When Muhammad ibn Abd
al-Wahhab (1703-92) and Muhammad ibn Saud (d 1765) formed an alliance in the
late eighteenth century, this bond was to have lasting significance for the
region which later became Saudi Arabia. Daoud Al-Shiryan, deputy director of
Al-Arabiya TV, said of the movement known as ‘Wahhabism,’ "This movement
had never known revolution, or rebellion …It was born, and grew, under the
aegis of a military man, [Muhammad bin Saud], and produced a stable, monarchic
state” (In Memri 2010.) Others regard the influence of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd
al-Wahhab’s teachings on contemporary everyday life in Saudi Arabia less
positively and have associated them with such issues as a problematic
conflation of religion and government, resistance to modern art and technology,
the denial of rights to women and intolerance of any who are not Sunni Muslims.
This essay considers a variety of views on the extent to which the Sheikh’s
teachings influenced these issues and suggests that, whilst they are frequently
cited in relation to them all, it is not clear that any of them are solely the
result of the influence of the teachings of ibn Abd al-Wahhab.
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab is described by Karen Armstrong as “a typical
reformer” who believed in “a fundamentalist
return to the Quran and sunnah, and a militant rejection of all later accretions”
(2000 p133) whilst John Esposito distinguishes him from other Muslim reformers
by arguing that “he equated Islam and Arab” and that because of this, “his mode
of revivalism was a more literalist recreation of the life and customs of the
early Medinan community” (1988 p119.) The Sheikh’s primary message centred on
the essential nature of ‘tawheed’ (monotheism) to Islam. In his work Kitaab At-Tawheed his definition of
‘shirk’ (polytheism) includes the erection of shrines, divination, occult
practices and the love of other people or objects to the same extent as Allah.
The term used to describe the Sheikh’s
interpretation of Islam has become known as “Wahhabism” and its followers as
‘Wahhabis.” Armstrong maintains that “Wahhabism is the form of Islam that is still
practised today in Saudi Arabia (2000. P133.)” and Akbar Ahmed asserts
that “Saudi society is dominated by Wahhabi ideology”(2007.loc.1336.) However, Prince
Salman ibn 'Abd Al-'Aziz of Saudi Arabia insists that ‘Wahhabism’ does not
exist saying "Any person of
integrity who familiarizes himself with the letters and books of Sheikh
Muhammad ibn 'Abd Al-Wahhab will discover that this preaching contains nothing
new that is contrary to the Koran and the Sunna ” (in Memri 2010 .) Others argue that the current ‘Wahhabi
movement’ conforms neither to Islam nor even to the teachings of ibn Abd
al-Wahhab. The anthropologist Mai Yamani says “the new trend … for all these
neo-Wahhabis …(is to use) Islam to legitimise political, economic social
behaviour. I don’t think it has to do with Islam” (in PBS.)
These
contradictory perspectives make discovering exactly how the teachings of
Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab have influenced everyday life in Saudi Arabia
problematic. However, by comparing the teachings of the Sheikh with those
aspects of society which are associated with him or with “Wahhabism” using a
variety of sources, we may be able to distinguish some ways in which his
teachings have been regarded as guidance, authorisation or incitement for
aspects of everyday life in the kingdom.
The following evaluations of “Wahhabi” influences
on Saudi Arabia summarise the most commonly held associations. Ibrahim 'Issa, editor of the Egyptian Newspaper
Al-Dustour critically asserts “ It is [Wahhabism] that until prevented girls
and women from studying; it is [Wahhabism] that bans them from driving
vehicles; it is [Wahhabism] that declares the Shi'ites to be infidels; it is [Wahhabism]
that bans elections. (in Memri 2010.) Saudi researcher 'Abdallah Al-Khalil, having
positively conflated Wahhabism and Salafism, nevertheless identifies three
problems requiring reform: “The function of the modern state with regard to
women, the Salafi attitude towards art, including theater, cinema (and) the
plastic arts and the Salafi attitude toward the other, both within the Islamic
nation and outside it” (in Memri. 2010. ) In these, and other assessments, we
see that the conflation of religion and
government, attitudes towards technology and modern art, the status of women
and attitudes to the ‘other’ are aspects of everyday life believed to be
related to the continuing influence of ibn Abd al-Wahhab.
Dr Jaafar Sheikh Idris in his pro-Wahhabi
essay ‘The Islamic Fundamentalism of the Wahhabi Movement’ discusses ibn Abd
al-Wahhab’s teachings on obeying only God saying “ It is because of this
principle of obedience being due to God only that Muslims reject the Western,
secular idea of the separation of church and state” (2012.) We see that in Kitaab at-Tawheed, (ch 37) the Sheikh
did interpret " Do
you not see those who claim that they believe in what was revealed to you and
to those before you? They wish to resort to At-Taaghoot for
judgement" (Qur'an 4:60) to indicate “(t)he forbiddance of seeking judgement from
other than the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger.”
