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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
The correct translation, using Algar’s terms, should be, “The first is
that the ancients did not commit shirk nor did they call upon the
angels, sacred personages or idols except during times of ease.” 1 In
fact, the remainder of the passage, especially the verses of the Quran
he quotes, makes it very clear that this is what ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
said. Thus even if there were an error in Algar’s copy, its meaning is
clear from the rest of the text. It cannot be known whether this
completely faulty translation was due to a mistake in the text that he
used, intentional or simply a mistake on Algar’s part. Given the tenor
of his work, there is no reason, unfortunately, to assume any good
intention on his part. However, it seems that Algar never gave this
work of his much scholarly effort and most likely he simply
mistranslated this portion (he may have been overjoyed to later find
that it implied a contradiction on ibn Abdul-Wahhaab’s part). Allah
knows best.
It is very interesting to note that in his second appendix, a
passage from Dahlaan, Dahlaan seems to be implying a tomb worship
that Algar had earlier denied occurred among the Muslims. Much of
this passage from Dahlaan is the same false propaganda that was
discussed from him in the previous chapter. Dahlaan wrote,
[ibn Abdul-Wahhaab] went so far as to declare the believers
unbelievers. He claimed that visiting the tomb of the Prophet—
upon whom be peace and blessings—as well as appealing to him or
other prophets and righteous person as intermediaries (altawassul)
or visiting their tombs constituted shirk [the assignation
of partners to God]. He also denounced as shirk addressing the
prophets, the saints and the righteous while appealing to them, 2
and attributing anything to other than God, even if by way of
rational metaphor. 3
The last appendix and “refutation” of ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
comes from the Shiite Ja’far Kashif al-Ghita. Algar opens this
1 Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, vol. 1, p. 169; Al-Ruwaishid, vol. 1, p. 283.
Emphasis added.
2 Emphasis added. Earlier Algar had written (p. 34, fn. 27), “It is interesting to
note in passing that much nonsense has been written by Western scholars on
what they term ‘tomb worship’ or ‘the worship of saints’ in the Muslim world,
thus implicitly accepting the Wahhabi thesis that to visit and offer a prayer at
a tomb, although not to its occupant, somehow constitutes a form of worship of
the tomb.” (Emphasis added.)
3 Algar, p. 78.
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