Islamic Online University

Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies

Aqeedah 101 Assignment

Full Name: MUH. ALIF AHSANUL ISLAM [ST10042393]

Question:The author of the text Kitaab Al Tawheed, Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdul

Wahab, is often described by his opponents as a deviant and someone who

aimed to change the way of the Muslim community.
In 1000-1200 words write a short biography of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdul
Wahab.
Answer the following questions.
Did he bring anything new in the religion?
How did his Aqeedah differ to those of his contemporaries?
Did his opinions differ from earlier scholars such as Ibn Taymiyah and Imam
Ahmad etc?
Sheikh Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahab was from a place called Najd; explain the
issue mentioned by the Prophet (saw) when he said that Najd was the horn of
Satan.

Answer:
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab bin Sulayman bin Ali bin Musharraf at-Tamimi
an-Najdi was born in Uyayna in 1115 H (1703 C.E.) though some are of the opinion that
it was in 1111 A.H, which is not popular1. When the imam was born, the muslim world is
in crisis of morality and lack of knowledge and also so many practices contain bidah and
khurafat was done by the muslim at that time. The Imam born in an alim family, his
grandfather was Sulayman ibn Ali ibn Musharraf is a great scholar in his era he wrote
as-Sahib al-Wabilah that about hajj, his uncle Ibrahim bin Sulayman was a famous
scholar and his father Abdul Wahhab bin Sulayman is a qadi in Uyayna and
Huraimila2. He was educated by his father at Uyayna, his homeland. It was a village
located at Yamama in Najd, northwest of the city of Riyadh. The imam grew in a good
family for a thalabul ilm in Uyayna, when he reached age ten, he has memorized the
Quran and he studied fiqh of Hanbali madh-hab, tafseer, hadith, aqidah and grammatical.
He had a great attention to the books written by Shaikhul Islam Ibnu Taimiyyah and his
student Ibnul Qayyim rahimahumallah3. After going to hajj, the imam learned from the
Haramayn (Makkah and Madeenah) scholars in about two months and come back to
Uyayna and then he went again for hajj and learned from Haramain scholars especially
in Madeenah al-Munawarrah. In Madeenah he had serious study, when in Madeenah is a
gathering place for famous and great scholar at that that time. Syaikh Abdullah bin
1

http://www.islamlife.com/religion2/component/content/article/69-later-scholars/672-biography-of-imam-muhammad-binabdul-wahhab
2

Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd. al-Wahhab: Tokoh Yang Dizalimi, p.18

http://ulamasunnah.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/biografi-asy-syaikh-muhammad-bin-abdul-wahhab/

Ibrahim bin Saif an-Najdi and Syaikh Muhammad Hayat as-Sindi was among his teachers
and after study in Madeenah he comeback to his hometown Uyayna4.
When he traveled to Basra in Iraq to seek knowledge, he met scholars and learned
from them, his teacher was al-Sheikh Muhammad al-Majmuie. He started to spread his
mission to call people for tawhid (oneness of Allah) here but some characterless scholars
and people in Basra chased him away so he moved to al-Zubayr and then he moved to
Huraimila. There he continued his teaching, preaching and learning until his father died.
When he was in Huraimila he had so much suffering because of his dawah and some
people attempted his life. Then he moved to Uyayna which was then governed by Prince
Uthman bin Muhammad bin Muammar. The Sheikh welcomed by The Prince with
hospitality. He motivated him to start his dawah and promised him all support and help.
He showed him kindness and sympathy. Thus the Sheikh continued his activities in
teaching and guiding the people, and calling them to the Path of Allah. He guided the
people to piety, righteousness and love in the cause of Allah. As time goes by the Sheikh
became popular, people came to Uyayna to study from the Sheikh and one day the
Sheikh and the army given by the Prince demolished the dome of the grave of Zaid Bin
Al-Khattab radhiallaahu anhu5.
The Prince of al-Ahsa was afraid of the power of the Sheikh that can taken away
his power, so he tells Prince Uthman to kill the Sheikh but Prince Uthman did not want to
kill the Sheikh so he tells him to leave Uyayna. Because of unstable political situation,
the Sheikh had to leave Uyayna and he decided to go to Diriyyah. In Diriyyah he
4

http://almanhaj.or.id/content/1297/slash/0/syaikh-muhammad-bin-abdul-wahhab-sosok-penegak-panji-panji-tauhid/

Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd. al-Wahhab: Tokoh Yang Dizalimi, p.18

stayed in Muhammad bin Suwailim Al-Urainis home, and the leader of Diriyyah
Muhammad bin Suud heard about the Sheikh from his wife. In Diriyyah he stayed in
Muhammad bin Suwailim Al-Urainis home, and the leader of Diriyyah Muhammad
bin Suud heard about the Sheikh from his wife. Some pious people come to her and said,
Tell to Muhammad (Ibn Suud ) about this man! Give him advice to protect the Sheikh
and motivate him to support and help the Sheikh .6
She was a kind, pious lady. When Muhammad Bin Saud came to her, she said to
him: `here is a great fortune sent to you by Allah. A man who is calling the people to
Islam, calling to the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet [sallallaahu alayhi wasallam].
What a good fortune! Rush to him and support him. Never resist him or stop him from
that'.7
Then Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab and Prince Muhammad bin Saud
made a contract to work together on protect the Religion of Allah, His Messenger and
Jihad in the cause of Allah. Dariyyah now become popular because the people from
many places came to Dariyyah to study under the Imam. Now the Imam had a great
power so he wrote many letters for another state near Dariyyah and then the Sheikh
became famous because of his Dawah. His dawah had its impact on the people of the
Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Syria and Iraq 8.

