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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
A New Stage in the Call (Dawah): Jihad
The year 1159 A.H. marks a turning point in the call. After
trying to convince the people of Najd via peaceful means to give up
their polytheistic acts and heresies, the time had come for the use of
force. Ibn Ghannaam described the environment behind this
momentous change:
[ibn Abdul-Wahhaab] continued to call to the path of his Lord with
clear proofs and beautiful admonition. He did not first call anyone
a disbeliever and he did not begin any aggression. Instead, on all
those points he hesitated as an act of piety on his part and in the
hopes that Allah would guide those who were astray. [This
continued] until they all rose up against him with enmity. They
cried out in all the lands, declaring [ibn Abdul-Wahhaab] and his
followers disbelievers and they permitted the spilling of their
blood. They did not affirm their false claims with proofs from the
Book of Allah or the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him). They were not concerned with the crimes of
falsehood and libel that they perpetrated against him. Nor were
they concerned with what were the consequences of that in the
form of punishment and banishment for his followers. Even
though, he [ibn Abdul-Wahhaab], may Allah have mercy on him,
did not order the spilling of blood or fighting against most of the
people of misguidance and desires until they started by making the
judgment against him and his followers that they are to be fought
and that they are disbelievers. At that time, the Shaikh gave the
command of jihad to his group and encouraged his followers to
fulfill it. And they executed his command. 1
By this time, Ibn Abdul-Wahhaab’s followers were greatly
increasing in number (many of them not having the ability to migrate
to al-Diriyyah) and fear was spreading throughout the land concerning
this new collection of believers. In al-Diriyyah, the Shareeah and the
teachings of tauheed had already made a strong impact and it was
definitely time to spread this teaching to the surrounding areas—to
those leaders who will accept it as well as to those leaders who will
fight it. The followers of ibn Abdul-Wahhaab recognized it as their
duty to spread the true message of Islam. Hence, the Muslims of al-
Diriyyah were ready to fight, regardless of whether they originally
came from al-Diriyyah or they were among those who had emigrated
1 Ibn Ghannaam, vol. 1, p. 83.