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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
false god or defends it—that takes a person out of Islam, even if he
fasts and prays, with respect to that wrong that does not take him
out of Islam? [As for the latter,] either its person will meet its
retribution or Allah will forgive him. There is a great difference
between the two [types of wrong]. 1
Elsewhere he wrote, “Know, may Allah have mercy on you,
that the obligation of knowing the testimony of ‘there is none worthy
of worship except Allah,’ is before the obligation of prayers and
fasting. It is obligatory upon the individual to study its meaning. That
is more important than his studying about the prayers and fasting. The
forbiddance of shirk and belief in false gods is greater than the
forbiddance of marrying one’s mothers and aunts.” 2 In fact,
Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab refused to respond to some fiqh
questions until he was certain that the one posing the question
understood the concept of tauheed first, saying, in essence, that if one
is not correctly following the concept of monotheism (tauheed), the
other issues will not be of benefit. 3
Furthermore, according to Saalih Aali-Shaikh, in his dawah,
he clearly distinguished between the acts of shirk and the acts that are
forbidden because they lead to shirk. The latter he would not speak
about or repel until the concept of shirk was understood and the actual
acts of shirk were stopped. Only after that, he would move on to speak
about and stop the acts that are forbidden simply because they may
lead to shirk, such as seeking a means to Allah by invoking in one’s
prayer the right of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) or the status of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him). 4
Ibn Abdul-Wahhaab and the Qualities of the One Who Orders Good
and Eradicates Evil
As is clear from the above, even given the great overall
importance of ordering good and eradicating evil, ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
1 Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, Muallifaat, vol. 7, p. 190. See also vol. 7, p. 75
and p. 200.
2 Abdul Rahmaan ibn Muhammad ibn Qaasim al-Najdi. Al-Durar al-Saniyyah fi
al-Ajwabah al-Najdiyyah (Beirut: Daar al-Arabiyyah, 1982), vol. 2, p. 79.
3 Cf., Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, Muallifaat, vol. 7, 167.
4 Saalih Aali-Shaikh, Haadha Mafaaheemunaa (1406 A.H.), pp. 90-91.