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A New
Dawn The Movement of Mohamed Ibn Abdul-Wahhab*
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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