Brief History and Impacts of Wahabism

One of the most important personalities, affecting drastically the religious scenario of Muslim world was “ibn Abdul wahab”. People following his ideas are called as “WAHABIS”. The term is now being widely used in the international media because groups like Al-Qaeda and Taliban also come under the scope of wahabism. Born in Najd region (part of modern-day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) in the year 1703, Ibn Abdul Wahab was a person of radical ideas regarding the concepts of “grave-worship” and innovations incorporated into the religion of Islam. As a student in Basra (Iraq) he gained some fame by holding debates with the Islamic scholars of the city concerning his ideas. Returning his home-town Uyayna he found the local chief, Uthman ibn Mu’ammar as his ardent supporter. The Wahabia movement started its radical implementation by leveling the grave of a companion of the Prophet of Islam.According to Ibn-e-Abdul Wahab it was according to the true teachings of The Prophet and was necessary to abolish Polytheism in all its forms. Furthermore, he also opposed the “Birthday Celebrations” of the Prophet because this tradition had no traces to the time of Prophet and his companions. But Wahabia movement failed to gain profound success in Uyayna. Ibn-e-Abdul Wahab had to leave Uyayna because of pressure on the local chief by the head of a neighboring region. Wahabi movement began to turn into a success story when Ibn-e-Abdul Wahab settled in the area of Dirriya. Here some of the family members of the local chief Ibn Saud persuaded the ruler to patron the cause of Ibn-e-Abdul Wahab. A pact was signed between Ibn-e-Abdul Wahab and Ibn Saud to ‘propagate’ and ‘enforce’ the Wahabi interpretation of Islam. After 140 years of this understanding the heirs of Ibn Saud took control of the major part of the Arabian peninsula and named it “Saudi Arabia”.It shows the effect of Wahabi movement on the politics of Arabia and thus indirectly on the entire world. There are two totally different perceptions about Ibn abdul Wahab. One school of thought , the ‘Salafis’ and similar groups consider him a reformist who restored Islam to it’s original form as it was during the times of the Prophet. The other group ‘Sufis’ consider him heretic and accuse him of declaring the majority of Muslims as ‘unbelievers’. They say that Wahabis killed and enslaved thousands of Muslims and Ibn Abdul Wahab was responsible for this. Furthermore, they claim that he and his followers tried to degrade the elders of Islam by demolishing their shrines in the name of ‘monotheism’.  But in the today’s world view Wahabism is debated even in the Western world because of its alleged effect on the fundamentalist Islamic organizations. ‘Islamic militant’ organizations are said to be inspired of Ibn Abdul Wahab’s ideology. As far as human rights organizations are concerned, they consider the forced implementation of Wahabism in Saudia Arabia against the civil rights. Wahabism is obviously the most influential movement of the Muslim world since the past 250 years. It started not only the scholarly debate but also many armed conflicts. As far as West and Israel are concerned it should be noted that there are certain non-Wahabi militant organizations e.g, Hizbollah who are a threat to Israel. Furthermore, Wahabi Saudi regime has good relations with the West atleast at the official level. Infact, ‘house of Saud’ was helped by the British to occupy the land today called as Saudi Arabia.