WHAT IS A WAHHABI?

he term Wahhabi is always found to be at the

centre of contreversy. This cannot be helped due
to the nature of the cult. Whereas this term is
commonly used by insincere people to mock and
demonize, this is not the intent of the author, nor the
intent of the many scholars that have merely used this
term to make a clear the distinction between the rightly
guided way and a misguided cult bearing the name
Wahhabi.
This cult following are called Wahhabis 1 only due to
their blind following of the theology and dangerous
ideaologies of a man named Muhammad Ibn Abdul

Simply put, a Wahhabi is anybody who follows the movement and

life mission of Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, by supporting his
doctrine in any form or fashion. The majority of modern Wahhabis,
however, object to being called Wahhabis for number of fallacious
reasons in which shall be discussed and debunked within this
chapter. Only a hanfull of modern Wahhabis have admitted to being
a Wahhabi. In general, there seems to be some shame in being a
Wahhhabi, hence the generality of Wahhabis reject the term and
demand that they be called Salafis

Wahhab who appeared in the 11th century of Islam, AH.

2
A number of letters were written between the Ulemaa
of the Hijaaz concerning Muhammad Ibn Abdul
Wahhab and his methods, and they referred to him and
his followers as al-Wahhabiyyah. It was from here that
the name for this cult became popularized.
This is certainly the case with the refutation penned
by the very chief scholar of Makkah al-Mukarramah,
Shaykh ul-Islam, Imaam Ahmad Zayni Dahlan who was
a first hand witness to the appearance of the Wahhabi
Threat. He titled this refutation Fitnat ulWahhabiyyah which is translated accurately as the
Tribulalation of the Wahhabi cult. Thus the name was
not a term made up by the kuffar as some apologetic
Wahhabis would like you to believe.
There is even some evidence to suggest that the early
followers of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab did label
their group as the Wahhabiyyah up until this epithet
became the fixed term to describe them as a misguided
cult. It was only thereafter that the chiefs of the
Wahhabiyyah wrote some letters in which they
demanded that they be known as the Muwahidoon.3
However, now and again some modern Wahhabi

the Hijrah marked the beginning of the Islamic Calendar when the
Muslims moved from Makkah to live in Yahtrib, now known as
Madinah, hence the AH [After Hijrah]
3
The document reffered to here is authohered by a Muhammad
Batalwi and it is documented in a book of history called Tareekhi
Dustaaweez

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lecturers have been known to call themselves Wahhabis

as if they were proud of the fact. Supprisingly the the
most outstanding case was from the former grand Mufti
of Saudi Abdullah Bin Baz 4 who used the term
Wahhabi to refer their way:
The Wahhabiyyah are not new in rejecting all
such innovations. Their creed is to hold fast to
the book of Allah and the Sunnah of His
Messenger sal Allahu alayhi wasallam, and to
follow his footsteps, and those of his rightly
guided successorsThe Wahhabiyyah believe
in them, the way they reported without any
alteration. The creed of the Wahhabiyyah is
based upon fulfilment of witnessing that
Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and
completely abandoning all innovations. This is
the foundation of the Saudi regeime and this
is the view held by the scholars of Saudi
Arabia. The hard attitude shown by the Saudi
government is directed only against the
superstitions and innovations in contradiction
with Islam5

Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz. He was the Grand Mufti of
Saudi Arabia from 1993 until his death in 1999. He initited the alIkhwaan, a Wahhabi milliant militia that the formed into alQaeedah, which has in this time has separated and formed into the
cult known as the Isis
5
pg. 12-13, Indispensable Implication of the Sunnah and Caution
Against Innovation by Abdul Azeez Abdullah Bin Baz, printed by
Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Saudi publication no. 385

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Yet the generality of modern day Wahhabis insist that

the term is haram and insultingand present a number of
arguments in which will be dealt with sufficiently.
We have had many Islamic scholars past and present
and western academics refer to the following of
Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab as Wahhabis. The
Islamic scholar Jamil Effendi al-Zahawi 6 informs us
that:
The Wahhabiyya is a sect whose origin can
be traced back to Muhammad Ibn `Abd alWahhab. Although he first came on the scene
in 1143 (1730 CE), the subversive current his
false doctrine initiated took some fifty years to
spread. It first showed up in Najd.7
The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam:
Wahhabis, a sect dominant in Saudi Arabia
and QatarAdherents of this sect are named
after its founder, Muhammad Ibn Abdul
Wahhab 8

