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At the turn of the Twelfth Century after the Hijrah-The eighteenth
century CE-ignorance and backwardness in all venues of life afflicted the
Islamic world. The light of faith had faded from the hearts of many Muslims,
and Shari'ah was smeared and distorted, to the extent that many Muslims fell
victims to various types of Shirk or polytheism. They ascribed partners with
Allah, and indulged in Jaheliyah (state of religious ignorance) similar to
that which was rampant before the advent of Islam. Many Muslims in those days
believed in the sacredness of certain persons, who were, according to their
twisted understanding, capable of granting them provisions, victory, health,
etc. Superstition, fables and innovations were abounding. Much wealth and
materials were wasted in building tombs and shrines to which they made
pilgrimage, and at whose thresholds they offered animal sacrifices.
Furthermore, they glorified and worshiped special trees and stones. They
sought barakah or blessings from those false Deities. It is a fact that people
in Baghdad, for instance, used to seek barakah from a rusted ottoman canon.
They would take their children to this canon invoking it to make them eloquent
and fluent in speech.
In those days, the Arab peninsula was in an extreme state of
division. Every village had its own Emir, and the relations among those
villages were enmity-based, not to mention the bitter hostilities that
characterized the relationship between the cities and the rural areas.
Individuals from the nomadic tribes would seize any opportunity to raid and
steal belongings and properties of the dwellers of towns and cities. The
pathways and road were unsafe and travel was treacherous.
From the heart of that chaos, darkness and disorder, a voice was
heard, calling the people to return to the purity and beauty of aqueedah or
faith, to the pure belief and full servitude to Allah, the tawheed.
That voice was the voice of Shaikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab
(1115-1206 AH/ 1791-1703 CE). He called for the renewal, revival and
resurrection of the true aspects and features of Islam that were then blurred
or covered by false beliefs and practices. Allah blessed the Shaikh's movement
and efforts with success. His teachings widely spread. His following began to
grow in numbers.
That voice was the voice of Shaikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab
(1115-1206 AH/ 1791-1703 CE). He called for the renewal, revival and
resurrection of the true aspects and features of Islam that were then blurred
or covered by false beliefs and practices. Allah blessed the Shaikh's movement
and efforts with success. His teachings widely spread. His following began to
grow in numbers.
Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab acquired Islamic sciences from his
father who too was a judge and a noted scholar. Then his appetite and yearning
for knowledge took him to Madinah in Hijaz region where he acquired Ilm
(Islamic Knowledge) from a number of scholars like Muhammad As-Sindi. After
that he moved to Iraq where he studied Hadeeth, jurisprudence and Arabic
language. His original intention was to travel to Damascus from Iraq, but for
some reasons, he could not. Therefore, he went back to his village al-Uyynah,
and started propagating his teachings. He called upon his people to abstain
from the erroneous and unauthentic religious practices and follow the original
deen and Shari'ah that were embraced and practiced by the first and righteous
generation of Islam. He criticized and denied their polytheistic practices,
rites and inventions, not only theoretically, but he followed up his preaching
with deeds. He destroyed the shrines and tombs that were erected on the graves
of his people's sacred persons. He felled the trees that were glorified by
people.
Soon the efforts of Ibn Abdul Wahhab and people around him started
yielding positive results. Many people came to him to learn Ilm. The news of
this Shaikh and his teachings hit the neighboring villages and towns. The
ruling entities in those areas and heads of the different tribes were worried
and fearful of the danger his teachings might pose to their authorities, for
it calls for the liberation of people from the darkness of ignorance and from
the excesses and oppressions of corrupted and manipulative establishments. And
they were just right. So far, their subjects' ignorance was the main guarantee
for the survival and continuity of these privileges.
Therefore, the heads of those villages and towns exerted
tremendous pressures on the chief of al-Uyynah to expel the Shaikh. The chief
eventually succumbed to their demand and asked Shaikh Ibn Abdul Wahhab to
leave al-Uyynah. Following his eviction from al-Uyynah the Shaikh headed for
the village of ad-Dir'iyah, which was, at that time, under the rule of
Muhammad ibn Saud. Not only did Ibn Saud accept the teachings of Ibn Abdul
Wahhab and embraced his principles, but he also pledged allegiance to him and
his call for the application of the authentic Shari'ah laws, and propagation
of the pure Islamic teachings.
