نشریه سراج منیر
سال ششم شماره 21 (بهار 1395)

Wahhabis rely on verse 73 of Surah Hajj as a proof to justify their attribution of Shirk to the Muslims who believe in Tawassul and calling the saints of God. The verse says “Those you invoke besides God will never create a fly.” Wahhabis say that no one, including dead prophets and saints of God, except Allah has the ability to be a doer. Therefore, to believe that prophets and saints of God are alive and able is Shirk. What Wahhabis say is fallacy in three ways: 1. a mere similarity between one deed of the pagans and one deed of the Muslims doesn’t make them analogous and it cannot be a reason that Muslims are pagan; 2. Not only to venerate saints of God does not contradict with monotheism but it also supports monotheism; 3. Even if we assume that Tawassul and calling the saints of God is an erroneous deed, it cannot be considered Shirk. The worst we might say about it is that what they do is void, though this too has a response.

One of the Quranic verses that Wahhabis rely on to accuse Muslims of polytheism is verse 3 of Surah Zumar which says “We only worship them that they may bring us nearer to God”. Wahhabis use several forms of argumentation. Their chief argumentation is about mediation. Wahhabis believe that the polytheists were infidels because they worshiped idols and the saints of God. The polytheists used to justify themselves by declaring that by worshiping the idols, they take them as a medium which brings them closer to God. The point which is ignored by Wahhabis is that, in this verse, seeking for intercession (Shafaah) and worshiping are two different things. The polytheist used to practically worship the idols not seek for intercession. In addition, the polytheist used to invoke the idols and the saints of God as independent entities; whereas Muslims don’t believe that the saints of God possess something independently by themselves; but anything they have is from God.

“Seeking blessings” through the traces and relics of the prophets and saints of God is an idea present even in the nations existing before Islam and it is verified by the Quran and the prophetic tradition, as well as Muslim’s tradition. Among the verses that attest to the legitimacy of “seeking blessing” is the verse “Take this shirt of mine, and lay it over my father’s face, and he will recover his sight.” Although Wahhabis accept explicit or implicit implications of this verse, they argue that “seeking blessing” is legitimate only through those traces of the Prophet Muhammad and the other divine prophets which had had direct and sensual contact with their body. They posit that anything beyond this is Shirk; and “seeking blessing” from the traces of the righteous is actually assuming independency for non-Allah and “seeking blessing” from non-Allah. Whereas according to proofs based on the Quran, the narrations of the Prophet, the reason and the tradition of the Islamic nation, the criteria set by Wahhabis for the legitimacy of “seeking blessing” are not valid. Accordingly, we can, drawing upon the above-mentioned verse, conclude a general rule about “seeking blessing” which is applicable to all that represents and can be considered traces and relics of the prophets and the righteous.

Since the issue of Bid’ah is very important for the Salafis and Wahhabis, and because of the influence of Al-Albaani’s thoughts among them, in this article we tried to investigate and explain innovation from his perspective showing some of the weaknesses of his view. According to our research, Al-Albaani doesn’t propose any definition for innovation (bid’ah) from himself and his definitions are those of Ibn-Rajab Hanbali and Ibn-Hijr Asghalani’s. Al-Albaani rejects the dichotomy of good and vice innovation, bringing reasons for refuting this division. Furthermore, he postulates that bid’ah is divided into minor and major Bid’ah. Yet he doesn’t accept dividing bid’ah into the five commands. He believes that the narrations which rebuke innovation (bid’ah) are correct. He also offers principles for recognizing innovation (bid’ah).

Ibn Taymiyyah addresses drawbacks to Hadith Thaqalayn and Shia interpretations of it in terms of both its document and its content. He believes that the document of the Hadith is distorted and the implications of its meaning don’t prove anything beyond or more than the necessity of feeling affection and respect towards the Prophet’s Progeny (Itra or Ahlulbait). Whereas, a look on the Sunnis’ Hadith sources and references reveals that this Hadith has been narrated through 20 of the Prophet’s companions; and as a result of an analysis of the texts of these hadiths, we can reach to exclusive traits proven for both the Quran and the Progeny at the same time; the fact that indicates that this hadith is the most important will of the Prophet and a divine guarantee for the salvation of the Islamic Nation and saving it from going astray. Furthermore, none of the traditions (hadith) about the Prophet’s emphasis on “Allah’s Book and my Tradition”, which Ibn Taymiyyah considers as trustworthy, are actually authentic in terms of their document.

Although the Arab Spring and the uprising of the Arab nations against their authoritarian governments which are puppets of the West initially promised a massive change across the Muslim nation, its consequences in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Jordan was different from what was expected by the Muslim nation. For some people, such as people of Tunisia, the uprising suffered deviation from the main goals. For some, such as people of Egypt the uprising was only relatively successful and finally lead to a military coup. For the Libyans, the result was lack of strong central government. All these endings are in fact intrigues of the West, the colonial power and their allies in the region. The present article discusses the advent and the rise and decline of the so-called Ansar al-Sharia which was one of the Salafi- Jihadi groups of the region. Taking advantage from absence of a central government in Libya, they stabilized their position in the country for a short while. What you are going to read is a translation of an article published in the journal The Contemporary Trends in the Islamic Ideology affiliated with Hudson Institute, which studies the issue. The contents of this article are only a translation of the original article and indicate the opinions of the author. The current translation doesn’t necessarily mean the translator’s agreement with the author’s views.