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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
forbidden to make tawassul by any of Allah’s creation. 1 In fact, ibn
Abdul-Wahhaab’s beliefs are virtually the same as those of al-Izz ibn
Abdul-Salaam. Ibn Abdul-Wahhaab once wrote, “We refrain from
every innovation save for the innovation that has some source for it in
the Law, such as combining the Quran into one book, Umar gathering
the Companions in a congregation for the taraweeh (late night prayers
of Ramadhaan)…” 2 These are the kinds of “innovations” that al-Izz
accepts. Finally, Abdullah, son of ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, stated that if
one wants to call such “good things” as bidah in a figurative sense,
then there is nothing wrong with that although the better and more
correct approach is to use that term only while referring to
unacceptable acts. 3 Algar’s choice of al-Izz ibn Abdul-Salaam seems
to be a poor choice because, although he divides bidah into five
categories, his understanding of bidah is still the same as that of ibn
Abdul-Wahhaab and of his son Abdullah.
On page 37, he repeats the famous claim that ibn Abdul-
Wahhaab considered that the Muslims were not upon anything of
value for the past six hundred years or more. Although Algar does not
reference any of these statements, one of the few relevant references
that he mentions in his bibliography is Dahlaan and it was probably
from him that Algar got much of his baseless information.
On pages 38-39, to his credit, Algar does debunk the claim that
Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab was an English spy. He discusses a
work that is supposedly the memoirs of a British agent in the Middle
East, a “Mr. Hempher.” These memoirs claim that the “Wahhabi
movement” was nothing but a British plot. Algar concludes that most
likely the author of this work was a Shiite. It is good that Algar
debunked this pure fabrication. However, it is interesting to note
Algar’s attitude toward this fabricator as opposed to his attitude
toward ibn Abdul-Wahhaab and others. Algar has no harsh words for
the fabricator. Instead of castigating this fabricator for the work that
he did, Algar seems more disappointed that he did not do his work in a
good enough manner. Thus, he simply concludes about the author,
“He would have done better to leave the task of refuting Wahhabism
1 Al-Ruwaishid, vol. 1, p. 123.
2 Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, Muallifaat, vol. 7, p. 107.
3 Al-Ruwaishid, vol. 1, pp. 140-141.
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