Ordinary Wahhabism, Part 1
A heretic movement in Islam

Alexander Ignatenko
Publication date:  1 December 2001


After the acts of terrorism that were performed in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, the world will never be the same. But terror and pain, anguish and dismay will give place to clarity - not only in respect to the question of who committed the crime, but also to whence the people who committed this crime against humanity sprung.

It is naive to reduce the motives to financial reasons (large sums of money were said to have been promised to suicide bombers' relatives). All these people must have had a powerful common motivation that couldn't have spontaneously developed in two dozen different perpetrators who directly participated in the acts, nor in the number of those who helped organize them.

It isn't strange that Islamic extremists immediately fell under suspicion of being connected with these terrorist acts. Experts in Islamic studies know that Islamic extremists have cherished the idea of a terrorist act involving an airliner for a long time. They tried to realize their dream in France in December of 1994 when they hijacked an airliner in Algeria in order to aim it at some object in Paris like the Eiffel Tower. But French special services managed to suppress the attempt.

Meanwhile, at the very time of the attacks on New York and Washington, Moscow and Russia still mourned for the victims of the terrorist acts on residential buildings in the capital two years ago. And in France, as well as in Russia, it was known that the above-mentioned acts of terrorism, as well as many others, were performed by Wahhabis.

Judicial inquiry will likely isolate who directed the airliners at the targets in America. But judging, at least, from the preliminary data of Sept. 13 and 14, Wahhabis certainly have something to do with it. Note that Osama bin Laden, allegedly connected with those terrorists already identified by the FBI, is a Wahhabi.

So what does the Wahhabi teaching consist of? It is impossible to answer this question without an excursus into religious history. Moreover, because the Wahhabi expansion is at the same time well-protected and controversial, with explanations ranging from statements that there is no Wahhabism at all to claims that Wahhabism is merely true Islam.

What Is Wahhabism?

The word Wahhabism most often denotes religious and political extremism related to Islam. In its narrowest and most precise sense Wahhabism is a teaching that was formulated in the 18th century by Arabic religious reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. This teaching later became and still remains an official ideology of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Wahhabis are either supporters of the ideas, constituting the teaching of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, or members of organizations that are guided by this teaching. In 1999 the Badr publishing house, registered and located in Moscow, issued the third edition (5 thousand copies) of The Book of Monotheism by M.S.Tamimi (Muhammad ibn Suleyman at-Tamimi), a student and follower of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab.

Why Do Wahhabis Not Want to Be Called Wahhabis?

And yet, followers of Wahhabi principles abstain from relating the word Wahhabism to the religious teaching of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, as well as to the official doctrine of the modern Saudi Arabia and to the ideology of movements and groups that accept and disseminate Wahhabi ideas and implement Wahhabi principles throughout the world, Russia included.

The main reason why Wahhabis don't want to be called Wahhabis is that otherwise they would implicitly acknowledge the accusations that many Muslims bring against them. These are claims that Wahhabis are Islamic heretics (mubtadi'ah), or people who follow a specific religious teaching that was developed by a particular man (Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab) at a particular time (18th century), a teaching that hadn't existed before in this form. The Arabic word heresy (bid'ah) is derived from bada'ah (to introduce something new) and means a condemned and rejected innovation.

That's why Wahhabis don't call themselves Wahhabis but rather refer to themselves as just Muslims (Muslimun), monotheists (Mowahhidoon) or Salafi, "followers of the pious forefathers" (Salafiyyun).

Is It Admissible to Call Wahhabis Wahhabis?

According to Islamic tradition, particular branches of Islam that existed in the past or exist at present (schools of jurisprudence, branches of theological thought, Sufi Tariqat orders, sects, etc.) can be named after their founders, regardless of what theological, religious and juridical views those branches convey. There are numerous examples. The eponym of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence is Ahmad ibn Hanbal; of the Qadiri Sufi Tariqat, Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani; of the Asharis theological school, Abu'l-Hasan al-Ashari, etc. So there is nothing disparaging or depreciating in the word Wahhabi itself.

