because his father Shaykh Abd al Wahhab had moved there. When he returned from his long journey behind knowledge and attainment, he stayed close to his father and worked with him in tafsir, hadith, and other matters.

He devoted himself to the 2 shaykhs’ books: Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) and the great scholar Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH). Those valuable books increased him in knowledge, light, and insight, and breathed into him the spirit of determination.

With a sharp sight, he saw what was in Najd, and what was in the regions he travelled to, of misguided beliefs and corrupt customs. So he resolved to establish the call.

The State of Najd Before the Call, in Religion and Politics

It has already been mentioned to the noble reader that the Shaykh visited al Hijaz, al Ahsa, al Basrah, and al Zubayr, and it was said he even reached Persia, as quoted from “Lama al Shihab”, so that he would quench his thirst from the sources of religious knowledge, understand the foundations of religion and its upright laws, and see the conditions of those peoples, their beliefs, and their learning, after he had seen in Najd, his homeland, what he saw of sinful wrongs and ugly evil forms of shirk that kill the meaning of humanity.

During his learning, he used to explain to those who listened and those who mixed with him what he understood from religion and tawhid, and he would show the ugliness of what common people, and those close to common people from claimants of knowledge, brought.

When he was in al Madinah al Munawwarah, he heard people seeking rescue from the Messenger ﷺ and calling upon him besides Allah. His anger nearly burst, so he said to Shaykh Muhammad Hayat al Sindi (d. 1163 AH), “What do you say, shaykh, about these people?” He answered him at once, “These people are upon falsehood, and false is what they do.”

He studied the conditions of Najd and the people of the lands he visited, and he saw what they were upon of distance from religion, especially Najd.

What Did He See

He saw Najd, as the earlier historians of Najd relate, like Ibn Bishr (d. 1290 AH), Ibn Ghannam (d. 1225 AH), al Alusi (d. 1270 AH), and contemporaries like Hafiz Wahbah, and others, as a place for superstitions and corrupt beliefs that oppose the sound foundations of religion.

There were many graves attributed to some Companions. People would go to them as pilgrims, ask them for their needs, and seek rescue through them to remove their hardships. In al Jubaylah, they used to go to the grave of Zayd ibn al Khattab, and they would humble themselves there and ask him their needs. Likewise, in al Diriyah there was a grave for some Companions as they claimed.

Stranger than that was their seeking means in the town of al Manfuhah through the male date palm, believing that any unmarried woman who goes to it will marry. The one who went to it would say:

يا فحل الفحول ، أريد زوجاً قبل الحول

“It is said: ‘O stallion of stallions, I want a husband before the year ends.”

There was a cave they used to go to, claiming it was a refuge for one of the daughters of the prince in al Diriyah, who fled from the torture of some tyrants. In Shaib Ghubayra there was the grave of Dirar ibn al Azwar. They used to come to it and do forms of shirk and wrong that one can hardly imagine.

He also saw in al Hijaz, from exalting the graves of the Companions, the people of the household, and the Messenger ﷺ, what is not acceptable except with the Lord of all lords. He also saw in al Basrah and al Zubayr, and he heard about Iraq, al Sham, Egypt, Yemen, from jahiliyah idolatry that the mind does not accept and the Sharia does not approve. He also heard much about al Aydarus in Aden and al Zaylai in Yemen.

He saw what he saw, heard what he heard, verified, and weighed those evil actions with the measure of the 2 revelations, the clear Book of Allah, and the Sirah of the trustworthy Messenger ﷺ and his pious Companions.

He found them distant from the approach and spirit of religion. They did not know why Allah sent the messengers, and why Allah sent Muhammad ﷺ to all people. They did not know the state of Jahiliyyah and the idolatry within it. He saw that they changed and replaced the foundations of religion and its branches, except a few.

That was their state in their religion and worship.

The Political State of Najd

As for their political state, as was mentioned in the book “The Arabian Peninsula in the 20th Century”, he saw that there was no law and no Sharia except what the desires of the rulers and their workers decided. Najd was divided into many districts, each ruled by an amir, with no bond between him and his neighbour.

Among the most important of these amirs were Banu Khalid in al Ahsa, Al Muammar in al Uyaynah, and the Ashraf in al Hijaz. Besides these, there were amirs not worth mentioning.

Those peoples were in constant wars, especially with the desert tribes. The amir was always ready, when chances appeared, to attack his neighbours if weakness or lack of readiness appeared from them.

This was the state of the Arab lands when the Shaykh returned from his scholarly journey.

The Beginning of the Shaykh’s Da’wah

After his state became clear to him, and he verified their bad state in religion and worldly life, and he saw the approval of the ulama in al Hijaz, Najd, and the other regions upon those wrongs and innovations, except a few of them who did not dare to speak openly about their dislike for what they did, he became certain that they had placed into the high foundations of Islam what the Qur’an rejects and what the established Sunnah rejects.

What strengthened his belief in their error and their leaning toward innovations was what he read of reports that say the Muslims will surely change, and that they will follow the ways of those before them, like the authentic hadith, “You will surely follow the ways of those before you,” and the hadith, “The Hour will not be established until groups from my ummah worship idols,” and the hadith, “Islam began as something strange and it will return as something strange as it began.”

At that time, the Shaykh resolved to announce to his people that they had gone astray from the upright path and deviated from the correct approach. Some writers said, “Truly, the situation is delicate and hard.

It needs strong courage and a faith that does not care about harm in the path of pleasing Allah and pleasing the truth he became convinced of, and the path of saving suffering humanity. It also needs enough preparation of strength of speech and correctness of proof, to face the doubts and objections that must come, and then it needs a strong supporter who protects him and defends his call.”

His Call to His People

The Shaykh began his call to his people in the town of Huraymila. He explained to them that none is called upon except Allah, none is slaughtered for and none is vowed for except Him, and that their belief in those graves, stones, and trees, by seeking rescue through them, directing vows to them, and believing benefit and harm come from them, is misguidance and falsehood. He told them that they were in a state that does not please Allah, so it must be abandoned.

He strengthened his words with Qur’an verses from the noble Book of Allah, and with the sayings of the Messenger ﷺ, his actions, and the Sirah of his Companions.

Dispute and argument occurred between him and the people, even with his father, the noble scholar, because he was deceived by the sayings of those who blindly followed, who dressed those evil actions in the form of loving the righteous.

The Shaykh continued striving with his tongue, his pen, and his guidance. People from that town followed him, until his father Abd al Wahhab moved to the neighbourhood of his Lord in the year 1153 AH. The apparent matter is that his father became convinced by his son’s words and principles, and his brother Sulayman also became convinced after dispute and replies occurred between them. (Refer back to “Safeguarding the Human Being from the Whispering of Shaykh Dahlan”, p. 461, third edition. The letter of Shaykh Sulayman ibn Abd al Wahhab to Ahmad ibn Muhammad al Tuwayjiri, and Ahmad and Muhammad, sons of Uthman ibn Shiyalah. It mentioned how he advised them to stand with the truth more than they stand with falsehood, and he openly said that shirk is the greatest thing Allah forbade. See the answer of those 3 to Shaykh Sulayman ibn Abd al Wahhab, p. 461, in their return from what they were upon.)

After his father’s death, he spoke openly to his people with the call and denounced their misguided beliefs. He called to following the Messenger ﷺ in speech and action.

In that town there were 2 tribes, each claiming leadership, and there was no one who ruled all, took the right of the weak, and restrained the foolish. One of the tribes had slaves who did every wrong and corruption, and they did not hold back from attacking people. The Shaykh resolved to stop them and restrain them.

When those slaves sensed what the Shaykh was resolved upon, they decided to kill him secretly, so they climbed over the wall to reach him. Some people noticed them, shouted at them, and they fled.

Then the Shaykh left Huraymila to al Uyaynah, his birthplace and the home of his forefathers. Its ruler at that time was Uthman ibn Hamd ibn Muammar. He received the Shaykh with respect and honour. The Shaykh explained to him his reform call, based upon the pillars of the Book and the purified Sunnah.

He explained to him the meaning of tawhid, and that the people’s actions and beliefs today oppose tawhid. He recited to him Qur’an verses and prophetic hadiths, and he hoped from Allah, if the ruler supports him, that Allah will support him, raise His word, and that the ruler will have leadership over Najd and other regions, and eternal happiness, if Allah wills.

Uthman accepted and welcomed what the Shaykh said. The Shaykh then spoke openly with the call to Allah, singling out worship for Allah, holding to the Sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ, enjoining good and forbidding evil. He cut down the trees that were venerated there, and he destroyed the dome over the grave of Zayd ibn al Khattab, with the support of the amir Uthman.

He carried out the legal punishment upon a woman who confessed to zina repeatedly, after he became sure of the soundness of her mind and the completeness of her senses. The affair of the Shaykh became known and his name spread in lands.

His news reached Sulayman ibn Muhammad ibn Urayir, the ruler of al Ahsa and Banu Khalid. This ignorant unjust man sent a letter to Uthman ibn Muammar, saying, “The mutawwa whom you have has done what he has done and said what he has said. When my letter reaches you, kill him. If you do not kill him, we will cut off your tax that is with us in al Ahsa.”

The matter became grave for Uthman, and it became hard for him to oppose Ibn Urayir, and the greatness of the Lord of all worlds left his mind. The result of that letter, and the weak faith of Ibn Muammar, was that he ordered the Shaykh to be expelled from his town.

The Shaykh’s advice and counsel did not benefit, and that a caller and reformer must be harmed, and that the outcome is for the people of taqwa. So the Shaykh left, walking on his feet, with a horseman assigned to him walking behind him. The Shaykh had nothing but a fan, in the strongest heat of the summer.

The horseman intended to kill the Shaykh, on instruction from Ibn Muammar. His hand trembled, and Allah protected the Shaykh from his harm. The Shaykh did not stop remembering Allah, and he repeated Allah’s saying:

ومن يتق الله يجعل له مخرجا ۝ ويرزقه من حيث لا يحتسب

“Whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out, and provide for him from where he does not expect.” (Surah At Talaq: 2–3)

The Shaykh arrived at al Diriyah at the time of Asr in the year 1158 AH, as a guest of Abd al Rahman ibn Suwaylim and his cousin Ahmad ibn Suwaylim. Ibn Suwaylim feared for himself from the amir Muhammad ibn Saud (d. 1179 AH), because he knew the people’s state, and that they would not accept what this noble scholar brought, and that they would meet it with harm, especially from the one with authority.

But the Shaykh, full of faith and trust in Allah, remained calm. He poured upon him admonitions, filled him with hope, and promised him that Allah would surely bring relief and grant him a supported victory.

The private people of al Diriyah heard of him. They visited him secretly, and he explained to them the meanings of tawhid and what he calls to.

The amir had 2 brothers, Mishari and Thunayan, and he had a wife who was intelligent and wise. The 2 brothers explained to their brother the amir that Shaykh Muhammad was staying as a guest with Ibn Suwaylim, and that this man is a great gain Allah brought to you, so take what Allah has granted you. They encouraged him to visit the Shaykh, so he did.

He visited the Shaykh, and the Shaykh called him to tawhid, and that tawhid is what the messengers were sent for. He recited to him Qur’an verses from the wise remembrance, explaining the falsehood of worshipping other than Allah. He drew his attention to what the people of Najd were upon of shirk, ignorance, division, conflict, bloodshed, and looting.

In summary, he explained to him the weakness of their religion and their worldly life, and their ignorance of the laws of Islam. He hoped that the amir would be an imam for Muslims to unite upon, and that he would have authority and leadership, and that it would remain in his descendants after him.

At that point, Allah opened the chest of Muhammad ibn Saud, he loved the Shaykh, and he became convinced by what the Shaykh called him to. The amir gave the Shaykh glad tidings of support and standing with him against whoever opposed him.

The amir placed 2 conditions upon the Shaykh.

The first: that the Shaykh would not leave him if Allah supports them and grants them ability.

The second: that the Shaykh would not stop the amir from the tax he placed upon the people of al Diriyah at the time of fruits.

The Shaykh said, “As for the first: blood for blood, and demolition for demolition. As for the second: perhaps Allah will open for you conquests, and you will obtain from booty what will make you rich without the tax.”

So the amir pledged allegiance to the Shaykh upon calling to Allah, jihad in the path of Allah, holding to the Sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ, enjoining good, forbidding evil, and establishing the religious rites.

After the Shaykh settled in al Diriyah, those who ascribed themselves to him, and those who adopted the principles of his call, came to him, from the leaders of Al Muammar and others. Delegations began to come from every direction when they knew the Shaykh was in a place of protection.

The economic state of the amir and the land could not bear the cost of those delegations of seekers. Some of them, due to their strong desire and love for knowledge, would work at night for wages, and in the day they would attend lessons, until Allah expanded upon them and brought relief and ease after hardship and difficulty.

The Shaykh continued, using all his effort in guiding people, teaching them, and explaining the meaning of “There is no god except Allah”, and that it contains negation and affirmation: “There is no god” negates all false objects of worship, and “except Allah” affirms worship for Allah. He explained to them the meaning of uluhiyyah, that “the ilah” is the one whom hearts worship with love, fear, honour, and hope.

He taught them the 3 foundations. Through his sound teaching, their minds became illuminated, their hearts became pure, and their beliefs became correct. The love of the Shaykh increased in the hearts of those who came to him.

Then he began to write to the leaders of Najdi towns and their judges, calling them to obedience and submission, and to abandoning shirk and stubborn rejection. Some obeyed him, and some disobeyed him, mocked him, and accused him of ignorance and lack of knowledge. Some accused him of sorcery. Some accused him of evil matters he was free from. May Allah destroy ignorance and blind following.

If they had reason, they would have understood that an ignorant person cannot establish sound proofs for his aims, an ignorant person cannot confront the great ulama with intellectual proofs and transmitted proofs that compel the listener to submit, and a sorcerer does not command good, does not command what is right, and does not forbid what is evil.

There is no surprise, for the messengers and all reformers were spoken to with such speech.

The Shaykh continued, night and day, spreading the call, giving admonition, and writing scholarly letters, satisfied with this peaceful means. The amir Muhammad ibn Saud supported him according to his ability.

But the opponents of the call worked to gather hearts to fight the call by every means, and to attack those who entered the call. The Shaykh Muhammad and the amir then saw no escape from using the sword along with the religious call. The religious wars continued for many years. Victory was with Ibn Saud in most positions. Villages fell one after another to his hand. Some entered obedience by choice and desire, after they knew the reality of the matter.

If the reader wants to know the people’s stubbornness, their wrongdoing, their oppression, their attacks, and the breaking of treaties time after time, then read “Unwan al Majd”. The leaders of the call had no plan except defence and removing obstacles from the path of the pure call.

After the conquest of Riyadh, and the expansion of their authority, and the submission of every hard matter to them, the Shaykh handed over the affairs of people and the wealth of booty to Abd al Aziz ibn Muhammad ibn Saud (d. 1218 AH), and the Shaykh devoted himself to knowledge, worship, and giving lessons. Muhammad ibn Saud and his son Abd al Aziz did not do anything until they informed him, so that he could teach them the Sharia ruling, and they did not execute a ruling except by his instruction and view. (Riyadh was conquered in the year 1187 AH by Imam Abd al Aziz ibn Muhammad ibn Saud, after Diham ibn Dawwas fled from Riyadh. His wars occurred after he attacked the Imams of the call many times and broke the treaty more than once. The outcome is for the people of taqwa, and with Allah are the people of tawhid. In the year 1179 AH, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud died and his son Abd al Aziz was pledged upon the imamate.

In the year 1215 AH, Saud ibn Abd al Aziz, by his father’s instruction, invaded Iraq and caused great losses to the people of Karbala, and he destroyed the dome over the grave of al Husayn. In the year 1218 AH, in the month of Rajab, Imam Abd al Aziz was killed by a Shia man who came from Iraq disguised as a dervish.

He showed worship and obedience, learned some Qur’an, and Abd al Aziz honoured him and gave him. He began learning matters of religion, but he was a filthy Rafidi. He attacked the Imam from the third row while the people were in sujud and stabbed him with a dagger he had, seeking revenge, and the Imam died due to that, and Saud ibn Abd al Aziz was pledged upon the imamate.)

The Shaykh remained upon this good state and pure upright conduct until he moved to the neighbourhood of his Lord in Dhu al Qadah in the year 1206 AH. May Allah have mercy upon him and place him in wide gardens.

The Shaykh’s Knowledge and His Attributes

The Shaykh was a major imam, a supporter of the Sunnah, and one who struck innovations. He was experienced and well informed, an imam in tafsir, hadith, fiqh and its foundations, and the tools of knowledge such as grammar, morphology, and rhetoric. He knew the foundations and branches of the beliefs of Islam, clarified problems, and untied difficult matters. He was eloquent, strong in proof, able to present evidence and clear proofs with the most effective and clearest wording.

Signs of righteousness, good conduct, and purity appeared on his face. He loved people, poured upon them from his generosity, kept ties with his kindness and good treatment, and was sincere to Allah in advising and guiding. He was frequently engaged in remembrance and worship. His tongue rarely stopped from remembering Allah.

He used to give the giving of one who trusts in his Lord, and he would take on much debt for his guests and those who asked him. He had a form of greatness that made people look at him with respect and honour, while he was described with humility and gentleness with the rich and the poor, the noble and the low.

He gave students of knowledge strong love, spent upon them from his wealth, and guided them according to their readiness.

Every day he would sit in several gatherings to give lessons in different sciences: tawhid, tafsir, hadith, fiqh, foundations, and the other Arabic sciences.

He knew the fine points of tafsir and hadith, and he had complete experience in its defects and its men. He was not tired and not lazy from explanation, writing, authoring, and teaching.