Jamil Effendi al-Zahawi is a scholar from Iraq, known for his

famous treatise on Wahhabis tranlated as The Doctrine of the Ahl usSunnah vs the Salafi Movement
7
Jamil Effendi al-Zahawi's al-Fajr al-sadiq fi al-radd `ala munkiri
al-tawassul wa al-khawariq under the section The Origins of the
Wahhabis
8
The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, p. 414

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Encyclopedia Britanica:
Wahhabiyah, the Muslim puritan
movement founded by Muhammad Ibn
Abdul Wahhab in the 18th century in Najd,
central Arabia 9
Furthermore, there seems to be no shortage in the
books of classical Aqeeedah where the cults have been
laballed with similar epithets. Therefore, labelling the
misguided groups is indeed a practice of the rightly
guided scholars, and it cannot be put down to an act of
demonization.
We have had many false cults that have broken
themselves from the Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jamaaah and
have been thus labelled accordingly. 10 Even the Prophet
sal Allahu alayhi wasallam gave names to some of the
cults and this was without any intent of demonization.
The demonization committed by argumentative
insinecere people cannot be attributed to everybody who
uses cult names to refer to such and such a cult. This
labelling has not been done with the intention to mock
and insult, it is merely the way that scholars have
categorized and labelled them when documenting the
deviance of each group.

Encyclopedia Britanica Micropedia vol. X, p. 511

The Khawaarij, the Qadiriyyah, the Shia, the Raafidah, the
Murjiah, the Mutazilah, the Jahmiyyah, the Jabbariyyah, etc

10

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For example, if we were to walk into a shop and there

were no labels on the tin food, then how would you
differentiate between what is halal and what is haram?
How do you know that you are not picking up some dog
food, or a tin of pork sausages in brine, whereas you
intend to buy a simple tin of halal beans? What about if
you were to walk into a shop that sells medicines and the
medicines had no labels? Without saying this would be
detrimental to ones health. Therefore the labelling is
only a preventative measure to safeguard the common
laity from being poisoned and taking what is forbidden
for them
The scholars did this so that the laymen from amongst
the Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jamaaah would avoid the false
creed of such cults. Thus the laymen would know to
avoid the Kharijites, Jahmis, Shiites and so forth, and
they would know not to seek religious verdicts from
such deviants. They had every right to know about the
snares of the false cults. Had these cults not have been
labelled and discussed, our Islam, and Imaan would have
been in deep peril from the innovations that these false
cults have bought about. In order to know how to avoid
the false cults we would then have to know their names
and why they were called such and what they believed.
Most of the times the cults would have been named
after their founders,11 or an action that took them out of

11

The Karamiyyah was named after their founder Muhammad Ibn

Karam and they were known for their denial of the Attributes of

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the fold of the Ahl us-Sunnah,12 but yet some cults was
named after the deviance in the creed itself,13 or in rare
cases the country or city location they was from.14
However, there was always a good reason why the
scholars labelled a cult with a title and their intent in
doing so was not derogatory in any sense. Without
labelling the cults in such a fashion, many innovations
would have gone unchecked, and the people would have
lent their ears to the innovators unknowingly, and we
would not have Islam in its pure form.
The Prophet sal Allahu alayhi wasallam spoke many
times and emphasized about the dangers of the
Khawaarij more than any other cult that was to appear.
The companion Abu Umaamah radiy Allahu anhu
reports that he heard the Prophet sal Allahu alayhi
wasallam speak about the Khawarij more than seven
times. The most famous hadeeth about the rise of the
Khawaarij is recorded in the Ahaadeeth when one of his

