Confusing the Means with the Giver

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is adapted from “The Flawed Wahhabi Understanding of Tawaswswul: Confusing the Means with the Giver.”  I believe the original was by r. Jibril Fu’ad Haddad. 

Wahhabis wrongly accuse the Ahl as-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah of committing shirk, polytheism, when asking Allah (s.w.t.) for something using an intermediary, whether the means is a pious person in his grave, objects via tabarruk, or seeking Protection from Allah (s.w.t.) using amulets with verses of the Qur’an written on them, ruqyah.  The Wahhabis believe that asking Allah (s.w.t.) for something through a means is the same as worshipping the means itself.  That is, for people who do tawaswswul through a wali in his grave is asking the wali, and not Allah (s.w.t.), for things; people who do tabarruk through a relic of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) are asking the relic, and not Allah (s.w.t.), for blessings; and people who wear ruqyah are asking the ruqyah itself for protection, and not Allah (s.w.t.).

When a Muslim visits the Prophet Muhammad’s (s.a.w.) grave and calls on the Prophet (s.a.w.), “Ya Rasulullah,” “O Prophet,” the Wahhabis accuse such a person of worshipping the Prophet (s.a.w.) and refuse to accept the understanding that the Prophet (s.a.w.) himself is a means to asking Allah (s.w.t.) for things.  Such an act, to Wahhabis, drives a Muslim out of the fold of Islam.  In sum, Wahhabis believe that such people are worshipping Creation alongside Allah (s.w.t.), and are, therefore, guilty of polytheism, attributing partners in worship to Allah (s.w.t.).

The, now deceased, former Mufti of Saudi Arabia, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Baz, defended Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab’s accusation of polytheism that he had heaped on the masses and his resorting to “jihad” by saying that Muslims had gone astray because they had “worshipped” things other than Allah (s.w.t.): “The people of Najd had lived in a condition that could not be approved of by any believer.  Polytheism had appeared there and spread widely.  People worshipped domes, trees, rocks, caves or any persons who claimed to be awliya’ though they might be insane and idiotic.

There were few to rise up for the sake of Allah and support His Religion.  Same was the situation in Makkah and Madinah as well as Yemen where building domes on the graves, invoking the awliya’ for their help and other forms of polytheism were predominant.  But in Najd polytheistic beliefs and practices were all the more intense.  In Najd people had worshipped different objects ranging from the graves, caves and trees to the obsessed and mad men who were called awliya’.

When the Shaykh saw that polytheism was dominating the people and that no one showed any disapproval of it or no one was ready to call the people back to Allah, he decided to labour singly and patiently in the field.  He knew that nothing could be achieved without jihad, patience and suffering.”  The “Shaykh” in question is the heretic, ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab.

The Ahl as-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah, however, have never claimed to worship the means, but only Allah (s.w.t.).  Because the Wahhabis did not tolerate this, they massacred thousands of Muslims who they saw as being polytheists in Arabia.  In actuality, they were Muslims who were following Islam in its purity as taught by the pious predecessors while these Wahhabis were following a heretic and an infidel.