The Canon · No. 081
Wahhabism & Salafism
Ahl al-Hadith; the Salafi movement
1744 CE – present · Abrahamic · Living · Saudi Arabia and, through funding and media, worldwide
VI. REFORMATION & EARLY MODERN — 1500 – 1800
How many
Roughly 50–100 million identify with Salafi methodology; its influence on global Sunni discourse is far larger than its membership.
Who began it
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792), a Najdi scholar, whose 1744 pact with Muhammad ibn Saud traded religious legitimacy for military protection. Broader Salafism also draws on Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328) and on the 19th-century modernists Afghani, Abduh and Rida, who used the term in a very different sense.
What it is for
To purify Islam of everything added after the first three generations, the salaf.
What it worships
Allah alone, with intense emphasis on the exclusivity of worship.
What it holds
Tawhid pushed to its strictest reading, and in particular tawhid al-uluhiyya, the exclusivity of worship. Anything that could involve directing devotion to a creature is shirk: visiting graves for intercession, seeking a saint's help, celebrating the Prophet's birthday, building shrines, wearing amulets. Rejection of taqlid, uncritical following of the four legal schools, in favour of direct recourse to Quran and hadith. Bid'a, innovation, is the master category of condemnation. Literalism in scripture and in divine attributes. The most contentious doctrine is takfir — declaring other Muslims unbelievers — which mainstream Salafi scholars restrict severely and which jihadist groups have used to justify mass killing of Muslims.
What it does
Plain mosques without decoration, domes or minarets in the strictest reading. No shrine visitation. Beards and above-the-ankle garments for men; face veiling widely required. Gender segregation. Strict enforcement of prayer times. Historically, the Saudi religious police.
After death
Standard Islamic eschatology, with a literal reading of the descriptions of paradise and hell.
Its texts
Quran and hadith, approached directly. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's Kitab al-Tawhid. Ibn Taymiyyah's fatwas. The rulings of 20th-century scholars such as Ibn Baz and al-Albani.
Its branches
Quietist Salafis (the majority; political obedience, focus on creed and purification), activist or Sahwa Salafis, and jihadi Salafis (a small minority responsible for most of the violence associated with the label).
Of note
Two things are commonly confused. Wahhabism is a specific Najdi movement tied to the Saudi state. Salafism is a broader methodological orientation with many strands, most of them quietist and non-violent. Treating all three tiers as one thing is the standard error in Western coverage.
Its timeline
- <strong>1744 CE</strong> The Diriyah pact between Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Ibn Saud.
- 1802 CE Wahhabi forces sack Karbala, destroying the shrine of Husayn and killing thousands — an act that shaped Shia perception of the movement permanently.
- 1806, 1925 CE Tombs in Mecca and Medina demolished, including the historic Jannat al-Baqi cemetery.
- 1818 CE The first Saudi state is destroyed by the Ottomans and Muhammad Ali of Egypt.
- 1932 CE The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia founded.
- <strong>1973–1980s CE</strong> The oil boom. Saudi Arabia funds mosques, schools, translations and scholarships worldwide on an unprecedented scale. Estimates of the total run to tens of billions of dollars. This is the mechanism by which a regional Arabian movement became a global force.
- 1979 CE The seizure of the Grand Mosque by Juhayman al-Utaybi's group; the state responds by empowering the religious establishment further. The Iranian Revolution the same year intensifies Sunni-Shia rivalry.
- 1979–89 CE The Afghan war draws in transnational fighters; jihadist Salafism emerges as a distinct and violent current.
- 1990s–2010s CE Al-Qaeda and then ISIS claim Salafi legitimacy; the great majority of Salafi scholars, including the Saudi establishment, denounce them.
- 2017–present Saudi social liberalisation under Mohammed bin Salman curtails the religious police and reduces clerical power, while political repression increases.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.