Most of the following information has been derived from Mirat-ul haramain:

The founder of Wahhabism is Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab. He was born in the town of Huraymila in Najd in 1111 A.H. [1699 A.D.], and died in Darr'iyya in 1206 A.H. [1791 A.D.]. Formerly, with a view to traveling and trading, he went to Basra, Baghdad, Iran, India and to Damascus, whereabouts he happened to find Ahmad ibni Taymiyya's books, which were against the Ahl as-sunnat. He read them and, being intelligent, clever, and strongly convincing, he became famous as the "Shaikh-i Najdi." In 1125, he was ensnared by the British spy Hempher and was exploited by the British in their activities carried on to demolish Islam. Our Book Confessions of A British Spy enlarges on the events that contributed to the establishment of the Wahhabite heresy. In order to increase his fame, he received an education from the savants of the Hanbali Madhhab in the blessed city of Medina and then in Damascus. Then he went back to Najd, where he wrote books. His ill thoughts deceived the villagers, particularly the inhabitants of Dar'iyya and their chief Muhammad bin Suud. Those who accepted his ideas, which he termed Wahhabism, are called Wahhabi or Najdi. It being easy to deceive the ignorant, Wahhabis increased in number, and he introduced himself as the Qadi and Muhammad bin Suud as the Amir and Governor. He had it established that they would be succeeded only by their progeny. When the book Mirat-ul-haramain was printed in 1306 A.H. [1888 A.D.], the Amir of Najdis was Abdullah bin Faisal.

Muhammad's father, Abdulwahhab, was a good Muslim. He and the savants in Medina had sensed from his words that the son of Abdulwahhab was going to take a corrupt course and advised all people around them not to talk with him. But he declared Wahhabism in 1150 A.H. There are too many wrong ideas to be tallied in the books which he wrote, especially in Kitab-ut-tawhid, which is the worst of them, and in Fath-ul-majid, an explanation of the former prepared by his grandson, Abdurrahman bin Hasan. Yet Wahhabism is based upon three doctrines:

1- Wahhabis state that deeds and worships are part of iman; he who does not perform one fard action, e.g. a person who omits one namaz, though he believes that it is fard, becomes a disbeliever; he should be killed and his property should be shared among the Wahhabis. These are written on pages 17, 48, 93, 111, 273, 337, and 348 in Fath-ul-majid.

2- They state that he who asks for shafaat (intercession) from souls of prophets or of Awliya, or who visits their graves and prays through their intermediation, becomes a disbeliever. It is written on the five hundred and third page of the Wahhabite book Fath-ul- majid, "When Rasulullah was alive it would be permissible to ask him to invoke a blessing on you. In fact, any pious person who is alive may be asked to invoke a blessing on you. As a matter of fact, when Hadrat 'Umar was about to leave for Mecca to perform 'umra, Rasulullah said, "O 'Umar, don't forget us in your prayer.' Also, it is permissible for the living to send prayers to the souls of the dead that are buried or that will be buried. But it is not permissible to ask for prayers from those who are in graves. Allahu ta'ala has declared that it is shirk (to attribute a partner to Allahu ta'ala) to ask for prayers from those who do not hear or answer. The dead and those from among the living who are absent, far away, do not hear or answer. They cannot be useful or harmful. None of the Sahaba or those who succeeded them asked anything from Rasulullah's grave. If it had been permissible to ask something from the Prophet after his death, Hadrat 'Umar would have prayed to him for rain. But he did not visit his grave or ask him for help. He asked for prayers from Hadrat Abbas, who was alive and present." It is written on its seventieth (70th) page, "Asking something from a dead person or from a person who is absent means to attribute him as a partner to Allahu ta'ala."

These slanders of the Wahhabis are contradicted first of all by their own book. It is written on the two hundred and first page of Fath-ul-majid, "Abdullah ibni Masud stated in Bukhari, "We heard the food which we ate praise and laud Allahu ta'ala.' Hadrat Abu Zar said, "Rasulullah took some pieces of stone in his hand. We heard them praise and laud Allahu ta'ala.' The report stating that the wood which Rasulullah leaned upon as he made a speech moaned, is true." This means to say that not only Rasulullah but also some other Believers could hear the sounds which not everybody could hear. It is declared at the end of the same report that these stones were heard to praise and laud Allahu ta'ala while they were in Hadrat Abu Bakr's hand, too. Many books (of Islam) communicate that while Hadrat 'Umar was making a speech called Khutba in Medina, he saw Sariya, the commander-in-chief of the army, warring in Iran and said to him, "Sariya, beware of the enemy on the mountain!" and Sariya, hearing him, captured the mountain. Wahhabis try to prove their words right with those ayats which have descended for idolaters. However, Believers, [that is, the Ahl as-sunnat], do not worship prophets "alaihim-us-salawatu wattaslimat' or Awliya "alaihi-r-rahma'. But they believe that these are Allah's beloved slaves and that Allah will pity His other slaves for their sake. They say, "He, alone, creates misfortune and benefits. No one except Him has the right to be worshipped." They visit graves and pray to Allahu ta'ala through the exalted persons in the graves.

