Some Reflections on the

Wahhabiyah Movement

(Excerpted from Vol. XVIII No. 2 (1995) Hamdard Islamicus) by Talip Kücükcan

(University of Warwick in England, U.K.)

Introduction

The Muslim World witnessed the appearance of severalintellectual and religious movements which emanatedfrom different Islamic territories in the 18th and 19thcenturies. A number of social, political and religiouscauses provided motivation for these multifacetedmovements. Decline of the Ottoman Empire anddiminishing authority of the Caliph, growing political andcultural influence of Western powers throughout theMuslim World, moral laxity and superstitious accretionsprevalent among believers for long, rising wave ofnationalist trends to establish regional and nation states,all of these aforementioned factors and some othersinspired new ideas and orientations that occurred in theMuslim World. Among these movements, theWahhabiyah is of considerable importance as it haslong-lasting influence on the other revivalist and puritanmovements. The Wahhabi doctrine prompted some ofthese who had been trying for new reforms which mightsolve the problems of [the] Muslim World and provide anew understanding of religion.

The Wahhabi Movement

The title Wahhabi was given to the followers of ShaykhMuhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab by his Muslimopponents. People to whom the Wahhabi name wasapplied have rejected this opprobrious label. [1] Instead,the Wahhabis called themselves ahl al-tawhid (People ofUnity or Muwahhidun), those who profess the doctrineof the Unity of God. [It is not that any section of Islamclaims not to be a Mauwahhid (i.e., believer in theUnity/Oneness of God), but merely that the Wahhabishave appropriated to themselves this title.] - Editor

The founder, Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab, wasborn in Uyayna in Najd in 1703. His father andgrandfather were Hanbalite qadis, thus he was broughtup and educated in this tradition. He studied in famouslearning centres - Medina, Basra, Baghdad, Hamadan, etc.- spending many years in travel during which he perusedphilosophy and Sufism. After having completed hisstudies, Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab returned to

Uyayna where he publicly preached his doctrines andmet both success and opposition. The governor ofUyayna was asked to expel Muhammad b. 'Abdal-Wahhab as a consequence of disputes caused by histeachings. [2]

Implications of Ibn Taymiyyah's Views For Wahhabi Thought

Before examining the doctrines of Muhammad b. 'Abdal-Wahhab, I would like to analyse the influence of IbnTaymiyyah on Wahhabi thought. This analysis will throwlight on the development of the Wahhabi movement andits doctrinal relation with the teachings of Ibn Taymiyyahwho seems to me as a prototype for Muhammad b. 'Abdal-Wahhab.

The originator of the Wahhabiyah movement hadbeen a Sufi adept in his youth, but later came under theinfluence of Ibn Taymiyyah's writings. Ibn Taymiyyah'steachings had three main implications for Wahhabidoctrines:

1. Concerning State and Religion: According to IbnTaymiyyah, the 'ulama' are responsible for the protectionof the Divine Law. A government is regarded as Islamicby virtue of the support it gives to Islam and to the'ulama'. One can accept the rule of anyone who followsthe Shariah. This understanding had an important effecton the Wahhabi ideology that accepted al-Sa'ud'sdynasty as a legitimate and hereditary Islamicgovernment after taking refuge in Dariyya, a territorycontrolled by [the] al-Sa'ud family.

2. Concerning the Sources of True Islam: Ibn Taymiyyahstrives for the pure form of Islam in his enduring pursuitof Divine reality like Ibn Hanbal. Ibn Taymiyyah turns tothe Qur'an and the Sunnah as the basis of the Divine law,refusing any accretions of later developments after theinitial pristine years of the salaf, the first threegenerations of Islam. He insists on eliminating all theforeign elements which do not reflect the authentic coreof Islam and the purity of Islamic teachings. The idea ofgoing back to the Qur'an and the authentic Sunnah with

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a puritanical attitude ignoring later fiqh schools wasadopted and applied by Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhabas against the majority of medieval scholars and rejectingijtihad based on the qiyas (analogy or logical reasoning).

