Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad: Difference between revisions

'''''Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad''''', is a book by academic [[Natana J. DeLong-Bas]], published in 2004 by [[Oxford University Press]]. It is based "on a close study of the 14 volumes" of collected works<ref name=ybarra/> of Wahhabism's founder, [[Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab]] and has been called "the first extensive explication of the theology" of [[Wahhabism]].<ref name=ybarra>{{cite news|url=https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB109027620568967848  |title=Books. In the Prophet's Name  [Review] |first=Michael J. |last=Ybarra|publisher=wsj.com|date=July 20, 2004}}</ref> The book "reveals" (according to its author), "a more moderate, sophisticated, and nuanced" interpretation of Islam than the "standard image" of Wahhabism.<ref name="DLB2004: 5">[[#DLB2004|DeLong-Bas, ''Wahhabi Islam'', 2004]]: 5</ref>

His enmity towards non-Muslims has also been overstated, DeLong-Bas believes. He did not "divide the world" into Wahhabis and non-Wahhabis.<ref name="DLB2004: 83">[[#DLB2004|DeLong-Bas, ''Wahhabi Islam'', 2004]]: 83</ref> And while he did "at times" make "vehement denunciations" of them, he "never called for their destruction or death“.<ref name="DLB2004: 61">[[#DLB2004|DeLong-Bas, ''Wahhabi Islam'', 2004]]: 61</ref>  "Even in the case of jihad, if Muslims find themselves in need” Ibn Abd al-Wahhab stated that “they may enter the territory of non-Muslims tribes that are friendly to them, [to take what they need] though only with the express permission of the imam.”

{{#tag:ref|(While a hadith does say that Muhammad plans to petition God on behalf of good Muslim monotheists on Judgment Day, the hadith does not say it is permissible to ''ask'' Muhammad for intercession. (p.70))<ref name="DLB2004: 70">[[#DLB2004|DeLong-Bas, ''Wahhabi Islam'', 2004]]: 70</ref>|group=Note}}

"major" or "grave" sins include:

*Slaughtering an animal in any other name than God’s

*''Shirk''

DeLong-Bas states that "although it is often asserted" that Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was "adamantly opposed to Shiism", he only "denounced" some practices of theirs and "never specifically mentioned the Shia by name" except in one treatise where he "targeted only one particular extremist sect, the Rafidah".<ref name="DLB2004: 22">[[#DLB2004|DeLong-Bas, ''Wahhabi Islam'', 2004]]: 22</ref>{{#tag:ref|DeLong-Bas writes on page 22 that "Although it is often asserted that Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was adamantly opposed to Shiism, he specifically targeted only one particular extremist sect, the Rafidah in one only treatise.<P> On page 84 she writes that "Historically the Hanbalis were in fact opposed to Shiism. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab himself found certain beliefs and practices of Shiis to violate the key doctrine of monotheism.|group=Note}}

DeLong-Bas states that Ibn Abd al-Wahhab "declared sexual relations with slave women to be forbidden because they occurred outside of marriage."<ref name="DLB2004: 131"/> While he never used the Islamic term for forbidden, "''[[haram]]''",{{#tag:ref|"...he does not use the word haram..." footnote on page 317|group=Note}} she notes that he did state that "it is preferable (''afdal'')" and "a supererogatory act of worship" (i.e. going beyond what duty requires) for a slave owner "to give it up/withdraw" from sex with any slave girls/women he might own.<ref name="DLB2004: 128">[[#DLB2004|DeLong-Bas, ''Wahhabi Islam'', 2004]]: 128</ref>  He also taught that "it is preferable for" a slave owner to emancipate and marry any slave/servant woman who had bears him a child.<ref name="DLB2004: 131"/>

# equality of status between the man the woman.<ref name="DLB2004: 135"/> (This refers not to the husband and wife having equal status in their marriage but to whether the groom comes from a background of equal social status to the bride.  This is so important that if the guardian "was not aware of the man's lower status prior to the marriage," he can request the marriage be rendered invalid, "regardless of the opinion of the bride".  DeLong-Bas writes that this "reflects his responsibility to ensure that the woman is married to an appropriate man." Because a marriage to "a man of lower social status would lower the woman's status...")<ref name="DLB2004: 145">[[#DLB2004|DeLong-Bas, ''Wahhabi Islam'', 2004]]: 145</ref>{{#tag:ref|One case of a marriage being invalidated due to husband’s status was the August 2005 Saudi court-ordered divorce of a 34-year old mother of two (named Fatima Mansour) from her husband, Mansur, despite the fact that were happily married and her father (now deceased) had approved the marriage. The divorce was initiated by her half-brother using his powers as her male guardian, who alleged that his half-sister's husband was from a tribe of a low status compared to the status of her tribe and that the husband had failed to disclose this when he first asked for Fatima’s hand. Fatima declared her fear of domestic at her brother’s home (sources: <ref>{{cite web|title=SAUDI ARABIA : Fatima A. Fear for Safety|url=http://www.amnesty.be/doc/spip.php?page=imprimir_articulo&id_article=9976|work=06 February 2007|publisher=Amnesty International, Belgique Francophone|accessdate=23 February 2014}}</ref> {{cite news|last=AL NAFJAN|first=EMAN|title=Saudi Arabia, My Changing Home|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/09/opinion/saudi-arabia-my-changing-home.html?_r=0|newspaper=New York Times |accessdate=23 February 2014|date=June 8, 2012}}), and was sufficiently concerned to spend four years in jail with her one-year-old daughter before the Supreme Judicial Council overturned the decision.(source: {{cite book|author=House, Karen Elliott|title=On Saudi Arabia : Its People, past, Religion, Fault Lines and Future| publisher=Knopf|year=2012|page=100}})</ref>|group=Note}}

Belying "the extremist misogynist he is often made out to be," IAW responded to a picayune question about "some minute details of women's dress"  with a fatwa not spelling out dress regulations, but simply stating "that clothing and maintaining the wife are the responsibility of the husband, and ended the discussion. Thus it is left to the husband, rather than an external party to decide how his wife ought to dress."<ref name="DLB2004: 157-8">[[#DLB2004|DeLong-Bas, ''Wahhabi Islam'', 2004]]: 157-8</ref>

the common possession of the whole Muslim society and divided up and distributed by the amir. (p.212)<ref name="DLB2004: 212">[[#DLB2004|DeLong-Bas, ''Wahhabi Islam'', 2004]]: 212</ref>|group=Note}}