He was patient, sensible, and forbearing. Anger did not provoke him unless the sanctity of religion was violated or the rites of Muslims were insulted. Then he would struggle with his sword and his tongue. He honoured the ulama, spoke of their virtues, commanded what is right, forbade what is wrong, and he could not remain patient upon innovations. He would denounce their doers with gentleness and softness, avoiding harshness, anger, and violence, unless need called to it.

It is not strange that he was given those good traits and noble character. He inherited them from his fathers and righteous forefathers, for they were known for knowledge, virtue, and abstinence.

His grandfather Sulayman ibn Ali was the scholar of Najd in his time, with strong ability in many sciences. Journeys were made to him from the regions of Najd to seek knowledge. Ibn Bishr (d. 1290 AH) said, “He authored many writings, taught, and benefited the seekers of knowledge from his wide learning.”

His father Shaykh Abd al Wahhab was a complete scholar, cautious, abstinent, with strong knowledge in the sciences of Sharia and their tools. He held judgeship in several places in Najd, including al Uyaynah and Huraymila, and he had writings and letters that were praised. May Allah have wide mercy upon them all.

The Shaykh’s Writings

He authored several books, including Kitab al Tawhid, which is famous and needs no introduction, Kashf al Shubuhat, al Usul al Thalathah, and Mukhtasar al Sirah al Nabawiyyah. He also wrote Mukhtasar al Insaf and al Sharh al Kabir in fiqh, Nasihat al Muslimin bi Ahadith Khatam al Mursalin, Kitab al Kabair, Adab al Mashy ila al Salah, Usul al Iman, Mukhtasar Zad al Maad, Mukhtasar Sahih al Bukhari, Masail al Jahiliyyah, Istinbat min al Qur’an in 2 volumes, Ahadith al Fitan, and he had many letters, most of them about tawhid.

The Shaykh’s Sons and Students

“Unwan al Majd” mentioned that the Shaykh took knowledge with him from a number of great ulama, among them his 4 scholarly sons and virtuous judges, who studied the Sharia sciences and the literary arts, and studied branches and foundations, and gained strength in what is transmitted and what is understood: Husayn, Abd Allah, Ali, and Ibrahim. (As for his fifth son Hasan, the apparent matter is that he was not from the great students of knowledge. Some of Al al Shaykh told me that Hasan was the father of Shaykh Abd al Rahman ibn Shabah, and he was not from those who worked much in knowledge, rather in trade and worldly work.)

Each of them had a school near his house, and with him were many students of knowledge from the people of al Diriyah and strangers, to such a degree that a listener might think the number was exaggerated.

Knowledge remained in the Shaykh’s descendants, and it will remain, if Allah wills, until the Hour is established.

In this day, Al al Shaykh are those who carry religious duties in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: issuing fatwa, teaching, enjoining good and forbidding evil, leading institutes and colleges, solving problems, defending the protected boundaries of religion, and supporting the Sharia of the Seal of the Messengers ﷺ. May Allah reward them with the best reward, and grant us and them success in what He loves and is pleased with.

As for the students and seekers who drank from the Shaykh’s source, graduated at his hand, and became judges and muftis, they cannot be counted.

There is no harm in mentioning a small number: among them Shaykh Hamad ibn Nasir ibn Uthman ibn Muammar, the father of the author of “Minhat al Qarib”. (“Minhat al Qarib” is a refutation of the worshippers of the cross. It was authored by Shaykh Abd al Aziz, the son of Shaykh Ahmad mentioned. At that time there was also the abstinent cautious Shaykh Abd al Aziz ibn Abd Allah al Husayn al Nasiri, who held judgeship then in the region of al Washm.)

Also Shaykh Said ibn Hiji, the judge of Hawtat Bani Tamim, Shaykh Abd al Rahman ibn Nami, who held judgeship in al Uyaynah and al Ahsa, Shaykh Ahmad ibn Rashid al Urayni, the judge in the region of Sudayr, Shaykh Abd al Aziz Abu Husayn, Shaykh Hasan ibn Iydan, who was a judge in Huraymila, and Shaykh Abd al Aziz ibn Suwaylim, who was a judge in al Qasim.

From the descendants of Shaykh Hasan, and among the most famous present in this time, are Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Abd al Latif ibn Abd al Rahman ibn Hasan (d. 1389 AH). He was the mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the religious bodies refer back to him. His brother Shaykh Abd al Latif was the head of religious institutes and colleges. Shaykh Abd al Malik was the head of the bodies of enjoining good in Makkah. Also among the most famous from the descendants of Shaykh Husayn ibn Muhammad is Shaykh Umar ibn Hasan, head of the body of enjoining good in Najd and the Eastern Province.

The Creed of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab and the People of Najd

His creed was like the creed of the righteous Salaf, upon what the Messenger ﷺ and his Companions were upon, and the Tabiun, and the guided imams: like Abu Hanifah (d. 150 AH), Malik (d. 179 AH), al Shafii (d. 204 AH), Ahmad (d. 241 AH), Sufyan al Thawri (d. 161 AH), Ibn Uyaynah (d. 198 AH), Ibn al Mubarak (d. 181 AH), al Bukhari (d. 256 AH), Muslim (d. 261 AH), Abu Dawud (d. 275 AH), and the rest of the people of Sunan and those like them from those who followed them from the people of fiqh and athar, like al Ashari (d. 324 AH), Ibn Khuzaymah (d. 311 AH), Taqi al Din ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH), Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH), and al Dhahabi (d. 748 AH). May Allah have mercy upon them.

He believed Allah is One, Single, Self sufficient, with no partner, no likeness, no minister, and no adviser. He did not take a wife and did not take a child. He knows everything: what was and what will be, and what did not occur, if it had occurred, how it would be. He is capable over everything, nothing defeats Him. Rather, He does what He wills.

He affirms all of Allah’s highest attributes and His beautiful names, as the Book spoke, and as the authentic Sunnah came, such as knowledge, hearing, seeing, power, will, speech, rising over the Throne, descending every night to the lowest heaven, and the rest of the essential, active, and reported attributes. He believes in them and passes them as they came, without distortion, without negation, without asking how, and without likening.

Tawhid of Worship and Lordship

He believed Allah is the Living, the Powerful, the Creator, the Provider, the One who gives life, and the One who gives death.

He believed that our Lord is singled out with worship, and none is associated with Him, neither a near angel nor a sent prophet. He disowns worshipping other than Him, whatever it is. This is the wisdom for which Allah created jinn and humans, sent the messengers, and sent down the books.

He disowns worshipping stones, trees, and the righteous. He disowns those who worship them. He establishes rational and transmitted proofs that this is shirk, misguidance, and disbelief in Allah.

Belief in Messengers, Prophets, Angels, Books, and the Last Day

He believed in all of Allah’s prophets and messengers, without making distinctions between them. He believed Muhammad ﷺ is the best of them. Allah sent him with clear signs and clear miracles, honoured him with purity of lineage, and granted him good character. Whoever follows him is from the successful, and whoever disobeys him is from the wretched losers.

He believed in the Last Day, resurrection after death, Allah’s reckoning of servants, the scale, the bridge, Paradise, and the Fire.

Matters of Decree, Compulsion, Irja, and Imamah

He believed in decree, its good and its evil. He disowned what the Qadariyyah deniers said, and what the Jabriyyah and the Murjiah said.

He supported all the Companions of the Messenger ﷺ and his pure family, and he withheld his tongue from what occurred between them. He believed in the superiority of Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Uthman, then Ali, may Allah be pleased with them.

His Belief About the Ulama

He supported all the people of Islam and their ulama from the people of hadith, fiqh, and tafsir, and the people of abstinence and worship, especially the 4 imams. He saw their virtue and leadership, and that they are in a high rank that the one who tries to reach it falls short of.

He did not see any view of a mujtahid as binding except with a proof from the Book and Sunnah, in opposition to the extremists of blind following. Upon this, the 4 imams and others agreed, as Ibn Abd al Barr (d. 463 AH) mentioned.

From His Letters and Creeds

Here is some of what the Shaykh wrote from his letters in which he mentioned his creed and what he was upon. From those letters is what he wrote to the people of al Qasim. After the basmalah, he said:

“I call Allah to witness, and I call to witness whoever is present with me from the angels, and I call you to witness that I believe what Ahl al Sunnah wa al Jamaah believe: belief in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, resurrection after death, and belief in decree, its good and its evil.

From belief in Allah is belief in what He described Himself with in His Book, and upon the tongue of His Messenger ﷺ, without distortion and without negation. Rather, I believe that Allah is not like His creation, and He is the All Hearing, the All Seeing.

So I do not negate from Him what He described Himself with, I do not distort words from their places, I do not deviate regarding His names and His verses, I do not ask how, and I do not liken His attributes to the attributes of His creation. For Allah has no equal, no match, no rival, and He is not compared to His creation. He is more knowing of Himself and others, more truthful in speech, and better in speech.

So He declared Himself free of what the people of asking how and likening described Him with, and free of what the negators negated from Him.”

He said that Ahl al Sunnah wa al Jamaah are in the middle in the door of His actions, between the Qadariyyah and the Jabriyyah.

He believed the Qur’an is the speech of Allah, sent down, not created, from Him it began and to Him it returns, and He spoke it in reality, and He sent it down upon His servant, His messenger, His trustworthy one over revelation, and His ambassador between Him and His servants, our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

He believed Allah does what He wills. Nothing occurs except by His will. Nothing leaves His choice. There is nothing in the universe that leaves His decree. Nothing comes from it except by His planning. No one can escape the limited decree, and no one can go beyond what was written for him in the preserved record.

He believed in everything the Prophet ﷺ informed about from what occurs after death, and he believed in the trial of the grave and its bliss, and in returning spirits to bodies, so people will stand before the Lord of all worlds, barefoot, naked, uncircumcised. The sun will come near them. The scales will be set up and the deeds of servants will be weighed:

فَمن ثقلت موازينه فأولئك هم المفلحون ۝ ومن خفَّتْ مَوَازِينُه فأولئك الَّذِيْنَ خَسِرُوا أَنْفُسَهُم فِي جَهَنَّمَ خَالِدُونَ

“Then whoever’s scales are heavy, those are the successful. And whoever’s scales are light, those are the ones who lost themselves, in Jahannam, remaining forever.” (Surah Al Mu’minun: 102–103)

The records will be spread. One will take his record in his right hand, and one will take his record in his left hand.

He believed in the basin of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in the open place of the Day of Resurrection. Its water is whiter than milk and sweeter than honey. Its cups are like the number of the stars of the sky. Whoever drinks from it one drink will never feel thirst after it.

He believed the bridge is set upon the edge of Jahannam. People will pass over it according to their deeds.

He believed in the intercession of the Prophet ﷺ, and that he is the first intercessor and the first whose intercession is accepted. No one denies the intercession of the Prophet ﷺ except the people of innovation and misguidance. But it does not occur except after permission and approval. Allah only approves tawhid, and He only permits for its people. As for the mushrikin, they have no share in intercession.

He believed Paradise and the Fire are created, and that they exist today, and that they do not end.

He believed the believers will see their Lord with their eyes on the Day of Resurrection, as they see the moon on a full moon night, and they will not be harmed in seeing Him.

He believed our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers, and the belief of a servant is not correct until he believes in his message and testifies to his prophethood.

He believed the best of his ummah is Abu Bakr al Siddiq, then Umar al Faruq, then Uthman Dhu al Nurayn, then Ali al Murtada, then the rest of the 10, then the people of Badr, then the people of the tree, the people of Bayat al Ridwan, then the rest of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them.

He supported the Companions of the Messenger ﷺ, mentioned their good traits, sought forgiveness for them, and withheld his tongue from their faults, and he stayed silent about what occurred between them.

He affirmed the karamat of the awliya, except that they do not deserve anything from Allah’s right. He did not testify Paradise or Fire for any Muslim except the one the Messenger ﷺ testified for. But he hoped for the one who does good, and he feared for the one who does wrong.

He did not make takfir of any Muslim due to his sin, and he did not expel him from the circle of Islam.

He believed jihad continues with every imam, whether righteous or sinful. Congregational prayer behind them is permissible. Jihad continues from the time Allah sent Muhammad ﷺ until the last of this ummah fights al Dajjal. The oppression of an oppressor and the justice of a just person do not stop it.

He believed it is obligatory to hear and obey the leaders of Muslims, their righteous and their sinful, as long as they do not command disobedience to Allah.

Whoever takes the khilafah, and people unite upon him and accept him, or he overcomes them with his sword until he becomes khalifah, then obeying him becomes obligatory and rebelling against him becomes forbidden.

He believed it is required to abandon the people of innovation and separate from them until they repent. He graded them by what is apparent, and he left their hidden matters to Allah.

He believed every newly introduced matter in religion is an innovation.

He believed iman is speech of the tongue, action of the limbs, and belief of the heart. It increases by obedience and decreases by disobedience.

He believed enjoining good and forbidding evil is obligatory according to what the purified Sharia requires.

He ended by saying that this is a brief creed, written while busy minded, so that they can see what he has.

From His Letter to al Suwaydi, From the Ulama of Iraq

He wrote, after the basmalah:

“From Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab to the brother in Allah Abd al Rahman ibn Abd Allah. Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy, and His blessings. To proceed: your letter has reached, and it brought joy. May Allah make you from the imams of the people of taqwa, and from the callers to the religion of the Seal of the Messengers ﷺ.

I inform you that I, by Allah’s praise, follow and do not innovate.

My creed and my religion, which I worship Allah upon, is the madhhab of Ahl al Sunnah wa al Jamaah, upon which the imams of Muslims are, like the 4 imams and those who follow them until the Day of Resurrection.

But I clarified to the people making religion sincerely for Allah, and I forbade them from calling upon the living and the dead, from the righteous and others, and from associating them in what is worshipped for Allah, such as slaughter, vows, reliance, prostration, and other than that, from the right of Allah which no one shares with Him, neither a near angel nor a sent prophet.

This is what the messengers called to, from their first to their last, and this is what Ahl al Sunnah wa al Jamaah are upon.

I clarified to them that the first to bring shirk into this ummah were the Rafidah, who call upon Ali and others, and ask them to fulfil needs and remove hardships.

I have a position in my town and my word is heard. Some leaders rejected this because it opposed customs they grew up upon. I obliged those under my hand to establish prayer, give zakah, and the other obligations of Allah.

I forbade riba, drinking intoxicants, and different kinds of intoxicants. The leaders could not attack this or find fault with it, because it was considered good by common people. So they made their attack and hostility about what I commanded of tawhid and what I forbade of shirk.

They confused the common people by saying this opposes what most people are upon, and they attributed to us kinds of lies. The fitnah grew, and they gathered against us with the horse and foot of shaytan.

From that is spreading lies, as you mentioned, that I make takfir of all people except those who follow me, and that I claim their marriages are not correct.

How can this enter the mind of any sane person. Does any Muslim say this. I disown myself to Allah from this statement, which only comes from someone whose mind is corrupted.

In summary, what was said about me besides calling people to tawhid and forbidding shirk is all from lies, in brief.”

From his letter to the people of Morocco

After he mentioned Qur’an verses and hadiths about the duty of following the Sunnah, leaving innovations and newly invented matters, and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ informing that his ummah would follow the path of the nations before it, step by step, and that it must split, like the previous nations, and that the saved group is the one that is upon what the Messenger ﷺ and his Companions were upon, he said:

When this is known, then it is well known what has become widespread as a general trial of newly invented matters, the greatest of which is associating partners with Allah, and turning to the dead, and asking them for victory over enemies, fulfilling needs, and removing hardships, which none can do except the Lord of the heavens.

Likewise, drawing near to them through vows, slaughtering offerings, and seeking rescue through them in lifting severe distress and bringing benefits, and other types of worship that are only correct for Allah. Directing any type of worship to other than Allah is like directing all of it, because He, exalted is He, is the most free of partners from association, and He only accepts deeds that are purely for Him, as Allah said:

فَاعْبُدِ اللَّهَ مُخْلِصًا لَّهُ الدِّينَ ۝ أَلَا لِلَّهِ الدِّينُ الْخَالِصُ ۚ وَالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَاءَ مَا نَعْبُدُهُمْ إِلَّا لِيُقَرِّبُونَا إِلَى اللَّهِ زُلْفَىٰ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَهُمْ فِي مَا هُمْ فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي مَنْ هُوَ كَاذِبٌ كَفَّارٌ

“So worship Allah, making the religion sincerely for Him alone. Unquestionably, the pure religion belongs to Allah alone. As for those who take protectors besides Him, they say, “We only worship them so that they may bring us nearer to Allah.” Indeed, Allah will judge between them concerning that over which they differ. Indeed, Allah does not guide one who is a lying disbeliever.” (Surah al Zumar: 2–3)

So Allah, exalted is He, informed that He is not pleased with any religion except what is purely for His Face. He also informed that the polytheists call upon angels, prophets, and righteous people, so that they may bring them nearer to Allah in closeness, and so that they may intercede for them. And He informed that He does not guide the one who is a liar and a disbeliever, so He called them liars in this claim, and He called them disbelievers, when He said, “Allah does not guide the one who is a liar and a disbeliever.” End of quote.

From his letter on the Names and Attributes

After the basmalah and praising Allah, he said:

What we believe and worship Allah with is the madhhab of the Salaf of the ummah and its imams, from the Companions, the Tabiʿun, and those who followed them with excellence, from the four imams and their companions, may Allah be pleased with them. It is belief in the Qur’an verses of the attributes and the hadiths about them, affirming them, and letting them pass as they came, without likening, without resembling, and without denying. Allah said:

وَمَنْ يُشَاقِقِ الرَّسُولَ مِن بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ الْهُدَى وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ سَبِيلِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ نُوَلِّهِ مَا تَوَلَّى وَنُصْلِهِ جَهَنَّمَ وَسَاءَتْ مَصِيرًا

Whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him, and follows other than the path of the believers, We will turn him to what he has turned to, and We will burn him in Jahannam, and it is an evil destination. (al Nisa 115)

Allah has decreed for the Companions of His Prophet ﷺ and those who followed them with excellence, faith, so it is known with certainty that they are the ones meant by this noble verse. And Allah said:

وَالسَّابِقُونَ الْأَوَّلُونَ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنْصَارِ وَالَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُم بِإِحْسَانٍ رَّضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا عَنْهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي تَحْتَهَا الْأَنْهَارُ

The earliest forerunners among the Muhajirin and the Ansar, and those who followed them with excellence, Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him, and He has prepared for them gardens beneath which rivers flow. (al Tawbah 100)

And Allah said:

لَقَدْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحْتَ الشَّجَرَةِ

Allah was pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you under the tree. (al Fath 18)

So it is established by the Book that whoever follows their path is upon the truth, and whoever opposes them is upon falsehood.