3. Concerning Sufi Doctrines and Practices: In the lightof recent scholarly works, Ibn Tayymiyyah is said tohave been a Sufi of the Qadiriyyah Order. But he regardsthe idea of mystical unity with God and ecstatic aspectsof Sufism as un-Islamic; therefore he rejects theseteachings. It should be noted that he did not rejectSufism itself but denounced intercession, saintveneration and grave cults. [3] Muhammad b. 'Abdal-Wahhab, inspired from the above notion, developedhis doctrine to such an extent that the Wahhabis are saidto have opened the Prophet's mausoleum and sold ordistributed its relics and jewels. [4]

Nature of Wahhabi Doctrines

Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab wrote on various Islamicsubjects such as theology, exegesis, jurisprudence andon the life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). His works werecollected and published in twelve volumes under the titleof Mu'allafat al-shaykh al-Imam Muhammad 'Abdal-Wahhab by the Islamic University of Imam MuhammadIbn Sa'ud.

In his works, Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhabdenounced a number of beliefs and practices prevailingamong the Muslim society. He begins his discourse bystressing the unity of God. He underlines the doctrine oftawhid, God's uniqueness as omnipotent Lord ofcreation. He stresses the unity of God in deservingworship and absolute devotion of the servants. Heregards the associations of persons or things with theLord as a violation of the doctrine of God's Oneness.Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab condemns theintercession, tawassul, which was applied and practisedby a large number of Muslims during their prayer to God.He warns the believers against showing excessivedevotion to saints and against the use of saints' gravesas places of worship for tawassul. He considers theseexternal elements polytheism, shirk. He seeks to purifythe Muslim community from any such kind of externalelements by returning to the ways of the Prophet (pbuh)and the first generations of pious Muslims. Muhammadb. 'Abd al-Wahhab states that the true Islam is that of thefirst generations (al-Salaf al-Salih) and protests againstall those later innovations as superstitious accretionswhich brought what he calls 'new gods' into Islam. As aresult of this attitude to Sufi tradition, the Wahhabis felt

that it was an obligation upon them to destroy all theexisting alien components. Accordingly, they attackedthe graves of the Companions of the Prophet (pbuh),tombs of saints, or anything associated with popularveneration like trees or stones. An obvious example ofthis zealous hatred was seen when the Wahhabisplundered Karbala, a Shi'ia holy city, and destroyedHusayn's tomb. [5]

Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab rejected all kinds ofinnovations, defined by him as any doctrine or action notbased on the Qur'an, Sunnah or on the authority of theCompanions. Among the innovations are practices suchas celebrating the Prophet's birth, the use of rosary,adding minarets and ornaments to mosques, etc.Following practices may lead the believer to shirkaccording to the Wahhabis:

1. To visit the tombs of saints to gain God's favour.2. To introduce a name of a prophet, of a saint or of anangel into prayer.3. Seeking intercession from any being but God.4. Interpretation of the Qur'an by ta'wil. According to Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab's system,attendance at public prayer is obligatory, smoking oftobacco is forbidden and subject to punishment, shavingthe beard and the use of abusive language are also to bepunished.

With regard to fundamental basis of Islam,Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab places a great emphasison the Qur'an and the Sunnah. He attacks the blindacceptance of authority in religious matters in general,thus comes to oppose the earlier 'uluma' who lackindependent thinking. He finds it essential to go beyondthe medieval authorities to the Sunnah of earlygenerations. Rejecting qiyas, he recognizes only twomajor authorities: the Qur'an and the Sunnah of theProphet Muhammad (pbuh) along with the precedentsand the ijma' of the Companions. In Wahhabi mentality,a number of concepts were given a prior importance suchas tawhid, shirk and bid'at (innovation) mentionedabove.

Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab distinguishesbetween dar al-Islam and dar al-harb extending thescope of dar al-harb to some other Muslim countrieswhich he regards as having 'unlawful' societies. Thereforethose who live in dar al-harb where there is no freedomhave to perform hijrah, emigrating from every country inwhich shirk and kufr are apparent. Another usage ofhijrah appears in Wahhabi texts as a spiritualunderstanding which necessitates keeping away from all

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sinful things, forbidden by God and Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) (Helm, p. 87).

