The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ... - IslamHouse.com

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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
Vassiliev notes, “The Sunni ulama [scholars] also supported the
worship of saints; everybody who opposed this ran the risk of being
assassinated.” 1)
(3) Veneration of trees and other inanimate objects. In
particular, the people venerated the fuhhaal, a particular male date
palm tree. Women would come and embrace this tree and say (in a
statement that rhymes in Arabic), “O stud of studs, I want a husband
before year’s end.” Ibn Ghannaam states that then they would commit
debaucheries therein. 2 Al-Tarfiyyah was another tree that they would
seek blessings from. When a woman would give birth to a boy, she
would hang a rag over it believing that that would protect the child. 3
There was also a cave outside al-Diriyyah to which they would send
meat, bread and presents. It was believed that some evildoers tried to
rape an Ameer’s daughter there and she prayed to Allah and this cave
opened up for her and rescued her from them. 4
In addition to aspects related to beliefs, social ills contrary to
the teachings of Islam were also widespread. In particular, the practice
of dealing in interest and usury was common. Vassiliev noted,
Doughty writes about the peasants [of Najd], “They and their
portions of dust of this world are devoured (hardly less than in
Egypt and Syria) by rich money-lenders: that is by the long rising
over their heads of an insoluble usury.” The phenomenon was
probably widespread on the eve of the emergence of the Wahhabi
movement and might explain the Wahhabis’ vigorous denunciation
of the charging of interest on loans. 5
1 Vassiliev, p. 69. Vassiliev (p. 79) also noted important “worldly” reasons why
such opposition should be so fierce. He noted, “Opposing the cult of saints,
destroying pious people’s graves and felling holy trees amounted, under
Arabian conditions, to the destruction of the ideological and spiritual basis of
political fragmentation. Deprived of a saint of their own, the nobility of an oasis
could no longer claim exclusiveness and lost the income from the pilgrimage to
the saint’s grave.” Among other things, this quote demonstrates that if
Muslims want true Islamic unity, there must be an eradication of all of the
local saints that take people’s energy and hearts away from the true and
uniting monotheistic teachings of Islam.
2 Ibn Ghannaam, vol. 1, p. 12.
3 Ibn Ghannaam, vol. 1, p. 12.
4 Ibn Ghannaam, vol. 1, p. 12. Ibn Ghannaam then states, “They forgot Allah’s
words, ‘Do you worship that which you have (yourselves) carved while Allah
has created you and what you do?’ (al-Saaffaat 95-96).”
5 Vassiliev, p. 38.