A Warning to Muslims against the Bid'ahs preached by Muhammad Ibn 'Abdi-l-Wahhab
By Shaykh Abdul Hadi Palazzi
Praised
by Allah, Lord of the worlds, and blessing and peace upon the best
of His creatures, the Prophet Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-Llah, upon his
noble family, his pure wives, his purified Sahabah and upon all
those who follow his path till the Day of resurrection. This paper
has been compiled under the supervision of Shaykh Abdul Hadi Palazzi,
Director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community as a mean to seek Allah’s favor and as a warning against the
founder of the heretic Wahhabi-Salafi cult and against the bid’ahs
he preached. May Allah save this Ummah from bid’ah and dalalah, and
preserve us on the right path followed by Asyaduna al-akramin. Amin.
Rasul-Ullah (sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said:"Allahumma, bless Yemen, Allahumma,
bless Sham." He was asked: "And what about Najd?" He answered: "From
Najd Shaytan’s horn will rise."
He (sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa
sallam) also said: "Beware of Shaykhu-n-Najdi, since he is Shaytan."
He
(sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) also said:
"There will be people who come from the eastern side of Arabia who
will recite Qur’an, but their recitation will not pass beyond their
collarbones. They will go out of Islam as swiftly as the arrow goes
through the prey. Their sign is shaving their heads."
Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab was a descendent of the Bani
Tamim tribe and was born in the Uyaynah village (Najd) in 1111 H.
(1699 M.). His father was a learnt Hanbali scholar, and sent him to
study tafsir, fiqh and tasawwuf in Mecca, Medina, Baghdad, Basrah
and Damascus, as well as in Iran and India. His attitude, from the
beginning, was very much polemic, and he took active part in
scholarly debates. During this period, he received the surname
"Shaykhu-n-Najdi". He contacted many Shaykhs of tasawwuf, and tried
his best to be appointed as a khalifah. This request of his,
however, was not accepted, since the Shaykhs realized he was too
must influenced by kibr and by the desire to become a leader.
At the age of thirty-two he came back to Najd and started
working as a teacher for Bedouins; he also started exercising
ijtihad, and accusing Sunni scholars and Ahlu-t-tasawwuf of bid’ahs.
In 1143 H. (1730 M.) he met a leader of a gang of marauders called
Muhammad Ibn Sa’ud, whose main activity was plundering travelers in
the desert of Najd. Since most of those Bedouins living in Dar’iyyah
were completely unlearnt, Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab could easily convict
them of his theories; Ibn Sa‘udand him made an agreement, according
to which the former was appointed as the "Amir", and the latter as
the "Shaykh". The "Shaykh declared he was ready to publish "fatwas"
where non-Wahhabi Muslims were described as apostates and
idol-worshippers; this point of view obviously represented a sort of
"religious justification" for Ibn Sa’ud’s gang. They were not,
anymore, robbers and criminals, but "mujahids", authorized to kill
"kuffars", to plunder their properties and to rape their women.
The "Shaykh" also appointed some "wakils" and send them to
preach Wahhabism in Mecca, but scholars living in the Blessed City
were ready in understanding how dangerous this doctrine was. Sayyid
Ahmad Zayni Dahlan as-Shafi‘i (rahimah-Ullah) was the Chief Mufti of Mecca. In
wrote in the book "Al-Futuhatu-l-Islamiyyah":
"To deceive
the ‘ulema in Mecca and Medina, those people sent emissaries in
al-Haramayn, but these missionaries were not able to answer
questions asked by Sunni scholars. It became evident that they were
ignorant bid‘ah holders. Muftis of the four madhhabs wrote a fatwa
that declared them kuffar, and this document was distributed in the
whole Jazirah. The Amir of Mecca, Sharif Mas‘ud Ibn Sa‘id, ordered
that the Wahhabis should be imprisoned. Some Wahhabis fled to
Dari‘yyah and informed their leader of what was happening."
Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab’s brother, Sulayman Ibn
‘Abdi-l-Wahhab (rahimah-Ullah), studied his works and tried his best to invite
him to tawbah. At least, when he realized verbal admonitions had no
effect, decided to write a book called "As-Sawa’iqu-l-Ilahiyyah
fi-r-Raddi ‘ala-l-Wahhabiyyah". It contains a detailed refutation of
his brother’s heresies, and states:
"One of the dalils
showing that your path is heretic is the hadith sharif narrated by
‘Uqbah Ibn Amir and collected in the Sahihayn [Bukhari and Muslim]:
‘Rasul-Ullah (sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) ascended the minbar, and it was the last time I saw
him on the minbar. He said: ‘I do not fear that you will become
mushrikun after me, but I fear that, because of worldly interests,
you will fight each others, and thus be destroyed like the peoples
of old.’
The Messenger of Allah (sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa
sallam) foretold all that would
happen to his Ummah until the end of the world. This hadith sharif
shows that he was certain of the fact that this Ummah will never
worship idols. By saying so, he destroys Wahhabism from its roots,
since Wahhabi books say that Ummah al-Muhammadiyyah is involved in
polytheism, that Muslim countries are full of idols, and that Muslim
graves are houses of shirk. They also claim that someone who does
not accept to consider mushrikuns those who ask for intercession by
the graves is himself a kafir. On the contrary, Muslims have been
visiting graves and asking for the intercession of awliya’ for
centuries. No Islamic scholar has even called such Muslims
mushrikuns.
"My brother asks: ‘A hadith sharif says: "Of all
that will befall you, shirk is what I fear more." Is not this a
dalil of the fact that a part of this Ummah will be engaged in
shirk?'
"I say: It is inferred by many other hadiths that
this hadith refers to shirku-l-asghar. There are similar hadiths,
narrated by Shaddad Ibn ‘Aws, Abu Hurayrah and Mahmud Ibn Labid (may
Allah be pleased with all of them), according to which the Prophet
(sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) feared that shirku-l-asghar would be committed by his Ummah. It
has exactly happened as it was foretold in the hadith, and many
Muslims are guilty of shirku-l-asghar. But you, in your ignorance,
confuse shirku-l-asghar with shirku-l-akbar, and the tragic
consequence of this mistake of yours is that you regard as
‘unbelievers’ those Muslims that do not accept to call other Muslims
‘unbelievers’."
Another contemporary scholar, Muhammad
Ibn Sulayman Effendi (rahimah-Ullah) wrote:
"O Muhammad Ibn
‘Abdi-l-Wahhab, do not slander Muslims! I admonish you for Allah’s
sake! Does anyone of them says that there is a creator besides
Allah? If you have anything to argue against Muslims, please, show
them authoritative dalils. It is more correct to call you, a single
person, ‘kafir’, than calling millions of Muslims ‘kuffars’. Ayah
114 of Surah an-Nisa’ says: ‘If anyone contends with the Messenger
after guidance has been plainly conveyed to him, and follows a path
other than the one followed by Believers, we shall leave him in the
path he has chosen, and land him in Jahannam, quite an evil refuge!’
This ayah points to the situation of those who have departed from
Ahlu-s-Sunnah wa-l-Jama’ah."
When the order from the Amir
of Mecca reached the Khalifah in Istanbul, he ordered Muhammad ‘Ali
Pashah (rahimah-Ullah), governor of Egypt to move to Najd and to stop the
Wahhabi fitnah. The marauders of Ibn Sa‘udtied to attack Mecca and
fought against mujahids, but Allah gave the victory to the Islamic
army.
Among Sunni ‘uleams who refuted Wahhabism we must also
mention Sayyed Dawud Ibn Sulayman, Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi, Sun’
Allah al-Halabi al-Makki al-Hanafi, Muhammad Ma‘sum as-Sarhindi,
Muhammad Ibn Sulayman al-Madani ash-Shafi‘i, may Allah be pleased
with all of them. The latter was the Shafi‘i Mufti of Medina, and was
asked to write a fatwa against Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab. This
fatwa is quoted in the book "Ashaddu-l-Jihad" and says:
"This man is leading the ignoramuses of the present age
to a heretical path. He is trying to extinguish Allah’s light, but
Allah will not permit His light to be extinguished, in spite of the
opposition of mushrikuns, and will enlighten every place with the
light of Ahlu-s-Sunnah."
