Daiyat al-Tawhid Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
- Author died
- 1402 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-‘Ilm lil-Malāyīn
Daiyat al-Tawhid Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (The Caller to Monotheism: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab) is a biographical and historical study written by the Egyptian scholar and man of letters Abd al-Aziz Sayyid al-Ahl (d. 1402 AH / 1981 CE), focusing on the life, doctrine, and reform movement of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.
Purpose and Scope
Sayyid al-Ahl conceived the book to present the biography of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the principles of his reformist call, and its impact on the emergence of religious states in Arabia, up to the modern Third Saudi State. The author deliberately avoided detailed digressions into extensive geographical lists, exhaustive military engagements, and complex political pacts, choosing instead to concentrate strictly on the life of the reformer and the trajectory of his movement.
The author frames the movement not as a novel madhhab or addition to Sunni Islam, but as a religious reform movement rooted in the Hanbali theological tradition, forming a continuum beginning with Ahmad ibn Hanbal, continuing through Ibn Taymiyyah, and culminating in Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's call.
Structure and Contents
The work is organized systematically into six main parts (abwāb), each comprising five chapters (fuṣūl):
- Part One: Serves as an introduction and historical entry into the era of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (al-Madkhal ilā Aṣr Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb).
- Part Two: Focuses on the reformer himself (Fī Dāʿiyat al-Iṣlāḥ).
- Part Three: Details the tenets and core message of the call (Fī Bayān al-Daʿwah).
- Part Four: Traces the historical progress and expansion of the movement (Fī Masīratihā).
- Part Five: Explores its regulatory and institutional frameworks (Fī Anẓimatihā).
- Part Six: Reviews the outcomes and triumphs of the movement, culminating in the establishment of the state based on tawḥīd (Fī Natāʾijihā allatī Intahat bi-l-Fawz wa-Qiyām Dawlat al-Tawḥīd).
Publication and Revisions
The first edition of the book was issued by Dar al-Ilm li-l-Malayin in Beirut in 1394 AH (1974 CE). Following this initial release, the Saudi Minister of Higher Education, Shaykh Hasan ibn Abd Allah Al al-Shaykh, communicated scholarly observations and corrections regarding certain historical sources used in the first edition, notably its reliance on later accounts of uncertain authorship such as Lamʿ al-Shihāb.
Sayyid al-Ahl acknowledged and incorporated these corrections in a revised preface written in Beirut in 1398 AH (1978 CE). A third, revised and enlarged edition of the book was subsequently published in 1406 AH (152 pages).
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