Khawatir Hawl al-Wahhabiyya
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- Dār al-Tawḥīd lil-Turāth
Khawatir Hawl al-Wahhabiyya (Thoughts on Wahhabism) is an Arabic treatise authored by the Egyptian scholar Muhammad Ismail al-Muqaddim, published in 2008, examining the reformist movement of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and refuting historical and theological misconceptions surrounding it .
Background and Publication
The author completed the treatise on 22 Muharram 1429 AH (30 January 2008 CE) in Alexandria, Egypt . It was published in its first edition in 1429 AH / 2008 CE by Dar al-Tawhid lil-Turath in Alexandria . The work was written to address the persistent polemics, political distortions, and misrepresentations leveled by opponents against the 12th-century AH reform movement in Najd .
Purpose and Scope
Al-Muqaddim aims to demonstrate that the Najdi reform movement did not introduce a novel theological creed or distinct legal school, but rather adhered in doctrine to the creed of the righteous predecessors (Salaf) and the Four Imams, and in jurisprudence to the school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal . The book analyzes the motives behind the hostile campaigns waged against the movement by political authorities, Sufi orders, Shi'a groups, and European colonial interests—particularly the British Empire .
Structure and Content
The treatise is organized into thematic sections addressing key historical and conceptual topics:
- Western and Eastern Testimonies: The author compiles appraisals from Western Orientalists and historians—including the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ignaz Goldziher, Bernard Lewis, H.A.R. Gibb, and John Lewis Burckhardt—acknowledging that the movement sought to restore Islam to its early purity . He supplements these with assessments by modern Arab intellectuals and historians such as Taha Hussein, Muhammad Kurd Ali, Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli, and Ali al-Tantawi .
- The Term "Wahhabiyya": The book analyzes the origins of the label "Wahhabi" as a politically charged term coined to alienate people from the reform call . It exposes the conflation propagated by certain polemicists between the Najdi movement and the 2nd-century AH Ibadi Kharijite sect of Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam in Tahert, North Africa, noting centuries of chronological distance between the two .
- The Educational and Cultural Aspect: Al-Muqaddim highlights the educational campaign initiated by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who prioritized public education in fundamental tenets of faith and worship over elite-only engagement, turning Najd into an environment of widespread literacy in religious essentials .
- Persecution of Reformers: The work documents the widespread persecution, imprisonment, and accusations faced by Sunni scholars across various Islamic lands who were labeled "Wahhabis" for opposing innovations, including trials in Bukhara, India (such as Ahmad ibn Irfan, Siddiq Hasan Khan, and Nadhir Husayn al-Dihlawi), Baghdad (Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi), the Levant (Ibn Badran), Mecca (Abu Bakr Khuwayqir), and Palestine (Izz al-Din al-Qassam) .
- Egypt and the Wahhabi Movement: A significant portion of the work evaluates the Ottoman-Egyptian campaigns led by Muhammad Ali Pasha and his sons Tusun Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha against the First Saudi State and the siege and destruction of Dir'iyyah . Drawing on the chronicle of the contemporary Egyptian historian Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, the author argues that the Egyptian populace did not participate in or celebrate these campaigns, which were carried out by foreign mercenary troops (such as Albanians and Turks) . He discusses al-Jabarti's endorsement of the movement's creed upon reading their treatises, the subsequent dissemination of Salafi thought in Egypt through exiled descendants of the reformer at Al-Azhar, and its later defense by Muhammad Rashid Rida via his periodical al-Manar, which heavily influenced 20th-century scholars such as Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani .
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