As-Sayyid ‘Abdur-Rahman
al-Ahdal (rahimah-Ullah), the Mufti of Zabid, said, "...in refuting them [the
Wahhabis], it is sufficient to mention the hadith of the Prophet
(sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam): ‘Their sign is shaving their heads’, since no other innovators
had ever done it."
The Wahhabis also call themselves the
"Salafis," believing that they follow the footsteps of the pious
Salaf, i.e. the Sahabah, the Tabi‘un, and Atba‘u-t-Tabi‘in. The
Wahhabis, however, have a route of knowledge that traces back to
Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabi movement,
who lived in the 1700’s M., and before him to Ibn Taymiyyah, another
heretic who lived in the late 1200’s to early 1300’s M. Their route
of knowledge does not trace back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad
(sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) or his pious followers whom he praised. The Wahhabis, therefore,
cannot be "al-Firqatu-l-Najiyyah", or the Saved Sect, but are one of
the other 72 deviant sects within the Ummah, which the Prophet
(sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam)
dispraised and warned us about.
In many of his "fatwas," Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab
labeled Muslims as "kuffar" if they did not agree to his heretical
teachings, which opposed the orthodox Islamic beliefs that Muslims
had been adhering to for over a thousand years. When the Sunni
Muslims disagreed with the newly formulated Wahhabi cult, the blood
of countless Muslims, including plenty of scholars of Ahlu-s-Sunnah,
was made halal by the command of Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab.
Although thousands of Muslims were massacred by the deviant
Wahhabis, the scholars of Ahlu-s-Sunnah continued to refute them in
their books. An example is what the Mufti of Mecca, Ahmad Zayni
Dahlan al-Makki ash-Shafi‘i (rahimah-Ullah) wrote in a work titled
"Fitnatu-l-Wahhabiyyah", stating:
"In 1217 H. they [the
Wahhabis] marched with big armies to the area of at-Tayf. In
Dhu-l-Qa‘dah of the same year, they lay siege to the area the
Muslims were, subdued them, and killed the people: men, women, and
children. They also looted the Muslims belongings and possessions.
Only a few people escaped their barbarism."
"They [the
Wahhabis] plundered what was in the room of the Prophet (sall-Allahu
‘alayhi wa sallam), took
all the money that was there, and did some disgraceful acts."
"In 1220 H. they [the Wahhabis] lay siege to Mecca and then
surrounded it from all directions to tighten this siege. They
blocked the routes to the city and prevented supplies from reaching
there. It was a great hardship on the people of Mecca. Food became
exorbitantly expensive and then unavailable. They resorted to eating
dogs."
What better person could the British have used to
fulfill their motto, i.e. "divide and conquer?" The British were
laughing at Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab and his followers for
plundering, looting, and killing Muslims in the name of Islam,
causing Muslims in Mecca to resort to eating dogs, in addition to
fighting Muslim armies sent by the Ottomans, e.g. Muhammad ‘Ali
Pashah (rahimah-Ullah) of Egypt and his army.
This was indeed a
fulfillment of the interests of the British, as well as
entertainment for them. Contemporary members of the Sa‘ud house are
descendants of Muhammad Ibn Sa‘ud, the heretic who collaborated with
Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab, to cause a Muslim bloodbath in the name
of "Jihad." Their monarchy has existed since the Wahhabi movement
originated, and they continue to raise the Dajjal’s banner to this
very day. They have destroyed the maqams of our four Imams around
al-Ka‘bah, and identifying the place where the imam of
salatu-l-jama‘at must stand in Masjidu-l-Haram is today quite
difficult. The sanctity of al-Haram is profaned five times each day,
since the Wahhabi "imams" stand too close to al-Ka‘bah, in a place
that is not justified in the light of fiqh.
The discovery of
oil in Saudi Arabia in the 1930’s has enabled the Saudi-Wahhabi
kingdom to become rich, and their leaders have used their wealth to
disseminate the Wahhabi doctrine all across the globe. They have
built printing presses in Egypt, Syria, and even the United States
to print beautiful books to attract the laypeople so that they may
fall into their trap. The problem is that many new and naive Muslims
are falling into the Wahhabi trap, and are propagating their false
doctrine in Muslim Student Organizations, universities, and mosques
– especially in the East Coast of the United States.