From their path in belief is faith in Allah’s attributes and names, which He described Himself with, and named Himself with, in His Book and His Revelation, or upon the tongue of His Messenger ﷺ, without adding to them, and without reducing from them, and without going beyond them, and without explaining them, and without interpreting them in a manner that goes against their apparent meaning. They are not likened to the attributes of created beings.

Rather, they affirmed them as they came, and they returned knowledge of them to the One who said them, and their meaning to the One who spoke them. (What is meant by that is knowledge of the “how” and the true reality. In the understanding of Ahl al Sunnah wal Jamaʿah, what is not meant is their meaning in the Arabic language, because that is known among Ahl al Sunnah. They know that hearing is not sight, that rising over is not descending, that anger is not pleasure, and likewise the rest of the attributes.

They believe that Allah, exalted is He, is described by these attributes in truth, not as a metaphor, in a manner that befits His majesty, without resembling His creation in any of His attributes, as Malik and his teacher Rabiʿah (d. 136 AH), may Allah have mercy on them, said: “Rising over is not unknown, and the how is not grasped.” Malik also said: “Rising over is known, the how is unknown, belief in it is obligatory, and asking about it is an innovation”, meaning asking about the how.

The imams of the Sunnah received this from him and from his teacher Rabiʿah (d. 136 AH), and they agreed with him upon it. This is the truth in which there is no doubt. This is what all Ahl al Sunnah have followed, acting upon His saying, exalted is He: “There is nothing like Him, and He is the All Hearing, the All Seeing”, and what carries its meaning from the Qur’an verses. Allah knows best)

Later people took this from earlier people, and some advised others to follow well, and they warned us from following the path of the people of innovations and disagreement, whom Allah described when He said:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ فَرَّقُوا دِينَهُمْ وَكَانُوا شِيَعًا لَّسْتَ مِنْهُمْ فِي شَيْءٍ

Those who split their religion and became groups, you have nothing to do with them. (al Anʿam 159)

And He said:

وَلَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ تَفَرَّقُوا وَاخْتَلَفُوا مِن بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ وَأُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ

Do not be like those who split and differed after the clear proofs came to them. Those will have a great punishment. (Al ʿImran 105)

The proof that their madhhab is what we mentioned is that they transmitted to us the Great Qur’an and the reports of the Messenger ﷺ, with transmission that confirms them, believes in them, accepts them, without doubt, and without suspicion about the truthfulness of the One who said them. They did not interpret what relates to the attributes from them.

It also did not occur to them to liken Him to the attributes of created beings, because if they had done anything of that, it would have been transmitted from them. Rather, they rebuked the one who asked about the ambiguous matters, and they went far in stopping him, sometimes with harsh speech, and sometimes with striking.

When Malik (d. 179 AH) was asked about rising over, he answered with his famous words, and he ordered that the man be removed.

This answer of Malik (d. 179 AH) about rising over is sufficient and enough for all the attributes, like descending, coming, the hand, the face, and others. So it is said about descending: “Descending is known, the how is unknown, belief in it is obligatory, and asking about it is an innovation.” And likewise it is said about the rest of the attributes, because they are like rising over, which is reported in the Book and the Sunnah.

It is also established from al Rabiʿ ibn Sulayman (d. 270 AH) that he said: I asked al Shafiʿi (d. 204 AH), may Allah be pleased with him, about the attributes of Allah, and he said: “It is forbidden for minds to compare Allah, and for thoughts to limit Him, and for assumptions to decide, and for beings to think, and for inner secrets to go deep, and for passing thoughts to encompass, and for minds to grasp, except what He described Himself with upon the tongue of His Prophet ﷺ.”

It is established from Ismaʿil ibn ʿAbd al Rahman al Sabuni (d. 449 AH) that he said: The people of hadith who hold fast to the Book and the Sunnah describe their Lord with His attributes which His Book and His Revelation spoke of, and which His Messenger ﷺ testified to, upon what the authentic reports brought, and what the trustworthy, reliable narrators transmitted.

They do not believe in them with resemblance to His creation’s attributes. They do not describe them with the “how” of the people who resemble, and they do not twist words from their places with the twisting of the Muʿtazilah and the Jahmiyyah.

Allah has protected Ahl al Sunnah from twisting and from describing the “how”, and He granted them understanding and clear knowledge, so they followed the path of affirming Allah alone and declaring Him far above any flaw, and they left the saying of denial and resemblance. They were content in denying flaws with His saying, exalted is He:

لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ

There is nothing like Him, and He is the All Hearing, the All Seeing. (al Shura 11)

And with His saying:

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ ۝ وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ

He did not beget, and He was not begotten. And there is none comparable to Him. (al Ikhlas 3 to 4)

It is established from al Humaydi (d. 219 AH), the teacher of al Bukhari (d. 256 AH), and others from the imams of hadith, that he said: “The foundations of the Sunnah”, then he mentioned matters, and he said, “What the Qur’an and hadith spoke of, like:”

قَالَتِ الْيَهُودُ يَدُ اللَّهِ مَغْلُولَةٌ

The Jews said: “Allah’s hand is chained.” (al Maʿidah 64)

“And like:”

وَالسَّمَاوَاتُ مَطْوِيَّاتٌ بِيَمِينِهِ

The heavens will be folded in His right hand. (al Zumar 67)

“And what resembles this from the Qur’an and hadith, we do not reject it, and we do not explain it. We stop where the Qur’an and the Sunnah stopped, and we say:”

الرَّحْمَٰنُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ اسْتَوَى

The Most Merciful rose over the Throne. (Ta Ha 5)

“And whoever claims other than this is a Jahmi.”

So the madhhab of the Salaf, may Allah have mercy on them, is affirming the attributes, letting them run upon their apparent meaning, and denying the how from them. This is because speech about the attributes follows speech about the Essence, just as affirming the Essence is affirming existence, not affirming a how, and not resemblance. Likewise the attributes.

Upon this all the Salaf went. If we were to mention what we have seen from the speech of the Salaf about that, the speech would become very long.

So whoever’s aim is the truth and showing what is correct, he is satisfied with what we have presented. Whoever’s aim is argument, disputation, and talk, then lengthening only increases him in leaving the straight path. Allah is the One who grants success. End of quote.

The issues the Shaykh called to, and the disagreement between him and most people

1. Affirming Allah alone in worship, and it is also called affirming Allah alone as the only One worthy of worship. This is what Allah sent the messengers for, from Nuh, peace be upon him, to our master Muhammad ﷺ, as Allah said:

وَلَقَدْ بَعَثْنَا فِي كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ رَسُولًا أَنِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ وَاجْتَنِبُوا الطَّاغُوتَ

We sent a messenger to every nation, saying: “Worship Allah and avoid false gods.” (al Nahl 36)

When the Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab (d. 1206 AH) saw the people of Najd and others, as mentioned earlier, treat the graves of prophets and righteous people as objects of worship, and some caves and trees, and direct some acts of worship to them, like vows, oaths, slaughtering, seeking help, and seeking rescue, and other matters, which must not be directed except to Allah, he criticised them, and he explained to them that worship is obeying Allah by carrying out what He commanded, and that it is a broad name for everything Allah loves and is pleased with, from words and deeds.

The forms of worship are many, including prayer, fasting, charity, vows, slaughtering, circumambulation, seeking help, and seeking rescue. Whoever directs any of that to other than Allah is a polytheist. Allah said:

وَمَن يَدْعُ مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلَٰهًا آخَرَ لَا بُرْهَانَ لَهُ بِهِ فَإِنَّمَا حِسَابُهُ عِندَ رَبِّهِ إِنَّهُ لَا يُفْلِحُ الْكَافِرُونَ

Whoever calls upon another god besides Allah, without proof for it, then his reckoning is with his Lord. The disbelievers will not succeed. (al Muʾminun 117)

Some followed him and accepted his principle by desire and choice, while most refused, holding to blind following of fathers and submission to customs, and these deeds were widespread in other cities and villages, with most of the ulama remaining silent. (Add to that what they were known for: being careless with prayer, refusing zakah, seeking judgement from false gods, and leaving commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong. Refer to what was mentioned earlier, and the state of Najd before the call.)

2. Seeking a means. It is two types.

One type is sought and encouraged. It is seeking a means by faith, by Allah’s most beautiful names, and by righteous deeds, as the three men whom the rock fell upon sought a means by their righteous deeds, and Allah removed it from them. (The hadith of the 3 is reported by al Bukhari and Muslim and Abu Dawud. Its meaning, in brief, is that one of the 3 sought a means by his chastity from adultery, the second by his kindness to his parents, and the third by growing the wage of a hired worker that was small, and keeping it until it became a great amount. Each of the 3 deeds has no doubt that it is from the greatest of righteous deeds)

The second type is the innovated type. It is seeking a means through the persons of righteous people, such as a person saying: “O Allah, I ask You by the status of the Messenger”, or “by the sanctity of so and so, the righteous one”, or “by the right of the prophets and messengers”, or “by the right of the righteous allies of Allah.”

The Shaykh forbade them from the second type, because it was not narrated from the Messenger ﷺ or his Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, and because it is supplication. Supplication is worship, and it is built upon stopping where the proof stops. Allah is worshipped with what He legislated, not with desires and innovations.

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَابْتَغُوا إِلَيْهِ الْوَسِيلَةَ

O believers, fear Allah and seek the means to Him. (al Maʾidah 35)

Because the explanation reported from the Salaf and the greatest of the mufassireen is that seeking the means is through righteous deeds, and they also used as proof some fabricated reports, like the report about Adam seeking a means through the Prophet, when he committed the sin, and weak reports, like the report of the blind man, and the report of Fatimah bint Asad. There is no proof in a fabricated report or a weak report.

His forbidding of travelling to any place besides the three masjids

He forbade travelling to any place besides the three masjids, as it came in the authentic report: “Do not travel except to three masjids: al Masjid al Haram, this masjid of mine, and al Masjid al Aqsa.” The Shaykh did not pay attention to the interpretations of those who interpreted and opposed. As for travelling to seek knowledge, or to visit relatives, or to seek provision, then that is outside the dispute, because these matters came with Sharia commands.

Shaykh al Islam Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH), Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH), al Juwayni, the father of Imam al Haramain (d. 438 AH), from the Shafiʿis, and al Qadi ʿIyad (d. 544 AH), from the Malikis, preceded the Shaykh in forbidding travelling, and those who permit it do not have any proof that is sound to rely upon.

Building upon graves, covering them, lighting them, and similar matters

The Shaykh declared unlawful building upon graves, covering them, hanging curtains over them, lighting them, writing upon them, appointing attendants around them, and visiting them with the polytheistic visit that leads to many harms, like wiping the grave, circling it, praying towards it, and calling upon the buried person for bringing benefit or removing harm.

The Shaykh relied in forbidding and declaring it unlawful upon sound proofs from authentic reports, including the report, “May Allah curse the women who visit graves, and those who take masjids and lamps over them”, and the report, “Those before you used to take the graves of their prophets as masjids”, and similar.

The Shaykh ordered the destruction of those built domes, following the authentic reports, like the report of Abu al Hayyaj al Asadi, when ʿAli ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, said to him: “Shall I not send you upon what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent me upon: that you do not leave any statue except that you erase it, and you do not leave any raised grave except that you level it.”

The fuqaha of the four madhhahib and others preceded the Shaykh in forbidding these matters and declaring them unlawful. If some of them used the word “disliked” in some of them, then they meant disliked as unlawful, not disliked as merely leaving what is better.

Disliked, in the Qur’an and the Sunnah and upon the tongues of the Salaf, is used for what is unlawful. The later technical meaning, “the doer is not rewarded and the one who leaves it is not punished”, is a later term that has no weight here.

Likewise, there is no weight to the saying of some fuqaha that building upon a grave is unlawful if it is on shared land, so that land does not become tight for the dead, but if it is in his own property then it is merely disliked. We said there is no weight to it because the reports forbidding building and commanding its destruction are general, and nothing came from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that makes an exception.

The cause of unlawfulness is not tight land, as those people claimed. Rather, the cause is that building leads to glorifying the buried person and calling upon him besides Allah, and this is something witnessed and felt, and it does not accept disputation and argument.

Affirming the Names and Attributes

What came in the letters of the Shaykh has already passed, that in creed he is upon what the righteous Salaf were upon, from the Companions, the Tabiʿun, those after them, from the four imams and others, which is affirming the names and attributes without resembling and without describing the “how”.

This creed did not please those who opposed, because they were people of interpretation, and people of blind following of Jahm ibn Safwan and al Jaʿd ibn Dirham, holding to philosophical doubts that do not agree with the Qur’an verses, authentic reports, and the creed of the Companions, the Tabiʿun, and the rightly guided imams, may Allah be pleased with them all.

His criticism of innovations

The Shaykh criticised innovations and newly invented matters in the branches, like celebrating the Mawlid, giving reminders before the adhan, sending blessings upon the Prophet after the adhan out loud, speaking the intention, and reading the report of Abu Hurayrah when the khatib climbs the minbar. He also criticised the innovated ways of the Sufis, and other innovations that were not reported as recommended from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, nor from his Companions.

The ulama wrote before the Shaykh in criticising innovations and newly invented matters, like Ibn Waddah (d. 287 AH), al Turtushi (d. 520 AH), and al Shatibi (d. 790 AH).

The slander of the enemies of the Shaykh against him, and calling his followers “Wahhabis”

When the Shaykh called them to pure affirmation of Allah alone, to leaving polytheism and its means, and to leaving innovations, superstitions, and false thoughts, most of the people of Najd and other lands had sunk into those evils and inherited them from their earlier fathers.

The young grew up upon them, and the old grew old upon them. With corrupt thinking, they saw that what the Shaykh called to was a disgrace upon them, and that it was attributing them to ignorance and associating partners with Allah, and that it was belittling their fathers, especially the claimants of knowledge.

They thought that if they followed him, their status would fall and their worth would become small among the people, because the common people would say: “These people used to claim they were ulama and guides to good, and they used to sit to give fatwa and teach.

Then this Shaykh came and showed their ignorance and the corruption of their beliefs, and that they are not upon anything.” And other matters that Shaytan and desire filled them with, and love of leadership, until they became too proud to accept the truth.

They armed themselves with disputation and stubborn refusal. They inspired the common people that the Shaykh’s creed is not sound, that he opposes what the Muslims are upon, and that he belittles the status of the righteous, so he must not be followed, rather he must be repelled and crushed.

They argued with the Shaykh with falsehood, foolish opinions, and weak doubts, and Allah gave victory to the Shaykh, so he established clear proofs against them, supported by Qur’an verses and authentic reports, as can be seen in his writings, and the writings of his sons, his grandsons, and the imams of the call. He broke their doubts, wiped out their falsehood, and became severe in criticising them.

When their leading men became unable in the arenas of proofs and evidence, and they returned with failure, they turned to placing obstacles in the path of the call and to aggression, which forced the Shaykh and his party, under the leadership of Amir Muhammad ibn Saud, to resist them by the sword. Severe wars occurred between the party of the Shaykh and those people. Just as they failed in the arenas of scholarly proofs and left with empty hands, they also failed in the arenas of fighting and war. Victory was, in most cases, for the Shaykh and his party.

When they had no weapon left to fight the call, some of the claimants of knowledge and amirs increased in inventing lies and slanders, and they attributed them to the Shaykh. They started using false propaganda and invalid rumours.

Some of them wrote to the Turks and to the Ashraf in the Hijaz that this Shaykh is an innovator, that his madhhab is a fifth madhhab, that he does not love the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, nor the righteous allies of Allah, that he forbade visiting the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that he declared all people disbelievers except his followers, that he does not consider the four madhhahib, rather he ordered the destruction of the books of the madhhahib, and that he forbids sending blessings upon the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

Until he burned Dalaʾil al Khayrat, and that those Saudi Najdis corrupt the hearts of people, change their beliefs, want to turn them away from the inherited path and the way of fathers and grandfathers, belittle the signs of the religion by destroying the domes of the great shaykhs and righteous allies of Allah that generations agreed to glorify and seek blessing from, and that the state failing to respond to these attackers removes its respect from the hearts of Muslims and lowers its standing among them, and then it would not remain the rightful claimant of the caliphate over them.

They kept asking the Ottoman state for help, seeking victory through its power and army, stirring its kings, its judges, and its Shaykh al Islam with deception and temptation, claiming it is the protector of the two sacred sanctuaries and the protector of Islam. They filled the state’s heart with anger against the call of the Shaykh. They distorted its good face with the slanders and falsehood they heaped upon it.

They reached a level of shamelessness and lack of modesty and faith that they claimed: the Saudi Najdis do not say in the adhan, “I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”, rather they say, “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”

He said, in “Jazirat al ʿArab fi al Qarn al ʿIshrin”, its wording is: I heard in Najd that the rulers of northern Najd during their dispute with Al Saud used to write to the Turks that Al Saud took a banner with the words, “There is no god except Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”, with the phrase, “By the alliance of Muhammad”, to make the Turks hate their opponents, while they know with full certainty that this is pure lie.