Allah. Like wise the Wahhabis have been named after their founder,
Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab
12
The Khawaarij were named by the Prophet sal Allahu alayhi
wasallam himself, he even called them the worst of creation and the
dogs of the hellfire. The Khawaarij derives from the root Kha-ra-ja
which means to exit, and that is exactly what the Khawaarij did.
They exited the religion for rebelling against the rulers, takfeering
the leaders and the general laity of the Muslims and making their
blood permissible to spill
13
The Qadariyyah, they were named so because they denied the
Qadr of Allah and argued that men had complete free will
14
The Hururiyyah, were a offshoot of the Khawaarij, named after
their founder and their locality al-Hurur

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companions Dhul Khuwaisira at-Tameemi spoke and

rebelled by questioning the Prophets honesty and
integrity sal Allahi alayhi wasallam. He accused the
Prophet sal Allahi alayhi wasallam of wrong-doing.
The Prophet sal Allahi alayhi wasallam warned the
Sahaabah Radiy Allahu anhum that from Dhul
Khuwaisira at-Tameemis offspring would appear a
people that recited the Quran, but it did not go further
than their throats, and that they would go out of the
religion like an arrow goes through a deers body. The
Prophet sal Allahi alayhi wasallam also warned us that
the Khawaarij would keep appearing up until the
appearence of the Dajjal.
Since the Prophet sal Allahu alayhi wasallam spoke
of them so much, and his prophecies regarding them
came true, and still come true to this very day, the
scholars, past and present have deemed them to be the
most dangerous cult to have ever plagued this earth. The
Khawaarij descended from the tribe of tameem and the
tribe of tameem originated from the harsh deserts of
central Arabia known as Najd.
Not only has the Prophet sal Allahi alayhi wasallam
warned us about the Khawaarij, but he also warned us
much about the fitnaah that would arise and come from
Najd. In one hadeeth he refused to dua for Najd,
whereas he would regularly pray for Sham, Yemen, Iraq
and other locations of the Muslim world.

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This does not mean that everybody from Najd or from

the Banu Tameem is evil and misguided. There are
existing hadeeth in which the Prophet, sal Allahu alayhi
wasallam, displayed praise for the Banu Tameem. It is
not a cursed tribe. This thought is a false notion
propagated by some of our less knowledgable Sunni
brothers. Indeed we have Shaykh ul-Islam, al-Qadi-asSaheeh lil-Najd Abdul Wahhab himself Rahimahullah,
the father of the misguided Muhammad Ibn Abdul
Wahhab. We also have al-Qadi-as-Saheehs son, Shaykh
ul-Islam Sulaymaan Ibn Abdul Wahhab an-Najd,
Rahimahullah.15
Both were great Hanbali scholars that are renown for
their condemnation of the of their very own family
member Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab who
spearheaded the Wahhabi cult. So whenever you hear a
cultist talking about the virtues of the Bani Tameem,
then do not be fooled, for indeed the offspring of Banu
Tameem can be either righteous or evil. After all the
Prophet, sal Allahu alayhi wasallam, said from amongst
their offspring will arise a people, he did not say All of
his offspring.
We have to be fair and keep this in mind when
dealing with these issues. However, do not be tricked by
those who call evil good and call the good evil, for this is
exactly the stance that cultists take when you discuss

15

And many other Najdis that fought with their very lifes against the Wahhabi
cult

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their cult. What I mean by this is that the virtues of Bani

Tameem can never refer to Dhul Khuwaisira, or the
Khawaarij, or Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, no matter
if he is a descendant from Ismael alayhis Salaam,
because it is known that the descendants of the Prophets
went astray, such as the son of Nuh alayhis-salam who
Allah declared to be a disbeliever! The Bani Israel, the
children of Yaqub alayhis Salaam. And most certainly
we are all Bani Adam and many of us have indeed
become misguided. So it is not about the purity of linage
otherwise we would all be exonerated and praised.
Another argument that we tend to hear repeated
constantly through by Wahhabi apologetica is that alWahhab is Allahs divine name, and labelling somebody
with the title Wahhabi is directly distorting His name.
This argument is fallacious for more than one reason.
The first reason being is that the term Wahhabi in its
singular active participle form or its plural alWahhabiyyahis in fact not the name of Allah but
gramttically a derivate word with the same trilateral root.
When written down on paper, you will find the name alWahhab, Wahhabi and al-Wahhabiyyah to be very
different in wording. The only resembelence is that the
share the same trilateral letters W-H-B [waw hah baa].
For this reason alone the claim that it is the distortion of
one of Allahs divine names should be considered
fallacious.
Secondly, if using the term Wahhabi or alWahhabiyyah is considered as sinfully distorting the
divine name of Allah, then why have Wahhabi scholars