Ibni Abidin states on the last page of the (chapter about) the contract of a Nikah, "It is not permissible to marry by saying that Allah and Rasulullah are witnesses. In fact, there are (savants) who say that it would be kufr to say so. "For, it would mean to say that Rasulullah knows the ghayb. He who says that someone other than Allahu ta'ala knows the ghayb becomes a disbeliever,' they say. But it is written in Tatarhaniyya, in Hujja, and in Multaqit that it is not kufr. For, Allahu ta'ala intimates everything to His Messenger's soul. Prophets know many things that are unknown to others. The hundred and twenty-sixth ayat of Surat-ul-Jinn declares: "Of the things from the ghayb, which Allahu ta'ala knows, He intimates some only to those prophets He chooses." But it is written in the books of 'aqaid that one of the karamat of Awliya is their knowing many things of the ghayb. The Mutazila group [and their followers, the Wahhabis], base themselves on this ayat as they say that Awliya cannot know the ghayb. In answer to them, we say that this ayat informs us that only the angel bringing the Wahy is informed with the ghayb directly. The ghayb are intimated to prophets and to Awliya through the angel or by some other means. There is detailed information about the karamat of Awliya in the book, Sell-ul-hisam-il-Hindi li-nusrat-i sayyidina Khalid-i Naqshibandi. Please read the book! You will learn many facts in answer to the Wahhabis." Tafsir-i Mazhari states in the explanation of this ayat-i karima, "Allahu ta'ala lets His Awliya know without any means as well. He revealed Sariya to Hadrat 'Umar "radi-Allahu ta'ala 'anhuma'. He states that He told Hadrat Musa's mother to put her son into the sea and intimated to her that He would send him back and make him a prophet. He states that He informed the Hawaris (Apostles) by means of something similar to Wahy, and that He said to Hadrat Maryam (Jesus' blessed mother), "Shake the date log. There shall be fresh dates. Eat them!' These people were not prophets. They were Walis." This is discoursed in detail in the book, Usul-ul-arba'a fi tardid-il wahhabiyya, in Persian. The book was reproduced by Hakikat Kitabevi in 1395 A.H. [1975].

It is written on the hundred and twenty-sixth page of the second volume of the book Hadiqa, "It is permissible to pray to Allahu ta'ala through Rasulullah, through the Ashab al- kiram, or through the Tabiin even after their death. To pray through them means to ask for their shafaat. The savants of the Ahl as-sunnat communicated that this was permissible. But a group of Mutazila disbelieved it. The admission of the prayer of the one who asks for shafaat is the karamat of the intercessor. That is, it is the latter's karamat after death. Holders of bidat, heretics, did not believe this. Imam-i Manawi answers these ignorant people in his explanation of Jami'us-saghir. Imam-i Subki stated, "To pray through Rasulullah means to ask for his shafaat (intercession). This is a fine thing. Neither the early Islamic savants nor the later ones said anything against this. Only Ibni Taymiyya denied this. Thus he dissented from the right way. He made up a bidat which had been said by none of the savants preceding him. Because of this bidat of his, he became the topic of Muslims' indignant remonstrations." Ibni Abdussalam explains in detail that it is permissible to ask for something from Allahu ta'ala by saying, "For Rasulullah's sake." Also, it is communicated by Maruf-i Karhi and also written in the booklet Qushairi that it is permissible to pray through Awliya, who are Rasulullah's inheritors. It is written on its hundred and fifty-first page that a person who does something which has been said to be permissible by any mujtahid should not be prohibited from doing it. For, it is permissible to follow one of the four Madhhabs. For this reason, those who visit graves, those who bless themselves with the graves of the Awliya and those who vow something to their souls so that their sick relatives may be cured or so that what they have lost may be found, should not be prohibited from doing so. When vowing, to say, "I intend this votive offering for this Wali," is figurative, and it means, "I intend it to those who serve the grave." It is similar to saying that one is only lending it when one is giving the alms called zakat to the poor; the savants of fiqh have said that it is permissible to say so. Here, the tenor, not the vehicle, is important. Likewise, the present given to the poor becomes alms. And the alms given to the rich becomes a present. Hadrat Ibni Hajar-i Haitami has given a fatwa stating that when vowing at the graves of Awliya, it is sahih to vow with the intention of another qurbat, that is, another useful deed such as alms to their children or disciples, or to other poor Muslims who are there. Things determined during the vow should be given to the persons intended. All the vows made at graves today bear this kind of intention. This should be understood from the utterance "Intended for the Wali." It is haram to speak ill of deceased Awliya, or to say that they are ignorant, or to infer meanings unsuitable with the Shariat from their words, or to disbelieve that they will manifest karamats after death, or to think that they are no longer Awliya when they are dead, or to prevent those who bless themselves with their graves. It is also haram to think ill of Muslims, or to torment them, or to take away their property, or to envy or slander them, or to lie or talk behind their backs."

It is written on the hundred and eighty-eighth page of Hadiqa, "A hadith ash-Sharif, which Bukhari quotes from Abu Huraira "radi-Allahu 'anh', declares: "Allahu ta'ala declared: My slave cannot approach Me through anything as much as he approaches Me by doing fard actions. When My slave does supererogatory acts of worship, I love him very much, so much so that he hears with Me, sees with Me, holds everything with Me, walks with Me. I give him whatever he asks from Me. When he trusts himself to Me I protect him." As this hadith ash-Sharif indicates: he who does the supererogatory acts of worship together with the fard ones will earn Allah's love. The prayers of such people will be accepted. Said bin Ismail Abu 'Uthman Khayri Nishapuri "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih' said that this hadith ash- Sharif means: "I immediately give him all kinds of his wishes such as to see, to hear, to go, and to hold." See the last part of the chapter "Final Word of Se'adet-i Ebediyye" in the first fascicle of Endless Bliss. Also, the hadith ash-Sharif "When you have trouble in your work, ask help from those who are in graves!" reveals that Allahu ta'ala gives this power to His beloved slaves when they are dead, too.

Imam-i Birghiwi quotes the hadith ash-Sharif, "When visiting a Believer's grave, if you say, "O Allah, don't torment him for Hadrat Muhammad's sake,' Allahu ta'ala will stop his torment until the end of the world," in his booklet Atfal-ul-Muslimin. Rasulullah orders us to say this prayer. But Wahhabis say that he who prays so will become a disbeliever.

There are many hadith ash-Sharifs states that a Muslim is conscious in the grave. The Sahaba and the Tabiin used to visit the Qabr-i Saadat and bless themselves with the Prophet's soul. There are many books written about this.

While explaining how to pray in a due manner, the book Hisn-ul-hasin states, "Admission of a prayer requires that you put prophets "alaihim-us-salawatu wattaslimat' and pious Muslims as intermediaries. It is declared so in a hadith ash-Sharif in Bukhari."

