Mouood Mouood English Edition
A) The New Class Of Wahhabis
What is decaying is the fanatic, bigoted and dangerous Wahhabi group which considers all Muslims but itself as polytheists, but a more moderate class is emerging and materializing. This class consists of the educated youth, and some university lecturers in cooperation with some great scholars. They demonstrate the following characteristics:
1) They respect other people’s beliefs, don’t accuse Muslims of polytheism, blasphemy and forbidden innovation, and are weary of bloodshed.
2) They welcome dialogue and logical discourse among Islamic creeds and have ears for what other people say, and read other people’s books.
3) They don’t consider forbidden the new positive maninfestations of contemporary lifestyle whilst there is no reason for their prohibition, and they do not object to commemorating the great saints of religion, nor confuse the religious with traditions.
4) They allow women, to receive education and take part in social constructive activities, provided they observe their Islamic covering and the standards of chastity.
5) They are ready to collaborate with the other Islamic sects and their hatred is focused on those who aim to obliterate Muslims. They will gradually displace the extremely coarse fanatic Salafis. The expansion of this group is evident in the scientific and cultural encounters during pilgrimage and its impact is noticed in the recently published books.
We believe that the elimination of that group and emergence of this, can help to sketch an appropriate image of Islam in the world, and reimburse this chaste faith which has been endangered by the dogmatic and aggressive beliefs of the past Salafis, and God willing, prepare the ground for entering Allah’s religion in throngs14, and set the stage for Islam to find its real place in the world.
The Muslims of the world welcome the emergence of such a crowd, and consider it as an important factor in stabilizing the pillars of Islamic brotherhood and unifying the Muslims against the enemies who are striving to emasculate and affront Muslims. The commentaries that a mass of Islamic scholars wrote on Alawi’s book, is another witness to this fact.
It is upon the Saudi leaders to promote this progress by opening their closed borders to Islamic books and the writings of other Muslim countries, prepare the grounds for dialogue between the Islamic creeds and encourage interaction between the scholars of these countries. This will be beneficial both for them and the Islamic world!
B) The danger of Extremists15
One of the factors leading to the extremist Wahhabi thought are a throng of Muslims, ignorant and illiterate individuals who exaggerate about the Saints of religion and raise them from the level of servitude to divinity and partner them with God. Without a doubt their threat is not and has never been less than the threat of the extremist Wahhabis and if it wasn’t for them, there was no excuse for the Wahhabis. Expressions that are not in harmony with the spirit of Islamic monotheism and have never been mentioned in Scripture and Tradition, such as “Creator of the Heavens and Earth”, “Most Compassionate of the compassionate” and other similar attributes specific to Almighty God, should not be used for God’s Saints as neither are they satisfied by this nor is this in accordance with Islamic teachings.
The insistence of some ignorant people on these matters has caused a group who are similar to the Extremist group in ignorance, to stand in opposition and declare that the Holy Prophet (S) (God forbid) is powerless to do anything after his demise, including intercession and prayer for the believers and even going to visit His (S)Tomb is forbidden innovation and so prohibited.
And this is what the Master of the faithful, Imam Ali (‘as) states: “Two kinds of people will be damned on my account: The friends who form exaggerated opinions about me and the malevolent enemies who under-estimate me” 16
The Khavarej and the Nasebies set the grounds for the existence of the Extremists17, and the Extremists in turn promoted the Khavarej. It is the duty of the Islamic scholars to make every effort to guide the Extremists and on the other they should answer the sophistries of the hard-line Wahhabis. It is difficult to keep the solidarity of the less learned masses of people in such affairs, but even harder at times when some apparently learned ones stumble onto either side. “May Allah the Almighty keep us away from extremism and guide us towards the right path.”
2. Another Call From Another Brave Author
The Book “A Missionary and not a Prophet”!
The book, A Missionary and not a Prophet18, is a critical appraisal by a leader of the Wahhabi creed on the issue of excommunication and declaring others as kafirs, published lately and its fame has spread all over the Hijaz (Saudi Arabia) and other countries.
The unique features of this book are the following:
1. The author of the book, Shaikh Hasan bin Farhan Maleki, is a famous intellectual of the Sunnis of Saudi Arabia and a follower of the Maleki creed who calls himself a moderate Wahhabi.
He respects the leader of the Wahhabis, Shaikh Mohammad bin Abdul-Wahhab, but he strongly criticizes his declarations, especially on the issue of excommunication19 of the Muslims. He states expressly:
‘Even though I respect him, yet not only have I found him fallible, but I believe he has committed many mistakes.’
2. His method of criticism is very polite and logical, but when it comes to criticising the themes of the leader of Wahhabis, he is not concerned with anything at all; he even neglects the many threats that intimidate him on behalf of the Extremist Wahhabis, as he calls them 20.
3. He is well-versed in Islamic faith and religious sources, and he is especially good at employing the terms used by the opposite side against them, and he has amusingly dedicated a part of his book to “the contradictions and inconsistencies in the statements of Muhammed bin Abdul-Wahhab”.
4. He believes that the Extremist Wahhabis who regard the life, wealth and reputation of the non-Wahhabi Muslims permissible, are ensnared by fanaticism and are a threat to Islam, Muslims and the region.
5. He has focused most of his criticism on the two books “Kashf-o-Shobahat”21 and “Kitab-o-Tawheed”22 by Muhammed bin Abdul-Wahhab, and he addresses the sources of many of his accounts to the book, “Al-Dorar-o-Seniyah”23.
Al-Dorar-o-Seniyah is compiled by Abdul-Rahman bin Muhammed bin Qasim Al-Hanbali, who has compiled the set of books, articles and letters by Muhammed bin Abdul-Wahhab and a group of Wahhabi chiefs from the time of the Shaikh till today. He died in the year 1392 AH. Ben Baz, a famous Wahhabi Jurist who died recently, used it as a text book to teach from. This book of ten volumes is a very good source of information about Wahhabism.
6. The author of “A Missionary not a Prophet!” did not remain safe from the threats and pressures of the extremist Wahhabis and the verdict of his ex-communication has been issued, as done to Ben Alawi Maleki, and it is not clear what sort of destiny is awaiting him. However, he has done Islam a great favour through this book and proven that bloodshed and anathemisations are alien to Islam and are the result of mistaken interpretations of Islamic instructions.
7. He states in the introductory discussions to his book: “The truth is that I prepared this new reading of the books by Muhammad ben Abdulwahhab prior to September the eleventh, and after that event I was not very keen to publish it (as it might cause accusations against Muslims in the course of this event), but as I watched the extremist Wahhabis constantly holding seminars and conferences to acquit the leader of this creed, Sheikh Muhammad, and declare him innocent of any fault, I saw it necessary to unveil the truth so that they deal even-handedly with the matter and admit the mistakes made by the Sheikh in issuing verdicts of ex-communication. “24
