by Nayab Naseer
The first test came when Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab invited people to pull down the sacred tree at Una’yna and demolish the idols worshipped therein. People feared some divine curse would befall them if the act was committed. The tree was nevertheless pulled down and the idols removed. When no curse descended from the heavens as the ‘ulema as su’ (the ulema of ignorance) warned, Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab’s stock rose.
The next challenge was to demolish the tomb over a grave ascribed to Zaid ibn-al-Khattab, brother of Umar ibn al Khattab. This tomb was a major center of pilgrimage and people indulged in open idolatry here. It was demolished in the presence of the ruler of Una’yna. People were now even more scared of divine afflictions, but when no such thing came their faith in Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab was further strengthened. Soon Una’yna and its suburbs were cleared from all such trees, stones and domes.
The horrified ulema as su, made completely irrelevant in Una’nya made common cause with the Bedouin warlords of the area, who were anyway in a state of perpetual warfare with the amir of Dar’iya and everyone else. Once such ruler, Suleiman Ibn Mohammed al-Hamada, the chief of Al-Hasa and Qatar, threatened the ruler of Una’yna with withholding land tax, if he did put an end to the menace of Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab. The amir of Dar’iya depended on such land taxes for his sustenance, and as such asked Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab to leave Una’nya.
The expulsion from Una’nya, was in a way a blessing in disguise for Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab. Seeking patronage, he ended up with Ibn Saud, the amir of Dar’iya, a more powerful ruler than the amir of Una’yna. Dar’iya was a mainstream town of Najd, far important than backwater Una’nya.
The ulema as su, and the tribal warlords were not yet ready to give up though. The amirs of Al-Ahsa, Riyadh, Al-Katif and Basra made an alliance against Ibn Saud. The war reached a stalemate and ranged for twenty seven years. Bedouin hordes swarmed the plains and heights of the desert plundering and murder. The sudden death of amir of Al Ahsa in 1188 AH (1774 CE) tipped the scales of war in favour of Ibn Saud, ending the war for the time being..
Side by side with the warfare, the enemies of Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab, mainly those who had a stake in the pagan money generating practices hired criminals to kill the ulema who preached pure superstition free Islam. All the ulema, judges, notables, preachers and guides of al-Kasim were killed in 1196 A.H. (1782 CE), without discrimination. Buoyed by this success, they conveyed a conference to decide the fate of all those who preached reform. The unanimous decision of the conference was: "... to get rid of the ulema by murder. Every town and village would slay its ulema in a single day.” On the specified day, a Friday the ulema of Al-Khabra and Al-Janah were slain as they proceeded for jumuah. However, as the adage goes, no force can stop an idea whose time has come.
Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab passed away in 1206 AH (1792 CE), but the mission started by him continued under the patronage of the house of Saud. The family of Abdul Wahab and the house of Saud strengthened their bond by intermarriage, which continues to this day.
However, just as the salafi dawah continued, so did opposition and hostilities. The Sherief of Makkah, alarmed at the growing popularity of the Saudis restricted them from performing hajj. This prompted the house of Saud and the al-al sheikhs to make a bid to capture the two holy sanctuaries. The Sherief of Makkah was defeated in an encounter in 1215 AH (1801 CE). The next year, Karbala, the most holy of the Shiite shrine was raided and the edifice built over the grave of Hussain bin Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, raised to the ground.
Makkah, Medina and Karbala were under the Ottoman empire, and an attack on these places made them sit up and get frightened. Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mohammed Ali, the Turkish governor of Egypt, was sent to crush the movement by force, and this he did in April 1233 AH (1818 CE).
Dar’iya was raised to the ground and men and women, old and young and infants were slain. Amir Abdullah, the Saudi ruler and his companions was arrested and sent to Turkey, where they were executed at the Aya Sofia Square with humiliation. Most of those who survived spread far and wide, some established themselves at Ras al Khaimah in present day United Arab Emirates.
Thus ended the first Saudi state.
***
In 1239 AH (1824 CE) Turki bin Abdullah bin Mohammed, one of the few surviving member of the house of Saud captured Riyadh, three miles south of Dar’iya and established the Second Saudi state.
