Did Imam Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, his sons, and his grandsons, the scholars of the Da'wah, have any extremism?

Well, Shaykh, the matter is outside the scope of hadith issues, and more than one academic thesis has appeared in some of our universities regarding the Da'wah ofThe Shaykh : Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him), and some issues were discussed in them, and consequently: was there any extremism in the Da'wah ofThe Shaykh : (may Allah have mercy on him) or not? And the sayings...The Shaykh : , and the sayings of his supporters, and the discussion about them, and the statement of... students of knowledge in these issues, and some of them wrote about these issues, and gave a lecture on this, so some of them completely deny that any of that occurred, and some affirm it, and some take a middle path, and likewise in the issue of whether the followers ofThe Shaykh : (may Allah have mercy on him), the scholars of the Da'wah, his sons like "Abdullah, Hasan, Husayn, and Ali," and likewise his grandsons like "Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan, and a group - also - of the people of knowledge"; did they fall into any of that; I mean issues of extremism and likewise issues of following a school of jurisprudence? I mean, did they?

The Shaykh: Issues of extremism and likewise issues of?

The questioner: The issue of following a school of jurisprudence, and did they?

The Shaykh: Following a school of jurisprudence, yes.

The questioner: Are they bound by a school or not? So some people - especially due to what was published in some theses - understood that they were not on a school at all, and that they were on the Book and the Sunnah only. Yes?

The Shaykh: And that they?

The questioner: I mean, they take directly from the Book and the Sunnah... on the school of Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him), so I also have many statements about them fromThe Shaykh : ..., or after them from his grandsons, the well-known scholars in the Da'wah, perhaps the time is not sufficient to read them, in issues of extremism; like the issue - for example - of seeking nearness to Allah through a means (tawassul), and whether he... sought nearness to Allah through the person of the Prophet or... or through his status, and issues like these; so if we could benefit... from this?

The Shaykh: I actually do not have a historical study about Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and his descendants, but I have a very old study about some of his books that were published long ago by the Saudi state, and these books undoubtedly benefited the Muslim world. What has settled in my mind from looking at some of these books is that the matter is not free from some extremism and a lot of following a scholar without knowing his evidence (taqlid) and following a school of jurisprudence. And what I mentioned in this regard is only what you must have looked into, especially whenThe Shaykh : Isma'il al-Ansari wrote his second-to-last thesis, like "The Defense of the Hadith: " and so on, so I had written in "Al-Silsilah," I think, and pointed out the error of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab when he included this hadith in his thesis "The Etiquette of the Mosque or Going Out to the Mosque," and the truth is that I had not come across this thesis, I was not aware of it, but when Allah decreed for me to travel the first trip to Riyadh by land with the Saudi contingent that was among the fighters in Palestine, and then, unfortunately, the Islamic armies returned with the retreat of Hinn, and the commander of the Saudi army, which was gathered from the Saudis residing in Syria, this commander was a tall, thin man named "Fahd al-Mark," we used to read it with a qaf, al-Mariq -- and peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah --, then we saw him as if he did not like this nickname, so he changed it to a kaf, "al-Mark," and he wrote a book on the glories of the Arabs or something similar related to.

The questioner: "The Traits of the Arabs."

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner: "The Traits of the Arabs."

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner: "The Traits of the Arabs."

The Shaykh: "The Traits of the Arabs," well done, the point is: this man was the commander of this contingent when they decided, by invitation of the King at that time, to return to Saudi Arabia, and to greet the King, I think the King at that time was King Saud; is that right?

The questioner: Abdul Aziz.

The Shaykh: Abdul Aziz, but his son, yes, the point is: so this commander "al-Mark" came to Damascus, so he asked the owner of the Hashemite Arabic bookstore there, "Ahmad 'Abid," for a scholar to be with this contingent on his trip to Riyadh, to teach them and hold lessons for them and lead the prayer, and so on, so he directed him to two men, one of themThe Shaykh : "Bahjat al-Bitar" - perhaps some of you know him, or at least have heard of him -, and the other was me personally, so he went toThe Shaykh : "Bahjat" because he was a shaykh to him in Ta'if, there was a school there, and where are the people of Ta'if?

The questioner: Dar al-Tawhid.

