THE FIRST WAHHABI MISSION

37 - 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Muhammad, who ruthlessly massacred Muslims in order to disseminate Wahhabism, sent three Wahhabis to Mecca in 1210 A.H. (1795). The 'ulama' of Ahl as-Sunnat responded to them with ayats and hadiths and the Wahhabite representatives could not make any rejoinder. They could not find any way out but to admit the truth. They wrote and signed a long declaration which stated that Ahl as-Sunnat was right and that they themselves were on a wrong, aberrant path. But 'Abd al-'Aziz did not even lend an ear to the advice of the men of religious authority, for he was running after political ambitions and had set his heart on increasing the taste of his chieftain. He increased his torture of the Muslims day by day behind the curtain of religiousness.

The three Wahhabis put forward twenty points to convince Meccan Muslims. These twenty points are summarized in the three main groups in the above. Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab said that it was Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal's (rahmat-Allahi 'alaih) ijtihad that 'ibadat formed a part of iman. However, all of Imam Ahmad's ijtihads were recorded in books and the Meccan 'ulama' knew all of them in detail, so they easily proved and convinced the three Wahhabis that this allegation of Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab was false.