Having learned from the disaster not to let religious zeal endanger them into making unsustainable raids, the Saudi’s now focused on securing their hold over central and Eastern Arabia. In this process of consolidation, they were preoccupied with fractious nomads, rebellious towns, and ambitious vassals. Although this prevented the Saudi takeover of Makkah and Madinah for almost a century, the Salafi ideas nevertheless spread in the holy sanctuaries, and pilgrims in turn took it back to all over the Islamic world.
During this time, various rumors spread, some honest, some deliberately seeded by the enemies of the movement. The most serious rumor, which gained circulation in the Indian sub continent was that Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab having claimed Prophethood One of the most amazing lies that spread was that portions of the Holy Quran, allegedly deleted by Uthman, the third Kalifah, was still in possession of the “Wahhabis!” Other allegations, such as Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab undermined the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and allowed for free interpretation of the Quran and the sunnah are still topics of live debates.
In the meantime, the consolidation of a second Saudi-Wahabi state made the Ottoman state sit up and take notice. A second Egyptian expedition came in 1253 AH (1837 CE). Amir Faisal was exiled to Cairo and a puppet from the house of Saud was installed as the amir. However Faisal escaped and retook Riyadh with considerable ease. He ruled with stability till 1285 AH (1865 CE). An expedition led by the Sherief of Makkah to oust him in 1263 AH (1847 CE) was defeated.
The enemies of Ibn Saud and Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab now adopted a new strategy – instigation of the petty chieftains and also fringe family members of the house of Saud. This had the desired results, for after the death of Faisal, his sons broke out against each other. From this point till 1309 AH (1892 CE), one by one the contenders came and went with the support of one or the other of the small chieftain, until another tribe, hitherto a Saudi vassal – Al Rashid of Hail gained in strength by supporting one claimant against another, and eventually captured Riyadh. The Saudi king Abdul Rahman and the members of his family were exiled to Kuwait.
Thus ended the second Saudi state.
***
Among those who accompanied Abdul Rahman to exile was his teenage son Abdul Aziz, a tall young man who had already distinguishing himself as a natural leader of men. He struck up friendship with Mubarak - the half brother of sheikh Mohammed, the emir of Kuwait. Soon Mubarak seized power from Mohammed and Abdul Aziz grew in influence.
The loss of Najd to the al-Rashids was a perpetual source of pain to Abdul Aziz, for Najd had been central to the first and second Saudi states. Mubarak obliged by attacking Hail in 1319 AH (1901 CE).
While Mubarak sent his army to Hail, Abdul Aziz set forth from Kuwait, accompanied by sixty three men. Traveling at night and away from the main caravan routes, he reached Riyadh on the eve of the 5th of Shawwal (5 January 1903 CE). Abdul Aziz recaptured the heavily garrisoned city on the same night.
Abdul Aziz swiftly forged alliances with local tribes, strengthening his grip on Riyadh. Ibn Rashid of Hail, preoccupied in the counter attack against Kuwait and had no choice but to reconcile to the loss of Riyadh for the time being. He saw an alliance with the Turks as the best way to remain independent from both the Sherief of Makkah and Abdul Aziz.
The battle came soon enough though, in 1324 AH (1906 CE). Ibn Rashid was killed, but Abdul Aziz was not satisfied. He still had a score to settle with the Turks for their historic enmity towards the house of Saud.
Abdul Aziz bode his time and consolidated his position.
The re-establishment
of the Saudi state gave impetus for the Ikwan movement among the Bedouin Arabs. They were encouraged to abandon their traditional way of life in the desert and move to an agricultural settlement. Once in such a hijra – movement from a place of disbelief to a place of belief, the Ikhwan, as they styled themselves became strict in enforcing the correct sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him - enjoining public prayer, masjid attendance, gender segregation, condemning music, smoking and alcohol; and more importantly for Abdul Aziz, fighting in the way of Allah.
By 1333 AH (1915 CE) there were more than two hundred such settlements in and around Najd and nearly one lakh Ikhwan waiting for a chance to fight.
For Abdul Aziz the time had come.
