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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
Jamal al-Din ventured to return to his duties at the mosque, and
Bitar kept to his house five weeks longer. 1
In another example, when the Iraqi al-Aloosi wrote his book
refuting the allegations of al-Nabahaani concerning ibn Abdul-
Wahhaab and his followers, al-Aloosi was not able to put his true
name on the cover of the book out of fear from the attacks that the
salafis were receiving at that time. The reason for that fear was that
the Ottoman Sultan, Abdul-Hameed, who had control over Baghdad,
Hijaz and Turkey, had a close alliance with the Sufis and other groups.
Even the publisher, Faraj-Allah Zaki would only put his initials on the
cover. It was not until the government in Istanbul passed Western
style laws concerning freedom of the press that they felt that they
could come out with a publication having the full name of the author
and publisher on it. 2
Additionally, Abdul-Aleem al-Bastawi, writing about the Indo-
Pak subcontinent during the time of Sideeq Hasan Khan, who lived
from 1248-1307, stated that during that time, Najd was overtaken and
the lies and falsehood about Najdis were spread throughout the
Muslim world, such that it was very difficult for anyone to publicly
defend them. He says that the effects of the defeat of the mujahideen 3
in Balakot, India in 1246 were still strong. People were still being
threatened and punished for following the ways of the Sunnah, such
that if one were to say ameen aloud in the prayer, he would be
severely punished. 4
(5) In addition, those who have written on this question seem
to go to an extreme. Some try to encompass virtually every movement
since the time of ibn Abdul-Wahhaab as a direct result of his teachings
and efforts. For example, Abdul-Haleem al-Jandi wrote, “Every
reform movement in the two centuries after the death of ibn Abdul-
1 David Dean Commins, “The Salafi Islamic Reform Movement in Damascus,
1885-1914: Religious Intellectuals, Politics, and Social Change in Late Ottoman
Syria,” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1985), pp. 357-358. The
entire incident is discussed on pp. 354-358.
2 Muhammad ibn Subail, introduction to Mahmood Shukri al-Aloosi, Ghaayah al-
Amaani fi al-Radd ala al-Nabahaani (Daar Ihyaa al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah,
n.d.), vol. 1, pp. 8-9.
3 That is, those who participate in jihad or the struggle to establish the religion of
Allah.
4 Al-Bastawi, pp. 211-213.
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