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Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab al-Tamimi (1703 C.E. – 1792 C.E.) (Arabic:محمد بن عبد الوهاب التميمى) was an Arab theologian born in the Najd, in present-day Saudi Arabia and the most famous scholar of the movement within Islam known as the Wahhabi movement. The BanÄ« TamÄ«m or Banu Tamim (Arabic: بنو تميم) is a clan of the Quraish tribe. ...
Arabic (; , less formally, ) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ...
Najd or Nejd (Arabic: Naǧd) is a region in central Saudi Arabia and the location of the nations capital, Riyadh. ...
Islam (Arabic: ; ( (help· info)), submission (to the will of God)) is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second-largest religion. ...
Wahhabism (sometimes spelled Wahabbism or Wahabism) is a movement of Islam named after Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab (1703–1792). ...
Legacy
He considered this movement an effort to purify Islam by returning all Muslims to what he believed were the original principles of Islam, as typified by the as-salaf as-saliheen (the earliest converts to Islam) and rejected what he regarded as corruptions introduced by Bida (innovation, reformation) and Shirk (idolatry). Specifically, during his time, he denounced various sects of Sufism. He is considered by some to be a great reformer of Islam, while others regard him as the "father of Islamic terrorism." Some consider his ideas irrational and unoriginal, merely reintepreting discredited interpretations of the Qu'ran while advocating a society mirroring that of Arabia during the first century after the Hijra. They argue that his teachings are little more than the primitive, intolerant views of a fanatic, running counter to the rich body of historical Islamic thought. Others believe he was an innovative and learned scholar whose revival of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence has served the umma at large. He has had a tremendous impact on modern Islam, particularly affecting Muslim attitudes toward non-Muslims. A number of leading figures in recent Islamic terrorism such as Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi have been influenced by his teachings and inspired by his movement. Islam (Arabic: ; ( (help· info)), submission (to the will of God)) is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second-largest religion. ...
Definition of Bidah. ...
Shirk is the Islamic concept of the sin of idolatry. ...
Sufism (Arabic تصو٠taṣawwuf) is a mystic tradition of Islam based on the pursuit of spiritual truth as it is gradually revealed to the heart and mind of the Sufi (one who practices Sufism). ...
The Quran ( Arabic al-qurʾān أَلْقُرآن; its literal meaning is the recitation and is often called Al Quran Al Karim: The Noble Quran, also transliterated as Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ...
Hijra may refer to: Hijra (Hegira/Hijrah/Hejira) is an Arabic term referring to the migration of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622. ...
Hambali is the nom de guerre of Indonesian terrorist Riduan Isamuddin. ...
Islamist terrorism, sometimes called Islamic terrorism, is terrorism that is carried out to further the political and religious ambitions of a segment of the Muslim community. ...
Osama bin Laden in a photo from the 1990s UsÄmah bin Muhammad bin `Awad bin LÄdin (Arabic: ) (born March 10, 1957), commonly known as Osama bin Laden, or Usama bin Laden, (Arabic: ) is an Islamic fundamentalist and the founder of the militant terrorist organization al-Qaeda. ...
Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman al-Zawahiri (Arabic: ) (born June 19, 1951) is a prominent member of the al-Qaeda group and formerly the head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization. ...
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an undated AP photograph. ...
Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi has quoted Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in various occasions in statements he made especially the infamous statement that urged his followers to kill shia of Iraq, for their religious affiliation. See historical Shi'a-Sunni relations. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an undated AP photograph. ...
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (b. ...
Shiʻa Islam (Arabic شيعى follower; English has traditionally used Shiite) makes up the second largest sect of believers in Islam, constituting about 30%–35% of all Muslim. ...
// Origins of the schism Shias record the start of the schism with the death of Muhammad, and in their view, a violent coup détat against Ali in his first day as caliph, which they argue was automatic without recourse to an election or a formal investiture. ...
