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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
the same kind of authority as the Quran or Sunnah. However, it is his
efforts within the guidelines of the Quran and Sunnah that are of
interest here. How he applied the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah
to his own situation is the key. He did not come with a new religion or
teachings. Instead, he went back to the Quran and Sunnah, understood
them properly and had the vision to understand how they were
supposed to be applied given his time and place. That was the key to
the changes that came as a result of Allah’s bounty and then his
efforts. Those are the lessons that shall be explored in this chapter.
Finally, it is important to seek lessons from him and his
teachings because it can be truly said that of all revivalist calls (and
“movements”) in the past couple of centuries, he was truly successful
on virtually all fronts and the influence of his movement continues
today. 1
The Importance of Starting with Correcting One’s Beliefs
(Aqeedah) in Theory and Practice
Although this topic was touched upon while discussing ibn
Abdul-Wahhaab’s approach to dawah in Chapter 3, it is worthwhile to
make a few more points. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) spent the first thirteen years of his mission, those years in
Makkah before the migration to Madinah, teaching virtually solely the
concept of tauheed and other aspects of aqeedah. Allah makes it very
clear that every messenger was sent with a primary message—and that
message was tauheed and faith. Allah specifically states while
describing the words of many of the prophets to their people:
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“O my people! Worship Allah [alone]. You have no other god besides
Him” (al-Araaf 59, 65, 73, 85 and Hood 50, 61, 84).
This should be a clear message to every Muslim generation,
movement and group, that the correct belief has to be firmly implanted
in the heart before any true fruits are to be expected. It is this proper and
true imaan that allows the person to internalize the Quran and apply its
1 It should be noted that in preparing this chapter, this author did benefit from
Abdul-Muhsin ibn Baaz, vol. 2, pp. 726-772--although the final discussion
turned out very different.