Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

For other people with similar names, see Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab (disambiguation).

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
محمد بن عبد الوهاب
TitleImam, Shaykh
Personal
Born1703 (1703) (1115 A.H)
'Uyayna, Najd[1]
Died1792(1792-00-00) (aged 88–89) (1206 AH)
Diriyah, Emirate of Diriyah[6]
ReligionIslam
Children
List
  • 'Alī (first)
  • Ḥasan
  • Ḥusain
  • Ibrāhīm
  • Abdullāh
  • 'Alī
  • Fāṭimah
  • 'Abdulazīz
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceHanbali,[2] Ahl al-Ḥadīth/Independent[3]
CreedAtharī[4]
MovementMuwahhidun (Wahhabi)[5]
Main interest(s)ʿAqīdah (Islamic theology)
Notable work(s)Kitab al-Tawhid (Arabic: كتاب التوحيد; "The Book of Monotheism")[6]
RelativesSulayman (brother)
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced
Arabic name
Personal (Ism)Muḥammad
Patronymic (Nasab)ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rāshid
Teknonymic (Kunya)Abū al-Ḥasan
Epithet (Laqab)an-Najdī
Toponymic (Nisba)at-Tamīmī[11]

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Sulaymān al-Tamīmī[Note 1] (1703–1792) was a Sunni Muslim scholar, theologian, preacher, activist,[12] religious leader,[9] jurist,[13] and reformer,[14] who was from Najd in central Arabia and is considered as the eponymous founder of the Wahhabi movement.[15] His prominent students included his sons Ḥusayn, Abdullāh, ʿAlī, and Ibrāhīm, his grandson ʿAbdur-Raḥman ibn Ḥasan, his son-in-law ʿAbdul-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd, Ḥamād ibn Nāṣir ibn Muʿammar, and Ḥusayn āl-Ghannām.

The label "Wahhabi" is not claimed by his followers but rather employed by Western scholars as well as his critics.[16] Born to a family of jurists,[17] Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab's early education consisted of learning a fairly standard curriculum of orthodox jurisprudence according to the Hanbali school of Islamic law, which was the school most prevalent in his area of birth.[17] He promoted strict adherence to traditional Islamic law, proclaiming the necessity of returning directly to the Quran and ḥadīth literature rather than relying on medieval interpretations, and insisted that every Muslim – male and female – personally read and study the Quran.[18] He opposed taqlid (blind following) and called for the use of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning through research of scripture).[19][20]

Being given religious training under various Sunni Muslim scholars during his travels to Hejaz and Basra, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab gradually became opposed to certain rituals and practices such as the visitation to and veneration of the shrines and tombs of Muslim saints,[21][17][22] which he condemned as heretical religious innovation or even idolatry.[17][22][23][24] While being known as a Hanbali jurist, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab minimized reliance on medieval legal manuals, instead engaging in direct interpretation of religious scriptures, based on the principles of Hanbali jurisprudence.[25] His call for social reforms was based on the key doctrine of tawhid (oneness of God), and was greatly inspired by the treatises of classical scholars Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728 A.H/ 1328 C.E) and Ibn Qayyim (d. 751 A.H/ 1350 C.E).[26][27]

Despite being opposed or rejected by some of his contemporary critics amongst the religious clergy,[7][17][24][28] Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab charted a religio-political pact with Muhammad bin Saud to help him to establish the Emirate of Diriyah, the first Saudi state,[21][29] and began a dynastic alliance and power-sharing arrangement between their families which continues to the present day in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.[21][9][30] The Al ash-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia's leading religious family, are the descendants of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab,[9][31][30] and have historically led the ulama in the Saudi state,[30][32] dominating the state's clerical institutions.[30][33]

