WAHHABISM - WAHHABISM AND ITS REFUTATION BY [Electronic resources] : THE AHL ASSUNNA نسخه متنی

WAHHABISM

By: Ayyub Sabri Pasha

The Wahhabis are one of the
groups who name themselves as Moslems while, in fact, they strive to demolish
Islam.

Ayyub Sabri Pasha [d. 1308
(1890)], Rear Admiral in the time of the thirty-fourth Ottoman sultan 'Abd
al-Hamid Khan II [1258-1336 (1842-1918), buried in the shrine of Sultan Mahmud,
in Istanbul], wrote a history book in which he told about Wahhabism
in full detail. (Mir'atal-Haramain, pp. 99 vol. III; five
volumes in Turkish, Matba'a-i Bahriye, Istanbul, 1301-1306.)

The following is translated, for
the most part, from the Pasha's book:

Wahhabism was established by
Muhammad ibn, Abd al-Wahhab. He was born in Huraimila in the Najd in
1111 (1699) and died in 1206 (1791).

Formerly, he had been to Basra, Baghdad, Iran, India and Damascus with
the view of travelling and trading, where he found the vicious books written by
Ahmad Ibn Taimiyya of Harran

[661-728 (1263-1328), d. in Damascus], the contents of which were incompatible with the Ahl
al-Sunna.

Being very cunning and
talkative, he became known as ash-Shaikh an-Najdi. In order to increase his
fame, he attended the lectures of Hanbali 'ulama' in Medina and later in Damascus and wrote many books when he returned to the Najd. His
book Kitab at-tawhid (Meccan scholars wrote very beautiful answers to Kitab
at-tawhid and refuted it with sound documents in 1221. The collection of their
refutations, titled Saif al-Jabbar which was later printed in Pakistan, was
reproduced by Isik Kitabevi in Istanbul
in 1395 [19751) was annotated by his grandson,

Abd ar-Rahman, and was
interpolated and published in Egypt with the title Fath al-majid by a Wahhabi called
Muhammad Hamid. [In 1970, preparing refutations to the corrupt writings in it,
I published them in my book, "Advice for the Wahhabi." Muhammad ibn Abd
al-Wahhab's ideas deceived the villagers, the inhabitants of Dar'iyya and their
chief, Muhammad ibn Sa'ud. The number of those who accepted his ideas, which he
called Wahhabism, increased and he imposed himself as the qadi and Muhammad ibn
Sa'ud as the amir (ruler). He declared it as a law that only their descendants
should succeed them.

Muhammad's father, 'Abd
al-Wahhab, who was a good [Sunni] Moslem, and the 'ulama' in Medina understood
from Muhammad's words that he would start a heretical movement and advised
everybody not to talk with him. But he proclaimed Wahhabism in 1150 (1737). To
deceive the ignorant and lead them astray, he spoke ill of the ijtihads of the
'ulama' of Islam. He went so far as to call the Ahl as-Sunna "kafir".
He said that he who visited the shrine of a prophet or of a wali and addressed
him as "Ya Nabi Allah!" (O Allah's Prophet) or as, e.g. "Ya 'Abd
al-Qadir!" would become a polytheist (mushrik).

In the view of the Wahhabi, he
who says that anybody besides Allah did something becomes a polytheist, a
kafir. For example, he who said, "Such and such medicine relieved the
pain." or " Allah accepted my prayers near
the tomb of such and such prophet or wali," would become a disbeliever. To
prove this idea; he puts forth as documents the ayat, "Iyyaka
nasta'in" (Only Thy help we ask) of the surat al-F atiha and the ayats telling about tawakkul. [The
correct meanings of these ayats by the Ahl as-Sunna 'ulama' and the concepts of
tawhid and tawakkul are written in detail in the chapter "Tawakkul"
of Sa'adate Abadiyeh by the author. Those who know the
correct meaning of 'tawhid' will understand that the Wahhabis, who consider
themselves muwahhids, are not muwahhids but another group of those who, under
the mask of "tawhid", want to break the Ahl at-tawhid to pieces and
to make reform in Islam.]

At the end of the second part of
the book Al-Usul al-arba'a fi tardid al-Wahhabiyya, Hadrat Hakim as-Sirhindi
al-Mujaddidi writes:

"The Wahhabis and the non-madhhabite people cannot
comprehend the meanings of 'majaz' (allegory, symbol) and 'isti'ara'
(metaphor).

Whenever somebody says that he
did something, they call him a polytheist or a disbeliever though his
expression is a majaz. (Majaz is the use
of a word not in its usual or obvious literal meaning but in a sense connected
to its meaning. When a word special to Allahu ta'ala is used for men in a
majazi sense, the Wahhabis take it in its literal meaning and call the one who
uses it metaphorically a polytheist and disbeliever; they are unaware that such
words are used for men in metaphorical senses in the Quran and Hadith.)