Hadrat Ali Ramitani said, "Pray with a tongue that has not sinned so that it will be admitted!" That is, humiliate yourself in the presence of Allah's beloved ones, beg them so that they will pray for you. This is the meaning of praying through a Wali.

The son of Abdulwahhab and those ignorant people who have been deceived by him deem the Ahl as-sunnat as disbelievers who worship idols and graves, and say that it is halal to kill the Ahl as-sunnat and to take away their possessions; this is because they misinterpret the nass [i.e. ayats and hadiths]. In a hadith ash-Sharif in Bukhari, our master the Prophet "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' declares: "The disbelievers impute the ayats that have descended for disbelievers to Muslims." He declared in another hadith ash- Sharif, "Of those who bear the name Muslim, the ones for whom I fear the most are those who change the meaning of the Qur'an." These hadith ash-Sharifs foretell that Wahhabis will appear and that they are heretics.

If a person who prayed through Awliya by visiting their graves would become a disbeliever, our Prophet would not be asked to intercede. In fact, he has always been asked to intercede before he came to the world, when he was alive in the world, and after his death. In the hadith ash-Sharif of Ibni Maja, which is written on the hundred and fifty-third page of Shawahid-ul-haqq, our Prophet used to pray, "Ya Rabbi! I ask of Thee for the sake of those people whom Thou hast given whatever they wanted whenever they asked of Thee!" And he used to order his companions to pray so. Tabarani, Ibni Hibban, Hakim and Suyuti report that he said, "Ighfir li-ummi Fatimata binti Asad wa wassi'alaiha madkhalaha bi haq-qi Nabiyyika wal-Anbiya-illazina min qabli fa innaka arham-ur-rahimin," when he interred Hadrat Ali's mother Fatima with his own blessed hands. As 'Uthman bin Hunayf, one of the greatest Sahabis, reports, he ordered a blind man, who had asked him to pray so that he might be healed, to make an ablution, to perform two rakats of namaz and then to say, "Allahumma inni as'aluka wa atawajjahu ilayka bi-Nabiyyika Muhammadin Nabiy-yir- rahmat, ya Muhammadu inni atawajjahu bike ila Rabbi fi hajati, li-taqdiya-li Allahumma shaffi'hu fiyya." This prayer is written at the end of the chapter Salat-ul-hajat in Maraqiyy- ul-falah and its khashiya (annotation), Tahtawi, and in their Turkish version Nimat-i Islam, in Shifa-us-Siqam and ad-Durar-us-Saniyya. The Sahaba often used to say that prayer. It is declared in a sahih hadith ash-Sharif quoted by Hakim that when Adam "ala Nabiyyina wa 'alaihissalatu wassalam" was taken out of Paradise, he prayed much. But his repentance would not be accepted. When at last he said, "Ya Rabbi! Have mercy upon this father for the sake of my son Muhammad!" His prayer was accepted, and he was told, "O Adam! If you had asked for anything with the name of Muhammad, I would give it, whatever it was. If it had not been for Muhammad, I would not have created you." This hadith ash-Sharif is also written at the beginning of the books Mawahib and Anwar. This fact is explained in detail on the hundred and ninth page of the book Ghaliyya by Alusi. The word "haqq' in these prayers means "sake, value.' The phrases that contain them mean "for the sake of the valuable grades which He has given those whom He loves. For, no creature has by any means any haqq (right) upon Allahu ta'ala.'

Question: At that time, Muhammad "alaihis-salam" was not in the world. He would honor the world with his presence three hundred and thirteen thousand years later. How did Adam "alaihis-salam" know him?

Answer: When Hadrat Adam was in Paradise, he saw the writing "La ilaha il-l-Allah Muhammadun Rasulullah" everywhere in Paradise and also on the Arsh. So he understood that Rasulullah was Allah's most beloved slave. This was written there in Islamic letters. This means to say that those letters are not men-made. They were put there by Allah.

Those letters existed long before the world and Adam "alaihis-salam" came into existence. All the heavenly books and pages were sent in Islamic letters.

These prayers show that it is permissible to ask Allahu ta'ala by putting His beloved ones as intermediaries and to ask for their sake.

It is written on the five hundred and twenty-fourth page of the fifth volume of Ibni Abidin, "It is good to pray to Allahu ta'ala through Rasulullah's intercession. None of the early savants or the later ones said anything against this. Only Ibni Taymiyya would not accept this. He invented a bidat by saying what nobody had said it. Imam-i Subki explains well that this is so."

Ahmad bin Sayyid Zaini Dahlan was the Mufti, the Rais-ul-'ulama, and the Shafi'i Shaikh-ul-Khutaba of Mecca. He has many writings, and in his books, Khulasat-ul-kalam fi bayan-i umara-il balad-il-haram, Firradd-i alal-wahhabiyyat-i-atba-i madhhab-i ibni Taymiyya, and Ad-Durar-us-saniyya firradd-i alal-Wahhabiyya, he divulges the Wahhabis' real intentions and proves with ayats and hadiths that they are zindiqs, heretics and idiots. In his Khulasat-ul-kalam, he explains how they deceive the unlearned ones of Muslims, and answers (their dogmas) one by one. He proves that their words are mendacious and slanderous, and states as follows:

