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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
some of the encyclopedias available in Arabic have incorrect
information about ibn Abdul-Wahhaab. 1
The case of ibn Abideen deserves more attention. In his widely
accepted book of Hanafi fiqh, usually referred to as Haashiyah ibn
Abideen, he wrote, while speaking about the Khawarji being those
who declare the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) to be disbelievers,
[Declaring the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) disbelievers is not a necessary condition for a
person to be considered one of the Khawarij.] Their belief that
those who oppose them are all disbelievers is sufficient. Such has
occurred in our times with the followers of Abdul-Wahhaab who
came from Najd and took control of the two inviolable places
[Makkah and Madinah] and adopted the Hanbali school of fiqh.
However, they believed that they were the Muslims and those who
opposed their beliefs were polytheists. Due to that, they permitted
the killing of the ahl al-Sunnah and their scholars. Allah finally
destroyed their power and ruined their lands and gave victory to
the armies of the Muslims in 1233 A.H. 2
It should be noted that ibn Abideen did not even get the name of the
“founder” of the call correct. It was, obviously, ibn Abdul-Wahhaab and not
Abdul-Wahhaab. Furthermore, his claims about them are not true, as shall
be discussed later, and the Muslim army that he mentions is the same army
of Muhammad Ali Pasha that was described earlier, an army that was
unfamiliar with prayer at best.
Unfortunately, due to the status of ibn Abideen as one of the last
great Hanafi scholars, this seemingly insignificant passage in a 12-volume
work greatly affected how others viewed Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab. In
particular, the Hanafi/Deobandi scholars in the Indo-Pak subcontinent
wholeheartedly accepted and believed what ibn Abideen stated. Thus, for
1 In particular, he notes Muhammad Fareed Wajdi’s Daairah al-Maarif al-Qarn
al-Ishreen and Muhammad Shafeeq Gharbaal’s al-Mausooah al-Arabiyyah al-
Maisirah. See al-Abdul-Lateef, p. 9.
2 Muhammad Ameen ibn Abideen, Haashiyah ibn Abideen: Radd al-Muhtaar ala
al-Durr al-Mukhtaar Sharh Tanweer al-Absaar (Beirut: Daar al-Kutub al-
Ilmiyyah, 1994), vol. 6, p. 413. The cover of this edition states, “Diraasah wa
tahqeeq wa taleeq” (“study, editing and comments”) by Adil Ahmad Abdul-
Mujood and Ali Muhammad Muawwadh. These two did not bother to correct
the name from Abdul-Wahhaab to ibn Abdul-Wahhaab nor did they correct the
statement made. This may demonstrate that either the ignorance about
Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab may still be widespread or the desire to
continue to defame him still abounds.