Who are the Wahhabis?

The questioner : Who are the Wahhabis?

The Shaykh : If the phoenix exists, then the Wahhabis exist; do you know the phoenix?

The questioner : ... I know the phoenix is a snake.

The Shaykh : No, the phoenix is a name without a body, a name without a body. In a poem, I don't know if any of you remember, "the phoenix and the loyal friend"; meaning, names that exist as names, but have no reality. What are they? The phoenix and the loyal friend. In any case, I wanted to open up a bit like this, in our simplicity, and so on. So, the answer is that the Wahhabi is like the phoenix; meaning, a name with no reality. Of course, when I say "no reality," I mean no real existence for this concept, but in people's minds, it has a meaning, just like the phoenix. The phoenix in people's minds is a very, very large bird. And if any of you were afflicted, as I was in the early days of my scholarly upbringing, with reading some fictional, mythical stories; whether old or new, like the story of Sindbad the Sailor. These Arabic stories were classified long ago for entertainment. So, I, of course, like any young man, read this story and others. There is one that mentions it all as a fictional research, stating that there is a town near "Waq Waq," and perhaps—also—this is like the phoenix.
Yes?

The questioner : "Waq Waq" exists.

The Shaykh : I mean, perhaps, yes, it could be near Japan or China.

The questioner : Exactly, yes, in Southeast Asia.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : In Southeast Asia.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The point is that there it says there is a mountain on the seashore. This sea has valuable and very precious shells, and one cannot reach them except by the method of the phoenix. The phoenix is said to be a large and very large bird, such that its egg is like a huge dome. So, he imagined that when it lands on this egg, it is like a great building, a palace, landing on it. And this imagination and representation is that it is very strong. So this bird would land on the shore and pick up, among other things, these shells. What do some people do? It says: they come and dress themselves in meat. And that one is, of course, greedy. So it descends with its supernatural strength and takes this meat with the human inside it... it takes him to the top of the mountain, where the shells and, I mean, the valuable things are. When it reaches there, it frees itself from this meat and becomes free, and then it picks up these precious stones. Fantasy within fantasy.
The important thing is that this phoenix bird is a name without a body. Wahhabism is the same. What do people mean by the phoenix? They mean this large bird. But does this large bird exist? It has no existence except in their minds. What do they mean by Wahhabism? They mean something, without a doubt, but this has no existence. And this is its explanation now. Wahhabism in people's minds is a group of Muslims who testify that there is no god but Allah, and that is all. As for Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah; no, they do not love the Messenger, or they do not believe in the Messenger. So they only believe in the first testimony, "There is no god but Allah." Then, following this illusion that has no existence, come many and very many illusions. Among them is that they declare Muslims to be disbelievers. Among them is that they say: "The stick of a Muslim is better than Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)!!" And there is no doubt that if these descriptions apply to one who testifies that there is no god but Allah, his testimony does not fatten nor satisfy hunger. But is there in the world a Muslim who testifies that there is no god but Allah to whom these descriptions apply?
They used to attribute, they imagined the existence of these people in the time of the Ottoman state when it was ruling over the Islamic lands, including the Arab lands. And you know of the Arab uprising in the Najd region in the time of King "Saud the First." It happened at that time that a learned, virtuous man from the scholars of "Najd" named "Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab" emerged. He was among the places where he sought knowledge Iraq and Egypt, then he returned to his country. So he began to spread the knowledge he received from here and there, and he paid special attention to calling the people of "Najd" to pure tawhid (the oneness of Allah). They were in "Najd," as they still are in many Arab countries to this day.

The questioner : Pure tawhid.

The Shaykh : Pure; because there is tawhid that is mixed.

The questioner : ... "There is no god but Allah" only.

The Shaykh : No, no, tawhid is not completed except with the sentence of information, namely...

The questioner : "There is no god but Allah, I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."