Abdul Aziz first seized the Turkish garrison at Hofuf, and followed it up by netting the coastal towns of al-‘Uqayr and Qatif thereby winning control of the Gulf coast. On the Western front, Saudi control was extended to the outskirts of Hail. This caused problems with the Ikhwan because, unlike Makkah and Madinah, Hail had no religious significance and the Al-al sheikhs who controlled the Ikwan had no particular quarrel with the Rashidi clan who controlled it.
Unlike Abdul Aziz, the Ikwan had no particular quarrel with the Rashidi clan of Hail, and they were eager to bypass Hail and complete the takeover of Hijaz. Abdul Aziz however directed their energies to Hail. Hail was easily taken in 1339 AH (1921 CE). The Ikhwan, however went beyond Hail into central Transjordan, which brought them into contact with the imperial British troops for the first time. Abdul Aziz was forced to rein in his troops to avoid problems with the British. The British-brokered 1339 AH (1922 CE) Treaty of Uqair defined the boundaries of Iraq and Kuwait, and was aimed primarily at containing Saudi expansion into territories ruled by Britain's protégés.
Meanwhile in Hejaz, Sherief Ali had inherited both his father’s reign and his unpopularity. The Ikwan walked into Hijaz at will and gradually most of the towns and settlements began to consider Abdul Aziz as their ruler.
The fateful moment came on 3rd Jumadhul Akhir 1344 AH (19 December 1925), when Sherief Ali had no choice but to evacuate Makkah as his writ no longer ran there. Thus the take over of Makkah and Madinah by the house of Saud was by default, without bloodshed.
Abdul Aziz was careful not to make more enemies than necessary and tried to make those enemies he had into friends. Both his bitter rivals, the al-Rashids of Hail and the Sherief of Makkah were accommodated in the new dispensation. He re-established the marriage links that his ancestor, Turki had first forged between the house of Saud and the house of Rashid by marrying three of the Rashidi widows into his family. Abdul Aziz gave the Sherief’s family large tracts of land, enabling them to stay in the area and prosper. He did nothing to provoke the British either.
On 12 Shaban 1350 AH (September 23, 1932 CE), Abdul Aziz bin Saud proclaimed the territories held by him as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and himself its king.
THE PADRI WARS
Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him had exhorted his followers in his Farwell sermon “All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and may the last ones understand my words better than those who listened to me directly.” Islam also exhorted mankind to travel in Allah’s wide and spacious earth seeking His bounties. The net result was that out of the nearly one and a lakh people who attended the sermon, only less than twenty thousand died in Makkah or Madinah. The rest spread around the world, either in jihad or trade.
For those who claim that Islam was spread by the sword, the popular retort is “Which Muslim army invaded Malaysia & Indonesia?” By the 8th hijri century (14th century CE), Islam made its way through Indian and Chinese merchants and travelers to South East Asia, and in a matter of time Buddhist and Hindu influences gave way.
The adage "Actions speak louder than words" is well embodied here. The Muslim merchants and travelers who came to these parts were walking advertisements for Islam, for they lived the saying “Show disinterest in what people have and people will love you.” Their good manners, piety, honesty, trustworthiness, sincerity and reliability, all emancipating from their strong belief in a life after death where one would be rewarded or punished for deeds done in this world attracted the masses to Islam.
The new reverts could understand where to draw the line between Islamic monotheism and local traditions and customs, for they reverted because they had an understanding of the religion in the first place. However as the generations passed, the zeal waned and people got confused as to what was cultural tolerance and pluralism and what was aping the disbelievers. As such animistic customs and practices came back to dominance and began to be considered as a part of Islam.
The slackening of religious zeal also had its malevolent effect on the affairs of the state. The rulers also started to be attracted by the goods and desires of this world, and as such were unable to resist the European colonial powers – the Portuguese, Dutch, French and English, who came as traders with “irresistible” goods and offers; and then eventually started dominating the islands using their military might, in order to protect “trade interests.”
***
The pilgrims were waiting for a ship that would take them to Makkah. One white turban clad imam from Adat was preaching.
