Signs from Allah: History, Science and Faith in Islam
96. Resistance and Reform - Shaykh ibn Abdul Wahhab of Arabia- Part 2
By Prof Dr Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA
Shaykh ibn Abdul Wahhab was a prolific writer. Although he is best known for his views on Tawhid as expounded in his book Kitab at Tawhid, he also wrote on the seerat, hadith, Iman, salat and Islam. Some of his other works include Mukhtasar Seerat ar Rasool, Majmu al Ahadith, Usool al Iman and Fadayal al Islam.
To understand the power of Wahhabi ideas, and their appeal, it is helpful to understand their historical roots. The essence of Islam is the doctrine of Tawhid, which found its fullest expression in the person of the Prophet. Since the death of the Prophet, Tawhid is the central pole around which Islamic history revolves. Every generation of Muslims has struggled to understand its full importance and to give it a concrete expression in their own lives. History, however, is a process. In the process of implementing a transcendental idea like Tawhid in a multitude of cultures and historical epochs, compromises emerge. To counter these compromises, reform movements arise which are themselves a product of their geography and their times.
Two of the historical figures from whom Shaykh ibn Abdul Wahhab drew his inspiration were Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal of Baghdad and Ibn Taimiyah of Damascus. Imam ibn Hanbal (d. 855), after whom the Hanbali School of Fiqh is named, lived in Baghdad at a time when Mu’tazilite doctrines were the official dogma of the Abbasids. After gaining power in the court of Caliph al Mamun, the Mu’tazilites established a mehna (inquisition) to punish anyone who disagreed with them (833). They were philosophers, who over-extended their rational techniques to matters of faith, and came up with the position that the Qur’an was “created” in time. Many of the ulema of the age buckled under the physical pressure brought by the Mu’tazilites. Not so Imam ibn Hanbal. He led the resistance to the Mu’tazilites, steadfastly maintaining that the Qur’an, as the Word of God, was uncreated, transcendent and beyond time and space. For this position, he was jailed for thirty years and flogged repeatedly. But his determination carried the day.
The Mu’tazilites were repudiated in the reign of Caliph al Mutawakkil (847). Although Imam ibn Hanbal had studied under Imam Shafi’i, the Hanbali Fiqh takes a much stricter position with regards to acceptable sources of jurisprudence. It insists on a literal interpretation of the Qur’an and the Hadith, subjects Hadith to the strictest scrutiny and accepts qiyas and ijtihad as sources of jurisprudence only as a last resort when primal sources are silent.
The Hanbali School sought to preserve the pristine nature of Islam, as it was understood in the harsh environment of the Arabian Desert. It was from this School that 400 years later there arose the well-known reformer Ibn Taimiyah (d. 1328). He lived in an age when the Muslim world was rocked by political, military, social and literary upheavals. The Mongols had ravaged much of the Islamic world (1219-1261). The Crusades (1096-1261) had left their devastation in Palestine, Syria, Egypt and North Africa. The Christians overran Spain (1212-1248). Orthodox Islam had won its internal contest with the Fatimids with the dialectic of Al Ghazzali (d. 1111), but this victory was tenuous. Al Ghazzali’s positions continued to be challenged by the philosophers who waged a valiant struggle through the great Ibn Rushd (d. 1198), and by the Al Muhaddith in the Maghrib who sought to introduce a variant of Mu’tazilite ideas into their dominions. Battered by foreign invasions, Muslims had turned inwards. Sufic Islam had taken hold and Muslims turned to the spiritual dimension of their faith for survival. Sufi Schools established by Shaykh Abdel Qader Jeelani (d. 1161) of Baghdad, Shaykh Shadhuli (d. 1258) of Cairo, Shaykh Jalaluddin Rumi (d. 1273) of Turkey were the focus of religious instruction. The ideas of Shaykh ibn al Arabi (d. 1240) of Damascus fired the imagination of people.
Ibn Taymiyah ascribed the military misfortunes of the Muslims to what he considered was their departure from the pristine Islam of the Prophet and his Companions. He interpreted the Qur’an literally and took issue with anyone who interpreted it symbolically. Specifically, he considered the mystical teachings of Shaykh al Arabi to be bida’a. He questioned the kalam of al Ghazzali, specifically his position regarding the supremacy of tasawwuf over other forms of knowledge. He considered the zawiyas and qanqahs, which were mushrooming all over the Islamic world. to be a deviation from true religion. He also took issue with the philosophers and their rational approach to matters of faith. His strong views on religion won the admiration of many and the jealousy and enmity of some. Through his students, he influenced the course of events as far away as Delhi. The court martial of the Chishti Sufis at the court of Gayasuddin Tughlaq in 1325 was covered in the chapter on the Sufis of India and Pakistan. At the trial, a disciple of Ibn Taimiyah testified against the Sufi position on sama’a. The edict from the Emperor was in favor of the Chishtiya Sufis. Ibn Taimiyah’s teachings exerted a strong influence on Muslim thinkers of subsequent centuries, and he may be considered a spiritual forefather of Shaykh ibn Abdul Wahhab.
The teachings of Shaykh ibn Abdul Wahhab, and those of Ibn Taimiyah and Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, have their foundation in a specific interpretation of Tawhid. The term Tawhid is comprehensive and has been understood by Muslims in a variety of ways. In its most elementary formulation, it is understood to mean the Oneness of God. The Wahhabi position is that the Oneness of God is beyond analogy, similarity or quality manifest in the created world. Carried to the extreme, this position makes the world devoid of spirituality, a position similar to that taken by secular scientists. The Wahhabis consider any practice or position that seemingly compromises the transcendence of God to be bida’a. Such a position would make religion an uncompromising series of imperatives, a strict set of do’s and don’ts. Historically, the position of Ibn Taimiyah and ibn Abdul Wahhab represents one end of the spectrum in Islamic thought.
The other end of the spectrum is occupied by the Sufis who seek the spiritual dimension of Islam. They consider creation to be a means to draw the human soul closer to God. Through constant remembrance of the Divine Name, prayer, charity, service and a conscious exercise to purge the self of all that hinders the soul from proximity to the Divine, they seek a reflection of Divine Reality in the pristine soul. In the Sufi position, observance of the Shariah is the first essential step on the road to Irfan (True Knowledge). They require additional work, through dhikr, cleansing of the soul and service to humanity, before a person attains certainty of knowledge.
(The author is Director, World Organization for Resource Development and Education, Washington, DC; Director, American Institute of Islamic History and Culture, CA; Member, State Knowledge Commission, Bangalore; and Chairman, Delixus Group)
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