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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
statements [supposedly from me] that I have never said, nor have I
even thought of saying them.” 1
(iii) Abdullah ibn Isa al-Muwais was born in Hurmah and was
educated in Najd before traveling to al-Shaam. He then returned to
Hurmah and became a judge. He was one of the earliest and greatest
opponents of ibn Abdul-Wahhaab. Ibn Abdul-Wahhaab refuted him in
a number of his writings. He died in 1175 A.H. 2
(iv) Muhammad ibn Abdul-Rahmaan ibn Afaaliq (d. 1164
A.H.) was from al-Ahsaa and also wrote a treatise refuting, “the one
who is to revive the religion,” meaning ibn Abdul-Wahhaab. In this
treatise, he posed meaningless questions to ibn Abdul-Wahhaab to try
to prove that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab was not a scholar and simply to
ridicule him. For example, he asked ibn Abdul-Wahhaab about soorah
al-Aadiyaat and what this soorah contains of linguistic nuances: how
many are there of Shareeah literal words, linguistically literal words,
words made literal by usage, general metaphors, specific metaphors,
and about twenty other such linguistic concepts. Furthermore, this
same ibn Afaaliq wrote to Uthmaan, the Ameer of al-Uyainah, casting
doubts upon ibn Abdul-Wahhaab and encouraging him to cease his
support of ibn Abdul-Wahhaab. Ibn Afaaliq claimed that ibn Abdul-
Wahhaab was holding views concerning tauheed that contradicted the
views of ibn Taimiyyah and ibn al-Qayyim. Uthmaan sent a reply to
ibn Afaaliq, refuting him and restating his support for ibn Abdul-
Wahhaab. In return, ibn Afaaliq sent a harsher retort, making false
claims about ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, and eventually convincing
Uthmaan to discontinue his support of ibn Abdul-Wahhaab. 3
(v) Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Fairooz, whose family came
from Najd, was born in al-Ahsaa in 1142 A.H. and died in 1216 A.H.
He had a large number of teachers and students and wrote a number of
works. He was very strong in his opposition to ibn Abdul-Wahhaab,
writing a booklet entitled al-Risaalah al-Mardhiyyah fi al-Radd ala
al-Wahhaabiyyah (“The pleasing epistle in refutation of the
Wahhabis”). Thus he was greatly praised by al-Haddaad, who also
wrote a book against ibn Abdul-Wahhaab. One can see how low the
enemies of ibn Abdul-Wahhaab stoop when one notes that this ibn
1 Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, Muallifaat, vol. 7, p. 11.
2 Cf., Abdul-Muhsin ibn Baaz, vol. 1, p. 283.
3 Cf., al-Abdul-Lateef, pp. 42-43.
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