Any kind of political division of the ummah and civilwar were regarded as fitnah, social disturbance. The firstfitnah appeared under 'Ali's Caliphate when the Kharijitesleft him. Wherever a fitnah occurs, it must be abolishedby declaring a jihad, holy war. The followers ofMuhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab had been indoctrinated tobelieve that the opponents of the Wahhabi cause wereenemies of Islam who should be fought against (Yessini,p. 64).

Involvement of the Wahhabis into Politics: Religion and State

The modern history of Saudi Arabia began in theeighteenth century with the alliance between Muhammadb. 'Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabimovement, and Muhammad Ibn al-Sa'ud, Amir of Dariyya,son of the founder of the Saudi dynasty. WhenMuhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab was forced to leaveUyayna, he went to Dariyya where he was received bythe chieftain, Muhammad Ibn al-Sa'ud, in 1745.Muhammad Ibn Al-Sa'ud accepted Muhammad b. 'Abdal-Wahhab's doctrine and undertook its defence andpropagation after having agreed to the conditions thatthe political sovereignty should rest with Ibn al-Sa'ud,whereas religious authority should belong to Muhammadb. 'Abd al-Wahhab. The Saudi-Wahhabi alliance wasfurther cemented by an intermarriage between the twofamilies (Troeller, p. 13).

The Saudi-Wahhabi alliance seems to be a turningpoint through which the Wahhabi movement gained anofficial acceptance and confirmation from a strongdynasty that used religious authority of the Wahhabidoctrines as a binding force among the Arab tribes.

One of the significant aspects of this alliance in theformation of Saudi Arabian history was the fact that it ledto an effective union of political-military organization andreligious ideology which carried out Saudi-Wahhabiexpansion. As 'Abd al-Aziz b. al-Rahman states, all thedesert tribes came under the control of [the] al-Sa'udfamily obeying their orders and instructions. TheWahhabi doctrines and socio-political teachings ofreligion enabled [the] al-Sa'ud dynasty to hold theirpolitical authority firmly for ruling the nomad tribessuccessfully.The Wahhabi 'ulama' gave explicit support and approvalto the hereditary rule of the al-Sa'ud family, and theWahhabi shaykhs utilized the concept of equality as apolitical tool to control the Bedouin tribes by eliminating

tribal particularism (Helm, pp. 77-79, 84).It was principally through the Wahhabi movement

that 'Abd al-'Aziz and the previous Saudi rulers had beenable to transcend tribal and urban loyalties while stillusing their social structure as a basis for politicalmanipulation. Membership of an Islamic communitytheoretically served to equalize social differentials and asthe tribes embraced the Wahhabi doctrine, they came toaccept the imamete of al-Sa'ud as leader of a legitimatestate validated by Islam (Ibid., p. 113).

As a far reaching effect of this cooperation, the Saudidynasty firmly established its control in the politicalarena assuming certain titles indicating temporal powersuch as amir, haakim and malik , king.

Relations Between the Ottoman Rule and the Saudi-Wahhabi Dynasty

Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab declared that Islamprotected by the Ottoman Sultan was not the true Islam,implying that the sultan was not the legitimate leader ofthe ummah. The Wahhabis held that the Arabs wereworthier than the Turks with regard to imamete orleadership. Thus the authority of the Ottoman rule wasrejected and challenged. When the rapid expansion of theWahhabi movement was reported to Istanbul, theOttoman Caliph, Sultan Mahmud II, urged Muhammad'Ali Pasha, the governor of Egypt, to drive the Wahhabisout of the holy cities. Under the Caliphal instruction,Muhammad 'Ali Pasha launched a series of militaryattacks on Wahhabi-controlled territories. In 1818, hereached Dariyya and captured the capital of theWahhabi-Saudi alliance (Troeller, p. 14).

Although the Wahhabi movement was put down, itsexpansion did not fade away. After the recovery andrestoration of the Saudi dynasty, 'Abd al-'Aziz, Son of'Abd al-Rahman, entered Riyadh in 1901 and the Saudidynasty regained authority while regions of Najd, Hijaz,Makkah, Madina, and Jeddah were all also occupied.After an international recognition of hereditary authorityor kingship of the Saudi family, new developments in thepolitical arena facilitated the consolidation of theSaudi-Wahhabi alliance as a nation state.