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used such terms for the cult Ahmadiyyah or the

Ahmadis. Is this not then disrespecting and distorting
the name of Prophet Muhammad sal Allahu alayhi
wasallam as seen in the Quran: quote ayah:
If we look through all the classical books on creed we
find again and again titles used for cults that share the
same trilateral root letters as one of Allahs divine
names. For example, one of Allahs divine names is alQadeer, yet this did not stop the scholars of the Ahl usSunnah wal-Jamaaah from using the title al-Qadriyyah
to refer to the misguided cult that denied the Qadr of
Allah. One of Allahs divine names is also al-Kareem,
yet this did not stop the scholars of the Ahl us-Sunnah
wal-Jamaaah from using the title al-Karaamiyyah to
refer to the cult initiated by Muhammad Ibn Karam 16
who was infamously known for his denial of the
Attributes of Allah.
If these examples are not enough that what about
Allahs divine name al-Jabbar, which is on the very
same gramtical Arabic template as Allahs divine name
Al-Wahhab. The only difference between these two
names, except the meaning, is the trilateral root letters.

16

Do take notice how the cult has been named after family
annexation Ibn Karam the son of Karam as one of the Wahhabi
arguments that the name Wahhabi is the name of Muhammad Ibn
abdul Wahhabs father. As we can see, this is a habit of the Saheeh
classical forefathers of the creed. If this practice of labelling cultists
in such a way, then indeed it is good enough for us to do the same
without any fear of blame

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There is no difference between al-Jabbar and alWahhab. Yet this did not stop the scholars of the Ahl usSunnah wal-Jamaaah from using the title alJabbariyyah to refer to the opposite extreme cult of the
Qadariyyah. If we was to use singulat active participle to
refer to a person from this cult they would be called a
Jabbari, or in the Anglocised plural Jabbaris, which is
not at all different as Wahhabi or Wahhabis.
To level the accusation of distorting Allahs name for
using derivatives whenever referring to cults would not
only be poiting the finger of blame towards the many
centuries of rightly guided theologians, and classical
mujtahideen 17 but the even the finger of blame would be
pointed towards the Messenger of Allah sal Allahu
alayhi wasallam himself and his blessed Sahaabah,
Radiy Allahu anhum.
We have proven beyond a doubt that using the term
al-Wahhabiyyah and its singular Wahhabi is not an
act that is intended to demonize or malign. These terms
are not to be used for insult and name calling but only as
descriptions for the preventive measure of somebody
falling into that group and becoming misguided by their
doctrine. However, it is unfortunate that we also have
young and foolish people who use the doctrine and its
terminologies for extreme causes. I can only say that the
blame is solely with them, and they have no right to

17

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such as Imaam Abu Hanifah and Imaam Ahmad Bin Hanbal

weaponize this religion according to their own vindictive

whims.
In the modern age we have heard some of these
young and foolish people refer to the Wahhabiyyah as
Wobblers. This innovated term is nothing but street
slang and is not from the speech or writings of the
qualified scholars. Not only is this term demonizing in
nature but it has no real meaning or relevance except to
that a person has wobbled from the faith. A problem
with accepting this term is that it can equally applied to
any other cultist that is misguided and has wobbled
from the faith. The term cannot be made specific to the
Wahhabiyyah cult.
The major scholars of the Ahl us-Sunnah walJamaa'ah have never used or permitted the term
wobbler and we are to use the language of the scholars
and not the laymen. It is the scholars who pass the
understanding of this religion to us, not the unqualified.
Only the scholars have the right to label a group in order
to warn against their misguidance, laymen have no
authority in such a religious discourse.

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