http://ulamasunnah.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/biografi-asy-syaikh-muhammad-bin-abdul-wahhab/

http://www.islamlife.com/religion2/component/content/article/69-later-scholars/672-biography-of-imam-muhammad-binabdul-wahhab
8

Ibid

Sometimes the enemy of the Imam said he was a Khawarij and some others said
he tore apart the consensus of the scholars and he said the Sheikh did the Ijtihad without
considering any other scholars. There were three groups of the opponent of the Imam:
1. This group consisted of scholars that saw truth as falsehood and falsehood as truth.
They believe that building a masjid on a graves is permissible so they hate Sheikh because
the Sheikh wants the people to avoid the khurafat to protect their aqeedah.
2. The second group consisted of people that do not really understand what the
Sheikh believe and what is his mission. They just followed and believe other people or
characterless scholars.
3. The third group feared to lose his position in the society.They showed him
hostility so that the supporters of the Islamic mission might not reach them and remove their
positions and take over their lands.
The Sheikhs jihad with sword started in 1158 H and continued until Imam
Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab died in Shawwal or Dhul-Qadah 1206 H9. Desipite that
Syaikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab was a reformer and a man of Dawah in his era,
he also contribute in Islam by his writings, some of his famous works are Kitab atTawhid, Kitab al-Kabair, Masail al-Jahiliyah, al-Usul ath-Thalathah.

Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd. al-Wahhab: Tokoh Yang Dizalimi, p.36

Question:

Did he bring anything new in the religion?

The enemy of the Imam sometimes said that the the Imam bring innovations in this deen, for

example classification of the tawheed into three main categories they say it is bidah and imitate the
Trinity of the Cristian. The classification of the tawheed is based on istiqra (thorough research) to
evidence found in the Quran and Sunnah and this division has done by the early scholar not only Imam
Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, it just like the classification of word in Arabic into isim, fiil, and harf.

How did his Aqeedah differ to those of his contemporaries?

The Sheikh was born in Najd that there is many violation in aqidah. In Jubailah the grave of Zaid

bin al-Khattab radiyallahu anhu became place for seeking help by the people. At the time the people
has gone astray far away from the tawheed and the Imam came as a Mujaddid to call people to came
back to the pure aqidah from the Prophet

Did his opinions differ from earlier scholars such as Ibn Taymiyah and Imam Ahmad etc?
Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab was a Hanbal scholar and he used to read book written by

Syaikhul Islam Ibn Taymiyah. The opinion of Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab and the earlier
scholar is similiar that their opinion in Aqidah is to call for oneness of Allah and avoid all forms of shirk
and bidah.

Sheikh Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahab was from a place called Najd; explain the issue mentioned by
the Prophet (saw) when he said that Najd was the horn of Satan.
Narrated Ibn `Umar:

(The Prophet) said, "O Allah! Bless our Sham and our Yemen." People said, "Our Najd as well."
The Prophet again said, "O Allah! Bless our Sham and Yemen." They said again, "Our Najd as well." On
that the Prophet said, "There will appear earthquakes and afflictions, and from there will come out the
side of the head of Satan."
Reference : Sahih al-Bukhari 1037
In-book reference : Book 15, Hadith 32
USC-MSA web (English) reference : Vol. 2, Book 17, Hadith 14710

To understand the meaning of hadith the best way of understand it by look for another hadith
Shaykh Muhammad Naasir-ud-Deen Al-Albaanee (rahimahullah) mentions the following Prophetic
narration: O Allah, bless for us our Makkah, O Allah, bless for us our Madeenah, O Allah, bless for us
our Shaam and bless for us our Saaand bless for us our Mudd So, a man said: O Messenger of Allah,
and our Iraq and he (the Prophet) turned away from him. So, he repeated it three times, with the man
saying every time: and our Iraq and he (the Prophet) would turn away from him. Then he (the
I say: This chain of narration is Saheeh (authentic) according to the conditions of the two Sheikhs (AlBukhaaree and Muslim).11
"The Messenger of Allah(s.a.w) narrated to us, saying: 'The Dajjal shall emerge from a land in the east
called Khurasan. He is followed by a people whom appear as if their f aces are shields coated with
leather.
Grade

: Hasan (Darussalam)

Reference

: Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2237

10

http://sunnah.com/bukhari/15

11

http://qawaariyyah.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/the-hadeeth-of-najd/

In-book reference

: Book 33, Hadith 80

English translation

: Vol. 4, Book 7, Hadith 223712

From the hadith mentioned above we can see that the authentic and clear evidence point that Najd
is Iraaq as a place that come out the horn of satan and and many other fitnahs (fitan).

12

http://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/33

BIBLIOGRAPHY
al-Nadwi, Masud. Syeikh Muhammad bin Abd. al-Wahhab: Tokoh Yang Dizalimi. Maktabah
At-Tamimi. Web. 5 June 2014.
ibn Abdullah ibn Baaz, Abdul-Aziz. Biography of Imam Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab.
Islamlife.com, 10 Nov. 2009. Web. 5 June 2014.
Bachrun, Wira. Biografi Asy-Syaikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab.
http://ulamasunnah.wordpress.com, 4 Feb 2008. Web. 5 June 2014
Shageer, Abu Yusuf. The Hadeeth of Najd. http://qawaariyyah.wordpress.com, 7 June 2011.
Web. 5 June 2014
Abu Aufa. Syaikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Sosok Penegak Panji-Panji Tauhid.
http://almanhaj.or.id, 11 Jan 2005. Web. 5 June 2014
http://sunnah.com