Whereas, Allahu ta'ala declares
in many ayats of the Holy Quran that He is the Real Maker of every act and that
man is the majazi (symbolic, so-called) maker. In the 57th ayat of the surat al-An'am and in surat Yusuf; He says, 'The decision (hukm) is Allah's alone,'
that is, Allahu ta'ala is the only Decider (Hakim). In the 64th ayat of the surat anNisa', He says, 'They will not be [considered to be
true] believers until they make thee [the Prophet] judge (yuhakkimunaka) of
what is in dispute between them.' The former ayat states that Allahu ta'ala is
the only Real Hakim, and the latter states that man can be metaphorically said
to be a hakim.

("Every Moslem knows that
Allahu ta'ala alone is the One who gives life and takes life, for He declares,
'He alone gives and takes life; in the 56th ayat of the surat Yusuf and 'Allah
is the One who makes man dead at the time of his death,' in the 42nd ayat of
the surat az-zumar. In the 12th ayat of the surat as-Sajda, He said as a majaz, 'The angel who is
appointed as the deputy to take life takes your life.'

"Allahu ta'ala alone is the
One who gives health to the sick, for the 80th ayat of the surat ash-shu'ara'
says, 'When I become sick, only He gives me recovery.' He quotes Hadrat 'Isa in
the 49th ayat of the surat al-Imran as saying, 'I heal him who is blind and the
abrasa (A skin-diseased person, albino or vitiligo, with complete or partial
whiteness of the skin.), and I bring the dead back to life by Allah's
permission.' The one who gives child to man is actually He; He declares in the
18th ayat of the surat Mariam that [the Archangel],
Hadrat Jabra'il's words, 'I will give you a pure son, was majazi.

"The real protector of man
is Allahu ta'ala. The 257th ayat of the surat al-Baqara states this openly; 'Allah is the Wali
(Protector, Guardian) of those who believe.' And by saying, 'Your wali is Allah
and His Prophet,' and 'The Prophet protects the believers more than they
protect themselves, in the 56th and 6th ayats of the suras al-Ma'ida and
al-Ahzab respectively, He means that man, too, though symbolically, is a wali.
Similarly, the real helper is Allahu ta'ala, and He also said 'mu'in' (helper)
for men metaphorically. He said in the third ayat of the surat al-Ma'ida, 'Help you one another in goodness and piety
(taqwa).' The Wahhabis use the word 'mushrik' (polytheist) for those Moslems
who call somebody an abd (servant, slave) of someone other than Allah, for
example, Abd an-Nabi' or Abd
ar-Rasul'; however, in the 32nd ayat of the surat an-Nur, it is declared :
'Give in marriage your unmarried women and those pious ones among your male and
female slaves.' The Real Rabb (Trainer) is Allahu ta' ala, but someone other
than Allah can also be called 'rabb' metaphorically; in the 41st ayat of the surat Yusuf it is said, 'Remember me in the presence of your
rabb.'

" 'Istighatha' is. what the Wahhabis oppose
most: 'to ask help or protection of someone other than Allah,' which they call
polytheism. It is true that, as all Moslems know, istighatha is only for Allahu
ta'ala. Yet it is permissible to say metaphorically that one can do istighatha
of someone, for, it is declared in the 15th ayat of the surat al-Qasas: 'People of his tribe did istighatha, of him
against the enemy.' A hadith says, 'They will do istighatha of Adam at the
place of Mahshar.' A hadith written in Al-hisn al-hasin, says, 'He who needs
help should say, "Oh Allah's servants! Help me!"' This hadith
commands that one should [in case] call for help of someone
not near him." (Hakim al-Ummat Khwaja Muhammad
Hasan Jan Sahib as-Sirhindi al-Mujaddidi, Al-usul al-Arba'a (in Persian), India, 1346 (1928); photographic reproduction by Isik
Kitabevi, Istanbul, 1395 (1975).

The author refutes the Wahhabis
and other nonmadhhabite people also in his Arabic work Ta'rikh an-najat, India, 1350 (with Urdu translation); photographic
reproduction by Isik Kitabevi, 1396 [1976].) To ask for
shafa'a and help from Rasulullah and awliya' does not mean to abandon Allah or
forget that He is the Creator. It is like expecting rain from Allah
through the cause or means (wasita) of clouds, expecting cure from Allah by
taking medicine, expecting victory from Allah by using cannons, bombs, rockets
and aeroplanes.

These are causes. Allah creates
everything through causes. It is not polytheism (shirk) to stick to these
prophets always clung to causes. As we causes. The go
to a fountain to drink water, which Allah has created, and to the bakery to eat
bread, which again Allah has created, and as we make armaments and drill and
train our troops so that Allah would give us victory, so we set our hearts on
the soul of a prophet or a wali in order that Allah would accept our prayers.
To use radio in order to hear the sound which Allah creates through the means
of electro-magnetic waves does not mean to abandon Allah and have recourse to a
box, for, Allah
is the One who gives this peculiarity, this power, to the installation in the
radio box. Allah has concealed His Omnipotence in everything. A polytheist
worships idols but does not think of Allah. A Moslem, when he uses causes and
means, thinks of Allah, who gives effectiveness and peculiarities to the causes
and creatures. Whatever he wishes he expects from Allah. He knows that whatever
he gets comes from Allah. The Wahhabis do stick to and make use of means in
worldly affairs. They satisfy their sensual desires by any means, but they call
it "polytheism" to procure means for winning the next world. What