Wahhabism and Salafist Paradoxes in the Age of Modernism

The present study intends to explain the Wahabist paradoxes of the great challenge between preserving the appearances and the Salafist manner of life on the one hand, and accepting the unceasing and inevitable human advancements on the other hand. The present study is library-based in collecting information and uses descriptive-analytical method. The findings indicate that there are many contradictions and ambiguities in many aspects of social life and Islamic activities in Saudi Arabia, of which one may refer to: the contradictions of the necessity of staying in the past and the necessity of passing from the past, the attitude to the woman`s dignity and cover, the attitude towards the veil, the encounter with the achievements of the new civilization, elections and democracy. As explained in the study, the origin of all these paradoxes is the retrogressivism, inflexibility and irrationality of Wahhabism, and an emphasis on narrativism and opposition to the manifestations of a new civilization and denial of ta`wil, which governs the attitudes and mental principles of the Salafist movement.