They kept urging the Ottomans, their Shaykh al Islam, and their army commanders until the state was deceived by those slanderers. Matters became worse when the state saw the strength of the spread of the call of the Shaykh and the founding of the state of Al Saud.

It saw that the Saudi state had spread its control over Najd, extended to ʿUman, and began raiding Iraq and the edges of al Sham. It feared that its colonisation would be removed from the Arab lands, especially after Al Saud entered Makkah al Mukarramah in 1218 AH. The Ottomans then took their political role and used both pen and sword against the Shaykh and his Najdi followers.

As for the pen, they directed some ulama, whose share of religion, mind, and modesty was small, to write against the Shaykh and his followers and to spread among people those lies. As for the sword, the state ordered Muhammad ʿAli Pasha, its governor in Egypt, to prepare huge armies to fight the Najdis and wipe them out.

He welcomed the order and prepared a great army under the command of his son Tusun, then his son Ibrahim in 1326 AH. (This is the narration of Ibn Bishr. As for al Rihani, he says that the beginning of sending the army of Muhammad ʿAli to march against Najd was 1229, and the narration of Ibn Bishr (d. 1290 AH) is more worthy, because the people of the house know best what is inside it. )

He fought the Najdis, and the Turkish army was defeated many times, but in the end he achieved victory over the Saudis in 1233 AH.

The Ashraf of the Hijaz took their political role before the Turks. They fought the Saudis and the Salafi call, but they returned with great failure and were defeated.

The Saudis entered Makkah, as already mentioned. The Ashraf also fought the Saudis before their entering Makkah, and after their leaving it, by spreading false propaganda and clear slanders, and by directing some of their ulama to author books against the call of the Shaykh and his followers.

So the hired writers of the Turks and the Ashraf authored books filled with lies, nonsense, fabricated and weak reports, and ugly stories against the Salafi call, and they claimed the Shaykh was an innovating Khariji, until Zayni Dahlan (d. 1304 AH) applied the reports about the Khawarij to the Shaykh and his followers in his book “al Durar al Saniyyah” and in “al Futuhat al Islamiyyah”.

They did all of that to turn people away, so that they would not follow the great Shaykh and accept his correct principle.

From the propaganda of the Turks and the Ashraf that turned people away was that they labelled the followers of the Shaykh as “Wahhabis”, and they made this label for this Salafi group as a title that this group has left the madhhahib and does not love the Prophet and the righteous people, and they lied, by Allah, in that. (It is attributed to Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, and it is an attribution not according to Arabic usage. The correct would have been “al Muhammadiyyah”, because the name of the one who carried this call is Shaykh Muhammad, not his father ʿAbd al Wahhab. One of the most strange things is that no trace of this label is found in Najd. Rather, the Najdis reject this label from anyone who addresses them with it or attributes them to it.

This shows that this label came from outside, from the opponents of the call. Their greatest opponents then were the Ashraf and the Turks, and most of their ulama. Their only aim from those propaganda efforts and false rumours was to turn people away from accepting the call. Another aim was that the power of the Saudis would not become strong and their influence would not expand, so that the control of the Turks and the emirate of the Ashraf would remain.

But Allah returned their plot upon them and treated them with the opposite of what they intended. So the call of the Shaykh spread in all lands. Many people knew its soundness and reality, and that it does not leave the bounds of the Book and the Sunnah. Many accepted it, and a group of those who accepted it authored books in support of it and in defence of it )

The call kept increasing in influence, strength, and spread, as nights and days continued. Allah removed the state of the Turks and the Ashraf, and Allah enabled the Saudi state again under the leadership of its late king ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd al Rahman Al Faysal Al Saud (d. 1373 AH), may Allah have mercy on him. It extended its control and influence over Najd, the Hijaz, and ʿAsir. The public came to know the lie of those slanderers.

From Allah treating them with the opposite of what they intended is that they intended by the label “Wahhabis” to insult them, claiming they are innovators and do not love the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

Now it has become a label for everyone who calls to the Book and the Sunnah, to taking proof, to commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong, to fighting innovations and superstitions, and to holding to the madhhab of the Salaf.

So anyone who criticises an innovation or a wrong action will be answered, “You are a Wahhabi.” So this label, and praise is to Allah, has become praise and a name for the group that follows the Book and the Sunnah, and for everyone who accepts the madhhab of the righteous Salaf, and for everyone who calls to affirming Allah alone as the only One worthy of worship and to worship.

That is enough honour and respect for them. How good are the words of Shaykh Mulla ʿImran ibn ʿAli ibn Ridwan (d. 1280 AH), may Allah have mercy on him. (Like the author of “Siyanat al Insan” and “Nayl al Amani”)

The similarity between the era of the Messenger ﷺ and his call, and the era of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab and his call

The aim is not to make Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab like the Messenger ﷺ, because Allah has favoured the Messenger ﷺ over all prophets and messengers, and made him their seal, and his rank is not like the rank of anyone else.

As for Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, he is a scholar, a reformer, and a renewer of what had been erased from the religion of the Messenger ﷺ. The reader is shown the likeness between the 2 eras in some matters that happened to the noble Messenger ﷺ and to Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, may Allah have mercy on him.

1. The era of the Messenger ﷺ was an era in which corruption in beliefs, customs, and morals had reached a very great level.

Idols were worshipped besides Allah in al Masjid al Haram, at the Kaʿbah and elsewhere.

The Arabs had fallen to the lowest levels of hateful idolatry and low, disgraceful customs, such as drinking wine, prostitution, burying girls alive, and the control of the strong over the weak.

The most that can be said about that era is that it was an era of the destruction of the greatest human virtues and the highest noble meanings.

The era of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab (d. 1206 AH) was similar to that era, in what they were upon of complete ignorance, as they were drowning in valleys of ignorance, vice, and idolatry formed in the mould of love for the righteous.

The briefest that can be said about it is that it was an era of the destruction of human virtues and elevated meanings, with the erasing of religion added to that, and submission to the authority of superstitions and innovations.

2. Allah sent Muhammad ﷺ after an interval without messengers. Humanity, from what had struck it in its vital points, was waiting and thirsting for this noble mission, so that it might be guided after far misguidance, and move from chaos in morals and natural dispositions to order, calmness, and relief.

The Shaykh came at a time when the Arabian Peninsula was in the greatest need of a reformer who would treat it from its deadly diseases, return it to the teachings of the Messenger ﷺ and carry them out, rescue it from what it had fallen into, and take it by the hand out of that deep pit it had crashed into, so that it would walk on a straight path, where beliefs become pure, minds are healed, and where the light that rises from the Qur’an and the Sunnah fills the open lands and places.

3. Just as our Prophet ﷺ was granted success in calling to Allah and affirming His oneness, and in rejecting polytheism and showing its ugliness, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab (d. 1206 AH) was granted success in renewing the call of the Messenger ﷺ, walking upon his path, and spreading what came from him, pure and clean from every stain and falsehood.
4. The Messenger ﷺ could not remain in Makkah, where he was born, because Quraysh harmed him and attacked him with evil and harm, until they finally agreed upon killing him.

So he migrated to Madinah with his friend Abu Bakr (d. 13 AH), and he found in the Ansar help and love. Then his Companions followed him and moved there secretly, fearing harm and killing, and fleeing with religion and belief.

Likewise, the Shaykh, the slaves of his town where he was born plotted to kill him, climbed over the wall to reach him, and he received from his people harm and humiliation that made staying there impossible. (This is contrary to what is well known. What is well known is that the plotting occurred in Huraymila, and because of it the Shaykh, may Allah have mercy on him, moved to al ʿUyaynah, as Shaykh Ibn Bishr mentioned in his history. ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Baz.)

So he fled with his religion and belief to al Dirʿiyyah, and he found there people who loved him and were a support to him.

There he was able to live in peace with worship and religion, and those who desired his call and his followers moved to it, fleeing with their beliefs and their lives.

5. Just as it happened to the Messenger ﷺ on his way to Madinah, while he was migrating, that Suraqah ibn Malik (d. 24 AH) followed him, hoping to gain the reward of Quraysh, and when he reached the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr (d. 13 AH), the legs of his horse sank into the ground, and he became held and trapped, unable to free himself, until he sought help from the Messenger ﷺ and then he was released.

Likewise, something similar happened to Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab. The leader of al ʿUyaynah, ʿUthman ibn Muʿammar (d. 1163 AH), assigned someone against him when he ordered the Shaykh to leave the land, while the leader was riding and the Shaykh was walking, barefoot, bare headed, with nothing except a palm leaf fan with which he shielded himself from the heat of the sun.

Then when he intended to kill him, and his evil desire drove him ahead, his strong hand began to weaken until it fell.

6. Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab used to present himself to tribes and clans, seeking one that would support him and protect him, and he would meet tribes that would keep him away and turn him back, and tribes that would not leave him to rest and would plot against him, just as nobles and leaders plotted against him, and he did not soften for them.

Likewise, the Messenger ﷺ used to present himself to tribes and meet them in seasons and markets. Some would support him, some would abandon him, some would mock him, and some would harm him with what he disliked.

Yet he was patient, saying in his bright smile, “O Allah, guide my people, for they do not know.”

7. Just as danger and destruction faced the life of the noble Messenger ﷺ, calamities and disasters faced the life of his sincere follower.

He would turn away from one disaster to face another, with a calm self and a heart full of faith.

8. Just as the Messenger ﷺ used to go out to battle himself, putting himself into the battles and the field, and when fighting became intense he would strengthen the hearts of his noble Companions, support them, remind them, and call upon Allah for them, the followed leader, Imam Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, used to go out to battle himself with Muhammad ibn Saud (d. 1179 AH). He did not hold back wise advice, and he was among the most prominent men of the highest leadership. If opinion differed between him and others, his opinion was given priority, because he followed the guidance of Allah and His light.
9. Muhammad ﷺ used to send messengers to kings, calling them to guidance and the religion of affirming Allah alone, and he used to send expeditions for fighting if they declared war on the call.

Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab did that too, following the Sunnah of our Messenger ﷺ.

10. Just as the Messenger ﷺ was tested with strong enemies, stubborn in hostility, who envied him and accused him of sorcery and lying, to the point that even the closest of his relatives were confused about him, and even his uncle Abu Lahab (d. 2 AH) was not pleased with him, and he opposed him, belittled his forbearance, and did not spare any effort in turning people against him, Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab was also tested with fierce opponents who set traps for him and threw arrows at him, but they missed, and he was saved by Allah’s favour. Even his brother Sulayman ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab (d. 1208 AH) was a fierce enemy, attacking him with attacks and joining the ranks of opponents, not holding back from insulting him and criticising his beliefs, his call, and his way with harsh criticism. (Then Sulayman became clear about the truth, so he repented to Allah, and he came to his brother Shaykh Muhammad in al Dirʿiyyah, and he settled there until Allah caused him to die, as the scholar Ibn Bishr mentioned in the events of the year 1190 in his book ʿUnwan al Majd. ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Baz.)
11. Just as the Messenger ﷺ was victorious over his enemies, and they submitted to him and became from the best of his supporters, such as ʿUmar (d. 23 AH), Khalid (d. 21 AH), and ʿAmr ibn al ʿAs (d. 43 AH), likewise his sincere follower, full of humble prayer, was victorious over his opponents, and they came to him apologising.

Then he would pardon them out of noble character, feel comfort with them, and overlook them.

Then they would return as brothers and sincere supporters. (Most of it is taken from the book “Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab” by Ahmad ʿAbd al Ghafur ʿAttar, but with shortening in some phrases and addition in some.)

The effect of the call in the lands of Najd

1. This blessed call completely removed what was widespread in Najd of superstitions, what was widespread of glorifying graves and making vows to them, and believing in some trees, and it revived the signs of the Sharia after they had faded.
2. The people of Najd returned to pure affirmation of Allah alone, free from the stains of polytheism and idolatry, and they returned to the Qur’an and the purified Sunnah, and they ruled by them in the great matters and the small matters.
3. They were divided, with no bond to gather them, no Sharia rule to bring them together, and no legal rule, rather they were differing and divided in their paths and inclinations.

So this call united their word, gathered their scattered state, made them under one banner, and placed them under one authority that governed them by the Mighty Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ.

They were at the furthest level of ignorance and dullness, to the point that they believed in trees and caves.

So the call spread among them the knowledge of the purified Sharia and its tools, such as tafsir, hadith, affirmation of Allah alone, fiqh, biographies, histories, grammar, and other sciences.

Al Dirʿiyyah became the centre of knowledge and learning. Students of knowledge came to it from all directions, from all areas of Najd, Yemen, the Hijaz, and the Arabian Gulf. Knowledge spread through all classes, until historians said: the shepherd would graze livestock in open lands with a writing tablet around his neck.

From the strength of the spread of knowledge and how it flowed, firm scholars appeared, and they wrote valuable books in different sciences, after that great ignorance that had covered the areas of Najd and left it stumbling in deep darkness and false thoughts.

Security spread throughout all areas of Najd, to the point that a walker or rider would travel long distances for nights and days, fearing none but Allah, even if he carried wealth that a group of men would struggle to carry.

Najd was not known among nations. It was low and had no weight, no measure, and no value. It had no kingdom and no known ruler, except for some small rulers who governed a village or 2. So Najd, by the blessing of this call, became a united kingdom whose fame flew to distant horizons, and it was placed among nations.

The Ottoman state, which was the state at that time, feared it greatly and feared for its authority and control from this blessed Saudi state, until it sent huge armies to fight it and destroy it.

From its lasting effects is this present Saudi state whose authority stretches from the Arabian Gulf in the east to the Red Sea in the west.

A state of the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and pure affirmation of Allah alone, a state of commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong, a state that spread justice, security, and peace.

A state that made the centre of knowledge a support for everyone who comes to it, and it spread knowledge among all the people.

So it founded institutes of knowledge, colleges, and schools, and it spent great wealth on teachers and students, whether they were citizens or not.

A state that represents the early generation and the righteous Salaf in its rulings, its authority over morals, and its ruling by the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

A state that watches over the interests of the people, works for the wellbeing of the people, fights poverty, and raises the standard of living. It also watches over the comfort of pilgrims, uses every way for their wellbeing, removes every obstacle in front of them, and encourages them to return again and again to the pilgrimage to the Sacred House of Allah and to visit al Masjid al Nabawi, upon whose companion is the best prayer and peace.

In summary, it is the best of the Arab states in ruling by the Sharia, spreading security, justice, and knowledge, fighting the people of innovations and misguidance, and restraining foolish and careless people who corrupt morals and violate sacred limits. May Allah support it and grant it success in good and public benefit.

Its spread abroad

The call of the Shaykh spread outside Najd because the Saudi state entered Makkah al Mukarramah in the year 1218 AH. Pilgrims from Islamic lands began coming to Makkah al Mukarramah, seeing the ulama of this true call, hearing their sermons, reminders, strong guidance, and valuable direction. They also saw the conduct of the Saudi state at that time, and what it was upon of holding fast to the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and spreading security, justice, and fairness.

Some pilgrims were influenced by the call of the Shaykh, so they went back to their lands spreading affirmation of Allah alone and fighting the superstitions widespread in their lands. They also stood against grave worshippers and those who called to sanctifying graves and building domes over them.

So these reforming principles moved to Sudan in Africa, to Sumatra in Asia, and to India.

It also spread in Iraq, al Sham, Egypt, Algeria, Java, ʿUman, and Persia. The aim of its supporters in every place it reached was fighting corruption, removing innovations and superstitions, and correcting religious belief.

Revolts took place by the callers of the Wahhabis against the existing situations in lands.

As for Sudan, the caller was Shaykh ʿUthman ibn Fodio (d. 1232 AH), from the Fulani tribe, which is among the tribes of the shepherds of the Sudanese people. After meeting the ulama of the call in the season of pilgrimage, and after accepting the principles the Shaykh called to, he returned to his land and began fighting the innovations that were widespread among his clan and people.

He worked to remove the remains of idolatry and worship of the dead that were still mixed with Islamic belief in the hearts of the Sudanese people. He began spreading the correct teachings of Islam and spreading the principles of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab. He was able to gather around him his tribe in a firm unity, tied with the strong bond of religion, after it had been divided into several weak and failing groups.

After that, he began his wars in the year 1802 CE against the idolatrous Hausa tribes, and he removed the kingdom of Gobir, which was on the path of the Niger River.

In less than 2 years, ʿUthman established the kingdom of Sokoto in Sudan upon the basis of the Wahhabi religious call. Its authority stretched over all regions between Timbuktu and Lake Chad. It remained preserving its independence and unity for about a century, until European colonialism was able to remove what it had of independence and unity.

Just as the Wahhabi call entered Sudan, it also entered some Indian provinces through one of the Indian pilgrims, Sayyid Ahmad ibn ʿIrfan (d. 1246 AH).

This man was from the leaders of India. He went to the Hijaz to perform the obligation of pilgrimage after he entered Islam, in the year 1816 CE.

When he met the Wahhabis in Makkah, he became convinced of the soundness of what they called to, and he became a caller to the madhhab, held by faith and controlled by belief.

When he returned in the year 1820 CE to his homeland in India, in the Bengal region, he found a suitable field for calling among the Muslims of the area, whose beliefs and religious traditions had mixed with many Hindu beliefs and customs. He began the call in the city of Patna and called his Muslim brothers to believe in the correct principles of Islam and to leave the innovations and Hindu beliefs that were widespread among them. After a stage of struggle, these Wahhabi Muslims were able to establish the Islamic state upon the basis of the Wahhabi principles in the Punjab region, under the rule of the caller, Sayyid Ahmad ibn ʿIrfan (d. 1246 AH).

This state did not last long until English colonialism removed it in the fourth decade of the nineteenth century.

Yet the Wahhabi call remained there through the successors of Sayyid Ahmad ibn ʿIrfan (d. 1246 AH) after him, and the colonisers could not remove it.

