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| Volume XIII, Spring 2006, Number 1 |
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BOOK REVIEW
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Wahabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad , by Natana J. Delong-Bas. Oxford University Press, New York, 2004. 384 pp. $35.00, hardcover.
Gamze Cavdar
James Madison College, Michigan State University
In Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad, Natana J. Delong-Bas raises the question whether militant extremism has its origins in the religious teachings of Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabi version of Islam. This is a significant question, given that in the post-9/11 world many in the West have associated extremism and violence with Islam in general and with Wahhabi Islam in particular. Delong-Bas aims to challenge standard images of Wahhabism and demonstrate through her research that, contrary to what many believe in the West, Wahhabi Islam “reveals a more moderate, sophisticated and nuanced interpretation of Islam that emphasizes limitations on violence, killing and destruction and calls for dialogue” (p. 5). Delong-Bas further argues that Ibn Abd al-Wahhab advocated a worldview based on the preservation of human life and tolerance for other religions and supported a balance of rights between men and women.
Delong-Bas bases her arguments on Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s teachings as expressed in his own writings and the accounts of his contemporaries. The author notes that at the time they were constructed, the Wahhabi teachings did not constitute a marginalized interpretation of Islamic law. On the contrary, Wahhabi Islam emerged out of a general concern shared by many eighteenth-century Islamic reformers that Muslim beliefs and practices had deteriorated. As a result, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab insisted on getting rid of superstitious beliefs and practices and going back to what he considered original Islamic teachings. The pillars of this reform movement can be identified as (1) greater adherence to monotheism (tawhid), (2) renewed attention to the Quran and hadith, (3) rejection of the imitation of the past (taqlid), and (4) direct interpretation of the scriptures and Islamic law (ijtihad) by taking into consideration the context from which these rules emerged. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s assertion that every individual had the responsibility to study and learn the teachings of Islam was partly due to this criticism from religious leaders. Consequently, “His vision of knowledge emphasized individual interpretation and scrutiny of the Quran and hadith rather than adherence to the teachings of other human beings” (p. 196).
According to Delong-Bas, Wahhabism was not a movement that sought to bring down governments or engage in coups. The movement was concerned with religious practices; those involved insisted that these practices need to have a direct impact on people’s daily lives and should not be confined only to personal matters. According to Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the best political leader was “the one who was the most correct in faith, the easiest to reconcile with the teachings of the Quran and hadith, and the most capable in matters of interpretation” (p. 197). At first, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab had no close association with a political authority. It was only after his trips to Mecca, Medina and Basra that he returned to his hometown of al-Uyaynah and struck a deal with the ruler, Ibn Muammar, in return for protection and support for his religious teachings. Their alliance supported the idea that a political leader “was to proclaim and adhere to the principle of tawhid” and foreshadowed a later alliance between Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the Saud leader Muhammad Ibn Saud (p. 24).
I have chosen to examine only three of the many issues discussed by the author: jihad, ijtihad and its context, and women’s issues. Delong-Bas argues that jihad as holy war was not the primary purpose of the Wahhabi movement. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab did not promote martyrdom or call for jihad. In his writings, military action could only be called for by the religious leader (imam) and only for self-defense. Furthermore, the author argues, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab by no means promoted violence against those who did not follow his teachings (p. 32). For instance, in response to a question about a Muslim who committed a sinful act and refused to ask forgiveness, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab disagreed with the ulama, which had declared such a person sinful and therefore subject to jihad. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab found the ulama’s interpretation “overly rigid and literalistic” and argued that their examples from the era of Muhammad had been taken “completely out of its historical context, making the response to a specific historical situation into a broad value to be applied indiscriminately” in a manner that justified violence (p. 32). In fact, the author explains, it was only after the ulama began organized military opposition against the Wahhabi movement that Ibn Abd al-Wahhab authorized jihad to defend the Wahhabis. In other instances, although Ibn Abd al-Wahhab argued that the failure by some to adhere to monotheism makes Muslim fight, he used the word qital, a generic name for fighting, instead of “jihad” (p. 60). For the author, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s criticism of pagans, idolaters, Jews and Christians was not a call for the destruction of such groups. Delong-Bas explains, “Rather than proclaiming the responsibility of Muslims to fight permanently and continuously against ungodliness and evil in this world and consider all non-Wahhabis as unbelievers, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s writings reveal a worldview in which education and dialogue play a more important role in winning converts and establishing justice than does violence” (p. 201).
