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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
him. 1 Hence, when trying to solve a dispute among some of his
brethren from Hautah of Sudair, he wrote, “The people of knowledge
say that the one who orders good and eradicates evil is in need of three
characteristics: (1) He must know about what he is ordering or what
he is eradicating; (2) He must be gentle in what he is ordering or what
he is eradicating; and (3) he must have patience in the face of the harm
that will come. You people are in need of truly learning that and
acting by it for shortcomings in the person of religion are only the
outcome of lack of acting according to these principles or lack of
understanding them.” 2
(3) Hikmah 3: With respect to ordering good and eradicating
evil, hikmah (“wisdom”) implies knowing what approach to use at the
appropriate time. For example, one must understand when gentleness
as opposed to harshness is required or when a tougher stance is
justified and so on. Mention has already been made of how ibn Abdul-
Wahhaab availed himself of virtually every form of persuasion and
argumentation—from soft speech to jihad. He also taught his
followers that they must know the proper manner in which to
eradicate evil. Thus, he once wrote, “Some of the people of religion
eradicate an evil—and they are correct in that—but they are mistaken
in their harshness in the matter that it leads to division among the
brethren.” 4
Of course, hikmah also implies understanding what are the
most important topics to tackle. This point was discussed above,
showing that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab handled the most important topics
first (belief about Allah, shirk) and then moved on to the next
important topics, according to the situation of the people.
In addition to discussing the above characteristics, ibn Abdul-
Wahhaab also delineated some very important principles related to
1 For example, Sufyaan al-Thauri and ibn Taimiyyah stated these upcoming
principles. See Usrah, pp. 144-145.
2 Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, vol. 13, p. 125.
3 Hikmah can be defined in many ways. Unfortunately, many people
misunderstand hikmah simply to mean “wisdom,” almost to the point of being
clever in one’s dealings with others. However, the earliest Muslim scholars
defined it as an understanding—an understanding of the Quran, Sunnah and
basic knowledge—such that one knows how to apply the teachings properly
under different circumstances.
4 Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, Muallifaat, vol. 7, p. 296.