Itimad Dawat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab ala al-Kitab wa al-Sunna - Abd al-Aziz Al al-Shaykh
- Author died
- 1426 AH
- Editions
- Deanship of Scientific Research at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University
Iʿtimād Daʿwat al-Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ʿalā al-Kitāb wa-l-Sunnah (The Reliance of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's Call on the Book and the Sunnah) is a scholarly treatise by the Saudi jurist and official Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad Al al-Shaykh (d. 1426 AH / 2005 CE) examining the scriptural foundations and historical development of the reformist movement initiated by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.
Background and Context
The work was originally prepared as a research paper for the Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Week, an academic conference organized by Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh in 1400 AH (1980 CE). At the time of its presentation, the author served as the General President of the General Presidency for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Saudi Arabia.
Contents and Structure
The treatise opens with an overview of religious and social conditions across the Arabian Peninsula prior to the mid-12th Hijri century, arguing that widespread ignorance had fostered superstitious practices, including witchcraft, tomb veneration, and the invocation of trees and stones. It then outlines the biographical trajectory of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, detailing his travels to Mecca, Medina—where he studied under Abd Allah ibn Ibrahim ibn Sayf and Muhammad Hayat al-Sindi—as well as Basra, al-Ahsa, Huraymila, and al-Uyaynah, culminating in his historic alliance with Prince Muhammad ibn Saud in Diriyah.
The author concentrates on demonstrating that the movement’s theology and jurisprudence derived strictly from the Quran, the Sunnah, and the consensus of early Muslim generations (salaf). Drawing on Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s personal epistles—such as his letter to the scholars of the Maghrib—the treatise clarifies that the movement adhered in legal jurisprudence to the Hanbali school while respecting the other three Sunni schools of law.
A substantial portion of the text analyzes key chapters from Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's Kitab al-Tawhid (The Book of Monotheism), particularly sections dealing with seeking judgment from divine law versus man-made legislation (al-tahakum ila al-taghut) and the impermissibility of obeying authorities in contravention of divine commands. To elaborate these doctrines, the author cites classical authorities such as Ibn Taymiyyah, Sulayman ibn Abd Allah's Taysir al-Aziz al-Hamid, and his own father, the Grand Mufti Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al al-Shaykh.
The treatise concludes by situating Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's reform in continuity with the methodological traditions of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, underscoring its rejection of blind imitation (taqlid) and assessing its long-term role in establishing political security and legal order in the region.
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