By: Prof. Mahmoud Esmail Sieny

AL-SHAIKH MUHAMMAD IBN ABDUL WAHAB

“Laa Ilaaha'' means absolute negation of deity and ''Illa-Llah'' is a confirmation of deity for God. These words that summarize the Islamic concept of monotheism are the centre of all the efforts and works of our hero, Al-Shaikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab who started a reformatory movement whose repercussions are still alive after 150 years. The movement almost literally brought back the real image of Islam which was alienated through the superstitions and wrong practices of the masses.

V. REFORMERS

By: Prof. Mahmoud Esmail Sieny

 

AL-SHAIKH MUHAMMAD IBN ABDUL WAHAB

 

“Laa Ilaaha'' means absolute negation of deity and ''Illa-Llah'' is a confirmation of deity for God. These words that summarize the Islamic concept of monotheism are the centre of all the efforts and works of our hero, Al-Shaikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab who started a reformatory movement whose repercussions are still alive after 150 years. The movement almost literally brought back the real image of Islam which was alienated through the superstitions and wrong practices of the masses.

 

Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdul was born in 1115 A.H. (1703 G.) to a family of religious scholars, his father being the Mufti and judge of Al-Oyaynah, a small village about 45 kilometers to the North-West of Riyadh. He started his education early in life at the hands of his father, and was known since his childhood for his acumen and good memory. Due to this fact, our hero's father made him lead people in congregational prayer even when he was still a teenager. He asked permission from his father to leave for Makkah for Pilgrimage, after which he went to Medina where he stayed for a month. Then he returned to his hometown to continue his education with his father and to get married. Later, our hero went back to Makkah and Medina to further his religious education there.

 

Typical of our scholar heroes Sheikh Abdul Wahab moved from place to another in search of knowledge. So after one year of stay at his home town, our hero started a journey to Basra in Iraq. But his frank denunciation of unIslamic practices there caused him to be sent out of that town in a ruthless fashion.

 

Upon his return to Najd our hero learnt that his father had moved to the town of Huraimila, where he continued his studies, partially guided by his father, but mainly on his own, concentrating on Quranic studies and the Prophetic traditions.  Two of the favourite authors to our hero were Ahmed ibn Taymiyyah  and Ibn Qayyim al Jauziyyah, both of whom are well-known for enthusiastic activities for religious reformation and courageous persistence in that effort.

 

Though our hero was all the time unhappy with the irreligious practices of the communities he lived in, and he even expressed his denunciation of those practices, our hero started his active and open denunciation of the polytheistic practices of the people of Najd in his days upon the death of his father in 1153 A.H. (around.. 1741 G.). He started publicly calling people back to Tawheed, true. monotheism' asking them to shun their polytheistic practices of worshipping saints, trees and the like, and to put into effect the laws of Islam, long forgotten or ignored. He started corresponding with the people of Najd for that purpose. The positive response of the people of Huraimila encouraged our hero to continue his efforts, and many people came to learn directly from him the principles of the faith long forgotten by the majority of them.

 

However, it seems that some corrupt residents of Huraimila did not like our hero's ideas, which they felt endangered their freedom in plasticizing immoral activities. So they tried to assassinate him. Al Shaikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab moved to Oyaynah where he tried to convince its Prince of the ideas he preached. The Prince showed a great enthusiasm, and he helped our hero in pulling down the buildings over tombs and cutting down the trees that had become objects of unlslamic devotional practices by the ignorant masses. For the first time in many centuries our hero (with the support of the ruler of Oyaynah) executed the legal practices of stoning an adulteress who willingly confessed of committing the sin of adultery. This seems to have been the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. For many people took the opportunity to convince the governor of Ahsaa to force the prince of Oyaynah to send our hero out of his town.

 

Our hero went in 1158 (1796 G.) to Dir’iyyah (near Riyadh) which was under the control of a Prince Muhammad ibn Saud ibn Muhammad ibn Muqrin, who became the founder of the first Saudi State.

 

Our hero entered into a sort of alliance with Prince Muhammad ibn Saud, one providing spiritual and religious guidance and the other providing material and military support. Thus was formed the first Saudi State based on true Islamic teachings and actively propagating the message of Islam again to the people of Najd who had long forgotten it, almost reverting back to polytheism.

 

     A long and arduous campaign was launched by Prince Muhammad ibn Saud and his son Abdul Aziz after him under the spiritual guidance of our hero. Thus the greater part of the Central, Eastern and Western parts of Arabia were brought under Saudi control. Naturally, our hero was all the time actively preaching the pristine teachings of Islam with a special emphasis on the fight of saint and idol worship in any form and on the application of Islamic laws in all spheres of life. This necessitated the pulling down of many edifices built throughout the ages on the tombs and places of pious predecessors and important figures of Islamic history. Our hero further emphasized the necessity of the revival of religious thought based on the two main sources of the Qur’an and Prophetic traditions and rejection of blind imitation of others however great they might have been, such as the Imams of the four major schools of Islamic thought, even though he was an admirer of Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal. These were necessarily the topics covered in many of his writings.

 

In 1206 (1792 G.) our hero died at the age of 91, leaving clear marks on Islamic history and Islamic thought, marks that were seen in many parts of the Islamic world from Indian sub-continent in the East to North Africa in the West until this date.