How Does MBS Seek to Root Any Kingdom’s Link to ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s Teachings?

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia witnessed on February 22, 2022, loud celebrations after this day was set for the first time in the country's history, as an official Founding Day for the Kingdom and a holiday for citizens, after King Salman bin Abdulaziz’s approval.

As for the controversy that accompanied that day, it was related to the denial of the role of the preacher Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, the man who met the founder of the first Saudi state, Muhammad bin Saud, and on the basis of a pledge of allegiance between them, the state was established, a story that has remained stuck throughout history, told in councils, and taught in schools and universities.

This narrative began to disappear with the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), and his implementation of steps towards openness and liberalization from the old Wahhabi missionary legacy.

MBS clashed with preachers and heritage, so now, he is seeking to eliminate his state’s association with the Wahhabi call, which represented the weight, soft power and ideology of Riyadh for a century.

 

MBS's Coup

A short time ago, the year 1744 was considered the date of the beginning of the first Saudi state, the date on which the founder of the state met, Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, the proponent of the call in the city of Diriyah (based in Riyadh), but the new official date set by the royal decree precedes the meeting of the imam and the sheikh by 17 years.

It was reported that this comes as a reinforcement of the citizens' bond with their roots that extend back to 1727 AD, in which he said, “the first Saudi state was established in it, in a clear indication of the transgression of ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and his ethereal alliance, which was a difference in the birth of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

On February 23, 2022, Reuters quoted Christine Diwan, a researcher at the Institute for Arab Gulf Studies in Washington, saying: “Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab has been erased from Saudi history.”

She stated that “this is the new Saudi nationalism, celebrating the House of Saud, linking the people directly to the ruling family, and downplaying the pivotal role that religion played in establishing the state.”

She cited what was approved by the Saudi Shura Council in January 2022, to draft a proposal to amend a law related to the national anthem and the flag, while it was not clear whether it would change the components of the flag design, including the phrase: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.”

On February 27, 2022, Middle East Eye published a report on Mohammed bin Salman and the coup against Saudi history, saying: “The Crown Prince risks rewriting the history of the Kingdom, but at the time he turns the historical narrative towards glorifying the narrow Al Saud base of legitimacy, he will face responses act from the various regions that make up the kingdom.”

He stated that Saudi Arabia appears to be in a state of constant flux, as it is constantly reinventing its past.

The British website commented: “Now the Crown Prince wants us to forget the ancient history and only remember the glory of his ancestors in Diriyah.”

 

Al Saud and Al Sheikh

To understand the nature of the link between the Saudi state and the Wahhabi mission, beginning with the long-standing alliance between the Al Saud and the Al Sheikh family (the descendants of Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab), the institution of politics became linked to the Al Saud and the institution of religion embodied in the Al Sheikh.

In 1902 the old agreement that took place in 1744 was renewed, and this time the scene was topped by Abdul Aziz Al Saud, founder of the state in its current form, in the city of Diriyah, "the capital of the Al Saud" again.

Then the Saudi religious institution was established on levels of human elements, the first of them being scholars, who work in the judiciary and mainly educate people, as they teach their students, called Mutawa, in mosques

Mutawa supervises the direction and guidance of the people, and the discipline of those who do not respond, from Mutawa comes the origin of the “Brotherhood,” an urban Bedouin force that is always ready to fight for the da’wah.

The Brotherhood was a striking force at the beginning of the establishment of the third Saudi state at the hands of Abdulaziz, and whenever they entered an oasis or a new area, their numbers increased.

The situation between the state and the da’wah continued, between consensus at one time, and fatal blows at other times.

With the death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, and the rise of his successor, Salman, the star of his son Muhammad, who abused his rivals and relatives until he succeeded his father later and became the most powerful man in the state, showed himself to the West and the United States as the holder of the reins of affairs, and the standard-bearer for change.