The Shaykh : "Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." Pure tawhid, if we stop here, it is not okay. Pure tawhid, you have known from my previous words about the verse: . Now, we imagine a person who worships Allah alone, with no partner, but obeys the priests or the monks. And let us say now, regarding our Islamic religion, the shaykhs. He obeys them with blind obedience. I don't know if you have prior information that this blind obedience exists in the Sufi paths. The shaykh says to his follower: "Do such and such"; and it is obligatory for him to do it, no matter how much the matter contradicts the Shari'ah. I have examples of this from what I have read and heard. Perhaps, as an example, a well-known shaykh today who has a center in Syria, in a lesson in Ramadan... in the coming Ramadan, he delivered a lesson. He told a story during the lesson; the summary is that one of the training shaykhs—they claimed!—ordered his student one day to go to his house and bring his father's head; to slaughter him and kill him. So he took the dagger and went, and executed the order. He came back with his face beaming with joy that he had executed the shaykh's order regarding his father. The shaykh smiled and laughed; he said to him: "Do you think you killed your father?" He said: "This is not your father, this is your mother's companion!! I am ordering you to kill your father?!" Far be it from Allah, but this is your mother's companion and he sleeps with her in the haram!!
This is a lesson he delivered in one of the famous mosques in Damascus. If any of you knows "Al-Hamidiyah Market," there is a mosque in the middle of "Al-Hamidiyah Market." You are leaving Damascus on your left hand. And it happened that in this lesson there were two people who were relatives to each other. One was from the shaykh's group, and the other attends my lessons sometimes with me. So this person, my friend named "Mahmoud," came to me and told me this myth that the shaykh spoke about this in the mosque tonight. I said: "Subhan Allah!!" And I began to explain to him the danger of this story from the Shari'ah perspective first, then its invalidity in that it is a story. And in this conversation, his relative, whose name was Abu what? I have forgotten with time, the important thing is he calls him. He enters my shop. I had a watch shop in Damascus, and it still exists, where I repair watches. The man entered, he said: "How was the lesson tonight?" He said to him: "Masha'Allah!!" Their Sufi expressions, illuminations and openings and so on!! He said to him: "What do you think of the story he told?" He said to him: "Here comes your phrase and your question." He said to him: "Rather, you Wahhabis deny the karamat (miracles) of the awliya (close friends of Allah)." And the two began to discuss. The point is: my friend, like him, did not have the Shari'ah culture, so I found myself compelled to intervene in the matter. And I began to explain to him the invalidity of this Shari'ah, this story, and its contradiction with the Shari'ah; because the Messenger says: . How can a shaykh, even if it appears so, normalize the follower to obey the shaykh blindly, and go slaughter his father; present, sir?!! But then what does he show him that this is not your father, I do not order you to disobey Allah, and so on.
Among the things I told him was that the story is a fabrication, meaning it is a constructed narrative, and whoever fabricated it did not construct it well. Why? Because if the shaykh is justifying his order to the disciple to go and slaughter his father by saying that this is not his father, but rather the husband of his mother, what is the difference between the father and the mother if the mother commits zina? Why was the prescribed legal punishment not carried out for the mother? And this story he tells, that "this is your mother," meaning: since she is my mother and a man testifies to it, what is her ruling in the Shari'ah? Execution. This is what happens. I told them: even if it were the father or the mother, it is not permissible for the shaykh to take upon himself the execution of judgments, because this is the function of the ruling sultan who judges by what Allah has revealed, and it is not for an individual to take upon himself the execution of Shari'ah judgments, otherwise there would be chaos.
In summary: I explained to him that this story is fabricated and contrary to the Shari'ah, if it were true. He did not accept that the true group are those who raise themselves above blind imitation and do not have insight into their religion. The proof is in what follows: when I felt that the man was not responsive in terms of understanding, I said to him: "Now, yes, now I remember his name, 'Abu Yusuf.' I said to him: 'Now, Abu Yusuf, if your shaykh ordered you to slaughter your father, would you do it?' Allahu Akbar! When I remember the story, the evils of this upbringing manifest themselves to me. What did he say? He said: 'I have not reached that station!' I said to him: In the Syrian expression: 'You will never reach it, if Allah wills!' The important thing is that he turned his back and left.
The point is: this blind obedience to shaykhs, and this is a very simple example. This shaykh used to say: "If you see the shaykh and he has hung the cross around his neck, do not disapprove of him, because he sees what you do not see and knows what you do not know." So the Islamic world today is stamped, religiously, with blind imitation of the shaykhs of the tariqas and others, to the point that it reminds us of the verse: . So... they testify that there is no god but Allah and worship Allah, but their minds are stuffed with obedience to other than Allah and disobedience to Allah. Their tawhid (the oneness of Allah) — here is the point — is not pure.