The Shaykh: Dar al-Tawhid, and where is your friend Jamal?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: ... Well; the important thing was thatThe Shaykh : "Bahjat" was teaching there at Dar al-Tawhid, this "Fahd" was a student of his, so when he was informed about him, he went to him, soThe Shaykh : "Bahjat" excused himself because he was elderly at that time, so it was said to him: then you have no one but Al-Albani, so he came to my shop, and I was at that time a watch repairer, and I was talking with some of the brothers about some scholarly issues, and that is my habit in my shop, and my shop was, I mean, strange in shape compared to the owners of shops; so the outer half was my watches, and the inner half was a bookshelf, so whenever I had no work, I would work, if I had no work, I would stay in the library, and some of my brothers would come and I would be behind the table working on my repairs, and they would ask me or discuss with me, and when this man entered upon us, and I did not know him before, tall, thin, dark-skinned, "Peace be upon you," "And upon you be peace," and he was wearing the Syrian military uniform, after the greeting he sat, I was talking about an issue related to the interpretation of a verse I do not remember, and when he intervened in the topic as if he was making us feel that he was at least a student of knowledge, the important thing is that we welcomed him and talked with him, after the conversation ended, and when he said: I was directed to you, and the story is such and such, I want a person to be the imam of the contingent and accompany us by land, the important thing is the story is long, in these trips we rode in a cargo car next to the driver, I and him alone, when we reached a place and there was a person cut off on the road, so he rode with us and we became three, and when he was a student of knowledge, so I felt at ease with him, a hadith from a hadith from a hadith, and when he mentioned to me from the etiquette of going out to the mosque that one should supplicate: and so on, so I was surprised! A Saudi man, it is supposed that all of these people agree on denying seeking nearness to Allah through a created being, of course this hadith, especially this hadith is weak, so I entered into this topic with him, he said: this was mentioned byThe Shaykh : Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab in his thesis, for the first time I heard of this thesis, so when I arrived in Makkah, I obtained the thesis, and indeed he mentioned this hadith in the thesis, and that was from the skill of pointing out the inclusion ofThe Shaykh : 'Abd al-Wahhab of this hadith, so I alerted in "Al-Silsilah" thatThe Shaykh : he mentioned this hadith in the thesis.
So the point is: I do not have a wide study, I mean, about this wide question of yours, but my conviction is thatThe Shaykh : Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab grew up as a Hanbali, and he did not have a wide departure; so Ibn Taymiyyah - for example - or Ibn al-Qayyim in clarifying the disagreement in scholarly issues; because the Hanbali school predominates over him, he may have choices I have not looked into; because the books in which he researches in jurisprudential issues, I have not looked into them, until now I do not have a book that represents the school of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab specifically in all the jurisprudential chapters, and I believe that the effort he made in spreading the call to the oneness of Allah (tawhid) in the Najd region at first, this is truly a tremendous effort, and this diverts him... from spreading the call to the one occupied with scholarly jurisprudential or hadith verification, and this is the summary of what I have of opinion, and I am eager to look into these theses you mentioned if they are published or printed.

Another questioner: Published and printed.

The questioner: He has words - may Allah have mercy on him - in issues... and following a school of jurisprudence is one of the most amazing things; so much so that one who reads it is puzzled and thinks thatThe Shaykh : It is not strictly bound to a school of jurisprudence, and he takes directly from the Book and the Sunnah. Among the major issues he discussed with his opponents was the issue of: , and following a scholar without evidence when one is qualified to ask for evidence and does not seek it. This is common in the letters ofThe Shaykh : Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) and his four sons, as well as his grandsons, 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan, Ibn Mu'ammar, and others from the sons of the da'wah and the imams... a discussion of the religion in this regard, especially such issues... for a person to present them to a scholar so that... some matters... I would like to read to you, - the mu'adhdhin has just cut off the road - , and also the issues of extremism...The Shaykh : Muhammad may be afraid of them and lenient; there is no extremism.

The Shaykh : Like that?

The questioner: Yes, truly, meaning there are texts that you find strange, so you look for someone to answer you about them, and sometimes you do not find a convincing answer at all, unless you say... he is very lenient in these issues... and al-Burdah, and in other issues... a letter to the people of al-Qasim... things that are completely problematic, and also in the issue of, for example, declaring someone a disbeliever... regardless... .

The Shaykh: For example, what does he say?

The questioner: He says that he does not declare them disbelievers; in fact, he said, meaning he made the issue easy, to the point that he said in one place... this is one of the branch issues, and there was no disagreement with... in this issue, and his son 'Abdullah also said... , and he also saidThe Shaykh : Isma'il ibn Ishaq... about some of his grandsons, and I quoted... or something similar to them as a model. I have read much of his da'wah books, and I was keen to research such issues; not one of them ever said that one who seeks nearness to Allah through the person of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or his status... in the religion is a disbeliever. The most they say is that this is a religious innovation; they say this is a bid'ah, ... but this is one of the branch issues, ... .
... ... ... .