Itimad Dawat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab ala al-Kitab wa al-Sunna - Salih al-Atram

I‘timād Da‘wat al-Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhāb ‘alā al-Kitāb wa-l-Sunnah (The Reliance of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s Call on the Book and the Sunnah) is a research treatise by the Saudi jurist and scholar Salih ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Atram (d. 1428 AH / 2008 CE), examining the scriptural foundations and methodology of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's religious mission and writings Itimad Dawat al-Shaykh Mu…+1.

Background and Context

The work was prepared as an academic contribution for the "Week of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab" organized by Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh in Rabi‘ al-Thani 1400 AH (March 1980 CE), held alongside the university's initiative to collect, edit, and publish Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's complete works Itimad Dawat al-Shaykh Mu…+1. Al-Atram wrote the treatise to demonstrate that Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's doctrinal and legal teachings were rooted directly in the Quran, the prophetic Sunnah, and the understanding of the early Muslim community (the Salaf), rather than representing an individual innovation or partisan faction Itimad Dawat al-Shaykh Mu…+1.

Structure and Contents

The book consists of an introduction, four main parts (abwāb), and a conclusion Itimad Dawat al-Shaykh Mu…+1:

• Part One provides a biographical overview of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab across four chapters, covering his lineage, birth, upbringing, search for knowledge, travels, and death; the historical context of his era; the social conditions of his time; and the factors prompting his reformist mission Itimad Dawat al-Shaykh Mu…+1.
• Part Two discusses the reliance of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's jurisprudence on the Quran and Sunnah across eleven chapters. It addresses his four foundational principles of religion; his approach to legal differences among scholars; his perspective on the maxim regarding scholar consensus and divergence; his refutation of claims that the Quran cannot be understood directly; his position on scholars' opinions; historical exchanges such as his communication with Ibn Mu‘ammar and his statements in Medina; testimonies from his descendants and other scholars; scholarly praise; and the primary tenets of his call Itimad Dawat al-Shaykh Mu…+1.
• Part Three contains fifteen chapters analyzing textual evidence from Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's theological treatises. It explores his works on the fundamentals of faith, the exclusivity of worship (tawḥīd al-‘ibādah), Faḍl al-Islām (The Merit of Islam), Masā’il al-Jāhiliyyah (Issues of the Pre-Islamic Era), pedagogical question-and-answer texts on creed, warnings against religious innovations, and treatises on major sins (al-Kabā’ir) Itimad Dawat al-Shaykh Mu….
• Part Four covers Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's non-creedal writings across twenty chapters, examining his contributions to hadith, voluntary prayers, Quran recitation, zakat, filial piety, fasting, pilgrimage rites, sacrificial offerings, jihad, commercial transactions, personal letters, prophetic biography (sīrah), Quranic exegesis (tafsīr), and his abridgments of classical texts such as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya's Zād al-Ma‘ād and Hanbali legal references Itimad Dawat al-Shaykh Mu….