Al-Wahhab revived interest in the works of the Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiya; The followers of this revival (see Islamism) are often called Wahhabis, but they reject the usage of this term on the grounds that Al-Wahhab's teachings were the teachings of the Prophet Muhammed, not his own. Thus, they refer to themselves as Salafists or Muwahhidun, meaning, "the monotheists." Abu al-Abbas Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Abd al-Salaam ibn Abdullah ibn Taymiya al-Harrani (Arabic: أبو عباس تقي الدين Ø£Øمد بن عبد السلام بن عبد الله ابن تيمية الØراني) (January 22, 1263 – 1328), was an Islamic scholar born in Harran, located in what is now Turkey, close to the Syrian border. ...
Islamism refers to a set of political ideologies derived from various religious views of Muslim fundamentalists, which hold that Islam is not only a religion, but also a political system that should govern the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state. ...
Wahhabism (sometimes spelled Wahabbism or Wahabism) is a movement of Islam named after Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab (1703–1792). ...
Muhammad (Arabic محمد, also transliterated Mohammad, Mohammed, and formerly Mahomet, following the Latin) is revered by Muslims as the final prophet of God. ...
A Salafi (Arabic سلفي lit. ...
Biography
Childhood The early life of Muhammed Ibn Abd al-Wahhab remains fairly uncertain despite the existence several studies on the subject. Historians at the time had no interest in the life of an obscure, young scholar and most of the contemporary journals do not cover it. Thus, there are only two official histories of Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab and his religious movement, Ibn Ghannam's Tarikh Najd and Ibn Bishr's Unwan al-Majd fi Tarikh Najd.
Three points should be taken into account regarding these sources for the early life of Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab. First, they rarely mention specific dates of events. Secondly, both authors were Wahhabis themselves and therefore had a political and religious agenda to consider. Finally, each was written after the death of Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab.
Reforms In the year 1744, Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab began to attract followers in the small town Al-Uyayna, within the Najd region (the central region of modern Saudi Arabia). Lacking a base of support at the time, Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab's teachings were challenged by Sulayman Ibn Muhammed al-Hamidi of the Banu Khalid, the chief of al-Ahsa and Qatif. The latter threatened the ruler of the city that he would not pay him a land tax for his properties if he did not kill Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab - which he declined to do, although Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab was forced to leave. Najd or Nejd (Arabic: Naǧd) is a region in central Saudi Arabia and the location of the nations capital, Riyadh. ...
Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab made a name for himself through a series of actions. First, after he returned to al-Uyayna, he persuaded the ruler of the town to destroy a sacred tomb revered by local Muslims, citing the Prophet Muhammed's teaching that forbade idol-worship. Secondly, he ordered that an adulteress be stoned to death, a practice that had become uncommon in the area. Additionally, he practiced the Islamic concept of rihla fi talab al-'ilm, "traveling the land in order to seek knowledge." The full extent of such travels remains uncertain.
It is known if Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab spent some time in Basra (within modern day Iraq), and it is assumed that as a devout Muslim he traveled to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina before traveling to Basra. Official sources on Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab's life put his visits to these cities in different chronological order. Location of Basra Basra (also spelled BaÅŸrah or Basara; historically sometimes written Busra, Busrah, and the early form Bassorah; Arabic: , Al-Basrah) is the second largest city of Iraq with an estimated population of c. ...
A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) (sometimes also spelled Moslem) is an adherent of Islam. ...
This article is about the city in Saudi Arabia. ...
This article is about the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. ...
Almost all sources agree that his reformist ideas were formulated while living in Basra, where he became somewhat famous for his debates with the Islamic scholars there, and wrote the Kitab Al Tawhid ("The Book of Unity"). Dates are missing in a great many cases, so it would be impossible to reconstruct a chronology of his life up until 1743, when the Meccan Epistle was written.
Criticisms The Egyptian Islamic scholar Abd al-Wahhab Ibn Ahamd Barakat al-Shafi'i al-Azhari al-Tandatawi wrote an early criticism of Muhammed's reforms in the book, Kitab Rad' al-Dalala wa Qam al-Djahala ("The Book of the Prevention of Error and the Suppression of Ignorance.") Oddly, Tandatawi did not specifically name Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab in the text, but referred to him as Sheik al-Nas. This is seen as either an effort to not humiliate Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab or to simply not draw unwanted attention to the Wahhabi movement. Tandatawi wrote that he received word of Muhammed's teachings through word-of-mouth and letters from local "authorities." The content of Tandatawi's arguments also suggest this, as they do not appear to be based on any writings of Muhammed's, instead disputing his general ideas, quoting a considerable number of Qu'ranic verses.