Many of the people of those regions still follow Islam upon the Wahhabi madhhab.

In Sumatra, the Wahhabi call began in the year 1803 CE at the hands of one of the pilgrims from the islands, who had returned from pilgrimage in that same year after meeting the Wahhabis and learning the soundness of what they called to.

When he returned to his homeland, he began his call, then the movement developed into fierce wars between the Wahhabi Muslims, who became a great power in Sumatra, and between the non Muslims from its original inhabitants, until the Dutch colonial government, in the year 1821 CE, saw that it must oppose this strong movement to preserve its state and influence there.

Skirmishes and wars continued between the Dutch colonisers and the Wahhabi Sumatrans for no less than 16 years.

Then it ended with colonial power overcoming those who had risen with the Wahhabi movement.

Likewise, the Sanusi movement, which began in Algeria in the middle of the nineteenth century, then entered Tripoli after that, and spread in North Africa, then stretched south until it became strong in Sudan. This Sanusi movement opposed colonialism in every place. This movement, which was and still is a school of training and refinement for the Sanusi people, was influenced by the Wahhabi call in its foundation.

Sayyid Muhammad ʿAli al Sanusi (d. 1276 AH), the founder of the Sanusi movement, was in Makkah seeking knowledge at the time the Wahhabis controlled it.

He lived with them, studied under their ulama, and was influenced by their madhhab.

Then he returned to Algeria and began his reform movement upon the light of the Islamic religious teachings of reform which Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab lit in the Arabian Peninsula, ending with deletion and abridgement. (From the book “Modern Revivals in the Arabian Peninsula” by Muhammad ʿAbd Allah Madi.)

Just as it spread in Algeria through the Sanusi call, this blessed call also spread in Hadramawt and Java through Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1354 AH) and his establishing of Jamʿiyyat al Irshad there, which called to the Qur’an and the Sunnah and to leaving innovations and superstitions, applying the principles of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab.

Many were influenced by it in Hadramawt, ʿAdan, and Java, as is well known.

In summary, this call had a very great and serious effect in the Islamic universe in different ways. It was the first flame of the modern awakening in the whole Islamic universe. Leaders of reform in the rest of the Islamic lands were influenced by it.

All reform movements are indebted to the Wahhabi call.

The link between it and each of these movements can be defined either by direct taking, by imitation, or by mere influence.

Praise of the ulama for Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, from Muslims and from Western disbelievers

Most Salafi ulama and verifying historians greatly praised the Shaykh and spoke well of his call, built upon the foundations of the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

From that is the poem of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil al Amir al Sanʿani (d. 1182 AH), the author of Subul al Salam, when news of the Shaykh’s call reached him, and his rising against innovations and superstitions, and his establishing of the correct religion and the purified Sunnah, and his guiding people to hold fast to the 2 revelations. The reader is shown some of the poem:

“My greetings to Najd and those who live in Najd, even if my greetings from far away do not benefit.

It came from the slope of Sanaʿa. May the rain water its lands and give it life, and give it life with the crash of thunder.

I travelled, guided by the wind. If it travels, then O breeze of Najd, when did you pass through Najd.

Stop, and ask about a scholar who lived in its open lands. Through him, the one who strayed from the path of right guidance is guided.

Muhammad, the guide to the Sunnah of Ahmad ﷺ. How good is the guide, and how good is the guided one.

He criticised what all groups said. None of them had a chest for the truth, nor a path.

Not every statement is met with acceptance, and not every statement must be rejected and cast away.

Except what came from our Lord and His Messenger ﷺ, for that is a statement too great to be rejected.

As for the sayings of men, they move according to the strength of proofs in criticism.

Reports came about him that he restores to people the noble Sharia, in a way that removes what needs to be removed.

He spreads openly what every ignorant one and innovator had hidden, so he agreed with what I had.

He builds the pillars of the Sharia, destroying places where people went astray from right guidance.

They revived through them the meaning of Suwaʿ and those like it, Yaghuth and Wadd. How evil is that beloved.

They called upon them at times of severe distress, like the desperate one calls upon the One, the Unique.

How many animals they slaughtered in their open areas, declared openly for other than Allah, deliberately.

How many who circle the graves, coming towards them, and touching their corners with their hands.

It pleased me what reached me from his path. I used to think this path was only for me.

The sound of blame and backbiting is poured upon him, and he is avoided from far away by those who used to love him.

They attribute to him everything he never said, to reduce him among the people of Tihamah and Najd.

The people of rejection accuse him with false claims, and the people of extremism accuse him with rejection and denial.

He has no fault except that he came with making the Word of Allah the judge in decisions and authority.

And he follows the words of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Who besides him guides by Allah in the Sharia.

If the ignorant count that as a fault, then how good it is, how good it is on the day I am alone in the grave.

My greetings to the people of hadith, for I was raised upon love for hadith from my cradle.

They gave their efforts in preserving the Sunnah of Ahmad ﷺ and purifying it, with the greatest effort.

Are you more guided than the Companions of Ahmad ﷺ and the people of the cloak. Never. Thorns are not like roses.

Those people are more guided in the way than you, and they are my example until I am laid in the grave.”

To the end of what came in that poem.

Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ahmad al Hafzi

Among them is Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ahmad al Hafzi, the owner of Dujal from the villages of ʿAsir. He composed a long urjuzah in which he mentioned the call of the Shaykh and praised him with fine praise. He began the urjuzah by saying:

“Praise, truly due, always deserved, belongs to Allah, the Lord of the universes, forever.”

Then he said:

“Sending prayers upon the Messenger, the law giving Messenger, and upon his family, his Companions, and those who followed.

At the beginning and at the end.

As for what follows, this is a poem.

Goodness moved me to compose it,

That goodness which came to us

At the end of the dark age,

When the caller called from the east,

By the command of the Lord of the universes, the Creator.

Allah sent to us a renewer

From the land of Najd, a scholar, a mujtahid,

The Shaykh of guidance, Muhammad al Muhammadi,

The Hanbali, the Athari, the Ahmadi.

He rose, while open polytheism

Had spread among the people,

And had grown and become severe.

They did not know religion, nor the declaration of Allah’s oneness,

Nor the paths of Islam, nor the way,

Except their names, and the trace remained.

The earth is never empty of people of knowledge,

And every group has its one they cling to,

They call upon him in hardship for relief.

The religion of Islam and its rulings

Were in estrangement, and its people were orphans.

He called to Allah, and with the declaration of Allah’s oneness

He spoke openly among the tribe,

Weak, with no supporter,

And no helper to aid him,

In humiliation and fewness.

In his hand was a fan

That spared him from a sword,

As if it were the breeze’s coolness in fear.

The truth rises with the armies of the Lord.

It reminded me of ʿUmar’s pearl,

And of Musa عليه السلام striking the stone with the staff.

He never stopped calling to the religion of the Prophet ﷺ,

Not calling to himself, nor to a madhhab.

He taught the people the meaning of,

“I bear witness that there is no god

Except One, worshipped alone.

Muhammad is His Prophet, His servant, His Messenger.

To you is his aim,

That you worship Him alone,

Do not associate anything with Him,

And leave innovation.

Whoever calls upon anyone besides Allah has committed polytheism,

Even if it is Muhammad.

If you say, “We worship them

For closeness or for intercession”,

Then that is the lie.

Our Lord says in His Book,

“This is polytheism, without any resemblance.”

This is the meaning of the Shaykh’s call.

Those who lived in his time became too proud to follow the Sunnah,

So the people split.

Among them is one who turns away,

One who opposes, one who fights, one who stubbornly resists,

Between a bat and a beetle,

May the faces of the people of resemblance become ugly.

After Allah answered,

Whoever argued about Allah fell, and was tested.

Whoever answered Allah’s caller became a king.

Whoever turned away, refusing, then he has perished.

The earliest forerunners, the masters,

The great Al Saud, the leaders,

They are the relieving rains, the lions, the pride,

The supporters of Islam, the lofty honour.

They came forward while the people turned away from him.

They knew his right, which others denied.”

To the end of what came in that resonant urjuzah.

Elegy of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAli al Shawkani (d. 1250 AH)

An elegy by the great scholar Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAli al Shawkani (d. 1250 AH), the author of “Nayl al Awtar”, for Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, praising him:

“A calamity struck my heart and kindled my burning,

And it silenced my killing places with the arrow of grief.

A disaster struck, and the tenths of my insides were split,

So they became, from the force of longing, a reliance of any reliance.

A calamity that demanded from me the calmness of my life,

And it forced me to drink, unwillingly, the bitterness of watering places.

A calamity in which the core of my being melted,

And my back became weary from bearing it.

A calamity in which the universe’s face became dust covered,

While the banners of low people became high.

Through it the pillar of religion collapsed, and its rope weakened,

And the building of error was raised, with every falsehood.

A croaking crow rose openly against Islam and its people,

With a terrifying humiliation.

The landmarks of the followers of Ahmad ﷺ were branded with humiliation,

A collapse that came from every ignorant one.

The mountain of knowledge has died, the axis of the mill of greatness,

The centre of the cycles of the noble stallions.

The knowledge of religion altogether became weak by his death,

And the face of truth was buried under stones.

The Imam of guidance, the eraser of destruction, the one who crushes enemies,

The one who quenches thirst from overflowing knowledge and gift.

The Imam of the people, the scholar of the age, the unmatched one,

The Shaykh of shaykhs, the grandfather, the singular of virtues.

Muhammad, the possessor of glory, whose rank became mighty,

And whose station rose above the reach of challengers.

May the worshipper of al Wahhab be comforted,

For he is the offspring of noble, pure traits.

Upon him, from the Most Merciful, the greatest mercy,

Upon his soil, in the forenoon and in the evenings.

Najd shone with the light of his brightness,

And the stations of guidance rose with proofs.

From his matter is the crushing of misguidance and the victory

Of the oppressed one who is not abandoned.

How much he struggled for the upright religion,

With a sharp spear that crushes falsehoods.

How much he defended the lofty sanctuary,

And pushed away every misleader, innovator, pardoned one, and giver.

So why did the people of misguidance permit themselves to violate his honour,

While low people lowered his banners.

If not for him, the mill of religion would not have reached firmness,

And the pillar of Islam’s fortresses would not have become strong.

There would not have been for Allah’s oneness a clear road

That straightens the crooked path against every critic.

He is only one who stood in his time

In the place of the Prophet ﷺ, in nullifying lies.

My eyelids will weep him as long as I live, and if I die,

A dewy and pouring eyelid will weep him on my behalf.

Wake up, O critic of the Shaykh, what are you criticising him for,

You have criticised truth and departed with falsehood.

Yes, his fault is that blind following tightened its rope,

And the affliction of fanatical partisanship came with polished swords.

When he called to Allah among the creation, crying out,

You cried against him with accusation, like loud birds.

Wake up, wake up, he is not calling

To the religion of fathers and tribes.

He called to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah

That were brought to us by Taha, the Prophet ﷺ, the best speaker.”

Elegy of Shaykh Husayn ibn Ghannam (d. 1225 AH)

Shaykh Husayn ibn Ghannam (d. 1225 AH), may Allah have mercy on him, the author of “Rawdat al Afkar wal Afham”, elegised Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab and praised him as he deserved:

“To Allah we flee when severe distress is uncovered,

Not to anyone besides the Protector, as a place of fleeing.

The sun of knowledge and guidance was eclipsed,

So blood and tears flowed on cheeks.

An Imam, the people altogether were struck by his loss,

A disaster of separation circled them, painful.

The lands became dark by his death,

And hardship came upon them, cutting from sorrow.

A meteor fell from its horizon and its height,

And a star sank into the earth, and a barren place covered it.

A master star, its brightness shining,

A moon whose rising place was in the home of Yemen.

A morning appeared for the people, its light clear,

So after him, darkness returned, thick.

The sea of knowledge, understanding, and generosity dried up,

And it had been a grazing place for creation.

A people, the rust of covering was removed from them, so they were guided,

Their ears became pure for truth, and they listened.

A people of poverty, hardship, and need,

They gathered and acquired what gives hope for life.

The Master raised by him the rank of guidance

At a time when misguidance rose and was lifted.

He made a flash of truth clear for him, a flash,

Through which a veil and covering were removed from him.

His Master gave him the pure drink of understanding, so he drank,

And he passed through a river of knowledge, cutting through it.

He revived by him Allah’s oneness after its fading,

And strengthened by him a clear path out of the darkness of polytheism.

The lights of the morning of truth appeared, its brightness clear,

Its lamp became high, and its light obeyed.

He rose to the peak of glory that none climbed,

And none matched its brightness, no proud one.

He recited in the path of the Sunnah of Ahmad ﷺ,

Building and reviving what had faded, and raising.

He removed enemies from its sanctuary and its open lands,

Crushing the lords of misguidance, and pushing away.

He debated with Qur’an verses and the Sunnah’s light,

We return to them when there is dispute.

The upright way smiled by him, its mouth bright,

And its face shone and sparkled.

The path of misguidance returned rising,

While people had walked it, comfortable.

Najd dragged the hems of its pride by him,

And it had the right to rise with the bright one.

His traces in it are clear marks,

And his lights in it shine and rise.

Islam found, on the day he departed, a calamity,

We feared after him it would break.

The people of minds, merit, and understanding were shaken,

Souls nearly followed, one after another.

The hearts of Muslims flew by his death,

So they thought the Resurrection was knocking.

All cried with weeping, in sorrow,

Hearts nearly broke after him.

Eyes overflowed and tears began,

Mixed with something like blood, pouring.

The people of needs wept him on the day he departed,

And the people of guidance, truth, and religion, all together.”

Then he said:

“If he has in this universe a grave as a place,

Then on the Day of Recompense, for him is hoped everlasting life as a place.

May a constant rain of pardon water his grave,

And clouds of goodness pour upon it early.

Place him in the wide place of success and contentment,

And he will not stop enjoying pleasure there.”

Shaykh ʿImran ibn ʿAli ibn Ridwan

Shaykh ʿImran ibn ʿAli ibn Ridwan, from the people of Lengeh, from Persian lands, replied to some atheists and praised the Shaykh. A poem in which he did well and benefited. Its beginning:

“Their poem comes, going and coming,

In insulting the religion of Muhammad, the Hashimi.

They decorated it for the rabble by their words,

“Surely the Book is guidance, by it we follow.”

If its composer held to what

He first said when he began,

He would have been guided and granted success, then he would have reached happiness,

Without doubt, for every one who affirms Allah alone.

But he turned away from what he said,

Interpreting it with a bad interpretation.

So you are like honey in which there is deadly poison,

Whoever tastes it is in a far destruction.

The Shaykh saw some people of ignorance,

Calling upon the people of quiet graves,

Taj and Shamsan and whoever resembles them,

From any dome, soil, or shrine.

They hoped for closeness and intercession from them,

And they hoped also for someone to take them by the hand.

He saw the worshippers drawing near to the graves

Through vows and foul, corrupting slaughter.

The reciters and the shaykhs did not criticise what they saw

From an action not praised,

Rather they permitted it and shared in consuming it,

Those who slaughter for graves and sacrifice.

So the mentioned Shaykh came to them

With clear counsel and good speech,

Calling them to Allah, that they do not worship

Except the Protector, the Possessor of majesty, forever.

They must not associate an angel, nor a messenger,

And not a righteous one, nor a master.

So they turned away from him and said, “This is nothing

But something strange, not known to us.

Our fathers did not say this,

Nor our grandfathers, the people of understanding and honour.

We found our fathers upon this,

So we follow what we found.”

When the Shaykh saw this matter

From the people of his time, he became firm, not blind following.

He called out to them, “O people, how did you make

For Allah equals without limit.

If they were fair, they would see his merit

In showing what they lost from their hands.

And they would call upon him with goodness after his death,

To repay him in the manner of the guide.”

But they opposed, became proud,

And walked upon the path of an envious people.

They accused him with slander and lie,

The very thing they do, and among them it begins.

Like their claim, “He cuts off the follower

From entering gardens and wide eyed maidens.”

Never, no. This is not his matter,

Rather he hopes for it for the one who affirms Allah alone.

They said to him, “O disbeliever, O wicked one.”

The words of envious enemies did not harm him.

Quraysh said before them to the Chosen One ﷺ,

“This is a magician, this is a soothsayer, this is an attacker.”

They said, “He is a deceiver of Ahmad’s ummah,”

While he is the sincere adviser in every way.

Did he say anything except, “Affirm the oneness of the Lord of the heaven,

And leave the worship of anything besides the One.”

Hold to the clear Sunnah, and do not go beyond limits

By adding and rejecting.

This is what they made into deception, while it is

What the noble messengers were sent with for whoever is guided,

From the time of Adam عليه السلام, then Nuh عليه السلام, like this,

One after another, until the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

Likewise the Caliphs after their Prophet,

And the Tabiʿun, and every guided scholar.

This is their path, hold to it.

Whoever follows them, then let him follow it.”

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Musharraf al Ahsāʾi

From a poem by Shaykh Ahmad ibn Musharraf al Ahsāʾi, in praise of Faysal ibn Turki, in which he mentioned the Shaykh:

“They sheltered an Imam who stood calling to Allah,

Called the Shaykh of the Muslims, Muhammad.

He made Islam clear when it was in estrangement,

While every atheist worked hard to hide it.

He renewed the path of the Sharia when it faded,

So how honoured he is, a scholar and renewer.

He revived, through teaching knowledge, its faded traces,

Just as he killed polytheism with the mouth and the hand.

How many doubts of the polytheists he removed,

With every proof that removes hesitation.

He wrote, in Allah’s oneness, a brief writing,

Through which the Most Merciful guided to truth whom He guided.

Texts from the Qur’an that cure blindness,

And every hadith, supported for the imams.

ʿAbd al ʿAziz and his group supported him

Despite their fewness and a tight life.