Members of the Saudi clergy also call followers of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, including themselves, Wahhabis (Wahhabiyyun). When asked if it is admissible to refer to past and present followers of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab as Wahhabis, Saudi Arabia's Religious Affairs Minister Abdallah at-Turki said, "It is really a great honor for Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its ulama, when one who acts according to the Scripture and Sunnah and exhorts to [follow] them is characterized as one who follows the practice and path that Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab kept and called to and that imams of the House of Saud upheld" (Al-Muslimun, November 7, 1997).

However ornate the language is, one can see that it is admissible to call Wahhabis Wahhabis. Or consider a fatwa of the late Saudi mufti Abd al-Aziz bin Baza, who didn't hesitate to use the word Wahhabis: "Wahhabis are not heretics; they are those who follow the path of the pious forefathers" (Al-Muslimun, January 17, 1997). Note that this fatwa is the mufti's answer to the claims of Muslims that Wahhabis disseminate condemned innovations, i.e. heretic views.

Wahhabism as Wahhabis See It

So much has been written about Wahhabis and so much controversial material exists that it's high time to come to know how Wahhabis themselves understand Wahhabi teaching, considering that they continually strive to propagate their ideas among Russian readers. It is worth noting that the Wahhabi books published in Russian are among the millions that have been distributed in Arabic countries, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Southeast Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, and North America, including the United States.

Let us consider a number of Wahhabi texts, including the books and booklets in Russian distributed on the territory of Russia and among Russians in Saudi Arabia (for example, during the hajj) by Saudi authorities and public institutions. This will help us, first, to find out how these sources set out Wahhabi teaching and, second, to check on the accuracy of the widespread explanation of Wahhabi ideas.

Wahhabism is the result of the selection and adaptation of the Quran and Sunni postulates to Wahhabi views and ideas. Here is what a Wahhabi author writes about a typically Wahhabi approach to the Quran and the Sunnah. "In this book I gave answers to all questions relating to postulates of Islam and, as far as it was possible (!), backed my answers with quotations from the Quran and the authentic Hadith to convince readers of the truth of my words." (Muhammad ibn Jamil Zinu. Islamic Akida - Belief, Conviction, Outlook - as Stated in the Holy Quran and the Authentic Sunnah. Moscow: Badr, 1998, p.4).

In fact, the great majority of works written by Wahhabi authors are based on the following principle. A postulate is stated followed by a quotation from the Quran or the Sunnah that proves the postulate. If the authors cannot find an appropriate quotation, they do without citing the Quran or the Sunnah.

Although this method produces the illusion that the stated postulates agree with the Quran and the Sunnah, it violates the traditional Islamic belief that the Quran and the Sunnah are recorded divine revelation. The goal of Islamic ulama (learned people) is to understand what Allah chose to impart upon people in the Quran and the Sunnah, given to the divine envoy Muhammad - and not to use quotations from the Holy Scripture as a confirmation of their own ideas. Moreover, even when quotations from the Quran or the Sunnah are used, the meaning of Wahhabi postulates often partially or completely diverges from what the quotations really imply.

The postulates of the Quran and Sunnah that don't agree with the ideas given in Wahhabi literature are just ignored as if they don't exist. As a result, Wahhabi teaching attributes great importance to the concept of infidelity, Jews and Christians being reckoned among the infidels (more about this later). But none of the Russian translations of Wahhabi texts that ground the infidelity of Jews and Christians include the following quotation from the Quran: "Verily! Those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians, and Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and do righteous good deeds shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve" (The Quran, 2:62).

Here is one more example. Wahhabi teaching attributes great significance to jihad. No attention, however, is paid to the words of the Prophet about the greater and the lesser jihad. On return from the battle of Badr (year 624), in which Muslims defeated polytheists, Muhammad said, "We are finished with the lesser jihad; now we are starting the greater jihad." But these words are traditionally interpreted in Islam as follows: armed fight is the lesser jihad, whereas peaceful, constructive labor is the main, greater jihad.

Thus, Wahhabism is the result of the selection of a few applicable Islamic postulates. One who has set to analyze and evaluate this doctrine should, on the one hand, not regard the Islamic postulates not included in Wahhabi literature as Wahhabi, and on the other hand, keep oneself from referring to the ideas that are conveyed in Wahhabi texts as truly Islamic.

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