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

The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to demonstrate that faith
also has minimum practical implications that must be met. He quoted
Abu Bakr who said, in his determination to fight those who refused to
pay the zakat, “Verily, the zakat is part of its right,” that is it is part of
the right of the statement, “There is none worthy of worship except
Allah.” 1 Ibn Abdul-Wahhaab also pointed to the Tribe of Haneefah
who “accepted Islam” yet they also accepted Musailamah as a prophet
and, thus, the Companions fought them due to their disbelief.
Furthermore, the hypocrites during the time of the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) prayed, fasted and even fought with
the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) but Allah has
declared that they will be in the lowest abyss of the hell-fire.
In reality, this question of defining who is a Muslim is dealt
with in virtually every major work of Islamic jurisprudence, in the
section dealing with apostasy (riddah). Unfortunately, for the most
part, it became something for academic or theoretic discussions only.
Thus, people would fall into blasphemous acts, perhaps simply out of
ignorance, and no one, even the scholars, would object. Ibn Abdul-
Wahhaab repeatedly noted how scholars would remain silent when
people fell into disbelief (kufr) or polytheism (shirk). Even if this is
done out of ignorance, the scholars have a duty to correct the wrong.
He says that if someone were to marry his own daughter or his aunt
out of ignorance, those very scholars would not remain silent but
would correct the situation. However, when it comes to the greater
wrong of shirk, they allow the people to follow their ignorant ways. 2
This in fact was one of the greatest points of contention
between ibn Abdul-Wahhaab and his opponents. He himself noted that
his opponents actually agreed with him on the issues related to
tauheed and shirk but they rejected his views on declaring people
supporting the polytheists against the Muslims; (9) believing that some people
are not required to follow the Shareeah; (10) turning away from the religion by
not learning it or practicing it. See Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab,
Muallifaat, vol. 1, pp. 385-387. These aspects that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab stated
demonstrate that disbelief can be in the form of a belief in the heart, a form of
speech or an action that one has committed. When these ten aspects are
studied in the light of what is mentioned as apostasy in the books of fiqh, it will
be found that they are all consistent with what earlier scholars have stated.
1 Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, Muallifaat, vol. 7, p. 138.
2 Cf., Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, Muallifaat, vol. 7, p. 126.
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