He did not fear for Allah the blame of a blamer,

And the attacks of an oppressor and attacker did not turn him back.”

Sayyid Mahmud Shukri al Alusi (d. 1342 AH)

The scholar of Iraq, Sayyid Mahmud Shukri al Alusi (d. 1342 AH), may Allah have mercy on him, said at the end of his history of Najd:

“The Shaykh Muhammad was from a household of knowledge in the areas of Najd. His father, Shaykh ʿAbd al Wahhab, was a scholar and a jurist upon the madhhab of Imam Ahmad, and he was a judge in the town of al ʿUyaynah, then in Huraymila, and that was at the beginning of the twelfth century. He had complete knowledge of hadith and fiqh, and he had questions and answers.

The father of ʿAbd al Wahhab, Shaykh Sulayman, was a scholar and a jurist, the most knowledgeable of the ulama of Najd in his time, with the greatest share in knowledge. The leadership of knowledge in Najd ended with him. He wrote, taught, and gave fatwa.

However, Shaykh Muhammad was not upon the way of his father and grandfather. He was strong in holding to the Sunnah, and he greatly criticised whoever opposed the truth from the ulama.

In summary, he was among the ulama who command what is right and forbid what is wrong. He taught the people prayer and its rulings, and the rest of the pillars of religion. He commanded the congregational prayers.

He worked hard in teaching the people, urging them to obedience, commanding them to learn the foundations of Islam and its conditions and the rest of the rulings of religion. He commanded all the people of the land to have study sessions in the masjids every day after the dawn prayer, and between the evening prayers, about knowing Allah, knowing the religion of Islam, knowing its pillars, and knowing the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, his lineage, his mission, and his migration.

The first matter he called to was the word of Allah’s oneness, and the rest of the acts of worship that must only be for Allah, such as supplication, slaughter, vows, fear, hope, awe, desire, reliance, turning back, and other matters.

So none of the common people of Najd remained ignorant of the rulings of the religion of Islam. Rather, all of them learned that, after they had been ignorant, except their select few.

People benefited from him in this good matter, his approved conduct and his beneficial guidance.”

End of quote.

Amir Shakib Arslan (d. 1366 AH)

Amir Shakib Arslan (d. 1366 AH), in the fourth part of “The Present State of the Islamic Universe”, under the title “The Modern History of Najd”, mentioned the birth of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, then he said:

“Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab sought knowledge in Damascus.” (He intended to travel to al Sham, but his spending became little, so he returned from Baghdad.)

“He travelled to Baghdad and Basrah, and he absorbed the principles of the memoriser, the proof of Islam, Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH), and his student Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH), and Ibn ʿUrwah al Hanbali, and others from the great imams of the Hanbalis. He began to think about returning Islam to its first purity. For that reason, the Wahhabis call their madhhab the belief of the Salaf.” (Yes, and they have the right, because they did not oppose the Salaf by even a small amount, and their books speak clearly of that.)

“From there he criticised belief in righteous allies of Allah, visiting graves, seeking rescue from other than Allah, and other matters which he placed within the door of polytheism. He used as proof for the soundness of his opinions the Qur’an verses and the hadiths of the Chosen One ﷺ. I do not think that he mentioned there anything except what Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned.”

End of quote.

Shaykh Muhammad Hamid al Fiqi (d. 1378 AH)

Shaykh Muhammad Hamid al Fiqi (d. 1378 AH), the head of the group “Ansar al Sunnah al Muhammadiyyah”, from the ulama of al Azhar, said in his book “The Effect of the Wahhabi Call”:

“The term Wahhabiyyah is an attribution to the reforming Imam, Shaykh al Islam Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, the renewer of the twelfth century. It is an attribution not according to Arabic usage. The correct is to say al Muhammadiyyah, because the name of the one who carried this call and stood for it is Muhammad, not ʿAbd al Wahhab.”

Then he said after some speech:

“They are Hanbalis, strongly holding to the madhhab of Imam Ahmad in its branches, like the followers of other madhhahib. They do not claim, neither in speech nor in writing, that Shaykh Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab came with a new madhhab, nor that he invented a knowledge different from what was with the righteous Salaf.

Rather, his work and his struggle were to revive acting upon the correct religion and to return the people to what the Qur’an established in affirming Allah alone as the only One worthy of worship, and in worshipping Allah alone with humility and submission, supplication, vows, oaths, reliance, and obedience to His laws.

And in affirming the names and attributes, so he believes in their Qur’an verses as they came. He does not distort, he does not interpret away, he does not resemble, and he does not make comparisons, upon what came in the wording of the clear Arabic Qur’an, and what came from the Messenger ﷺ, and what the Companions, their followers, and the guided imams were upon, from the Salaf and those who came after them, may Allah be pleased with them all, in all of that. And confirming the testimony that there is no god except Allah and that Muhammad ﷺ is the Messenger of Allah is not completed in its correct manner except by this.”

End of quote, with summarising.

(He did not reject the visit that is required by the Sharia, the aim of which is that a person remembers death and the home of the Hereafter, and that a person supplicates for the buried person. Rather, he rejected the innovated visit that contains polytheism, such as seeking help, or the ways that lead to polytheism, such as praying to Allah at graves and supplicating at them.)

ʿAbd al Mutaʿal al Saʿidi

The speech of ʿAbd al Mutaʿal al Saʿidi, in his book “The Renewers in Islam”:

He said about him: “He is Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab.” Then he mentioned his birth, his upbringing, and his travels to seek knowledge, then he said:

“He returned to his land after this long scholarly journey, having gained through it what other ulama of Najd did not gain. He became broader than them in knowledge, and more aware of earlier ulama who had a role in reform. He did not fall into the stiffness and stagnation that the ulama of his time fell into, until they became familiar with the innovations of their time and took them as if they were from the foundations of religion and its pillars.

When the Shaykh returned to his land, he was not pleased with what the ulama of Najd were pleased with, of remaining silent about those innovations. He wanted to bring back in fighting them the time of his earlier Hanbali imams, especially Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH), may Allah have mercy on him.

He had studied his books and his reforming letters within what he studied in his upbringing.

He began calling to what Ibn Taymiyyah called to before him, of affirming Allah alone in worship, and rejecting turning to the people of domes and graves, and rejecting seeking a means through righteous allies of Allah and prophets in fulfilling needs.

Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab began his call in his land with gentleness and kindness, then he began sending it to the rulers of the Hijaz and other lands.

When the people of his land saw his persistence, they began harming him, so he left them for the town of al Dirʿiyyah in Najd. Its ruler was Muhammad ibn Saud (d. 1179 AH). He presented his call to him and he accepted it, and he stood to protect it and spread it in the Arab lands.

The Shaykh continued his call under the protection of this emirate until he died, may Allah have mercy on him, in the year 1206 AH.”

End of quote, in brief.

Sayyid Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1354 AH)

Sayyid Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1354 AH) said in introducing the book “Siyanat al Insan”, after mentioning the spread of innovations because of weak knowledge and weak acting upon the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and because kings and rulers supported their people, and because people with turbans supported them. He said, may Allah have mercy on him, exactly:

“Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, may Allah have mercy on him.

No century passed in which innovations increased except that there were godly ulama who renewed for this ummah the matter of its religion through calling, teaching, and fine example, and just people who remove from it the distortion of those who exaggerate, the lies of those who falsify, and the interpretations of the ignorant, as came in the hadiths.

Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab of Najd was among these just renewers. He rose calling to making Allah’s oneness pure, and making worship only for Allah, with what Allah legislated in His Book and upon the tongue of His Messenger ﷺ, the seal of the prophets, and leaving innovations and sins, establishing the abandoned signs of Islam, and honouring its sacred limits which had been violated and weakened.

So 3 powers rose against him to oppose him and harm him: the power of the state and rulers, the power of their supporters from the ulama of hypocrisy, and the power of the ignorant masses.

Their strongest weapon in replying to him was that he opposed the majority of Muslims.

Which Muslims are those whom Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab opposed in his call?

Bedouins in the deserts, worse than the people of ignorance, living by theft and plunder, permitting the killing of the Muslim and others for earning, seeking judgement from their false gods in every concern, and denying many matters of Islam that are agreed upon, matters no Muslim can be ignorant of.”

To the end of what he said.

Ahmad ʿAbd al Ghafur al Hijazi

The speech of Ahmad ʿAbd al Ghafur al Hijazi in his book “Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab”:

“Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, the young rising man, was among the greatest supporters of intellectual freedom, walking upon the path of Islam, calling to it with sincerity and strong effort. He was able to free himself from the constraints of his environment and leave the worn customs of his people.

So he rose with his well known rising against stiffness and backwardness, and he fought them with a severe, hard fight, walking in all his affairs upon the scholarly path and fair scholarly criticism.”

End of quote.

Dr Taha Hussein (d. 1393 AH)

Dr Taha Hussein (d. 1393 AH) said:

“The one who searches for the intellectual and literary life in the Arabian Peninsula cannot ignore a harsh movement that appeared in it during the eighteenth century. It drew the modern universe’s attention in east and west, forced it to care about it, and produced serious effects. Its matter weakened somewhat, but it returned and became strong in these days, and began to affect not only the Peninsula, but also its relations with European nations.

This movement is the movement of the Wahhabis, which Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab produced, a shaykh from the shaykhs of Najd.”

Then he mentioned a small amount about the Shaykh’s upbringing, his scholarly travels, and his call, until he said:

“I said that this new madhhab is old in meaning. The reality is that it is new for the contemporaries, but it is old in truth, because it is only the strong call to pure Islam, clean and purified from the stains of polytheism and idolatry.

It is the call to Islam as the Prophet ﷺ brought it, purely for Allah, removing every intermediary between Allah and the people.

It is the revival of Arab Islam and its purification from what struck it from the results of ignorance and from the results of mixing with non Arabs.

Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab criticised the people of Najd for what they had returned to of ignorance in belief and conduct.”

Then he said:

“If the Turks and Egyptians had not gathered to fight this madhhab, and fought it in its home with armies and weapons the desert people did not know, then it would have been very hoped that this madhhab would unite the word of the Arabs in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, just as the appearance of Islam united their word in the first century.

But what matters to us from this madhhab is its effect in intellectual and literary life among the Arabs.

This effect was great and serious in different ways.

It awakened the Arab self, placing in front of it an example that it loved and fought for, with sword, pen, spear, and iron. It drew the Muslims altogether, and the people of Iraq, al Sham, and Egypt in a special way, to the Arabian Peninsula.”

End of quote, from the book “Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab” by Ahmad ʿAbd al Ghafur.

Hafiz Wahbah (d. 1387 AH)

Hafiz Wahbah (d. 1387 AH), in his book “Jazirat al ʿArab”, after mentioning a short account from the Shaykh’s history, said:

“Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab was not a prophet, as the Danish man Niebuhr claimed.

But he was a reformer, a renewer, calling to returning to the true religion. Shaykh Muhammad had no special teachings and no special opinions. Everything applied in Najd is the madhhab of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah have mercy on him.

As for beliefs, they follow the righteous Salaf and oppose others.

Their teachings are almost fully matching what Ibn Taymiyyah and his students wrote in their books, though they oppose them in a small number of issues in the branches of religion.”

Muhammad ibn Qasim

Muhammad ibn Qasim, in his book “The History of Europe”: “The Wahhabis, in their belief and madhhab, were upon the path of Ahl al Sunnah wal Jamaʿah, and the original foundation of their madhhab is affirming Allah’s oneness.”

Munah Harun

Ustadh Munah Harun, replying to the English writer Count Wells, said what follows:

“When the movement of the Saudis expanded at that time and began to threaten Iraq, al Sham, the Hijaz, and Yemen, the Ottoman authority, or harsh politics, saw that it must turn the hearts of the Arabs away from this amir, meaning ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn Muhammad ibn Saud. He was aiming to restore the glory of the Arabs. So it instructed some of its workers from the shaykhs, and they began planting statements against Shaykh Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab that Allah did not send down any authority for.

They used the disputed issues between the madhhab of Imam Ahmad and the other Islamic madhhahib as a way to attack the Wahhabis, whom they attached this name to, to mislead Islamic public opinion, and to make people think they have a new madhhab not recognised, while they did not leave, in anything, the madhhab of Imam Ahmad, which is the madhhab of the righteous Salaf.

They did not say anything innovated in religion. Everything Shaykh Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab said, others said before him, from the great imams and the noble Companions. He did not leave, in anything, what Imam Ahmad and Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on them, said.”

ʿUmar Abu al Nasr

ʿUmar Abu al Nasr, in the book “Ibn Saud”, said about Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab:

“The reality is that the call of Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab is nothing but a sound and granted success call to leave innovations and corruptions that weakened the religion of Islam, corruptions that some shaykhs worked to spread, to make common, and to increase among the people.

If we search the call in its sources, take it with criticism, study, and verification, we find that it does not differ from the madhhab of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal except in some shortening and lengthening.

The Wahhabis do not have a special madhhab called by their name, as some who attack them say. Their madhhab is Imam Ahmad.

There is nothing in what they ask for and call to that opposes the Sunnah or disagrees with the Noble Qur’an.

They reject this misleading attempt by some shaykhs and others, and this extreme exaggeration of building domes around shrines and graves, praying in them, lighting incense, and seeking intercession from their occupants, while Islam forbids this.

There is no intermediary in Islam, and no one intercedes with Allah except by His permission.”

Muhammad Kurd ʿAli (d. 1373 AH)

Muhammad Kurd ʿAli (d. 1373 AH), in “The Old and the New”, after mentioning an enjoyable chapter about the origin of the Wahhabiyyah, said:

“Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab is only its caller. He guided them from misguidance and led them to the easy religion. If harshness appeared from some of them, it came from the upbringing of the desert. We rarely saw a people from the people of Islam in whom religion, truthfulness, and sincerity are stronger than these people.

We tested their common and their select for many years. We did not see them leave Islam even by the distance of a small throw. What their enemies accuse them of is false, with no foundation.”

Khayr al Din al Zurkali (d. 1396 AH)

Al Zurkali (d. 1396 AH), in “al Aʿlam”, volume 7, said:

“Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab ibn Sulayman al Tamimi al Najdi, the leader of the modern reforming religious revival in the Arabian Peninsula.

He was born and raised in al ʿUyaynah in Najd. He travelled 2 times to the Hijaz, then went to Madinah, travelled to Basrah, returned to Najd, lived in Huraymila, then moved to al ʿUyaynah, following the path of the righteous Salaf, calling to pure Allah’s oneness and leaving innovations, and breaking what attached to Islam of false thoughts.

His call was the first flame of the modern awakening in the entire Islamic universe. The men of reform in India, Egypt, Iraq, al Sham, and others were influenced by it.

So the great al Alusi appeared in Baghdad, Jamal al Din al Afghani in Afghanistan, Muhammad ʿAbduh in Egypt, Jamal al Din al Qasimi in al Sham, Khayr al Din al Tunisi in Tunisia, Siddiq Hasan Khan in Bhopal, and Amir ʿAli in Calcutta.

The one who supported him and strengthened him in the heart of the Peninsula were the people of Allah’s oneness, “Brothers of whoever obeyed Allah”. Their opponents called them Wahhabis, attributed to him.”

Dr Muhammad ʿAbd Allah Madi (d. 1408 AH)

Dr Muhammad ʿAbd Allah Madi (d. 1408 AH), in “The Present State of the Islamic Universe”, under the title “The Saudi Arab Revival”, after earlier speech, said, exactly:

“Just as the Messenger Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ﷺ was sent among the Arabs while they were in complete chaos, general decline, splitting and collapse, with no unity to tie them, and no sound thought to gather them, so he spread the principles of Islam among them, gathered them upon affirming Allah’s oneness, united them in belief, so they began following one principle and worshipping Allah alone, and he united them in outward form, making them one Arab Muslim ummah, strong and honoured, and he established for them a state upon the basis of the upright religion.

Likewise, the religious reformer and Islamic leader Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, in the middle of the twelfth century, began calling to correcting belief, returning to the correct principles of Islam, and accepting them again among the people of Najd.

Their belief had become corrupted and their conduct had become misguided.

The political leader of Najd, Muhammad ibn Saud (d. 1179 AH), began supporting Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab in his reforming religious call, working to spread it and to make the people accept it.”

Muhammad Diya al Din al Rays

Muhammad Diya al Din al Rays, professor of Islamic history at Fuad the First University, published in the Kuwaiti magazine al Irshad, which used to be issued before, in the sixth issue of the month of Rajab in the year 1373 AH, under the title “The Wahhabi Movement”. After some speech, he said:

“The founder of the call is Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab. He was born in the town of al ʿUyaynah in the region of al ʿArid in Najd in the year 1703 CE. He received knowledge in his homeland, then travelled for study and knowledge to Madinah, Makkah, al Ahsaʾ, Basrah, Baghdad, Damascus, and it was also said Persia.

From his many travels he gained abundant knowledge and wide experience, and he learned about the conditions of the Islamic universe. Then he compared what its state had become with what he held in his mind of thoughts about correct religious ideals.

The result of that was this new madhhab by which he became known, and it carried his name, and it was a cause for creating this serious reform movement.

The Wahhabi madhhab is not a madhhab in the correct meaning. It is only an explanation, or a specific view, in understanding some aspects of the religion of Islam, and in its total it does not go beyond the limits of the recognised Sunni madhhahib.

The Wahhabis follow, in the branches of rulings in fiqh, the madhhab of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and in beliefs, the madhhab of Ahl al Sunnah, especially as it was set out and explained by the Sunni imam, the scholar Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH).

Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) is the direct teacher of Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, even though 4 centuries separate them.

He read his books and was deeply influenced by his teachings.

The basic principles of the Wahhabi call are purifying the meaning of affirming Allah’s oneness from the stains of polytheism, open and hidden, making religion sincerely for Allah, not seeking refuge with other than Allah, not exaggerating in praising the Messenger ﷺ in a way that takes him beyond the limits of human nature, and defining the meaning of the message he was charged to convey.