Later Developments in the Wahhabi World The Wahhabi world could not remain aloof from thechanging nature of world events and patterns ofinternational relations in the modern era. Newdevelopments in different spheres of life rapidly occurred.Today the Wahhabi doctrine is supported by the politicalpower of the state as the official form of Islam in the

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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as it has been from the outsetof the Wahhabi-Saudi alliance. The members of the royalfamily seem to be advocates of the Wahhabi ideology.The mufti and the chief qadi come from the House ofShaykhs. The courts are largely Wahhabi in character.The spread of education and the improvement ofcommunication systems have made it easier to transmitthe Wahhabi doctrines to different segments of [the]population.

Under the influence of new developments and tolerationof less-strict rulers, the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia haveshown a growing openness towards not onlynon-Wahhabi Muslims, but also non-Muslims. TheShi'ites of the Eastern regions used to be unwelcomeresidents in the eyes of the governments, but graduallythey have seen their situation improve and the WahhabiKing has been an honoured guest at official functions inShi'ite towns.

The spirit of tolerance has been extended to Christianpersons and powers as well. A large number of Christianshave been employed in recent years by the government.The armed forces of Arabia have been trained in the past,first by an English military mission and more recently byone from the U.S.A.

Until recently illustrations showing human face orform were taboo among the Wahhabis, though the Qur'anitself contains no sweeping prohibition ofrepresentational art. The press in Saudi Arabia is nowallowed to publish photographs and drawings. Theattitude toward tobacco is also changing, smoking is nolonger regarded as a moral laxity deserving punishment.The organization of formal education and introduction ofsecular subjects into education took place in 1925. When'Abd al-'Aziz ordered the creation of the DirectorateGeneral of Education, the 'ulama' were opposed to theintroduction of secular education, fearing that it maydamage the fabric of the Wahhabi society. Nevertheless'Abd al-'Aziz insisted on the establishment of a neweducational system and carried out his plan. In the courseof time scientific and technical subjects and foreignlanguages were included in the curriculum. Girls wereallowed to have access to public education in 1959. Noneof these elements could have been accepted during theearly period of the Wahhabi movement.

The acquisition of wealth during the past twenty orthirty years posed a serious problem for the Wahhabisociety. Particularly under the period of Sa'ud's rules, theextravagance and ostentation of a very un-Wahhabi-likecharacter tainted the atmosphere of the Saudi Court.Those who claimed that the Saudi family departed from

Islam with its wealth, occupied the Grand Mosque atMecca in 1979, but their revolt was put down by theSaudi rule.

NOTES: 1. George Renz, "The Wahhabis" in A.J. Arberry (ed.), Religion in the

Middle East, Vol. II (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 270-285. 2. Encyclopedia of Islam (first edition), articles on the Wahhabiyah and

Sanusiyah movements, Vol. IV, p. 1087. 3. Christine Moss Helm, The Cohesion of Saudi Arabia (London, 1981),

p. 81-82. 4. Gary Troeller, The Birth of Saudi Arabia (London, 1976), p. 14 -

footnote: "The statement appears to be based on hearsay." Ibn Sa'd

(Tabaqat, Eng. T.S. Moinal Haq, Karachi, 1972, Vol. II, pp. 392-98)

reports that: "The Apostle of Allah (pbuh) left at the time of his death no

dirham, no dinar, no slave, no handmaid and nothing except his white

mule, arms and a piece of land which he left as sadaqah. His coat of mail

had been mortgaged [pawned] for thirty saa's of barley with a Jew. His debts

were paid by Ali b. Talib. The question of leaving behind any jewels does

not arise, neither any Muslim dared to add or place something inside his

mausoleum." 5. Ayman Al-Yassini, "Saudi Arabia the Kingdom of Islam" in Carlo

Calarola (ed.), Religion and Societies , 1982, p. 64; Troeller, 1976, p. 14.

6. Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (Cambridge, 1983),

p. 38.