The Wahhabis

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From: azolfag@phoenix.princeton.edu (Ali Zolfaghari)
Subject:Re: Wahhabis
Date: 15 Aug 93 04:28:16 GMT

Assalamu Alaikum:

In article hassan@cs.ubc.ca (Moustafa Hassan) writes:

|> There are many scholars, most notably Ibn Teymiyyeh and
|> Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, that are very misunderstood,
|> but I'll limit the discussion to M. 'Abd al-Wahhab.
|> To begin with, Arabia was, at a time in history, as mixed
|> up and full of bid'ah as many of the other Muslim countries
|> today.

Comparing Ibn Taymiyeh to Mohammad Ibn abdul Wahhab is like comparing
apples and oranges. Yes they are both contraversial but one (ibn Taymyieh)
was an early scholar who had some unique ideas even though I and a lot
of Muslims do not agree with them, Ibn Abdul wahhab however was
a pseudo-scholar that appeared under the British influence and was used by
non-muslims (British) in their quest to bring the Arabian peninsula under a
unified rule of an ally Ibn-Saud family in their bid to weaken the Ottaman
empire through the control of the holy sites of Islam. These are historical
facts.

Ibn Abdul Wahhab issued declarations (fatwa) that branded evry muslim in
Arabia who was in dispute with the Ibn Saud family a Kafir Through Bida'a.
Yet for him to declare Islamic the hereditary rule of KINGS (malik) from
Ibn Saud family was the biggest Bidaa around in Arabia. He announced in his
infamous fatwa that the ruling of Arabia should be a hereditary right of
the sons of Saud (who by the way was related to him through marriage of his
daughter).

Many wars followed the fatwas that Ibn abdul Wahhab issued and in those
wars with the help of the british and through declaring other tribes
Mushrik, the Saud family from Najd managed to become the undisputed tribe
in Arabia. All of us have seen the recent events in Arabia and it is easy
for us to see how these similar events happened in the past. The ldea of
Wahhabism is strictly a political affair of the early colonial era rather
than an Islamic movement with Fiqh bases. That is why it is never thought
of as a madhab even though they have tried to make it into one.


  (I'm originally from Egypt, and I include Egypt
|> in this list of countries filled with bid'ah.  I'm not
|> protecting 'Abd al-Wahhab because I'm from Arabia.)

I don't think of Egypt as a country full of bidaa.

To say that all Islamic countries are filled with bidaa takes a lot of
nerves. Are you trying to tell us that Arabaian Hijaz is not!! because they
stick to Wahhabism, That somehow is an inconsistency that all of us can see
through.

The rule of Kings is and has been the biggest Bidaa in Islam and that
started with Muawiayah the son of Hind (The woman who ate the heart of
Hamza, prophet's (sawaws) uncle) and the first of Umawi (ummayad) Khulafa.
The bidaa that affects the leadership of muslims is the gravest of all
bidaas. Isn't it?

|>
|> Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab is disliked for three reasons:
|>
|> 1. He did follow a single madh-hab, or school of thought.
   (some stuff deleted)

No my brother, he is disliked for the reasons I cited above.

|> 2. Ignorance.  He fought many of the psuedo-scholars of his
|> time.  The pseudo-scholars gained power and prestige by
|> people following their traditional practices, so they slandered
|> him and opposed him.  Many true Muslims today still oppose him
|> because they were taught that his teachings are heretical; this
|> is not true.

It IS true my brother. Do you want me to cite you the infamous fatwa I
mentioned above, by him.
No other real scholar of Sunni madhab has EVER declared a family to be
rightful hereditary ruler of Muslim land, that is against Islam.

Let me bring you an example:

It is said that the son of Imam Ahmad was a judge for the stablishment of
Khalifa at the time, something he did with displeasure and just because
he felt the need for the people to be judged according to Islam. He later
left his post since he was in dispute with the hereditary khalifah kingdom.
He calculated all the money he earned from his post and bought bread with
the
money to give to the poor because he even disliked the money he was paid.
He told his household to let the poor receipient of the bread know that
the bread was bought with the money from the khalifah and that he did not
consume any of the bread himself. He did that to have a clear conscious.
The poor did not accept the breads even though they were hungry.
The breads rotted, and he ordered them be thrown in Euphrates river, and
he NEVER ate fish from Euphrates till he died.

That is how strongly the real Ulemma disliked the Kingdom and kinghood.
The terms  "Malik" (king) and "malik of all maliks" were the terms most
disliked by our prophet (sawaws).


|>
|> 3. He was Arabian, and there seems to still be quite a bit of
|> racism in the Muslim world.  Racism is futile, and more importantly
|> is against Islam.  We should not feel contempt towards a scholar
|> (or any person) simply because he's from a certain part of the
|> world.

The leaders of all four Madhabs of Sunni sect and alot of other respectable
ulema are arabic, Your statement is not logical my brother.