The sources of belief are returning to the madhhab of the Salaf in understanding the religion, and in explaining the Qur’an verses, and the hadiths of the Messenger ﷺ.

The Wahhabis dislike the complications that the theology philosophers, philosophers, and Sufis brought in.

There is no objection to ijtihad, and they also see the duty of carrying out jihad.

This movement was a complete moral revival, a bold spiritual leap, and a call to the religion of truth and reform.

It awakened sleeping minds, moved dead feelings, and called to looking again at religion, to purify belief and cleanse minds from superstitions and false thoughts. It contained 2 principles that had the greatest effect in the development of the Islamic universe and its progress.

They are the call to return to the madhhab of the Salaf, with reliance on the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and establishing the principle of ijtihad.

These 2 principles became the foundation of a spiritual philosophical revival.

In reality, all the reform movements that appeared in the east in the nineteenth century were indebted to the Wahhabi call for establishing these foundations.

The link between it and each of these movements can be defined either through borrowing, imitation, or simple influence.”

It ended, summarised.

ʿAbd al Karim al Khatib

ʿAbd al Karim al Khatib said in his book “Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab: The Free Mind”, in chapter 5:

“The good word is a blessed word, its root is firm and its branch is in the sky, because it is the word of truth, and truth is under Allah’s care, He blesses it and grants it victory.

The call of Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab is from good words, because it is built upon truth, it calls to it, and it works for it. For this reason it was a blessed call, rich in fruit, abundant in good.

Its founder stood calling to Allah, not seeking by that status, and not seeking authority, but only showing people the clear signs of the path, and uncovering for them the obstacles and traps that Shaytan and the helpers of Shaytan placed.”

Then he said:

“What there is no doubt about is that the Wahhabi call was like a loud shell, exploding in the depth of the night while people are asleep.

It was a thunderous voice that awakened the whole Islamic society and disturbed the bird of sleep that had hovered over their lands for a long time.”

Muhammad Bashir al Sahsawani

Shaykh Muhammad Bashir al Sahsawani, the author of “Siyanat al Insan ʿan Waswasat Dahlan”, said about Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab:

“It is known to every sensible person who knows people, understands their conditions, and has heard something of their reports and histories, that the people of Najd and others, from those who followed the call of the Shaykh and responded to his call from the people of the Arabian Peninsula, were at the extreme of ignorance, misguidance, poverty, and need. No sensible person doubts that, and no informed person argues about it.”

Then he said:

“Allah erased through his call the signs of polytheism and its visible places, destroyed by him the houses of disbelief and polytheism and their places of worship, humbled the false gods and atheists, and bound those who appeared among the Bedouins and village people to what Muhammad ﷺ came with of affirming Allah’s oneness and guidance. He declared as disbelievers those who denied the resurrection and doubted it, from the people of ignorance and harshness.

He commanded the establishment of prayer, the giving of zakah, leaving wrongdoing and intoxicants, forbade innovation in religion, and commanded following the earlier Salaf in foundations and branches from the issues of religion, until Allah’s religion became clear, open, and evident, and through his call the path of the Sharia and the Sunnah became clear, and the duty of commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong stood firm.

The Sharia limits were carried out, the religious penalties were enforced, the banner of jihad was raised, and he fought to raise Allah’s word against the people of polytheism and corruption, until his call spread, and his sincere counsel to Allah, to His Book, to His Messenger ﷺ, to the general Muslims, and to their leaders became firm.

Allah gathered hearts through him after their separation, and they became united after their hostility, and they became, by Allah’s blessing, brothers.

Allah gave them through that victory, honour, and strength that nothing similar was known among the people of those deserts and rocks. He opened for them al Ahsaʾ and al Qatif, and they overcame the rest of the Arabs from ʿUman to the Pass of Egypt, and from Yemen to Iraq and al Sham. Their Arabs submitted to them, and Najd became a place that people travelled to in search of religion and worldly matters, and it took pride in the honour, victory, acceptance, and brightness that reached it.”

End of quote.

He said in his poem “al Laʾali al Saniyyah”, after praising Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) and Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH), may Allah have mercy on them:

“And upon the great Shaykh, the respected one, from whom Allah’s Sharia became clear,

That scholar, the chosen imam, supported truth, the one who crushed it.

The owner of the call in Najd, the one who made truth clear that they had denied.

He removed from Najd that ugly polytheism, and joined the great cities and villages.

He came calling to Allah, the Most High,

Leave the grave, and leave the tree.

Worship Allah who provides for you,

The One who created this creation as well.

He struggled against polytheism with a cutting sword,

And a tongue that made clear what had been hidden.

His bright call travelled to most of this universe.

He spread Allah’s religion openly, without weakness.

He tore apart disbelief where it was present.

He built in Najd the fortress of the Sunnah,

And destroyed in it the palaces of polytheism.

So their Najd became bright and took pride.

It is the right of the man of Najd to take pride.”

Muhammad Jamil Bayhum

Muhammad Jamil Bayhum said in his book “The Missing Link in the History of the Arabs”, under the title “Al Saud under Ottoman Rule”:

“Wahhabiyyah and the first Saudi emirate.

Turkey suffered at the end of the seventeenth century, during its wars with Russia and Persia, defeat after defeat.

The Arabs and others served them in their national struggle, then from the start of the following century 5 sultans came one after another, and they were not capable.

So the national spirit shook during their rule and weakened, and the way opened for movements that were national in feeling and religious in aim.

It happened in Najd, and it almost gathered the scattered state of the Arabian Peninsula, freed it, and raised it in the manner of the first Islamic revival. I mean the Wahhabiyyah.

The one who set this madhhab was a man from Tamim, named Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, may Allah have mercy on him. He sought knowledge in Baghdad and Basrah.

When he returned to Najd in the middle of the eighteenth century, it was too heavy for him to see his homeland and the rest of the Peninsula wandering in limitless ignorance.

He loved to rise for its sake, so he called to relying on the Qur’an, and to a clear, pure Sharia, as Muhammad ﷺ left it, and he forbade exaggeration in sanctifying prophets and righteous people.

During that he criticised the Turks for their control, and he blamed them for morals that the Sharia sees as corruption.

The tribes of Najd and others only knew of religion that they were Muslims, so they came to his call and held to the manners he taught.

The leader of his followers was Muhammad ibn Saud, who combined courage and wisdom.

Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab handed him the banner of leadership, and with his great mind he was able to unite the tribes and direct them to the edges of the Peninsula to spread Wahhabiyyah. The prominent rulers in the Arabian Peninsula at that time were the Ashraf of the Hijaz, Banu Khalid in al Ahsaʾ, Al Muʿammar in al ʿUyaynah, Al Saʿdun in Iraq, the Mutawakkili imam in Sanaʿa, and the Sadah in Najran. Najd declared bloody wars against them. Their aim was reform upon the basis of the Wahhabi madhhab.”

Lothrop Stoddard

The American Stoddard, the author of “The Present State of the Islamic Universe”, which Amir Shakib Arslan (d. 1366 AH) commented on, said in chapter 1 of the book, about the Islamic awakening in the eighteenth century:

“The Islamic universe had reached the greatest level of weakness, and the deepest level of decline. Its atmosphere became dark, darkness covered every place from its places, and corruption in morals and manners spread in it.”

Then he said:

“As for religion, a dark covering covered it. The oneness that the owner of the message ﷺ taught people was dressed with curtains of superstitions and the shells of Sufism. The masjids became empty of people of prayer. The number of ignorant claimants increased, and groups of the poor and needy, travelling from place to place, carrying amulets, charms, and beads around their necks. They deceived people with falsehood and doubts, urged them to travel to the graves of righteous people, and made it look good to people to seek intercession from those buried in graves.

The virtues of the Qur’an disappeared from people, so wine and opium were drunk everywhere.

Vices spread and the covering of sacred limits was torn without fear and without modesty.

Makkah al Mukarramah and al Madinah al Munawwarah received what the rest of the Islamic cities received.

In summary, the Muslims became like non Muslims, and they fell to a deep low.

If the owner of the message ﷺ returned to the earth in that era, and saw what claimed Islam, he would become angry and would curse those among the Muslims who deserved it, just as the apostates and idol worshippers are cursed.”

(If a close observing philosopher from the philosophers of Islam, or a brilliant historian who sees all its social illnesses, wanted to describe its state in these last centuries, he could not hit the target and apply the meaning as precisely as this American writer did. Shakib.)

Then he said:

“While the Islamic universe was deep in its sleep, and moving in its darkness, a voice suddenly thundered from the heart of the desert of the Peninsula, the cradle of Islam, awakening the believers and calling them to reform and to return to the straight path and the upright way.

The one who cried this voice was the well known reformer, Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, who lit the fire of Wahhabiyyah, so it burned, became strong, and its flames reached every corner of the Islamic universe.

This caller then began to urge the Muslims to reform themselves and restore the old Islamic glory and the ancient honour.

The signs of the morning of reform appeared, then the great awakening began in the universe of Islam.”

It ended.

Carl Brockelmann

The speech of Brockelmann in “History of the Islamic Peoples”, volume 4, “Islam in the nineteenth century”, translated by Dr Nabih Amin Faris and Munir al Baʿalbaki. He said under the title “The Wahhabi movement in the lands of the Arabs”:

“Muhammad ʿAli did not receive success in the Arabian Peninsula as much as he received it in Egypt and Syria.

Its details are that Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab was born in the high Najd in the heart of the Peninsula, from the tribe of Tamim, between the end of the seventeenth century and the start of the eighteenth century.

Muhammad grew up loving knowledge, devoting himself to studying fiqh and Sharia, and he went, according to the old custom, to the capitals of the Islamic east, seeking knowledge in their schools.

In Baghdad, Muhammad studied the fiqh of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the founder of the last of the 4 Sunni madhhahib.

Then he studied the writings of Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah, who had revived, in the fourteenth century, the teachings of Ibn Hanbal.

The reality is that his study of the views of these 2 imams led him to certainty that Islam, in its widespread form in his time, especially among the Turks, was mixed with faults that have no connection to the correct religion.

When he returned to his first homeland, his first aim was to return to Islamic belief and life their original purity in his limited environment.”

Then he mentioned his seeking refuge with Muhammad ibn Saud, and that he met welcome and honour. Then he said:

“After a short time, his teachings gained supporters and followers. He condemned sanctifying the Messenger ﷺ and righteous people in its different forms. This had spread among the Muslims for centuries, as imitation of Christianity and some more primitive religious rituals. He called those who participate in this sanctification polytheists, and the Qur’an rules fighting them until they return from their error, or are destroyed.”

(This is general, and what is meant is that he forbade directing worship to the Messenger ﷺ and to righteous people, and seeking their help and similar matters, which common people call sanctifying the Messenger ﷺ and righteous people, while in reality it is major polytheism and idolatry in the clearest meaning. Reflect. This polytheism is not sanctifying the Messenger ﷺ and righteous people. Rather, it is belittling them in truth, because the Messenger ﷺ and righteous people do not accept that. Whoever thinks they accept that has belittled them and has thought badly of them. Sanctifying the Messenger ﷺ is by following him, honouring his Sharia, and loving him with true love above love of self, family, wealth, and all people, without exaggeration, by directing any of Allah’s right to him. Likewise, sanctifying righteous people is by loving them, following their upright path, and asking mercy for them, not by exaggerating about them and worshipping them with Allah, exalted is He. Allah is the One who grants success. ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Baz.)

He said:

“Muhammad took his followers to performing the Jumuʿah prayer with strictness that has no mercy.

He forbade every form of adornment in clothing, and especially the wearing of silk.”

(This is general, and it is not correct without detail, because permissible adornment was not forbidden by the Shaykh, may Allah have mercy on him, nor by others from the people of knowledge. Rather, it is commanded, as in His saying, exalted is He: يا بني آدم خذوا زينتكم عند كل مسجد Take your adornment at every masjid. (al Aʿraf 31) The mentioned adornment here can be understood as the adornment Allah forbade, because it contains resembling disbelievers and women, or it contains trailing garments. Allah knows best. ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Baz.)

Then he said:

“He forbade any decoration and ornamentation of masjids and shrines. Not only that. He expanded the understanding of the Islamic forbidding of different kinds of intoxicants, so he forbade smoking tobacco, which almost all jurists, from Hanbalis and non Hanbalis, declared their opposition to when it first entered the eastern lands.

The reality is that this reformer did not have more richness of thoughts or innovation than the Messenger had.”

End of quote.

The meaning of his saying “he did not have” is that the Shaykh used to walk and call people to following the Sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ, not making permissible for them the newly invented additions that later people introduced for reasons that are not hidden, as earlier nations did. He was not inventing and he was not introducing the principles he called people to. Rather, he was following the Messenger ﷺ.

Mustafa al Hafnawi quoting Williams

Mustafa al Hafnawi, quoting Williams, in his book “Ibn Saud: His Politics, His Wars, His Ambitions”, said, after mentioning some revolts of westerners to reform their corrupt society:

“Likewise, when corruption became widespread in the lands of the Muslims, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab rose in the Arabian Peninsula, fighting innovations and calling to gathering ranks, to restore the glory of Islam and worship Allah with a sound heart.

But he, like other reformers, was harmed, accused of atheism and heresy, and pursued, until he sought refuge with Muhammad ibn Saud.”

Then he mentioned his birth and his journey to seek knowledge, and that when he returned to his lands he decided to spread the correct religion.

He said:

“When he became connected to the house of Saud, and Muhammad ibn Saud married the daughter of the Shaykh, at that point the Saudis became followers of the new madhhab.”

(His words, “at that point the Saudis became followers”, give the impression that Al Saud became followers of the call of Shaykh Muhammad because of marriage. This is not correct. Imam Muhammad ibn Saud and his sons and grandsons supported the call of the Shaykh because it is a call to truth and the correct religion, not because of marriage, if marriage at that time is even confirmed. ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Baz.)

Then he said:

“The Turks became angry with them. Their anger did not come from belief or from thought.

They reached it after studying the new madhhab, which they rejected as guessing, thinking it stands as an obstacle in their ambitions in the Arab lands.

The Sharif of Makkah referred the matter to the ulama so they would give their view on the madhhab of Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, so they decided the soundness of this madhhab.

Muhammad ʿAli Pasha gathered the ulama of Makkah in the year 1215 AH for the same purpose, and their decisions came in favour of this madhhab.

But the Turks insisted on aggression, and Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab was only a Messenger of peace.”

End of quote, with summarising and shortening.

Then he said in pages 74–75:

“It is enough here to point to some aspects of difference between the madhhab of the Wahhabis and others.

The Wahhabis see that none is worshipped except Allah, and that the Messenger ﷺ is a human, above the level of humans.

The Wahhabis announced their dislike of worshipping righteous people. It is widespread among Muslims, until Ibn Saud had to destroy the domes of righteous people.”

Then al Hafnawi said: “I am from the supporters of this view.

It is difficult to go to a shrine in Egypt except that people see the ignorant kissing thresholds and seeking rescue from righteous people, not remembering Allah, and relying only on the bones buried in those graves.”

“Muslims celebrate 7 religious celebrations, but the Wahhabis only celebrate ʿId al Fitr and ʿId al Adha.”

Then he said:

“Whatever the madhhab difference between the Wahhabis and others from the Muslims, we honour the Wahhabis, because they are precise in their worship. They memorise the Qur’an and hadith, they carry out what came in the noble Sharia, and they forbid what the Prophet ﷺ forbade, so they forbid for themselves the wearing of silk, wearing gold, drinking wine, and smoking tobacco. They fight sorcery and gambling, and other filth.”

End of quote, summarised.

(His words, “they forbid for themselves the wearing of silk and wearing gold”, likely means they forbid that for males only. As for women, the Wahhabis and others do not forbid wearing silk and wearing gold for them, because of the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: “Gold and silk are made permissible for the females of my ummah and forbidden for its males.” ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Baz.)

The orientalist Sediou

The orientalist Sediou, in “General History of the Arabs”, translated into Arabic by ʿAdil Zuʿaytir, said while speaking about Arab revolts to free themselves from Turkish control and Portuguese control in ʿUman, after some speech:

“From this we see that the Arabian Peninsula almost regained its complete independence since the beginning of the eighteenth century, through its seriousness and the weakness of its enemies. It only remained for it to support its victory with a centre around which all selves gather.

This is what a tribe that appeared in Najd tried to do around the year 1749 CE.

This is what the Wahhabis tried to do, and they still have influence, and they will have lasting influence, in the fate of the Arabian Peninsula, without doubt.

The name of the one who founded this control is ʿAbd al Wahhab al Tamimi, who devoted himself to studying the manners of the Arabs and their sciences from his youth, and fiqh was his greatest concern.

He learned the views of the people of the madhhab, travelled to Baghdad and Basrah, and travelled as a visitor to Persia. His understanding grew, so he reflected deeply on the state of his people, their leanings, their instincts, and the nature of their strengths. He saw that if he carried the Muslims to observing the rulings of the Qur’an, that zeal that the greatness of the earlier people was used to would return to them.

The reform, whose leader he became, had no aim except returning the pure Sharia of the Messenger ﷺ to its earlier state.

Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab fought the actions of the Muslims in surrounding Muhammad with a reverence that Allah forbade in much of his speech.

He fought sanctifying the graves of righteous people, so he carried his supporters to destroying them.

Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab fought what he criticised the Turks for, from corruption of morals.

He fought using intoxicants.

What people reminded through him is that the Sharia commands Muslims to give zakah, and forbids adornment, and obligates judges to full integrity.

What he cared for especially is keeping the spirit of jihad in his people, because of the strange victory jihad brought from centuries.

His statements cannot be described generally as atheism, because they appeared as repetition of the surahs of the Qur’an. Because his principles agreed with the correct teachings of Islam, he had great effect, so the leaders of the tribes of Najd joined his banner, individually and in groups.

