Recordings › Thoughts on Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahab? | Mufti Abu Layth · 19 Apr 2020 › Segment 1 of 1
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab?
hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith muftis sunna sunnat sunan prophetic practice shirq mushrik mushrikin koran quraan al-quran salafis salafism wahhabi wahabi wahhabismThoughts on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab: a dogmatist whose movement did more harm than good
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This segment0:00 to 3:29 · 3 min 29 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenOn balance Mufti Abu Layth places Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the negative: a puritan dogmatist who demolished tombs, killed pilgrims and inspired the Salafi movement, which he feels did more harm than good and is a springboard for extremism. He adds that the movement also revived hadith and challenged blind following and superstition.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth repeats a question about his thoughts on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. He says that if he had to classify him simply as negative or positive he would put him in the negative, while adding that this does not make anyone the embodiment of evil and that he surely did some good things. He describes him as a hard-line dogmatist and puritan who linked up with the Saud family to their mutual benefit, wanted to establish a puritan state, demolished tombs he regarded as polytheism and shirk, and killed many pilgrims he considered polytheists for not practising pure Islam. He says Ibn Abd al-Wahhab inspired the Salafi movement, which he feels was dangerous and overall did much more harm than good, while acknowledging that good also came from it: it revived the concept of hadith, challenged blind following, challenged the absence of Quran and Sunnah in discourse and removed superstitions. He adds that it injected a puritanical hatred into people and is the number one springboard for extremism, though not every Salafi is an extremist, and closes by saying the problems are not so much the anthropomorphising of God as the way of thinking.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedWhat are my thoughts on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab?
- The question was reconstructed from Mufti Abu Layth's restatement; the questioner's own words are not in the recording
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says that, forced to choose, he would probably classify Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab as negative, a puritan dogmatist allied with the Saud family who demolished tombs and killed pilgrims, and that the Salafi movement he inspired did more harm than good and is the number one springboard for extremism, though it also revived hadith and challenged blind following and superstition.
“if I was to group him in one and I could only group him in negative or positive then at a simple level I would probably put him in negative”
Category: historical claim
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine0:00 to 3:29 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
what are my thoughts on muhammad abdul wahab this muhammad abdul wahhab i don't know like it depends like what are my thoughts on him well ok let's let's start off simple now if I was to let's say we look at it dichotomously as in in just a bipolar fashion in the sense negative positive what are my thoughts my thoughts on him are if I was to group him in one and I could only group him in
negative or positive then at a simple level I would probably put him in negative that said as we build on that simplicity I'm sure there were things he did which were good as well it doesn't mean that when somebody does something doesn't mean that they are the kind of embodiment of evil but he did have very strange hard line he was a pure uber dogmatist he was a Puritan East he considered you know he kind of linked up with the South family and and they benefited from each other and he wanted
to establish this Puritan state he wanted to kind of knock down he did knock down several tombs and he thought that this was kind of all polytheism and shirk and he did you know if if and any killed people he killed many pilgrims he thought they were kind of polytheists because they weren't practicing pure Islam he inspired a movement which I feel I feel was was dangerous the Salafi movement the uh who had these move you see it does not mean that no good came
from me because I just want to clarify things are more complex than that good did come from the Salafi movement as well but I feel overall it did much more harm than it did good but it did good as well he revived the concept of hadith it once again challenged the concept of blind we following it challenge the you know the lack of Quran was Sunnah in discourse a kind of revealed superstitions so I feel that there was great goodness that did come from the Salafi movement as well but it also kind
of it injected a level of of of kind of like hatred this Puritan is hatred into people it also is the number one springboard for extremism although that doesn't mean every selfie is an extremist at all it does not mean that at all but it is a very easy springboard to kind of land in extremist views from the Salafi doctrine so I don't you know he has huge problems the
anthropomorphize is God and but it's not even about the anthropomorphize ation it's more about the the way of thinking so here that's if I could I hope that gives some clarity
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2020-04-19-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/g57bdmdaukm/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2020, April 19). What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab? [Video, segment 2020-04-19-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/g57bdmdaukm/s/1/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2020. "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab?" Video, segment 2020-04-19-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded April 19, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/g57bdmdaukm/s/1/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2020-04-19-S01, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab?}}, year = {2020}, month = {4}, date = {2020-04-19}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/g57bdmdaukm/s/1/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/g57bdmdaukm/s/1/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2020-04-19-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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