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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
Christians and Jewish scholars, scientists, and so on. But Ibn ‘Abd
al-Wahhab lived in a simple cultural milieu where there was no
such erudition. He therefore steered clear of Ibn Taymiyyah’s style.
While Ibn Taymiyyah resorted to elaborate, and in many cases
[purely] rational, arguments to buttress and defend Quranic
teachings on theological matters, ‘Abd al-Wahhab was mostly
content with religious evidence. He avoided the subject of
philosophical theology altogether. With the exception of his
personal letters, his style is legalistic, concise, and somewhat terse. 1
Often speakers or scholars may bring up topics that are not
relevant or not being discussed today. They may be old issues which
ibn Taimiyyah, for example, spoke about in response to the ongoing
discussions of his time but which, since his time, are not discussed
among the majority of the people. Often these topics are not topics
directly touched upon by the Quran but delved into by later scholars.
However, upon bringing such topics up, the scholar causes more harm
than good by causing division over a subject that was not originally
touched upon by the Quran in the first place and which was a dead
subject among the people. It is a skill and requires true scholarship to
take a teaching—either from the Quran, Sunnah or earlier scholar like
ibn Taimiyyah—and know how to apply it, express it and teach it in
one’s own environment. It is also a skill to know what the people truly
need to be taught at the current time given their contemporary views
and ways of thinking. This is a very important process in the path of
dawah and further points to ibn Abdul-Wahhaab’s great genius.
Ascribing Partners to Allah (Shirk) is The Greatest Evil and All
Means Must Be Taken to Avoid It
The greatest lesson that can be learned from ibn Abdul-
Wahhaab and the concept that was most prominent in his message is:
Shirk (the associating of partners with Allah in any way whatsoever)
is the greatest of all evils. It seems appropriate at the end of this
chapter, coming at the end of this work on the life and teachings of ibn
Abdul-Wahhaab, to delve into the concept of shirk in more detail. The
conclusion can be stated now: The issue is exactly as Muhammad ibn
Abdul-Wahhaab preached. Shirk is the greatest evil. A Muslim should
1 Idris, p. 5.