***************************************************************************

                                  Wahhabis
                                  ^^^^^^^^
The following article is written by a Sunni brother

From: bdogan@eecs.wsu.edu (Bilge Dogan)

The founder of Wahhabism was Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab of Banu Tamim
tribe. He was born in Uyaina village near Huraimila town in the Najd
Desert in 1111 and died 1206(1792). Formerly, with the idea of
travelling and trading, he went to Basra , Baghdad, Iran, India and
Damascus, where he won the name "Shaikh an-Najdi" because of his
clever and defeatist attitude.  He saw and learnt a great deal at
these places and set his heart on the idea of becoming a chief. He had
thought it proper a to found a new religious reformation and movement
to reach his goal , and, in preparation for this goal, attended the
lectures of the Hanbali 'ulama' in the blessed city of Medina and
later in Damascus for some time. When he went back to the Najid, he
wrote pamphlets on religious subjects for villagers. His harmful,
heretical ideas which he took from Mu'tazila and other bid'a-groups
and introduced in these small books deceived many ignorant villagers,
particularly the inhabitants of Dar'iyya and their ignorant chief,
Muhammed ibn Sa'ud (grand grand father of saudi royal family) as a
tool to disseminate his reformation which he named Wahhabism. He
introduced himself as the qadi and Muhammed ibn Saud as the Hakim. He
had it declared that both would be succeeded only by their children

 In 1306 when the book Mirat al-Haramain was written, the amir of the
Najd, 'Abdullah ibn Faisal, was a descendant of Muhammed ibn Sa'ud,
and the qadi, that is, the head of religious affairs, was a descendant
of Muhammed ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab.

 Mumammed ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's father , ''Abd al-Wahhab, who was a
pious pure alim in Medina, his brother Sulaiman ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and
his masters had apprehended from his statements, behaviour and
heretical ideas, which he frequently had put forward as questions to
them when he was a student in Medina, that he would harm Islam from
inside in future. They advised him to correct his ideas and the
Muslims to avoid him. But they encountered the very thing they were
afraid of very untimely, and he started disseminating his heretical
ideas openly under the name of Wahhabism. To deceive the ignorant,
stupid people, he came forward with reformism and innovations much
impetuous to deem as kafirs the true Muslims who followed the Ahl
as-Sunnat wa'l-Jamaa. He regarded it polytheism to ask Allahu taala
for something through the mediation of the Prophet or other Prophets
or awliya and to visit their graves.

  According to Muhammed ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, the person who talks to
the dead, when praying near a grave becomes a mushrik ( Fat'h al-majid
, p208) He asserted that attributing an action or effect to
someone or something beside Allah, for example , saying "[such and
such] medicine cured" or " I obtained whatI asked through our master
Rasulullah" was polytheism, and the Muslim who said so would become
polytheist. Although the false documents Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab made up to
support his statements were nothing but all lies and slanders, the
ignorant people who couldn't distinguish right from wrong, the
unemployed , opportunists and the hard-hearted soon accepted his ideas
and took part of his side and regarded the pious Muslims of the right
path as kafirs.

  When Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab applied to the rulers of Dar'iyya with the
view of disseminating his heresies easily through them, they willingly
cooperated with him with the hope of extending their territories and
increasing their power. THey strove with all their might to
disseminate his ideas everywhere. They declared war against those who
refused and opposed another in joining the army of Muhammed ibn Sa'ud
when it was said that it is halal to plunder and kill non-Wahhabis. In
1143, Muhammed ibn Sa'ud and Muhammed ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab hand in
arrived at the conclusion, that those who wouldn't accept Wahhabism
were kafirs and mushriks and it was halal to kill them and confiscate
their possessions, and publicly announced their declaration seven
years later. Then Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab started fabricating ijtihad when
he was thirty-two years old and announced his false ijtihads at his
forty.

 As-Sayyid Ahmad ibn Zaini Dahlan, Mufti of the blessed city of Mecca,
described under the topic "Al-fitnat al-Wahhabiyya" the heretical
tenest of Wahhabism and the tortures of the Wahhabis inflicted upon
Muslims (Al-futuhat al-Islamiyya, v2, p228-233, Cairo
1968) Hw wrote: " To deceive the Ahl as-Sunna 'ulama' in Mecca and
Medina , the Wahhabis sent their men to cities, but these men could
not answer the questions of ulama. It became evident that they were
ignorant heretics.  A verdict about their being disbleivers was
written and issued everywhere.  Sharif Mas'ud ibn Sa'id , Amir of
Mecca, ordered that the Wahhabis shall be imprisoned. Some Wahhabis
fled to Dari'yya and told what had happened to them.

  The ulama of Hijaz belonging to all the four madhhabs, including
Muhammed ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's brother Shaikh Sulaiman and also his
masters who trained him studied Muhammad's books, prepared answers to
his disunioninst writings, which were distructive to Islam, and wrote,
to call the attention of Muslims, well-documented books in refutation
to his heretical writings and proclaimed Wahhabite tenets to be
heretical and harmful.

Bilge Dogan