It is sahih and permissible to pray through the mediation of Rasulullah after his death, as it was when he was alive. Likewise, hadith ash-Sharifs point out that it is permissible to pray through the mediation of the Awliya or pious Muslims. [The statements on pages 167, 170, 191, 208, 248, 353, 414, 416, 482, 486, and 504 of the Wahhabite book Fath-ul-majid are slanders against Muslims.] The savants of the Ahl as-sunnat say that Allahu ta'ala, alone, gives effectiveness, creates, invents, gives benefit and harm, annihilates. He does not have a partner. Prophets, all the living, and the dead cannot create effectiveness, benefit or harm. Nor can they effect anything. Only, because they are the beloved slaves of Allahu ta'ala, we get barakat through them. Wahhabis believe that the living have effect but the dead do not have effect. This is written on the 70th, the 77th, the 98th, the 104th, the 239th, the 248th, the 223rd, the 503rd and the 504th pages of the Wahhabite book Fath-ul-majid. "A person who asks for something from a deceased or from a living but absent person will become a polytheist. Man can be asked to do things that are within his power. It is not permissible to ask him to do things which only Allah can do." It is written on its 70th page, "The living person will pray for the thing asked of him. Allah will accept the prayer and create that thing. But to ask for it from a dead or absent person means to ask for something which is not within his power, and this, in its turn, is polytheism." It is written on its 136th page, "To try to get barakat through the graves of pious people is polytheism, identical with worshipping the idols called Lat and Manat." It is written on its 208th page, "It is polytheism to ask for your needs from the dead or to do istighasa through the dead. It is ignorance to ask dead to intercede for you. Without Allah's permission, he cannot intercede for anyone. Doing istighasa through him or asking him to intercede has not been created as the cause for his being permitted to intercede. The cause for intercession is iman. He who does istighasa is a polytheist. He prevents permission." The book contradicts itself. For, it is written on its 200th page, "The Heavens fear Allah. Allah has created sense in the heavens. They perceive. It is intimated in the Qur'an that the earth and heavens make tasbih. The Sahaba heard the pieces of stone which Rasulullah took in his hand make tasbih; a pole called Hannana in the mosque moaned, and food made tasbih." [Their asserting that prophets and Awliya do not have any sense while saying that mountains, stones and poles have sense and perception exposes that they are very stupid.] Wahhabis become polytheists by saying that "you can pray through the living but not through the dead.' For, this statement means to say that the living hear and effect but the dead do not hear or effect It means to believe that those other than Allah effects. They themselves say that those who believe so are polytheists. In fact, both the dead and the living are causes. Allahu ta'ala, alone, effects and creates. The statement in Tafsir-i Alusi which states that Imam-i azam prohibited praying through the intermediation of Rasulullah is not true. For, not one savant has conveyed such a report from Imam-i azam. They have said that it is permissible (to pray through Rasulullah's intermediation). Tawassul, tashaffu', istighasa and tawajjuh have the same meaning. They are all permissible. A hadith ash-Sharif in Bukhari declares, "On the Day of Resurrection people will first have istighasa with Adam "alaihissalam"." Bilal bin Haris "radiallahu anh', one of the greatest Sahabis, came to Rasulullah's grave and said, "O Rasulallah! Pray on behalf of your Ummat so that it will rain.' Hence, it rained. Those disbelievers who said that idols would intercede for them worshipped idols. But Believers, who ask for intercession, do not worship prophets or Awliya. It is written on the two hundred and ninth page of the book Fath-ul-majid, "It is declared in Qur'an al- karim: "Intercession will be done only with His permission,' and "Only those people He likes will be interceded for.' How does the person who asks for shafaat know that the Prophet will be allowed to intercede for him? How does he know that he is one of those who are liked and then asks for shafaat?" With these words he contradicts both hadiths and himself. For, he says on the two hundred and eighth page of the same book, "Iman is the cause of being interceded for." It is said in a prayer, which we are commanded to say after the adhan, that Allahu ta'ala has promised our Prophet "sallallahu alaihi wa sallam' the grades of fadila and wasila. He said that he shall intercede for those who say this prayer, for those who say the salawat, and for those who visit his grave. These hadiths and many others reveal that he has been permitted to intercede for those he likes. The hadith ash- Sharif, "I shall intercede for those who have grave sins," proves that he will be permitted to intercede for anyone who has iman. The thirteenth of the forty hadiths on the hundred and thirtieth page of Shawahid-ul-haqq declares: "On the Day of Resurrection I shall intercede. I shall say, "O my Allah! Put those who have iman as big as a mustard seed in their heart into Paradise.' Consequently, they shall go to Paradise. Then I shall say to those with something little in their heart: Go into Paradise." This hadith ash-Sharif is quoted in Bukhari. Istigahasa means tawassul, that is, to make (someone) a wasila, to ask for (his) help and prayers. To ask for his intercession means to pray to Allahu ta'ala through his intermediation and to beg for death with iman. It is written in many parts of the Wahhabite book Fath-ul-majid, especially on its three hundred and twenty-third page, "It is polytheism to have istighasa with absent or dead people or to ask for their help. Allah commands us to war with polytheists." On the contrary, Rasulullah "sallallahu alaihi wa sallam' used to say, "O Muhammad, I turn to thine Allah through thine intermediation." After his decease the Sahaba used to say this prayer. A hadith ash-Sharif, transmitted by Tabarani, declares: "If a person left alone in a desert loses something he should say, "O Allah's slaves, help me!' For, Allahu ta'ala has slaves that you do not see." Ibni Hajar-i Makki wrote in his explanation of Idhah-ul-Manasik that this prayer has been utilized many times. In a hadith ash-Sharif, transmitted by Abu Dawud and others, one evening during an expedition Rasulullah said, "O my Allah's earth! Against thine villainy I trust myself to Allah."

Sayyid Qutb, one of the leaders of those called the Ihwan-ul-Muslimin, who are also la- madhhabi people, wrote in his interpretation of the third ayat of the Sura Zumar, "A person with tawhid and ikhlas does not want anything from anyone, except from Allahu ta'ala. He never trusts any creature. Men left the tawhid shown by Islam. Today, in all countries, Awliya are being worshipped. People ask for intercession from Awliya, just like those Arabs who worshipped angels and statues before Islam. According to the tawhid and Ikhlas revealed by Allahu ta'ala, no intercession or means exist between Allahu ta'ala and His creatures." With these words, he announced that he was a Wahhabi. [To worship a creature means to believe that a creature, such as a stone, a tree, the sun, a star, a cow, a human being, an icon, or a picture, has the attributes of uluhiyyat, and to supplicate to it in a submissive manner. Attributes peculiar to Allahu ta'ala alone are called the attributes of uluhiyyat. This sort of belief is called shirk (polytheism), and a person who holds such a belief is called mushrik (polytheist). These objects of worship are called sharik (partner), or mabud (the worshipped), or put (idol). Most of today's Christians, Buddhists, Brahmins and magians are polytheists. Muslims do not divinize any Wali. They know that Prophets and Walis are beloved slaves of Allahu ta'ala. They believe that Allahu ta'ala informs these blessed people about their visitors as well as about those people who pray through them. They beg these darlings of Allahu ta'ala to pray for them.]