The
Wahhabis are known for parroting the slogan of "Qur’an and Sunnah,"
without any profound understanding of the two sources of Islam, and
are known for slandering scholars of Ahlu-s-Sunnah like Imams
Suyuti, Imam Abu Hamid Ghazali, Imam Nawawi, (rahimahum-Ullah) among others. The
great Hanafi scholar, Imam Muhammad Amin Ibn Abidin (rahimah-Ullah), stated that
the Wahhabis of today are reviving the creed of the Khawarij of the
past. It is also known that the Khawarij wrongly understand the
meanings of ayahs in the Qur’an and falsely attribute ayahs meant
for non-Muslims to Muslims.
The Wahhabis are notorious for
reviving this Kharijite practice. Moreover, the Wahhabis have a
passion for trying to find faults among the mujtahids such as the
noble Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Shafi‘i, Imam Malik, and Imam Ahmad Ibn
Hanbal. They try to find faults in their methodologies, while they
do not possess a methodology of their own. Hence, Wahhabi "scholars"
who have graduated from Wahhabi universities in Saudi Arabia are
never taught a methodology to enable them to understand the Qur’an
and Sunnah. This is why they are in a constant state of
self-contradiction, confusion, and fitnah among the Muslim
population.
It is the scholars of Ahlu-s-Sunnah wa-l-Jama‘ah
who must awaken the Muslims and warn them by bidding the lawful and
forbidding the unlawful Wahhabi doctrine by efficient means of
da‘wah. An anti-Wahhabi campaign must be formulated and strengthened
to defend the Ash‘ari and Maturidi creeds, the Hanafi, Shafi‘i,
Maliki, and Hanbali madhhabs, and the numerous tariqahs of tasawwuf,
of which the majority of Muslim scholars have been a part of.
And all praise is for Allah, Lord of the worlds.
W A R N I N
G
Wahhabis today call themselves
"Salafis," in an attempt to confuse the Muslim masses that
they adhere to the methodology of the pious Salaf, or predecessors,
i.e the Sahabah, the Tabi‘un, and Itba‘u-t-Tabi‘in. For example,
some of the true Salaf applied ta’wil, or figurative interpretation,
to Allah’s Attributes. Imam Bukhari gave a figurative interpretation
of wajh to mean "Allah’s Dominion," in Suratu-l-Qasas, ayah 88. This
can be found in the Sahih of Bukhari in the Chapter "Tafsir
ul-Qur’an." Plenty of other examples exist of how the
Wahhabi-Salafis oppose the practices of the true and pious Salaf.
The following writers are representatives of this
cult. Their followers call them "Shaykhs", and Muslims must stay
away from their books, papers and Web pages, and do not confuse them
with real Sunni scholars:
- Yusuf al-Qaradawi al-Misri (the one who says that salah
in al-Aqsa is "haram". He unites the errors of Wahhabis and the
errors of Ikhwan in a new form of heresy).
- ‘Abdu-l-‘Aziz Ibn Baz (the deceased official "Mufti" of
the Saudi regime and their Rabitah, who oppressed Ahlu-s-Sunnah in
al-Haramayn).
- Muhammad Nasiru-d-Din al-Albani (a recently disappeared
pseudo-muhaddith from Albania who classified hadiths according to
his unlimited fantasy and forbade women to wear golden ornament).
- Abu Aminah Bilal Philips (a ultra-Wahhabi from Jamaica
who forges claims in the history of fiqh, full of slanders and
absurd accusations against Ahlu-s-Sunnah).
- Muhammad Nubar Yahya Silmy (a propagandist of Wahhabism
in Sri Lanka who is very much hostile to the Sunni ‘aqidah).
- Abu Bilal Mustafah al-Kanadi.
- Muhammad Saleh.
- Hamza Massimiliano Boccolini (a Wahhabi who lives in
Naples and is exhorted to accept rahmah from Allah by tawbah and
study of Sunnah)
- ‘Abdur-Rahman Rosario Pasquini (an Ikhwani propagandist
in Milano who, because of senescence, supports linguistic bid‘at
like "Allah is unipersonal" - sic! - "Muslims are islamocratics",
wa na‘udhu bi-Llah, afala yatadhakkarun)
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