Another critic of Muhammed Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab at the time was a major sufi theologian, Ali al-Shafi'i al-Basri al-Shahir bi'l-Qabbani. A historian at the time, Ibn Turki, considered Qabbani to be among the four most prolific refuters of Wahhabism, particularly because - unlike Tandatawi - he had actually read Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab's writings. Qabbani wrote two texts criticizing Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab, the Fasl al-Khitab fi Radd Dalalat Ibn Abd al-Wahhab ("the unmistakable judgement in the refutation of the delusions of Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab,") and the Kashf al-Hijab an Wadjh Dalalat Ibn al-Wahhab ("lifting the veil from the face of the delusions of Ibn al-Wahhab,"). Qabbani later wrote a formal, anti-Wahhabi tract, citing both sources. Sufism (Arabic تصوف taṣawwuf) is a system of esoteric philosophy commonly associated with Islam. ...
Theology is literally rational discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, rational discourse). By extension, it also refers to the study of other religious topics. ...
From Death to the Present During his life, Muhammed Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab forged a pact with Najd chieftain Muhammad Ibn Saud, ensuring that regions conquered by the Saudi tribe would be ruled according to Ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab's peculiar teachings on Islam. Ibn Saud and his heirs would spend the next 140 years mounting various military capaigns to seize control of Arabia and its outlying regions. The most successful of these, backed by British support, would establish the present-day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, providing the Wahhabi movement with a state. Vast wealth from oil discovered in the following decades, coupled with Saudi - and thus Wahhabi - control of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, have since fueled Wahhabi missionary activity. With Saudi treasure at their disposal, the Wahhabi muftis and imams who hold monopoly control over the nation's Islamic jurisprudence and serve as arbiters of acceptable social practice in the Kingdom have waged a successful campaign of proselytization abroad through the establishment of madrassas that teach the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. Najd or Nejd (Arabic: Naǧd) is a region in central Saudi Arabia and the location of the nations capital, Riyadh. ...
The Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula is a mainly desert peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia and an important part of the greater Middle East. ...
Wahhabism (sometimes spelled Wahabbism or Wahabism) is a movement of Islam named after Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab (1703–1792). ...
Madrassa in the Gambia The word madrassa in the Arabic language (and other languages of the Islamic nations such as Persian, Turkish, Indonesian etc. ...
Commentary As with most historical figures whose lives hold lasting influence within the world's major religions, perceptions of Muhammed Abd Al-Wahhab are varied. To many Arabs, particularly those who reside in Saudi Arabia or whose Islamic education came from Saudi Arabian instructors (of which there are many abroad especially in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and other Islamic countries which have prominent Saudis going as far as donating an Islamic studies department to Western universities to promote the Whahabi interpretation of Islam), Abd-al-Wahhab is a leading luminary in the proud tradition of Islamic scholarship. A great number of Sunni Muslims regard him as a pious scholar whose interpretations of Qu'ran and Hadith were nevertheless out of step with the mainstream of Islamic thought, and thus discredited. To Western observers, the terms "Wahhabism" and "Wahhabi" have become synonymous terms for "Islamic extremism" and "Islamic extremist" due to the events of September 11, 2001. Huge plume of smoke and fire seen on the North Tower (the first tower to be hit). ...
References - Gold, Dore. Hatred's Kingdom, New York: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2003.
- Goldberg, Jeffrey. "Inside Jihad U.: The Education of a Holy Warrior," The New York Times Magazine. June 25, 2000.
- Traboulsi, Samer. Die Welt des Islams, Nov2002, Vol. 42 Issue 3, p373, 43p; (AN 9117682)
External links - Full Text of Kitab Al Tawhid by Ibn Abdul Wahhab
- Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahab by the Liberal Islam Network
- Ibn Abdul Wahhab, his life and mission by Abdul Aziz Ibn Baz
- Relationship between Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Abdul Wahhab – from an islamic website
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