3- (According to Wahhabis), "it is not permissible to build tombs over graves, to perform namaz at tombs, to burn candles for those who worship and serve in the tombs, or to vow alms for the souls of the dead!.. The inhabitants of Mecca and Medina have been worshipping domes and walls up to now. For this reason, those Muslims called the Ahl as- sunnat and also those who are called Shiite or Alawi have become polytheists." They say that it is halal to kill them, to plunder their property, and the animals which they kill become carrion.

The fact that it is permissible to perform salat in tombs is written in detail in the 14th chapter under the section "Muslimana Nasihat (Advice for the Muslim) " of our Turkish book Kiyamet ve Ahiret. Turba (tomb) means room. If it were not permissible to build tombs, the Sahaba "radi-Allahu ta'ala 'anhum ajmain' would not have buried our Master Rasulullah, Hadrat Abu Bakr and Hadrat 'Umar in a room. A tomb is not built in order to worship the dead person. It is built in order to express love and respect towards him and to protect those who visit him so that they can say prayers for his soul against rain and sun. It is written on the five hundred and fifty-second page of the second volume of the book Majma'ul-anhur, "When Muhammad bin Hanafiyya interred Abdullah bin Abbas, he set up a tent over his grave. The visitors prayed in this tent for three days." As it is seen, he who is on the way of the Sahaba will not demolish tombs, but he will build tombs.

It is written in Kashf-un-nur, "Building tombs over the graves of savants and of the Awliya is to protect them against the insults of the ignorant. It is written in Jami'ul-fatawa and in Tanwir that it is not makruh to build a dome on a tomb. Their word, "We have been demolishing tombs for fear that the ignorant might think of the Awliya as creative," is disbelief. Likewise, Pharaoh attempted to kill Musa "alaihis-salam" by saying that he had been causing fitna. Allahu ta'ala loves His Awliya. He creates whatever they want. But Wahhabis think ill of Allahu ta'ala, of the Awliya and of all Muslims. It is haram to think ill of Muslims. The Awliya do not create anything while alive or when dead. They cause the creating of Allahu ta'ala. The souls of the Awliya have a connection with their bodies in the graves. It is declared in a hadith ash-Sharif conveyed by Dailami, "When I am dead I will understand as I do when I am alive," which is written in Kunuz. In order to receive fayd and to benefit from a Wali who is dead or alive, it is necessary to love and to respect him. The ignorant, when seeing the dead without any movement under the soil, consider them lower than themselves. When they see the tomb, the sarcophagus, and that everybody visits them with respect, they become respectful, too. That is, the tombs are not built for the dead, but in order for the living to be respectful and to benefit from the Walis. The savants of the Ahl as-sunnat declare that it is haram to build tombs over graves with the intention to decorate and to boast. It is makruh when it is built for the sake of not being forgotten. But it is not makruh when it is intended to protect the dead against animals and thieves. It is permissible to inter a dead person in a tomb that has been built before. Rasulullah built his son Ibrahim's tomb a span above the ground and had it plastered. One day, as he was passing Ibrahim's grave, he saw that a small part of it was open; so he covered it. This fact is written in Khulasa. None of the Islamic savants likened tombs to idols; the ones who wrote most excessively said that it would be haram to build them. Those Muslims who visit graves and pray through the Awliya have not been spoken ill of or slandered by any of the savants except Wahhabis. It is written on the two hundred and forty-second page of the Wahhabite book Fath-ul-majid, "Ibni Hajar-i Makki states in his book Zawajir that it is a grave sin to build domes over graves, that it is wajib for Muslim rulers and governors to demolish such domes, and that it is necessary to demolish Imam-i Shafi'i's tomb first." The fact is quite the opposite; Hadrat Ibni Hajar-i Makki does not say, "It is a grave sin to build domes over graves" in his book Zawajir, which is mentioned above. He says, "It is necessary to demolish the tombs in the public cemetery of waqf, where everybody is buried, for they occupy too much ground to enable other Muslims to be buried." But he does not say that it is haram or disbelief to build tombs, or to visit graves. This slander made against Hadrat Ibni Hajar-i Makki is another obvious document proving that Wahhabis, who are not ashamed to change the meanings of ayat al-karimas and hadith ash- Sharifs or to concoct false interpretations, have been attempting to deceive Muslims by changing and misquoting the information in the books of the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat, too.

Ibni Hajar-i Makki wrote on the hundred and twenty-fifth page of his book Fatawa-i fiqhiyya, "It is sahih to perform namaz at the tombs of prophets. It is not even makruh. Prophets are alive in their graves. But their lives are different from our lives in every respect. They worship in order to enjoy its taste, for they perceive Allahu ta'ala in the life of the grave better than they do in the world."

Tahir Muhammad Sulaiman Maliki, an Islamic scholar in Sudan, states as follows in his book Zahirat-ul-fiqh-il-kubra: "Shaikh Adwi said that building a tomb over a grave is permissible when the following four conditions are fulfilled: The place where the grave is must be the dead person's property. No act of fasad or bidat must be practiced at the tomb. The tomb must not be turned into an object of pleasure or boasting. It must be built as a sign to indicate that there is a Wali lying there. Ibni Taymiyya's heretical comments bear no value."

