Taammulat fi Dawat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Taammulat fi Dawat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (Reflections on the Call of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab) is an analytical treatise on the eighteenth-century reformist movement of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1206 AH / 1792 CE), written by the Saudi scholar and minister Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Muhsin al-Turki.
Background and Publication
The treatise was composed by Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Muhsin al-Turki during his tenure as Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Dawah and Guidance in Saudi Arabia, and was published under the supervision of the ministry's Publications and Publishing Agency in 1419 AH (1998 CE). The author designed the work as an accessible contribution intended primarily for general readers and non-specialists who lack direct access to the original writings of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the primary literature of his successors.
Scope and Content
The work analyzes the religious, intellectual, and political dimensions of the Najdi reform movement across several focal areas:
- Theological Foundations: The author frames the call of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab as a revival of early Islamic orthodoxy modeled on the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ, the Companions, and earlier Salafi scholars, especially Ibn Taymiyyah. It emphasizes pure monotheism (tawhid) across its theological categories—divine lordship (rububiyyah), divinity and worship (uluhiyyah), and divine names and attributes (al-asma wa-al-sifat)—while opposing innovated practices (bidah) and grave devotion.
- Historical Development and Alliance: The book examines the biographical trajectory of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, including his travels to seek knowledge in Basra and al-Ahsa, and his eventual pact with Imam Muhammad ibn Saud in Diriyah, which established the political support for implementing Islamic legal governance and enjoining good and forbidding wrong.
- Defense and Clarification: It addresses the mischaracterizations, polemics, and fabrications directed against the movement by contemporary and later opponents, arguing that the message was open and directly derived from the Quran and the Sunnah rather than constituting a novel creed.
- Global Impact: The book surveys modern academic scholarship documenting the movement's influence on various reformist currents across the wider Islamic world, citing regional studies covering India, Indonesia, Sumatra, Thailand, Egypt, the Levant, Iraq, Turkey, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and West Africa.
Appendices
The treatise incorporates material and research outcomes generated by the international scholarly week on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab organized by Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, concluding with an appendix that reproduces the final declaration and recommendations issued by that symposium.
Answer updated