Ibn-i-Abdul Wahab (1703-1789), a name associated with puritanism, has influenced events in the second half of the 20th century and will probably continue to influence events in the first part of the 21st century.
He took Ibn-i-Hanbal’s puritan doctrines to an extreme position. His views on monotheism were expressed in his Kitabal Tawhid. Even reverence for another being was classified as shirk or polytheism. Anyone guilty of shirk was not a true Muslim and therefore jihad was justified against such people.
He came to prominence after Saud Ibn Muhammad Ibn Miqrin became Emir of Al Dirya and appointed Abdul Wahab as Qadhi in 1740-41. Since all the neighbouring Arab tribes were presumed guilty of shirk, jihad was successfully launched against them one by one, and the ruler of Al Dirya (ancestor of Ibn Saud) consolidated his position in Nejd.
What seems to have happened is that Muslim societies became more and more puritanical with the passage of time. The upper classes, given their indulgent style, supported the Ulema as it provided a cover for their own excesses. Puritanism is a joyless cult banning all entertainment. The only activity permitted was marital sex, prayer and fasting and the detailed observance of ritual as interpreted by the Ulema.
Excessive puritanism infiltrated Muslim societies fairly early. It can perhaps be dated to the extinction of the Ummayyad caliphate around 750AD and its succession by the Abbasids. Back then, the Islamic empire had already reached its zenith, and the Abbasids added very little new territory. The Abbasids had continuing problems with the followers of Ali, the Holy Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law. They, therefore, needed the support of the Ulema. To add to this, the central authority of the caliphate at Baghdad was progressively challenged and independent fiefdoms emerged. As they had little political power left after the 10th century AD, the caliph relied increasingly on Ulema support. The decline was not linear and the Abbasid caliphate revived intermittently until it was destroyed with the sacking of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1260.
The power of the Ulema was ensured when they closed the doors of Ijtehad by the 11th century. This led to the stagnation of the Muslim mind. No creativity was possible without challenging conventional wisdom. It affected the development of all subsequent Muslim cultures. It was obscured to some extent by the Ottoman successes in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries culminating in the failed siege of Vienna in 1683. Thereafter, an inexorable rolling up of the Ottoman Empire continued until it was abolished at the end of World War 1.
One possible explanation for this increasing puritanism is the contrast between the life of the common man and the upper classes. Austerity indicates moral superiority, so the Ulema presented a vision denying the lifestyle of the Sultan in his Seraglio and the Pasha in the guarded privacy of his harem enjoying the favours of his Odalisques. With the decline of their political powers they were in no position to challenge the Ulema.
As a result, Wahabism did not contrast itself as an aberrant sectarian deviance, but simply as a rather strict interpretation of mainstream Islam. It affected us in the Indian subcontinent much before the appearance of Ibn-i-Abdul Wahab. Akbar, probably the most powerful and significant member of the Mughal dynasty, could afford a free-wheeling attitude towards religious belief. Hubris overtakes all excessively successful individuals: and he went overboard in his advocacy of the Din-i-Ilahi (the religion of God). It provoked a natural backlash amongst the Muslims which culminated in Aurangzeb, who, after murdering his brothers, had no further interest in life except to wage war for the sake of waging war. He was much extolled by subsequent generations of Muslims as an austere and upright monarch who had re-imposed the jizya on non-believers and built mosques next to important places of Hindu worship. The empire was destroyed by the Persian, Nadir Shah in 1739.
But this time, the pendulum had swung in the opposite direction. The ruling emperor had no interest in martial pursuits and was far more involved in the arts. As a matter of fact, a darbari composition is eponymously called ‘Muhammad Shah Rangila.’
It confirmed puritan attitudes amongst Indian Muslims. They followed their co-religionists elsewhere in the world believing that all setbacks were due to their inability to recreate the conditions in their lives which existed in Arabia in the 7th century. Their attempts at reviving past glories was to limit themselves to the observance of strict ritual in religious practice which they thought was followed at that time.
The role of modern Wahabism had been linked with the fortunes of the house of Saud. In the second half under the leadership of Malik Abdul Aziz, subsequently referred to as Ibn Saud, the kingdom of Nejd was consolidated with its capital at Riyadh. Ibn Saud had the good sense to recognize that he could not militarily take on the British and always tried to keep on their right side.
When Faisal, the Sheriff of Makkah, had been promised the moon by T.E. Lawrence — who was aware that the promises would not be kept — became difficult with the British about the settlement of Jews in Palestine, his days were numbered. Faisal appealed to the British prime minister to fulfil the promises made during the wars, but his appeal fell on deaf ears.
Ibn Saud had been wanting to conquer Hijaz for quite sometime but had held back as he was afraid of British disapproval. By 1924, he realized that the British were no longer likely to support Faisal. Whether the British also gave him the nod is not known, but considering the way they carried out the affairs of the empire, it is highly likely. The Sheriffs of Makkah were driven out within the next couple of years and forced into exile. Wahabism was enforced, but it remained largely confined to Saudi Arabia. It was supposed to have already arrived in North India at the end of the 18th century. Its international export was pursued by Saudi Arabia in the second half of the 20th century. It flowered with the invasion of Afghanistan by the Russians in 1979 when jihadis like Osama bin Ladin were enlisted to throw the Russians out of Afghanistan.
