Siyanat al-Insan an Waswasat al-Shaykh Dahlan
- Author died
- 1326 AH
- Editions
- al-Maṭbaʻah al-Salafīyah wa-Maktabatuhā
Siyanat al-Insan an Waswasat al-Shaykh Dahlan (The Protection of Man from the Whispers of Shaykh Dahlan) is a theological and polemical treatise written by the Indian Hadith scholar Muhammad Bashir al-Sahsawani (d. 1326 AH / 1908 CE) in defense of the Najdi reform movement and in refutation of the Shafi'i mufti of Mecca, Ahmad Zayni Dahlan (d. 1304 AH) .
Background and Purpose
The work was composed as a comprehensive rebuttal to Dahlan’s polemical treatise al-Durar al-Saniyya fi al-Radd ala al-Wahhabiyya (The Resplendent Pearls in Refutation of the Wahhabis) . During his pilgrimage to Mecca, al-Sahsawani met and debated Dahlan on fundamental questions concerning tawhid (Islamic monotheism) . Following his return to India, al-Sahsawani authored the book to counter what he characterized as groundless claims and misattributions made by Dahlan against the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers .
Contents and Methodology
The treatise addresses core theological and legal controversies surrounding religious innovations, intercession, and devotional practices . Al-Sahsawani begins with an introductory discussion clarifying the definitions of the Sunna, Ahl al-Sunna wa-l-Jama'a, and religious innovations (bida'), rejecting the notion that truth is determined merely by the numerical majority (al-sawad al-a'zam) in any given era .
The primary body of the text refutes Dahlan's arguments regarding:
- Tawassul (supplication through intermediaries) and Istighatha (seeking aid): Al-Sahsawani distinguishes between permissible requests made to living individuals for actions within their power (such as asking a living person for supplication) and impermissible or polytheistic appeals directed to deceased individuals or unseen beings for matters that only God can accomplish .
- Visiting graves (Ziyara) and Intercession (Shafa'a): He delineates legally sanctioned forms of grave-visitation from newly invented practices, examining the hadith evidence regarding intercession at length .
Al-Sahsawani adheres to the classical methodology of Hadith criticism (jarh wa-ta'dil), systematically tracing cited narrations to their primary collections, detailing defectiveness in their transmission chains (asānīd), and identifying fabricated (mawdu') or weak (da'if) reports that had been relied upon in earlier works such as Taqi al-Din al-Subki's Shifa al-Siqam . In presenting the actual positions of the Najdi scholars, he cites directly from the letters and treatises of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, historical chronicles by Husayn ibn Ghannam (Rawdat al-Afham), and writings by descendants such as Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Abd al-Latif ibn Abd al-Rahman .
Publication and Reception
The book was first published in Delhi at al-Matba' al-Faruqi in 1308 AH (1890 CE) under the pseudonym Abdullah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd al-Rahim al-Sindi . A second major edition was published in Cairo by al-Manar Press in 1351 AH, explicitly credited to al-Sahsawani, featuring an extensive introduction by the Islamic reformer Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1353 AH) . Later printings include an edition corrected by Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Jibreen published in Riyadh (1395 AH) .
The work received wide circulation and praise among Salafi scholars, including Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi in Baghdad, who cited it in his own polemical writings . It also triggered subsequent rebuttals: an opponent authored al-Qawl al-Majdi fi al-Radd ala Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sindi, which was in turn refuted by the Najdi scholar Sulayman ibn Sahman in his treatise al-Bayan al-Mubdi li-Shana'at al-Qawl al-Majdi (printed in Amritsar, 1897) .
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