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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
to this claim. One should not refer to a (so-called) “movement” that
led to the reopening of the “door to ijtihaad” and made scholars
reconsider their own positions in the light of the Quran and Sunnah as
“intellectually marginal.”
Algar then goes on to write,
Wahhabism is an entirely specific phenomenon, calling for
recognition as a separate school of thought or even as a sect of its
own. Sometimes the Wahhabis are characterized, particularly by
non-Muslim observers searching for a brief description, as
“extreme” or as “conservative” Sunnis… It has, however, been
observed by knowledgeable Sunnis since the earliest times that the
Wahhabis do not count as part of the Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama’a,
for almost all the practices, traditions and beliefs denounced by
Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab have been historically integral to
Sunni Islam, enshrined in a vast body of literature and accepted by
the great majority of Muslims. Precisely for that reason, many of
the ‘ulama contemporary with the first emergence of Wahhabism
denounced its followers as standing outside the pale of Ahl al-
Sunna wa al-Jama’a. 1
A number of points can be made here but the goal is to be brief. First,
the fact that it was the “Wahhabis” who brought the people to prayer
together behind one Imam instead of each school having its own
Imam and prayer at the Kaabah should be a sufficient sign that they
were not sectarians out to establish themselves as a separate entity.
Second, he gives no mention of whom those “knowledgeable Sunnis”
are who have declared the “Wahhabis” not part of the Ahl al-Sunnah
wa al-Jamaah. One can only hope that he is not referring to the
“scholars” discussed in the previous chapter who fabricated and
distorted reality to come to their bogus conclusions, although from the
references he mentions in his work one is forced to make that
conclusion. In any case, when one reads Algar’s passage closely, one
sees that “Sunnism,” or Algar’s “Sunnism”, has nothing to do with the
Quran, the way of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) or the way of his Companions. If Algar’s Sunnism were based on
the Quran and Sunnah, he would have mentioned that ibn Abdul-
Wahhaab is refuting actions established by the Quran and Sunnah. He
cannot say that because that would be an obvious lie. The only
1 Algar, pp. 2-3.