They formed a small army under the leadership of Muhammad ibn Saud from the clan of al Masalikh, and Muhammad had accepted the new madhhab in al Dirʿiyyah.

Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab saw in him military gifts that he did not see in others, so he married him to his daughter, placing in his hands the political rule of the Wahhabis.”

Then the writer continued until he said:

“So he placed upon the religion of Muhammad a new shine, and removed the superstitions that had faded with time, and he showed the Qur’an free from everything that had been attached to it from stains.

The selves that had been burdened by the long, unclear explanations of the imams of the Muslims returned to a few general, simple, clear principles, so they accepted the reform plans of Ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab with a good acceptance.

The Wahhabis called to virtue, unlike the Qaramitah, who used bad paths, not caring for anything but fulfilling desires.”

End of quote.

(The statement about the historian is a mistake. Rather, he is Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab. ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Baz.)

(Reflect how this foreign historian understood the correct teachings of our religion, and that this great reformer intended to return people to the correct religion and cleanse it from the stains of innovations and idolatry. He was fair, and he recognised the correct religion of the Messenger ﷺ and what entered into it that does not agree with the teachings of the Messenger ﷺ. Many who claim Islam did not recognise this. They became blind, because of their fanaticism, to his merits and services. May Allah have mercy on him. The one who is fair and recognises truth for the people of it has done well, even if he is a disbeliever.)

(What is meant is false explanations and opposing interpretations.)

(Meaning the rest of the pillars of Islam.)

(Such as wearing silk and gold for men, not every form of adornment.)

ʿAli al Tantawi

ʿAli al Tantawi said in his book “Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab”:

He mentioned the spread of innovations before the birth of the Shaykh Muhammad, as he said, and that people believed benefit and harm came through the Messenger ﷺ and righteous people, and through graves, trees, domes, and shrines. They asked them for needs, returned to them in hardships, made vows to them, and slaughtered for them. Exaggeration in glorifying the dead became severe.

Najd had the largest share in this new ignorance.

Ignorance, desert life, poverty, and division gathered upon its people. In every area of Najd there were amirs in the number of its villages.

In every village there was an amir, and in every area a group like a nations.

In every emirate there was a grave with a building over it, or a tree with a story.

A keeper from the devils of humans stood over it, decorating disbelief for people, calling them to believe in the grave and slaughter for it, seek blessing through it, and supplicate at it.

Then he mentioned a tree called the wolf tree, and the grave of Zayd ibn al Khattab, as an example.

He said:

“The ulama were few, the rulers were oppressive, and the people were chaos. Some raided others, and their strong rose against their weak.

In that environment Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab grew up, may Allah have mercy on him. He saw the sun of Islam to be fading, and he saw the darkness of disbelief stretching and covering.

Allah wanted good for him, so He decreed for him to be one of those whom the Messenger ﷺ informed would be sent to renew for this ummah its religion. Rather, he was more deserving of this description than all those described with it in our history.

Allah made, through his hands, the return of Najd to the correct affirming of Allah’s oneness, the true religion, harmony after disagreement, and unity after division.

I do not say the man is complete, because completeness is for Allah. I do not say he is protected from error, because protection from error is for the prophets. I do not say he is free of flaws and mistakes.

But I say that this awakening which covered Najd, then extended beyond it to the edges of the Peninsula, then to what is around it, then extended until it reached the furthest lands of Islam, is only a good deed from his good deeds with Allah, if Allah wills.”

End of quote.

Abu al Samh ʿAbd al Zahir al Misri

Abu al Samh ʿAbd al Zahir al Misri, who was an imam in al Masjid al Haram, may Allah have mercy on him, said in his nuniyyah in which he expressed sorrow over Islam and its people because of what affected them. He began it by saying:

“My sorrow for Islam and faith,

My sorrow for the light of guidance, the Qur’an,

My sorrow for the old religion and its people,

A sorrow that melts the heart with grief.”

Then he continued until he mentioned Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, saying:

“My sorrow for the imam Shaykh Muhammad,

The scholar of creation, the godly scholar,

The sign of guidance, the sea of generosity, the one who destroys enemies,

The one who launched his raid against idols.

The one who stood in Najd in a position like prophethood,

Calling to Islam and faith,

Until Najd became like a blossoming garden,

Strutting in shades of deep knowledge.

He revived for us the upright religion as it came,

And established it with sword and proof.

His proof is the Qur’an and the Sunnah

That are narrated to us from the Master of the universes.

How much he fought filthy polytheism and its people,

And made them taste in war every humiliation.

He made clear affirming Allah alone in worship,

After its signs faded from minds.

How much he removed innovations that disturbed

The purity of the Sharia, the place of the thirsty.

He lit a light that never stopped shining,

By it the Most Merciful guides at every time.

O Lord, the call of a believing one, humble in prayer,

Pour upon him clouds of pleasure.”

A French scholar

A French scholar said, Bernadellos, in his book “The Arabs in History”:

“In the name of Islam, clean from stains, which prevailed in the first century, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab called to leaving everything added to belief and acts of worship, considering it strange, superstitious innovations, foreign to correct Islam.”

The view of an orientalist who spoke badly

The view of the chief of orientalists, Goldziher, in his book “Belief and Sharia”:

“If we want to study the link between Sunni Islam and the Wahhabi movement, we find that what especially draws attention, from the view of true religious history, is this fact. The one who places himself to give graded rulings on Islamic events must consider the Wahhabis supporters of the Islamic religion upon the form the Prophet and the Companions set. The aim of Wahhabiyyah is restoring Islam as it was.”

The view of the orientalist Gibb

The view of the English orientalist Gibb, in his book “Muhammadanism”:

“In the Arabian Peninsula, around the year 1744 CE, 1157 AH, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab rose with the amirs of al Dirʿiyyah, Al Saud, to establish the call to the Hanbali madhhab and approach that Ibn Taymiyyah called to in the fourteenth century.”

He also said in his book “Modern Trends in Islam”:

“As for the area of thought, Wahhabiyyah, through what it did of stirring against aggressive interference and against the principles that say the unity of existence, which want to pollute affirming Allah’s oneness in Islam, was a beneficial factor for lasting rescue, and a renewal movement that began to succeed in the Islamic universe little by little.”

Encyclopaedia Britannica

It came in Encyclopaedia Britannica, while speaking about Wahhabiyyah:

“Wahhabiyyah is the name of the purifying movement in Islam. The Wahhabis follow the teachings of the Messenger ﷺ alone and neglect everything besides it. The enemies of Wahhabiyyah are the enemies of correct Islam.”

The view of a group of orientalists

Ustadh Wilfred said in his book “Islam in the View of the West”, written by a group of orientalists:

“Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab used to say, before everything, ‘You must live according to Islamic Sharia, and this is the meaning of being Muslims, not the emotional noise, the wishes, and the heat that the Sufis give.’ The foundation of Islam is Sharia. If you want to be Muslims, then you must live according to the commands of Sharia.”

The view of a German historian

Dr Dagobert, the German historian, said in his book “ʿAbd al ʿAziz”, which was published in Germany in the year 1953 CE and translated into Arabic by Dr Amin Ruwayhah, about the Wahhabi movement:

“Al Saud, alongside their sword which they used in conquest, had another moral weapon. They owe the greatest share of their success to it. That weapon was made by Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, one of the people of religion pursued for his belief, who sought refuge with al Dirʿiyyah, the capital of Al Saud at that time. He found with them protection and safety.

The heart of Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab was filled with the thought of renewing the Arab strength on a religious foundation, attributing their weakness to their leaving the conduct of the righteous Salaf, their splitting into groups, and their leaving their original Arab character. This was the reason for their weakening, which made them reachable by foreign influence.”

Then he said:

“The Shaykh saw that the cause of rescue is returning to the legislated teachings of religion, to the correct teachings of the Messenger ﷺ. He began to call, driven by his conscience and belief, to fighting innovations that entered Islam through past ages, and the misleading, misguided statements of people of religion, not giving weight except to what the Qur’an stated clearly, or what can be firmly attributed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

He fought with all his strength, coming from his firm belief, the sanctifying of righteous people, making them a link between Allah and people. He called to destroying shrines and the places of righteous people, and removing their traces, following the noble Prophet ﷺ, who fought the innovation of sanctifying temples and the worship of idols inherited from the age of ignorance.”

It ended, summarised.

The view of Philip Hitti

Ustadh Philip Hitti said in his book “History of the Arabs”:

“Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab was influenced by a thought. It is that Islam, as his contemporaries practised it, had departed greatly, in action and in thought, from the Sunnah that the Qur’an set, and he decided to cleanse it himself.”

The view of Ahmad Hussein

Ustadh Ahmad Hussein, the founder of the Young Egypt Party, said in his book “My Observations in the Arabian Peninsula”, after describing what was in the Arabian Peninsula of ignorance before the call appeared:

“In the middle of this atmosphere Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab was born, and his father, Shaykh ʿAbd al Wahhab, was the judge of the town of al ʿUyaynah.

He was a great scholar. Muhammad read fiqh with his father, and signs of intelligence quickly appeared upon him. He began to understand at once what the desert had fallen into of savagery and turning away from the religion of Islam. His being began to boil with what the being of every reformer boils with when he resolves to change this situation.

When he reached the age of 20 years, he began using his eloquence and his knowledge in debating his peers and those like him, rather even those older than him, about the corruption of the situation, with listening ears.”

After mentioning the Shaykh’s travel to the Hijaz and Basrah, and that he did not find from them, and his return to Najd, his settling in al Dirʿiyyah, and his agreement with Muhammad ibn Saud, he ended this study by saying:

“This is the story of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab as it began, and it has not completed until today. The grandsons of Muhammad ibn Saud and the grandsons of the Shaykh Muhammad still carry the banner of affirming Allah’s oneness and defend it. If the whole Islamic universe today, under the effect of light and deep knowledge, has begun to understand by its natural sense what Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab called to and love it, then history will keep recording for Al Saud, who were the first to support him and respond to him.”

The view about Muhammad ʿAbduh

Shaykh Hafiz Wahbah said in his book “50 Years in the Arabian Peninsula”, while speaking about students of knowledge in al Azhar, that Ustadh Imam Muhammad ʿAbduh, the Mufti of Egypt, used to praise Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab in his lessons in al Azhar, calling him the great reformer, and placing the blame for stopping his reform call on the Turks and on Muhammad ʿAli al Albani, because of their ignorance and their walking with the ulama of their time, who walked upon the way of those before them from the supporters of innovations and superstitions and leaving the truths of Islam.

The view of Ahmad Amin

Ustadh Ahmad Amin, the well known Egyptian scholar, discussed in his book “Leaders of Islamic Reform” the reform revival in Najd, and this is what he said about it:

Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab, during his staying in the Hijaz and his travels to many lands of the Islamic universe, saw that this affirming Allah’s oneness, which is the greatest quality of Islam, had been lost and much corruption entered it.

Affirming Allah’s oneness is built upon the belief that Allah alone is the Creator of this universe, the One who controls it, the One who set its laws which it runs upon, and the One who legislates for it. None of creation shares Him in His creating, none shares Him in His ruling, and none helps Him in directing its affairs, because He is not in need of the help of anyone, no matter how near to Him that one might be.

Judgement is in His hand alone, benefit and harm are in His hand alone, with no partner. The meaning of “there is no god except Allah” is that there is no real authority in existence that directs the universe according to the laws set for it except Him, and there is no one in existence who deserves worship and honouring except Him. This is the focus of the Qur’an:

قل يا أهل الكتاب تعالوا الى كلمة سواء بيننا وبينكم ألا نعبد إلا الله ولا نشرك به شيئاً ولا يتخذ بعضنا بعضا أربابا من دون الله فان تولوا فقولوا اشهدوا بانا مسلمون

Say, “O People of the Book, come to a word that is equal between us and you: that we worship none except Allah, and we do not associate anything with Him, and none of us takes others as lords besides Allah. If they turn away, then say: bear witness that we are Muslims.” (Al ʿImran 64)

So why does the Islamic universe today turn away from this complete, pure affirming Allah’s oneness, free of every stain, to associating many from creation with Allah.

These righteous people are travelled to, vows are given to them, and it is believed they can cause benefit and harm.

These shrines, beyond counting, are built in all its regions. People travel to them, wipe themselves on them, humble themselves to them, and ask them to bring good to them and remove evil from them.

In every town there is a righteous person or righteous people, and in every town there is a shrine or shrines that share with Allah, exalted is He, in directing affairs, removing harm, and bringing good.

It is as if Allah is a ruler from the rulers of the universe. People draw near to Him through people of status and people with closeness to Him, and they hope these will change laws and fulfil needs.

Is this not the same as what the Arab polytheists used to say:

ما نعبدهم إلا ليقربونا الى الله زلفى

“We only worship them so that they may bring us closer to Allah.” (al Zumar 3)

And their saying:

هؤلاء شفعاؤنا عند الله

“These are our intercessors with Allah.” (Yunus 18)

Rather, what sorrow. The Muslims did not stop at that. They even associated with Allah plants and lifeless objects.

These are the people of the town of Manfuhah in al Yamamah. They believe in a palm tree there, that it has a strange power. Whoever goes to it from brides will marry in that year.

This cave in al Dirʿiyyah is travelled to for seeking blessing.

In every town from the towns of the Islamic lands there is something like this. In Egypt there is the tree of al Hanafi, the sandal of al Kalshani, and the gate of al Mutawalli. (The tree of al Hanafi was a tree in the masjid of al Hanafi in Cairo that people used to seek blessing through. The sandal of al Kalshani is an old sandal in the lodge of al Kalshani. They claim water, if drunk from it, benefits in treating passionate love. The gate of al Mutawalli in Cairo is also filled with nails. Hair and threads are attached to it to fulfil a need for the one who attached them. ʿAbd al ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Baz.)

In every region there is a stone and a tree. So how can affirming Allah’s oneness become pure from all these beliefs.

They turn people away from Allah alone and associate others with Him, they enter into beings and make them low, weak, and confused, they strip them of the thought of affirming Allah’s oneness, and they cause them to lose elevation.

So the thought of affirming Allah’s oneness in belief, free from every partner, and the thought of affirming Allah’s oneness in legislation, that it has no source except the Qur’an and the Sunnah, occupied his mind.

Amin Saʿid

Amin Saʿid said in his book “The Biography of Imam Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab al Tamimi”:

“The biography of Imam Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab al Tamimi is among the richest biographies in lessons, the most full in virtues, and the most deserving of study, discussion, explanation, and reasoning. It is the biography of a reformer from the noble reformers, a fighter from the greatest fighters, and a scholar from the best scholars. Allah lit his insight, guided him to His ways, and inspired him with fear of Allah, so he called his ummah to return to Allah, act upon His Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ, leave polytheism and the worship of graves. People followed him, took him as an example, and responded to him. Allah brought them through him from darkness to light, so they were saved, succeeded, gathered the best fruits, and rose to the level of the righteous people.”

Then he mentioned the birth of the Shaykh, and he mentioned the state of weakness and decline that ran through the body of the Ottoman state, and he mentioned the conditions of the Arabian Peninsula, with the darkness of ignorance, increased poverty, and spread of chaos.

“In the middle of this standing atmosphere, a gloomy atmosphere, the atmosphere of ignorance and stiffness, the atmosphere of weak religious restraint, the control of rulers, and the oppression of the masses, the lights of the Wahhabi call shone from the side of Najd. The Imam Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab carried its torch, so it lit the way for the ummah and inspired it to follow its guidance, so it walked its path, was guided by its guidance, and the call achieved for Najd its hopes.

It began in its environment when it began, so it made for it a sound Islamic society that believes in affirming Allah’s oneness, honours it, walks upon its guidance, does not call upon anyone besides Allah, and it remained like this. It did not change and it did not alter from the time of the Shaykh until today. It speaks truthfully with truth and believes in it.

From this society an honoured Arab state emerged. It grew under the shade of the call and believed in it. It was the first great Arab state founded by the Arabs inside their Peninsula after the state of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. It followed their path and walked their steps, so it ruled, built, widened its borders, and the call spread in the Arab lands and the lands of Islam, and its light flowed through them.

Many came to it, took it, reacted to it, and responded to it. It became the mother of these revivals that cover the Arab lands and the lands of the Muslims. It revived dead resolve and awakened sleeping beings.

The Shaykh gave examples of his sincerity and his integrity, and that he wanted from his call nothing except Allah’s Face alone, reforming the state of his ummah, and rescuing it from the darkness of ignorance that used to cover it.

He faced, in the path of the call, harm, aggression, and resistance like what callers and reformers face from their people. He did not hesitate and he did not stop. He was patient and firm. A threat did not frighten him, a warning did not turn him back, and temptations did not affect him.

So the call reached east and west. The number of believers in it grew, its supporters increased, and its matter became firm. This disturbed its opponents and worried its enemies, so they gathered against it and came in ranks to fight it and put out its light. So it carried the sword to defend itself and protect its structure.

Defending the being is a rightful, legislated right that all religions accepted and all laws brought. This truth breaks the saying of its opponents and destroys what they invented and falsified. The call did not rely on the sword and did not raise it in the face of those who did not enter it. Rather, it relied on it in defending itself and resisting its enemies who gathered to fight it and called one another to resist it and finish it. Their efforts did not benefit them. They returned defeated and withdrew as losers.

It was victorious and overcame, because it is light and truth. The nature of light is that it flows, becomes common, and spreads, no matter how they try to cover it and hide it, and no matter what barriers they place in its way. The nature of truth is that it rises and nothing rises above it.”

This is the end of what became easy to gather. Praise belongs to Allah who granted completion of what he wanted to set down and write from the biography of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al Wahhab. May Allah grant to him and to us abundant reward. May Allah send prayers and peace upon our master Muhammad ﷺ, upon his family, and upon all the Companions and those who followed them with excellence until the Day of Judgement.