Scholars of Ahl as-sunnat wrote many books for the purpose of refuting the Wahhabis. The names of thirty-nine of them are as follows:

1- The very valuable book Fatwa, by Muhammad ibni Sulaiman "rahmatullahi 'alaih', a Shafi'i savant from the blessed city of Medina.

2- The book Addurrarussaniyya firraddi 'alal-wahhabiyya, by Ahmad Zaini Dahlan-i- Shafi'i, chief of the savants of the blessed city of Mecca, exists in the City library in Istanbul, at No. 1079. It has been reproduced by photocopy by Hakikat Kitabevi in Istanbul.

3- The book Risalat-ussunniyyin firradi alal-mubtadiin by Mustafa Qirimi "rahmatullahi 'alaih'. It exists in the City library, at number 992.

4- The book Minha-tul wahbiyya, by Hadrad Dawud bin Sulaiman Baghdadi "rahmatullahi 'alaih', who is registered in the name Khalidi in the book Munjid. The latter exists at No. 292 in the City library. It has been reproduced by photocopy by Hakikat Kitabevi in Istanbul.

5- In his book Tarih-ul-Madhahib-il-Islamiyya, Muhammad Abu Zuhra describes Wahhabis and informs us in detail that they are ahl-i bidat.

6- Allama Ibni Abidin "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih' says on the three hundred and ninth page of the third volume of his explanation of Durr-ul-mukhtar. "The la-madhhabi people call themselves Muslims and those who do not believe as they do polytheists or disbelievers. Therefore, they say that it brings thawab to kill the Ahl as-sunnat and their savants. In 1233 A.H. the Ahl as-sunnat overcame them, and they became grieved and distressed." A photocopy of the above-mentioned writing has been published with the name Kitab-ul-ayman by Hakikat Kitabevi.

7- The Mufti of Zabid, Sayyid Abdurrahman said, "To refute Wahhabis and to explain that they are heretics, it will be sufficient to quote the following hadith: Our Prophet "sall- Allahu alaihi wa sallam' declared: "Some people will appear in eastern Arabia. They will read Qur'an al-karim. Yet the Qur'an al-karim will not go down their throats. They will leave Islam as an arrow leaves a bow. Their faces will always be shaved." One of the most important duties of most of them is to shave their heads. They shave their cheeks and wear sharp beards only on their chins. This hadith ash-Sharif demonstrates that they have dissented from the right path."

8- In the books Assayf-us-saqil by Zahid-ul-Kawthari "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih', the ideas of Ibni Taymiyya and Ibni Qayyim are explained and refuted.

9- The book Wahhabilere Reddiyye by the ninety-sixth Shaikh-ul-Islam Sayyid Muhammad Ataullah Bey is famous.

10- The book Advice for the Muslim is originally in Turkish. Parts have been quoted from the Wahhabite book Fath-ul-majid, and each of these parts has been given responses from the books of Islamic savants. Its first edition was prepared by Hakikat Kitabevi in Istanbul in 1970. It has been published also in English by Hakikat Kitabevi.

11- The book Shawahid-ul-haqq, by Yusuf-i Nabhani, refutes Ibni Taymiyya and the Wahhabis through strong documents. A section of the valuable writings in this book exists in Arabic in the book 'Ulama-i Muslimin, which was printed in 1972. Part of its translation is written at the end of the Turkish book, Ashab-i Kiram, in entry Yusuf-i Nabhani, No. 253.

12- The book As-siham-us-sahiba, by Yusuf Nabhani, again, refutes Wahhabis by means of documentary ayats.

13- Ahmad Dahlan answers the slanders of the Wahhabis with documents in his books Khulasa-tul-kalam and Al-Futuhat-ul-islamiyya. The second part of the former book has been printed by offsett printing method by Hakikat Kitabevi in Istanbul.

14- Imam-i Subki proves in his book Shifa-us-siqam that it is permissible to visit Rasulullah "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' and the Awliya and to pray through their souls. It was printed in Bulaq Printhouse in Egypt in 1318 A.H. [1900 A.D.] It has been printed by offsett printing method several times by Hakikat Kitabevi in Istanbul.

15- Shaikh Sulaiman, the brother of Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab was one of the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat. Seeing that his brother, Muhammad, opened an evil way, he wrote refutations for his corrupt books. Of his books, Sawaiq-i ilahiyya firraddi alal-wahhabiyya was published in 1306, and it was printed by offsett printing method in 1395 [1975] by Hakikat Kitabevi.

16- Muhammad bin Ali Zamlikani, the Qadi of Aleppo and a Shafi'i savant, proves in his book Durra-tul-madiyya firraddi-'ala-ibni Taymiyya that it is permissible to pray through the graves of prophets.

17- Ahizada Abdulhalim bin Muhammad, the Qadi-asker of Thrace, proves in his book Fi-ithbat-il-kamalati-lil-awliya halalhayat wa ba'dal-mamat that the Awliya have karamats after dying, too. He passed away in 1013 A.H.

18- The book, Al-Aqaidussahiha fi tardid-il-wahhabiyya, by Hasan Jan Faruqi, proves in Arabic that Wahhabis have been demolishing Islam from within. It has been printed by offsett printing method by Hakikat Kitabevi.

19- Great savant and perfect Wali, Sayyid Abdulhakim-i Arwasi, in his book Kashkul, terminates his writings by refuting Wahhabis as follows: Millions of lovers, who had kashfs and shuhuds, have visited Rasulullah "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' and received infinite blessings from Allahu ta'ala. Rather than giving various examples, it will be enough to read the eulogy by Imam-ul-aimma and Siraj-ul-umma Abu Hanifa Numan bin Thabit, which he began, "O Master of masters! For thee I am here. I beg thee to like me. I defend myself by taking refuge in thee," when he visited the Prophet.

20- The book Sabil-un-najat, in Arabic, divulges the corrupt and heretical beliefs of the Wahhabis and refutes them with documents. First published in 1394 in India, it has been reproduced by photocopy by Hakikat Kitabevi.