Like other eighteenth-century reformers, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab believed in the need for ijtihad. This was in opposition to many jurists who had argued that there was no need for ijtihad because the Quran and sunna had already been carefully studied and thoroughly explained by the ulama by the ninth century. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s insistence on ijtihad was germane to his conviction that no human being is immune to error; therefore, unquestioning adherence to the jurisprudence of a human being is not acceptable. Instead, he adopted a case-by-case approach to an individual’s rulings, in which the content of each ruling was to be compared to the teachings of the Quran and hadith. He insisted on considering the context in which such rulings took place.
According to Delong-Bas, women were not presented as inferior human beings in Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s writings. There existed a balance between men and women in terms of their rights and responsibilities, and women were assigned to positive and active roles. The author finds no roots in these writings for the “apparent oppression of women by the contemporary Wahhabi regime” (p. 123). Delong-Bas discusses Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s writings as evidence of his high respect for women. For example, he made more references to Aisha, one of Muhammad’s wives, than Abu Hurayhrah, a male companion of Muhammad. “This preference for Aisha over Abu Hurayrah is significant not only because Ibn Abd al-Wahhab showed a preference for hadith transmitted by a woman, even when they contradicted those of a man, but also because Aisha’s hadith tend to grant women more agency and voice than Abu Hurayrah’s” (p. 126). In Abd al-Wahhab’s writings, women were granted absolute rights, such as the right to receive a dowry upon marriage, the right to stipulate conditions in the marriage contract, the right to maintenance during marriage and the divorce process, the right to initiate a divorce, and the right to education. The negotiable rights included the amount of the dowry and the amount of maintenance during marriage and divorce (p. 127).
Wahhabi Islam tackles one of the least known Islamic schools of thought. A comprehensive study, the book questions standard representation of Islam as a static, monolithic and unchanging set of practices. Through her carefully documented research, Delong-Bas succeeds in demonstrating diverse interpretations and traditions in Islam, and revealing how original religious teachings and practices can be taken out of context and reinterpreted for political purposes.
Yet the book suffers from a number of shortcomings. First, it falls somewhere between introducing original Wahhabi teachings and practices and defending them. The field of Islamic studies has been undergoing great polarization in the face of current political developments. Accounts and evaluations regarding political movements associated with Islam shift from one radical position to another. While some view Islam as static and monolithic and consider every aspect of it destructive, anti-Western and anti-modern, other scholars who would like to counter these misconceptions and biases end up only identifying Islam’s merits. This book unfortunately falls into this trap. Despite its novelty, this study is not a critical account of Wahhabism. Rather, Wahhabi Islam is a response to Western criticism mounted in the post-9/11 era. Controversial teachings and practices of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab have been glossed over throughout the book.
Moreover, Delong-Bas does not make any conceptual distinction between the teachings of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Wahhabism as a lived practice. The Wahhabism of today clearly and fundamentally differs from the original Wahhabi teachings described by Delong-Bas. It is an important weakness of the book that no such distinction has been made, let alone any explanation as to why, how and when this radical shift in interpretation took place. If the author’s accounts about original Wahhabism are accurate, then the Western audience that Delong-Bas repeatedly accuses of misunderstanding Wahhabism is not alone in its misunderstanding. Delong-Bas’s criticism directed at the Western audience that views Wahhabism as an intolerant movement also needs to be directed at the Saudi regime and particularly the Saudi ulama, which hardly engage in advocating a “moderate, sophisticated and nuanced interpretation of Islam.”
The last major weakness in the book is very much germane to textual analyses in general. The author solely engages in analyzing the textual content of Wahhabi Islam without providing any explanation as to how a religious doctrine obtains various meanings as a result of social, political, economic and psychological factors. Analyses based on textual content of an ideology do not explain why a particular version of interpretation — in this case a violent one — emerges, as political activists can find almost any meaning they are looking for in a text. The key is to identify and explain the factors and intentions behind their search.
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