However, the combination of ‘church’ and state has a history in Islam which began
with the prophet Muhammad and cannot be directly attributed to Ibn Abd
al-Wahhab.
It is
evident that the sheikh could not have said anything about the use of modern
technology and so any use of his teachings to support an argument about this
will be analogous and interpretive at best. Most scholarly studies into this
have focused on the seizure of the Holy Mosque at Mecca al-Mukarramah[1]
in
1979 in which the banning of televisions and radios was demanded. However, it
was King Faisal who legalised these with the consent of the Saudi Ulama which
supported the teachings of ibn Abd al-Wahhab and included many of his
descendants so it is not clear that an argument linking ‘Wahhabism’ and
rejection of film and technology is entirely supported.
We come
across contradiction again when considering women’s rights in relation to the
teaching of ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The article by Hajar Laalaj in 2013 entitled “Women’s
Rights in Saudi Arabia: Wahhabism vs. Islam,” links Wahhabi ideology with the
denial of rights to women which the writer claims are not supported by the
Quran or by the lives of the prophet’s wives. Laalaj attributes to Wahhabi
influence the requirement to wear the full black abaya, segregation and
exclusion from areas of study in higher education system and restrictions on
women’s rights to travel and obtain commercial licenses. She says “The very
fact that such elevated segregation is unique to Saudi and more recently to the
Wahhabi Taliban, is evidence of the weight that this theological ideology plays
in shaping attitudes against women.” However, Natana. J. Delong-Bas suggests that ‘contemporary
misogyny” in Saudi Arabia is more to do with patriarchy or local customs than
the influence of ibn Abd al-Wahhab. She insists that “these contemporary
interpretations of Wahhabism do not necessarily reflect the writings or
teachings of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab. In fact …he sought to ensure that women’s
rights as granted by the Quran were implemented and that women were aware of
them” (2004 pg 124.)
In
Kitaab At-Tawheed, we find little
mention of women at all. In Chapter Seven the Sheikh says that it is insulting
to Allah to give him ‘weak women’ for daughters (the pagan goddesses) when
everyone prefers sons and in Chapter Forty-Eight, he asserts “the superiority of man over woman in that he was
created before her.” This is distinctly anti-feminist but does not specify the
denial of any rights to women. Delong-bas assures us we will not find that ibn
Abd al-Wahhab advocated this (p124.)
The
accusations of intolerance of the ‘other’ directed at Muhammad Ibn Abd
al-Wahhab seem the most substantiated. Kitaab At-Tawheed, with its very narrow
definition of true Muslims, denounces Christians and Jews as ‘excessive’ (Ch
17) and users of sorcery (22) and singles out the Jews specifically for
accusations of ‘false flattery and concealment of truth’ (21.) Ahain Ismail,
discusses anti-Shi’ite rhetoric among the Saudi Ulema and relates it to the
sheikh’s condemnation of the Shi’a veneration of the shrines of Ali and Huseyn.
Ismail argues, “The attitudes of modern day clerics can be traced back
to Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab’. He goes on to give numerous examples of
accusations of sorcery, conspiracy against Sunni Muslims and disloyalty to the Saudi
Arabian state levelled at the Shi’a.
Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi Arabian Shi’a, describes having encountered this
attitude at school. “The religious curriculum in Saudi Arabia teaches you that
people are basically two sides: Salafis (Wahhabis) who are the winners, the
chosen ones, who will go to heaven and the rest. The rest ..are either Kafirs
who are deniers of God, or Mushrak, putting gods next to God or ennervators
(sic – presumably innovators) that’s the lightest one …And all of these people
are supposed to be hated, to be persecuted, even killed” (in PBS)
Mansour al-Hajj, a liberal Saudi columnist, supports this with evidence
of the curricula in schools showing in 2008 that, " the ninth-grade
curriculum includes the following hadith: "It was related by Abu Huraira
that the Prophet said, 'Judgment Day will not come until you fight the Jews and
kill them” and that the eighth grade curriculum describes Jews as ‘apes and
swine’ and that the in the eleventh grade, students are taught that the Baha’I
religion is 'one of the destructive mystic cults of the modern era.' He summarises this perspective saying "I
wish to clarify that in Saudi Arabia, pupils are taught Islam according to the
perception and interpretation of the Wahhabis” (2009.)
It seems clear that everyday life in Saudi Arabia is significantly
affected by intolerance of those who are not Sunni Musims and also by the
conflation of religion and law, by suspicion and disapproval of modern
technology and media and by a significant lack of equal rights for women. I
have shown that all of these have been argued to be the result of the teachings
of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. However, with the possible exception of
intolerance towards doctrinal or religious differences, it is not entirely
clear that the Sheikh’s writings directly influenced any of them and other
analyses foregrounding the influences of different political, cultural and
tribal influences can and have been made.
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