21- The book Al-mathail-ul-muntahaba, in Arabic, reports the corrupt beliefs which Wahhabis have been trying to spread among the youngsters, and refutes them with documents. First published in 1391 in Pakistan, it has been reproduced by photocopy by Hakikat Kitabevi.

22- The book Al-habl-ul-matin, in Arabic, explains that it is necessary to follow one of the four Madhhabs, and describes karamat and how to get benefits from the souls of the Awliya. First published in Pakistan, it has been reproduced by photocopy by Hakikat Kitabevi.

23- The book Fatawa-ul-haramain was written by Ahmad Rida Khan Barilawi, one of the great savants of India. It answers Wahhabis and all lamadhhabi people with documents. It also explains in detail that the organization entitled Nudwat-ul 'ulama in Luqnow city of India is an institution harmful to Islam. The book, written in Arabic in 1317, was published in Pakistan and printed by offsett printing method in 1977 by Hakikat Kitabevi.

24- The book Al-madarij-ussaniyya firraddi 'alal-wahhabiyya answers Wahhabis in Arabic and Urdu. It has been reproduced by Hakikat Kitabevi.

25- The book Tariq-un-najat, written by Muhammad Hasan Jan Faruqi, was published in 1931 in Sind Haydarabad city, and has been reproduced by photocopy by Hakikat Kitabevi.

26- Sun'ullah-i Halabi, one of the savants of the blessed city of Mecca, proves in his book Sayfullah 'ala-man-kazzaba 'ala-Awliyaillah that the Awliya are honored with karamats after dying, too. He wrote this book of his in 1117 A.H.

27- Hadrat Shah Ahmad Said-i Dahlawi, in his book Tahqiq-ul-haqqil mubin, answers forty wrong statements of the Wahhabis with documents. He states in the fortieth answer that Abdul' Aziz-i Dahlawi said in his explanation of the Fatiha, "When asking for help from somebody, if one trusts him only without thinking that he has been honored with Allahu ta'ala's help, it is haram. It will be permissible if one trusts Allahu ta'ala only and thinks that the person has been honored with Allah's help, that Allah creates everything through causes, and that the person is one of such causes. Prophets and the Awliya, too, have asked for help from others by thinking so. Asking for help from somebody else by thinking so is the same as asking for help from Allahu ta'ala." He says in the interpretation of the Abasa Sura, "To burn the corpse is to leave the soul without a place. To bury the corpse is to allot a place for the soul. It is for this reason that we get benefits from buried Awliya and other pious Muslims. Also, it is thus possible to help the dead. The same is not the case for the dead that are cremated." Hadrat Abdulhaq-i Dahlawi wrote in his translation of Mishkat: "Most of the great shaikhs and the majority of the savants of fiqh said that it was permissible to ask for help from prophets and from the Awliya after their death. Owners of kashf and perfection communicated that this was correct. Most of them became exalted by receiving fayd from souls. They called those who became exalted by this way Uwaysi. Imam-i Shafi'i said that the grave of Imam Musa Kazim was like a theriac for him for the acceptance of his prayers, and that he had experienced it a number of times. Imam-i Ghazali said that a person who was made an intermediary and gave faid could be made an intermediary and give fayd after his death, too. One of the superior great shaikhs said that he had seen four great Awliya who were active after death as well as when they were alive; two of these were Maruf-i Karhi and Abd-ul-Qadir Geilani. Ahmad bin Zarruk, one of the great ones from among the Western savants and of the Awliya, said: Abdul-Abbas-i Hadrami asked me, "Who helps more, a living Wali or a dead Wali?' I said, "Everybody said a living Wali, but I say that a dead Wali helps more.' "You are right, for he is among the people while alive, but he is in the presence of Allahu ta'ala when dead.' he said. Ahmad bin Abul-Abbas Hadrami is a great Awliya. His biography is written in the Demirdash entry in the book Jami'-u Karamat-ul-Awliya. He clearly explains through ayat al-karimas and hadith ash-Sharifs that man's soul does not die when he dies. He adds that the soul is conscious and notices the visitors and what they do. The souls of the perfect murshids and the Awliya are in high grades when they are dead as well as when they are alive. Spiritually they are close to Allahu ta'ala. The Awliya perform karamats both in the world and after death. It is their souls that perform the karamats. And the soul does not die with man's dying. Allahu ta'ala, alone, makes and creates the karamats. Everything comes into being by His power. Every person, both when alive and when dead, is nothing before Allahu ta'ala's power. For this reason, it is not surprising that Allahu ta'ala sends blessings to a slave of His through one of His beloved ones. We always see that He creates many things and sends them through the living ones. Man cannot create anything when he is alive or dead. Only, he becomes a cause, a means for Allahu ta'ala's creating."