  1. ^ "?Abd Al-Wahhab, Muhammad Ibn (1703-1792)". Encyclopedia.com. 29 December 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  2. ^ "Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad - Oxford Islamic Studies Online". www.oxfordislamicstudies.com. New York: Oxford University Press. 2020. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  3. ^ Glasse, Cyril (2001). The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press. pp. 469–70. The Wahhabis are often said to 'belong' to the Hanbali School of Law (madhhab), but strictly speaking, like the Ahl al-Hadith ... they are ghayr muqallidun ('non-adherents'), and do not see themselves as belonging to any school, any more than the first Muslim generations did.
  4. ^ Halverson 2010, p. 48.
  5. ^ Brown 2009, pp. 245–47.
  6. ^ a b "Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Muslim theologian". Britannica.com. 29 December 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  7. ^ a b Brown 2009, p. 245.
  8. ^ Wagemakers 2021, p. 341.
  9. ^ a b c d Haykel 2013, pp. 231–32.
  10. ^ Bradford, Joe (2022). "IbnʿAbd al-Wahhāb, Muḥammad". In L. Esposito, John (ed.). Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World: Digital Collection. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780197669419.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-766941-9.
  11. ^ "Sahih al-Bukhari 4366 - Military Expeditions led by the Prophet (pbuh) (Al-Maghaazi) - كتاب المغازى - Sunnah.com - Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم)". sunnah.com. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  12. ^ Mouline, Nabil (2014). The Clerics of Islam: Religious Authority and Political Power in Saudi Arabia. London: Yale University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-300-17890-6. He was not a great intellectual like Ibn Qudama, Ibn Taymiyya, or Ibn al-Qayyim but rather an activist.
  13. ^ N. Stearns, Peter (2008). "Wahhabism". The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195176322.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-517632-2. Muhammad ibn ῾Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792), was a scholar and Hanbali jurist who called for a return to the fundamental sources of Islamic revelation, the Qur᾽an and sunna (example of Muhammad) for direct interpretation, resulting in decreased attention to and reliance upon medieval interpretations of these sources
  14. ^ "Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad (d. 1791 )". Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Archived from the original on 12 July 2016.
  15. ^ Sources:
    • L. Esposito, John (2003). The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 123. ISBN 0-19-512558-4. lbn Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad (d.1791) Saudi fuabian conservative theologian, Hanbali jurist, reformer, and ideologue of the Wahhabi movement. Prodaimed the necessity of returning directly to the Quran and hadith, rather than relying on medieval interpretations.
    • Richard Netton, Ian (2008). "IBN 'ABD AL-WAHHAB, MUHAMMAD (1703–92)". Encyclopedia of Islamic Civilisation and Religion. New York: Routledge. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-7007-1588-6.
    • Schacht, J; Lewis, B; Pellat, C; Ménage, V.L., eds. (1986). "The Encyclopaedia of Islam". The Encyclopaedia of Islam: New Edition. Vol. III. Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill. pp. 677–679. ISBN 90-04-08118-6.
    • E. Campo, Juan (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. New York: Facts on File Inc. pp. 324–325. ISBN 978-0-8160-5454-1. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad (1703–1791) conservative religious reformer who launched the Wahhabi movement.
  16. ^ Sources:
  17. ^ a b c d e Laoust, H. (2012) [1993]. "Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. J.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Vol. 11. Leiden: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3033. ISBN 978-90-04-16121-4.
  18. ^ J. Delong-Bas, Natana (2004). Wahhabi Islam:From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 29, 30, 117, 28, 37. ISBN 0-19-516991-3.
  19. ^ "Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad (d. 1791 )". Oxford Islamic Studies. Archived from the original on 12 July 2016.
  20. ^ J. Delong-Bas, Natana (2004). Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 14, 21, 29. ISBN 0-19-516991-3.
  21. ^ a b c Esposito 2004, p. 123.
  22. ^ a b Ágoston & Masters 2009, p. 260.
  23. ^ Crooke, Alastair (30 March 2017) [First published 27 August 2014]. "You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia". The Huffington Post. New York. Archived from the original on 28 August 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  24. ^ a b Khatab 2011, pp. 56–76.
  25. ^ N. Stearns, Peter (2008). "Wahhabism". The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195176322.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-517632-2.
  26. ^ Sources:
  27. ^ Weismann, Itzchak (2001). "7: Local Renaissance under the Centralizing Regimes (1883-1918)". Taste of Modernity: Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus. Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. p. 268. ISBN 90-04-11908-6.
  28. ^ Traboulsi, Samer (January 2002). Brunner, Rainer (ed.). "An Early Refutation of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb's Reformist Views". Die Welt des Islams. 42 (3: Arabic Literature and Islamic Scholarship in the 17th/18th Century: Topics and Biographies). Leiden: Brill Publishers: 373–415. doi:10.1163/15700600260435038. eISSN 1570-0607. ISSN 0043-2539. JSTOR 1571420.
  29. ^ Hourani 1992: 257–58.
  30. ^ a b c d Nawaf E. Obaid (September 1999). "The Power of Saudi Arabia's Islamic Leaders". Middle East Quarterly. 6 (3). Middle East Forum: 51–58. Archived from the original on 6 August 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  31. ^ Bokhari & Senzai 2013, pp. 82–3.
  32. ^ Abir 1987: 4, 5, 7.
  33. ^ Metz 1992


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