Consequently, Shaikh Ibn Abdul Wahhab began contacting the
leaders, the judges and the Imams of masajid in the Najd area acquainting them
with his dawah. Some of them responded positively to his call, others rejected
it and a few even wrote treatises denouncing and ridiculing his teachings.
Shaikh Ibn Abdul Wahhab responded by writing back commenting and refuting
their objections. In the meantime, the army of Ibn Saud was available to fight
or scare those who dare to threat the safety of the Shaikh or try to stop and
limit the progress of spreading and teaching the revival of the Islamic dawah.
And after a short while the whole region of Najd and the neighboring Eastern
regions of Arabia accepted this dawah and became part of the new revival
movement of Islam.
Shaikh Mohammad ibn Abdul Wahhab lived to see the prevalence of
his principles-he was ninety years old when he died. At his death in 1218 CE,
the whole region of Hijaz and most of the regions of the Arab peninsula had
become unified under the banner of tawheed, the cornerstone of the dawah of
Ibn Abdul Wahhab.
Tawheed mean denying all deities other than Allah, subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And thus, no prophet, sacred person or angel deserves to be worshiped,
or submitted to. All must submit only to Allah and to him alone. Tawheed
liberates humans from their influence and domination of the clergy or any one
who happens to manipulate religion and use it to consolidate power or
authority into his hands. It is a 'revolt' against all forms of enslavement,
and all attempts to compromise the dignity of the human being. It rubs off
traces of psychological defeat so that the Ummah will continue to be capable
of renewing itself; firmly believing in the approach it has willingly chosen.
Tawheed is the antonym of blind following that hampers the renewal. It takes
the human back to Allah's norms and laws that govern the universe. It unifies
the human psyche, and realizes the much-required balance between the spiritual
aspirations and the worldly inclinations. Tawheed also has practical
manifestations: it refines and polishes morals, brings peace of mind and
comfort of conscience and strengthens the trust of the believers in Allah, his
creator. The utmost sin a man could commit is to associate partners with
Allah, and claim or believe that Allah's Attributes and Acts or Ability can be
similar to any of His creatures or vise versa.
“
Abdullah ibn Masoud said: I asked the Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam:
What is the greatest sin ever? He answered: The greatest sin is to associate
partners with Allah who created you” (Muslim).
The influence of the dawah of Ibn Abdul Wahhab had reached far
places in India, Yemen and North Africa, because of the efforts and hard work
of many scholars and callers (du'at) who came to know the Islamic teachings,
revived by the Shaikh, during their visits to Makkah to perform Hajj or Umrah,
the minor pilgrimage. They were impressed by the simplicity and nobility of
the revivalist dawah of Shaikh Ibn Abdul Wahhab, and took pains to spread it
in their countries and everywhere they could.
Finally, I reiterate and stress that there is an important lesson
to be learned from the dawah of Ibn Abdul Wahhab and the striking success it
achieved. A lesson to be thought of and heeded by those of us who are seeking
to restore to the deen its past glory and influence. This lesson is that any
Islamic revival movement that aspires to success must be based on the basic
fundamentals of Islam as they were specified and practiced by the Prophet,
sallallahu alayhe wa sallam. At the top of these fundamentals is tawheed which
in fact the thread that runs through the entire body of the Islamic system of
beliefs and worships. Shaikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab grasped this fact and
held it dearly and served it unwaveringly, and for that reason his efforts in
dawah flourished and achieved the marvelous success that we all know and feel.
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[*]This article was published in AL-JUMUAH
magazine in issue#7, page37. You can contact the magazine on the following
address:Riyadh office: P.O.Box 26970 Riyadh 11496 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Tel:(+966-1)464-1222.
Note: we have authorization from them to publishing its articles.
http://www.islamland.org/articles1/dawn.htm
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