Is there such a thing as the "Wahabi sect"?

Question

Don't just copy paste stuff from wikipedia. Explain your answer!

Answer 1

There is no Wahabi sect, this is a complete myth.

American media sources claim Osama Bin Laden is a wahabi and yet so is Saudi Arabia even though Osama Bin Laden hates Saudis?

There was a man named Abdul Wahab and he had some people who followed him, but nothing else.

Ask any learned theologian or scholar and they will tell you there is no such thing.

Answer 2

nope.
it's a termed coined by the west.
there was a man named abdul wahab who was saudi and helped in creating the kingdom of saudi arabia. He and his followers observed a strict interpretation of islam. he was not a religious scholar or anything like that.
just a man who had influence and power over ppl.

nowadays the wahabi thought concerns itself with reviving what it thinks is the best islam: that which was present during the prophet's time. the wahabi thought doesn't try to change islam.just wants to bring back the past (go figure!!!).

since abdul wahab was saudi you'll find that most ppl who like his idea are saudis. that doesn't make them wahabis since its an ideology and not a religion.

Answer 3

It's more of a zeal brought to Sunni, but you'd have to define "sect." SOme of the practices and beliefs can be noticeably different from other Sunni.

Keap in mind, I am not a good Muslim.

BTW, Wahabi is a nasty name too. I can;t believe they use it on the news. It'd be like everytime they wanted to mention Reform Jews calling ithem Lazy-Kikes.

Answer 4

Yes. It started within the last couple of hundred years in Saudi Arabia. The founder of the sect joined forces with the Saudi family. With the rise of the Saudi dynasty came the rise of Wahabism.

Wahabism is an ultra-orthodox interpretation of Islam that persecutes all other forms of Islam and believes that all other religions are heresy. The Saudi's fund the spread of this sect, and it's influence is being felt in Islamic communities worldwide with an upswing in fundamentalist Islam.

There's a really interesting, short book called "My Year in Radical Islam" that sheds some light on the spread of radical, fundamentalist Islam like Wahabism and how it is affecting moderate Muslims.

Answer 5

Wahhabism (Arabic: الوهابية, Wahabism, Wahabbism, Whahhabism) is a derogetory term used to describe a movement of Sunni Islam based on the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab (1703–1792).

The term "Wahhabi" (Wahhābīya) is rarely used by members of this group. The term they use to describe themselves is "muwahhidun", translating as "unitarians." Another common term used is "Salafi," translating as "followers of the pious forefathers," though this term has a wider applicability, and is used by many modern Muslim groups who do not specifically follow the teachings of Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. The term Wahhabi was originally bestowed by their opponents.

The Wahhabis claim to hold to the way of the Salaf as-Salih, the "pious predecessors" as earlier preached by Ibn Taymiyya and his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and later by Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab and his followers.

Answer 6

Wahhaby-Salafiism is the ultra-orthodox and pietistic sect of Sunni Islam that King Ibn Saud imposed on Saudi Arabia to keep the peasants in line (it's backfiring these days) and to which the members of Al-Qaeda largely belong. I think their attitudes and beliefs have been well-publicized. Bluntly, it is pernicious, heinous, racist and militant, and the world would be improved by its absence.

Answer 7

There is; it is a part of Sunni Islam, and is an important part of religion in Saudi Arabia. It emphasizes strict observance, which is why the stores in Arabia close down at prayer time.

Answer 8

Yes, it was founded as an anti-modernist movement in Saudi Arabia, late 19th century. They seek to create a sort of 'puritan' society, which is patriarchal and somewhat ascetic (unless you own an oil company, lol).

That's all I know off-hand.

Answer 9

Yes, the Wahabis hang out and sushi bars and order mucho oriental mustard.


Oh - sorry - that is wasabi, isn't it???



LOL

Answer 10

To understand the significance of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab's ideas, they must be considered in the context of Islamic practice. There was a difference between the established rituals clearly defined in religious texts that all Muslims perform and popular Islam. The latter refers to local practice that is not universal. The Shia practice of visiting shrines is an example of a popular practice. The Shia continued to revere the Imams even after their death and so visited their graves to ask favors of the Imams buried there. Over time, Shia scholars rationalized the practice and it became established. Some of the Arabian tribes came to attribute the same sort of power that the Shia recognized in the tomb of an Imam to natural objects such as trees and rocks.
Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab was concerned with the way the people of Najd engaged in practices he considered polytheistic, such as praying to saints; making pilgrimages to tombs and special mosques; venerating trees, caves, and stones; and using votive and sacrificial offerings. He was also concerned by what he viewed as a laxity in adhering to Islamic law and in performing religious devotions, such as indifference to the plight of widows and orphans, adultery, lack of attention to obligatory prayers, and failure to allocate shares of inheritance fairly to women. When Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab began to preach against these breaches of Islamic laws, he characterized customary practices as jahiliya, the same term used to describe the ignorance of Arabians before the Prophet.
Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab focused on the Muslim principle that there is only one God, and that God does not share his power with anyone -- not Imams, and certainly not trees or rocks. From this unitarian principle, his students began to refer to themselves as muwahhidun (unitarians). Their detractors referred to them as "Wahhabis"--or "followers of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab," which had a pejorative connotation. The idea of a unitary god was not new. Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, however, attached political importance to it. He directed his attack against the Shia.
Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab's instructions in the matter of extending his religious teaching by force were strict. All unbelievers (i.e. Moslems who did not accept his teaching, as well as Christians, &c.) were to be put to death. Immediate entrance into Paradise was promised to his soldiers who fell in battle, and it is said that each soldier was provided with a written order from Ibn 'Abd ul-Wahhab to the gate-keeper of heaven to admit him forthwith. In this way the new teaching was established in the greater part of Arabia until its power was broken by Mehemet Ali. Ibn'Abd ul-Wahhab is said to have died in 1791.
It can be too easy to accept this movement as a sect, as you said, it is much more! We can understand it like a large reform mevement founded on that of Ibn Taimiyya (1263-1328), who was of the school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Copies of some of Ibn Taimiyya's works made by ul-Wahhab are now extant in Europe, and show a close study of the writer. It is clear that the claim of the Wahhabis to have returned to the earliest form of Islam is largely justified. The difference between ul-Wahhab's sect and others is that the Wahabis rigidly follow the same laws which the others neglect or have ceased altogether to observe. Even orthodox doctors of Islam have confessed that in Ibn 'Abd ul-Wahhab's writings there is nothing but what they themselves hold. At the same time the fact that so many of his followers were rough and unthinking Bedouins has led to the over-emphasis of minor points of practice, so that they often appear to observers to be characterized chiefly by a strictness (real or feigned) in such matters as the prohibition of silk for dress, or the use of tobacco, or of the rosary in prayer.