To this end, MBS made radical changes in the political, social and religious structure in the Kingdom, and based his transformations first on the body of scholars and religious bodies.

He carried out an unprecedented massive campaign of arrests against scholars and preachers, and put them in prisons, and even got involved in the assassination of some of them in mysterious circumstances, and here he is completely erasing their history.

 

A War on Inheritance

There is no doubt that Mohammed bin Salman’s exciting move caused unrest, particularly in the centers of power within the religious establishment, but it was also not separate from the methodology of the Crown Prince since the beginning of his rise.

In 2017, he threatened fundamentalist ideas inside his country, saying his famous phrase: “We will destroy them today and immediately.”

It goes without saying that bin Salman's frank declaration of war against the Awakening movement, to which hundreds of scholars and tens of thousands of followers belong, is nothing but a sign of a new approach that is more open, less strict, and adheres to the old constants.

But the Crown Prince’s battle did not go unnoticed. On April 4, 2018, the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul, wrote an article for the Washington Post in which he criticized the policies of MBS and was circulated by a number of Arab media outlets.

The article included an attack on the crown prince by presenting a distorted account of Saudi history, claiming that the kingdom was a normal country before 1979, and that the Iranian revolution was what pushed the country to militancy, noting that at that time, and unlike what has been said, women were not allowed to drive, and the country's cinemas were not official.

Khashoggi said: “Mohammed bin Salman is on his way to modernizing the kingdom, laying new authoritarian foundations to replace the traditional radicalism of the clergy."

But the strange thing about all of this is that the state media itself has come to a direct attack on Wahhabism, as happened on Saudi television, and from prominent scholars close to the political leadership.

On July 19, 2018, the advisor at the Royal Court, Abdullah al-Manea, launched an attack on Wahhabism on the program, Fatwas, broadcast on state television, saying " it is a description that offends the kingdom, and it is nothing but an illusion and a fantasy that has nothing to do with reality.”

 

Uncut Roots

"The link between invitations and states is historically common, and the invitation of Muhammad bin Abd  al-Wahhab has been closely linked since its inception with the first Saudi state," Dr. Maher al-Hanafi, professor of Islamic culture at al-Azhar University, told Al-Estiklal.

“Both of them completed the other, and Saudi history books and educational curricula always spoke, that without the Sheikh there would be no state, and without the state, there would be no da’wah, especially since Muhammad bin Saud took covenants on the Sheikh and his brothers to support him, and they are the ones who made effort. In 1746, blood started to shed on wars and battles that paved the way for the establishment of the state.

He added: “Therefore, the kingdom sanctified Imam ibn Abd al-Wahhab as a person and an idea, never allowing criticism. Those who followed his approach, and all the kingdom's scholars during a whole decade of time, attributed themselves to Wahhabism, especially since the idea did not stop at the borders of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Rather, it pervaded the entire Gulf, in Qatar, Kuwait and the Emirates.”

That call was considered the intellectual and methodological fortress that protects the characteristics of that country from other calls and different approaches, and with it they faced the Shiite tide first, and the Sufi second.

He stated: "It is not easy to root out in this way, not by a decision of a ruler or institution. There is a large segment of students and academic professors founded on that ideology under the auspices of the state."

Dr. Maher believed that "crushing the trend means destroying existing and previous generations, which will not happen, but rather will bring out a counter-opposition campaign, because it believes that the campaign is not based on the thought or history of Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, but on the religion itself, which is something that is not acceptable in a very conservative society like Saudi Arabia; even if they wanted change and renewal, they would clash with their existing legacy.”

Al-Hanafi stressed: "The call of ibn Abd al-Wahhab, even if the ruler disagrees with it,  did not produce extremism.”

He believes that "what has led to extremism is the political behavior of states and rulers, repression and the lack of space for opinion and disagreement."

Therefore, continuing in the same situation, will be met by a counter-wave of extremism that is not safe, and will represent a threat and a danger to the state itself, according to him.