What is Wahabism?

A phobia is created by the western world to identify this group. The aim of this man was to purify Islam in its original form but the grave worshipers played the dirty game. Now most of the Muslims know what the real situation is.

I quote a little bit about Sh. Abdul Wahab. Please read it to understand him. In the first half of the twelfth century (Hijra) the Islamic World had reached its extreme decline, degradation and utter fall. The atmosphere was very gloomy and darkness had covered all its regions. Moral degradation and corruption was rampant everywhere. As for religion it was decadent as everything else. The pure and austere monotheism (TAWHEED) of the Prophet (sal) had become corrupted with the burgeoning growth of superstition and mysticism. The mosques stood empty, unfrequented and even deserted. The ignorant multitude decked out in amulets, charms and rosaries listened to and blindly followed squalid faqeers and ecstatic dervishes. These men urged them to perform pilgrimages to the tombs of Saints and seek their intercession with Allah. As for the moral precepts ordained by the Qur’an they too were ignored as well as defied. Even the consumption of intoxicants and opium were well nigh universal. In all certainty the life had been bulldozed out of Islam, leaving behind naught but a dry husk of meaningless ritual and degrading superstition.

The period of the Pious Predecessors being already passed, innovations and superstitions cropped up and vastly mushroomed. The people went back to their old practices of idolatry. They started paying homage to shrines and graves, so much so that they even directed their devotional prayers and supplications towards the graves to the exclusion of Allah. They gave precedence to the philosophical views and taqleed (blind following) over the Sunnah. They divested Allah of His essential attributes by making false interpretations on the Qur’anic texts.

But, all praises to Allah, no generation, persistently beset with innovations and abominable Shirk was ever devoid of sincere reformers who revived the faith to its pristine purity. In such darkest hour, a voice came crying out of the vast Arabian desert, the cradle of Islam, calling the faithful back to the true path, the one and only way - the Qur’an and the Sunnah. That was the great Mujaddid and puritan reformer, the celebrated Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who kindled a fire, which spread and engulfed the remotest corners of the Muslim World, purging Islam of its decadence and reviving the fervor of days gone by. The morning of reformation had dawned and the great re-awakening of the Islamic world had begun.

This peaceful, religious, revivalist movement of the Sheikh was obnoxious to the Turks and others for more reasons than one. They tried to crush this movement by force. They even killed some of the leaders, but could not destroy the movement outright. The movement lived on and is now growing all over the world. Everywhere in the Muslim world we are witnessing, the raising of the banner of Tawheed and the revival of the Call to the Qur’an and Sunnah.

All around the Muslim world, we see some Muslims, individually and collectively proclaiming the Call to Tawheed and the return to the Qur’an and Sunnah in the face of opposition by the ‘Saint-worshippers’, `Grave-worshippers`, `the Sufis’ and the ‘Tariqat followers’. These deviant groups all purport or make the false claim to be Ahl us Sunnah wal Jam’aah and label the true callers to The Sunnah as `Wahhabis’

In view of the ignoble and false propaganda mounted against the reformatory movement of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab and the derogatory use of the word `Wahhabi’ for the movement ant its followers, we will Insha Allah in the course of this booklet, give a short account of the important events of his life and salient features of his creed and of his works.

HIS LIFE STORY
Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab ibn Sulaiman ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rashid al Tamimi was born in the year 1115 A.H.(1703 C.E.) in ‘Ayina to the north of Riyadh, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the reign of Abdulla ibn Muhammad ibn Hamd ibn Muammar. He excelled over his contemporaries in intelligence and physique and was able to commit the Quran to memory by the time he was ten years old. His father found him capable of leading the congregational prayers and decided to get him married that year.

He studied the Hanbali Jurisprudence, Tafsir and Hadith from his learned father. During his childhood itself, he directed his full attention to the books on Tafsir, Hadith and Aqidah and particularly to the writings of Sheik al Islam Ibn Taimiya and Ibn al Qayyim and made a deep study of them.

He left his native town to perform the Hajj and then proceeded to Madinah. At that time Sheikh Abdullah bin Ibrahim ibn Saif belonging to the progeny of Saif Najdi was chief of the scholars of Madinah. Sheikh Muhammad acquired a good deal of knowledge from him and came to be loved and held in high esteem by his teacher. His strong stand on Thawheed and his deep concern over false beliefs and evil deeds brought about a strong bond between the Sheikh and his teacher. He was so impressed by his student that Sheikh Abdullah granted him permission of narrating well-known hadiths of two of the authorities. Firstly on the authority of Ibn Muflih reporting from Sheikh Ibn Taiymiyyah and reaching up to Imam Ahmad. Secondly on the authority of Abd al Rahman bin Rajab, reporting from Ibn al Qayyim who narrated it from his teacher Sheikh ibn Taiymiyya reaching up to Imam Ahmad. Sheikh Abdullah also authorized him to narrate all the traditions reported by Sheikh Abd al Baqi Hanbali, the chief among the great teachers of his time. He also authorised him to narrate the traditions of the Sahih of Bukhari and the traditions of the Sahih of Muslim and commentaries of both, the Sunan of Tirmidhi, Nasa’ai, Abu Dawud, Ibn Maajah, the Muwatta of Imam Malik and the Musnad of Imam Ahmad.

During this time he came to know and benefited from the knowledge of other scholars such as Ali Afendi Daghastanee, Ismaeel Ajluni and others. Then he moved on to Nejd, Basra and Syria for the purpose of acquiring further knowledge. He stayed for a long time in Basra, where he pursued his studies under a number of renowned scholars, among whom Sheikh Muhammad Majmui was most prominent. During this time he compiled and published many valuable books on the topic of innovations, superstitions and the supplication to the dead ones in the graves. He supported his treatises with manifest evidence from the Quran.

The adherents of falsehood defamed, tortured and turned him out of Basra. They also persecuted his teacher Sheikh Majmui. He left for the town of Zubair in the scorching heat of the summer and was almost dying of thirst, when Allah sent to him a man called Abu Hamidan. He found the Sheikh to be a man of learning and righteousness. So he mounted him on his animal and took him to Zubair. Sheikh Muhammad thought of going to Syria to quench his thirst for more knowledge, but soon fell short of provision and was compelled to return to Nejd. He arrived at Ahsa and stayed with the Sheikh Abdullah ibn Abd al Latiff Shafi’i and studied under him.