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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
living by the truth requires sacrifice and possible harm. Living by the
truth may also mean giving up the sins and licentious acts that one is
performing. Fearing the repercussions, such as loss of wealth, one’s
job, one’s position, one’s reputation and indulging in one’s desires,
can often stand between a person and following what he recognizes as
the truth. Similarly, the “powers that be,” such as the rulers, deviant
Imams and scholars, fear religious revivals that stem from the true
source of the faith and that will remove those who are benefiting from
the good intentions but ignorance of the masses. Not only do they
themselves not submit to the truth but also they use the means at their
disposal to discourage or sway others from accepting or following the
truth.
Conclusions
It can be stated without a doubt that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab had
an impact not just on his homeland but on many parts of the Muslim
world. At the very least, he instilled in the Muslim mind the correct
idea that by going back to the original teachings of Islam, this religion
can be revived and blessed by Allah. To this day, in his homeland, one
can still feel the influence of ibn Abdul-Wahhaab’s call to the pure
monotheism. As Idris wrote, “And thanks again to the movement,
Saudi society, though not an ideal Islamic society, is the one that is
more immune than any other Islamic society to the popular forms of
shirk (the worshipping of other deities besides God) which the founder
of the movement condemned.” 1
Indeed, ibn Abdul-Wahhaab’s teachings—because they reflect
the true stance of the Shareeah—still have a role to play today.
Vassiliev’s words on this point are important. He stated,
1 Idris, p. 6.
In evaluating the place of the Wahhabi movement in the history of
the development of Islam, it may be seen as a precursor of the
Muslim reformation, i.e., ‘the process of adaptation of the religious,
philosophical and legal norms of Islam to the new historical
conditions, which began in the middle of the nineteenth century
and continue to this day.’ The fact that leading Muslim ulama
considered Wahhabism as a religious trend rather than as an
Islamic sect created a favourable precedent for the emergence,
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