“And so sheikh Mohiyudden rescued me from the ocean of the believers. So believers, if you want the help of the ambiyaas, recite the nariya salaat one hundred and one times, and follow it up with the komalia salat seventy three times. Also, on the auspicious occasion of the Prophet’s birthday, visit the grave of Sheikh Badaruddin, who two hundred and fourteen years ago, saw Allah in a dream. Once there recite the formula I have just told you one hundred and thirty two times and purchase a turn in the queue for the kauthar…”
The Adat imam could not complete his speech. A group of men virtually lifted him up and threw him away.
One of the new arrivals, who introduced himself as Abu Khair climbed up the podium and started a new speech
“Oh believers, I beseech you to follow the Quran and the sunnah and nothing else. Do not be fooled by your ignorant leaders who until now kept you in darkness and oppression spiritually, so that they themselves could prosper materially. Know that every innovation in religion is misguidance, and every misguidance leads to the hell fire. Do not listen to the mumbo-jumbo of these deviated bunches of ignorant. They speak their own desires, for they can’t substantiate even a singe one of their statements from the Quran and sunnah”
By this time people divided into two groups. The debate was on.
The Adat imam got up from the distant ground to where he was flung, and his supporters hastily assembled a podium next to the usurped one. He cried out: “Oh ye agents of the kaafir Dutch. Didn’t the Messenger of Allah offer prayers in the graves, none other than Bukhari quoted this. And didn’t Sahi Muslim report the Messenger of Allah as having said "Visit the graves, for they remind you of the Hereafter."
Abu Khair remained cool and composed as he started his reply: “Visits to graves are prescribed in Islam and are required for the purpose of making du'a for the dead, praying for mercy for them, remembering death and preparing oneself for the Hereafter. Visiting graves for the purpose of calling upon their occupants, seeking their help, offering sacrifices to them and making vows to them is a major form of shirk and takes people outside of Islam.”
Turning to the people, he continued: “Your imams have misguided you. They have brainwashed you into believing that by doing such deeds you accumulate good deeds. The opposite is actually the case. With regard to praying at a grave, if what is meant is Salaat al-janaazah (the funeral prayer), this is permissible and is not forbidden. But if what is meant is to perform any other prayers, compulsory or optional, this is forbidden and haraam.”
The face of the Adat imam lit up. He sprang up and screamed: “You are twisting words and ignoring the point. You are saying that we cannot ask for help from the Messenger of Allah, who is alive in his grave! This has exposed you. You do not res
pect our Messenger of Allah, you do not praise him”
Abu Khair took over nonchalantly:
“The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him is alive in the sense of the life of al-barzakh, so he enjoys the blessings that Allah has prepared for him as a reward for his great good actions that he did in this world. But that life is not like the life of this world, or the life in the Hereafter. We know that he died as other Prophets and other people before him died.
Allah says “And We granted not to any human being immortality before you (O Mohammed); then if you die, would they live forever?” (al-Anbiya 34).
There are also other verses indicating that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him is no longer with us in this world. In fact the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him himself said one day that after one hundred years, no one present in the world at that time would remain!
Moreover, the sahabah, may Allah be pleased with them washed him, shrouded him, offered the funeral prayer for him and buried him; if he had been alive in the worldly sense, they would not have done the same as is done for others who die.”
“See they don’t believe in making du'a to the Messenger of Allah! Allahu akbar” the noise of the Adat imam screamed amidst the speech
Abu Khair continued: “Asking a righteous person to make du'a for you when he is still alive is permissible, because there is hope that his du'a may be answered on account of his righteousness. Once a blind man came to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and said: ‘Pray to Allah to heal me.’ The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him said, ‘If you wish, I will pray for you, and if you wish, I will delay that, and that will be better.’ The blind man insisted ‘Pray for me.’ So the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him commanded him to do wudoo' and to do it well, and to pray two rak'ahs…”
If you call upon a dead person, that means you think he knows more about your situation, is more able to grant what you ask and is more merciful towards you. This is ignorance, misguidance and kufr. If you know that Allah has more knowledge and is more able and more merciful, then why do you fail to ask Him, and instead turn to others?