Therefore, we say: pure tawhid, because, and even in brief, perhaps the details have another place, tawhid is of three types: tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship), tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship), and tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes). Tawhid al-rububiyyah is to believe that Allah is One with no partner in His essence. Tawhid al-uluhiyyah, which is called tawhid al-'ibadah (oneness of worship), is to worship Allah, whom one believes is One with no partner; to worship Allah alone with no partner, not worshipping with Him any other. The one who, for example, comes to a grave and calls out to it without Allah, has associated partners with Allah; in what? In worship; because du'a' (supplication) is worship, as stated in the Qur'an in Surat al-Fatihah: . Du'a' is seeking help from Allah. The one who comes to the grave of a wali (close friend of Allah) from the awliya or a prophet from the prophets and seeks help from him, even if he is a monotheist in tawhid al-rububiyyah, is a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah) in tawhid al-'ibadah; because he worshipped other than Allah. And this is a long discussion as well.
We come to the third section, tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes). So if we assume a person who believes in the first tawhid, what is it? Tawhid al-rububiyyah. The second tawhid is tawhid al-'ibadah (oneness of worship), tawhid al-uluhiyyah. The third tawhid is tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes). He has the two tawhids in his heart, but he believes, for example, that some scholars or some righteous people know the unseen; this is shirk (associating partners with Allah), and the first and second tawhid are of no use to him at all. Why? Allah says: , . So if he says that a servant of Allah knows the unseen, he has not believed in the exception . So he has associated partners with Allah (Mighty and Majestic). So when we say: pure tawhid, we mean we make tawhid for Allah in His essence, we make tawhid for Allah in His divinity, we make tawhid for Allah in His names and attributes.
I do not think, I mean, except that you remember with me to this day that dhikr circles, for example, or a mawlid celebration or something similar are held, and here, for example, a cup of water is placed so that blessings are dissolved in it, and what is recited? If only it were the Qur'an! But it is songs they call religious songs, and in them is explicit kufr (disbelief). Among that is what you will remember well, their saying: "Al-Busiri" addresses the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with his words:
"For from Your generosity is the world and its harm, and from Your knowledge is the knowledge of the Preserved Tablet and the Pen."
This, my brothers, is shirk (associating partners with Allah) addressed to the Messenger, that from his knowledge is the knowledge of the Preserved Tablet and the Pen! "From" is called partitive by grammarians, not all their wealth, So "from Your generosity is the world," "from Your generosity," not all Your generosity is the world and its harm, and "from Your knowledge"; not all Your knowledge; but from some of Your knowledge is the knowledge of the Preserved Tablet and the Pen. And what is the knowledge of the Preserved Tablet and the Pen? Everything. He (peace be upon him) said: . So the Messenger of Allah, in the expression of this poet, from his knowledge is the knowledge of the Preserved Tablet and the Pen; so this has become shirk in one of the attributes of Allah, which is the uniqueness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) in knowing the knowledge of the unseen, a knowledge that is intrinsic and encompassing everything, as He said: . So no Muslim who believes in tawhid al-rububiyyah and believes in tawhid al-uluhiyyah but falls short in tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat; he describes the Messenger (peace be upon him) with an attribute that has not been considered and will not be given to a human being, meaning that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has associated with Him other than Him of His servants in one of His attributes... It is amazing that we find explicit texts in the Book and the Sunnah contrary to this poetry which Muslims today seek blessing from, and they hope for the blessing of this saying in their water to cure their sick with it.
Also in the Noble Qur'an, our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) says: , and He narrates on the tongue of His Prophet (peace be upon him): .
Many texts, among the last of what should be mentioned, a slave girl passed by while she was singing on the occasion of a wedding, saying among other things:
"And among us is a Prophet who knows what is in tomorrow."
"And among us is a Prophet who knows what is in tomorrow!" He (peace be upon him) said, and to whom is she saying it? First, out of her ignorance, then what does she say? She says: "And from Your knowledge is the knowledge of the Preserved Tablet and the Pen," no; she says: "And among us is a Prophet who knows what is in tomorrow." He said: . This is a hadith in "Sahih al-Bukhari."
So if the Muslims have deviated severely from pure tawhid, and it has become clear to you, even in general, what is meant by pure tawhid. Among the effects of falling short of this pure tawhid...