Hadrat Mawlana Abdulhakim-i Siyalkuti says in the book Zad-ul-labib by taking excerpts from the Arabic explanation of Ashi'at-ul-lama'at by Abdulhaq-i Dahlawi, "Many people disbelieve the fact that it is possible to get help from those in graves. They say that visiting graves is intended for sending prayers to the dead, for invoking blessings on them. And the majority of the great men of tasawwuf and the savants of fiqh said that help from those in graves was experienced. Also, the Awliya who have kashf communicated this unanimously. In fact, many people reported that they were making progress (spiritually) by receiving fayd from souls. They called these Uwaysi." After this Hadrat Siyalkuti adds: "I do not understand the real purpose of those who say that the dead cannot help. He who prays asks for help from Allahu ta'ala. He puts a beloved slave of Allahu ta'ala as an intermediary so that his prayer will be accepted. He says, "O my Allah! Give me for the sake of this beloved slave of Thine, whom you have blessed abundantly.' Or, calling to a slave of Allahu ta'ala, whom he believes He loves very much, he says, "O Allah's Wali, intercede for me!' Allahu ta'ala, alone, gives the wish and we ask from Him only. The Wali is only an intermediary, a cause. He, too, is transient. He, too, will be annihilated. He cannot make anything. He does not have the energy, the power to act. If to say or to believe so were shirk or to trust in somebody besides Allahu ta'ala, it would be prohibited to ask for prayers or for something else from the living, too. It has not been prohibited by our Din to ask for prayers or for something else from the living. On the contrary, it has been declared to be mustahab. It has always been done. If those who disbelieve this mean to say that there is no karamat left after death, they will have to prove this thesis of theirs. Yes, some of the Awliya are exalted to the alam-i quds after death. Being in the Divine presence, they forget everything else. They are quite unaware the world, of what is in the world. They do not hear the prayers. There are such ecstatic Darwishes among the living Awliya, who are in the world, too. If the person does not believe in karamat at all, it does not make any difference. He cannot prove his thesis. Qur'an al-karim, hadith ash-Sharifs, and the events that have been seen and known for centuries prove him wrong. Yes, if an ignorant idiot does not expect his wish from Allahu ta'ala's power and says that the Wali makes and creates, and if he asks from him with this thought, he should be prohibited and even punished. But Islamic savants and the arifs cannot be slandered with this assertion. For, Rasulullah "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' used to greet the dead as he visited graves. He never prohibited us from asking for something from the dead. Depending upon the state of the visitor and upon that of the one who is visited, some are prayers and others are requests for help. Every Muslim knows that prophets "salawatullahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain' are alive in their graves. No one can deny this. But we have been hearing about those who disbelieve the fact that the Awliya can extend help from their graves and that they can be requested for help."

Abdulhaq-i Dahlawi says in his book Jadhb-ul-qulub, "Ibni Shayba reported: There was a drought in Medina during the time of Hadrat 'Umar. A person went to the Prophet's grave and said. "O Rasulallah! Pray for rain on behalf of your Ummat. Or else we'll be destroyed.' Rasulullah "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' appeared in his dream and said to him. "Go to 'Umar and give him the good news that it will rain.' Ibni Jawzi relates, "There was drought in Medina. They went to Hadrat Aisha and begged her. She told them to put a hole in the ceiling of Rasulullah's tomb. They did so. It rained plentifully. The blessed grave became wet.' " These two reports prove that they used to ask for help from graves. Even Hadrat Aisha "radi-Allahu 'anha', who was a mujtahid, ordered to ask for help from graves. Also, Rasulullah "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' gave the good news that there would be rain for the person who asked for help from his grave. For this reason, to disbelieve the idea of asking for help from Rasulullah's grave is to deny the ijma' of the Sahaba. As reported in the book Hisn-ul-Hasin, Rasulullah "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' declared: "Any person who has lost his animal should say, "O Allah's slaves! Help me! And may Allahu ta'ala help you!' " It was declared in another hadith ash-Sharif: "At a dreadful place one should say, "O Allah's slaves! Help me!' " This prayer has been experienced many times. It was declared in another hadith ash-Sharif: "A person who has suffered a loss because of something should make an ablution and perform a namaz of two rakats! Then he should say, "Ya Rabbi! I ask from Thee. Putting Thine Messenger Muhammad "alaihis-salam" as an intermediary, who is Thine compassion for the worlds, I beg Thee. O Muhammad! I make thee an intercessor with my Allah so that He will accept my wish. O Allah! Make him my intercessor!' " Every Muslim calls upon Rasulullah by saying "Assalamu alaika ayyuhan Nabiyyu" when performing namaz. This, alone would suffice to answer those who deny the fact. At the same time it proves the fact that it is permissible to practice rabita. Establishing rabita with the Awliya "qaddas-Allahu ta'ala asrarah-um-ul'aziz' is similar to an old person who cannot see well wearing glasses. The ayat "look for an intermediary" points out that it is necessary to look for a murshid-i-kamil in order to receive fayd from Allahu ta'ala.

It is written in the book Tawali'ul-anwar, "When you visit Rasulullah "sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam' you should dispel mundane thoughts from your heart. You should only expect help from Rasulullah. Mundane thoughts prevent the help from coming. You should think of the facts that he is alive in his grave, that he recognizes the visitors, that he has been permitted by Allahu ta'ala to give what is asked from him, and that it is only through him that Allahu ta'ala can be approached."

Imam-i azam Abu Hanifa, in his book Musnad, reports from Abdullah ibni 'Umar: "He who visits he Prophet's grave approaches it from the side which faces the qibla. He turns his back to the qibla. He faces the grave. Then he gives this prescribed salute: "As-salamu 'alaika ayyuha-n-Nabiyyu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.' " Hadrat Ibni Hajar-i Makki says that it is better to pray standing than to pray sitting. Ruknuddin Abu Bakr Muhammad Kirmani, one of the savants of fiqh in the Hanafi Madhhab, states, "During the visit, the right hand is put on the left hand, as it is done when you perform namaz." It is mustahab to stand approximately four dhra' [two meters] from the Shabaka. This translation from the book Tahqiq-ul-haqq-il-mubin ends here.

28- The Wahhabite book Fath-ul-majid, states on its 66th, 107th and 386th pages that it is necessary to do ijtihad on every occasion. It states on its 387th and 390th pages that those who follow a Madhhab should know the proofs of their Madhhab, if they do not know them they become polytheists. On its 432nd page, it contradicts itself by stating that the ignorant cannot do ijtihad. On its 78, 167, 183, 503 and 504th pages, it states that he who asks for shafaat from the dead becomes a polytheist. It says that it is shirk to expect miraculous help from the dead. On its 115, 140, 173, 179 and 220th pages, it states that Muslims have been worshipping the Awliya. On its 133, 134, 136, 139, 140, 484 and 485th pages it states that it is shirk to expect blessings and help from graves. On its 143, 146, 191 and 503rd pages, it states that it is shirk to ask for prayers from the dead. On its 169, 179, 416 and 503rd pages, it states that the dead do not have sense, they do not perceive anything. On its 222, 223, 234, 247, 274 and 486th pages, it states that it is shirk (attributing a partner to Allahu ta'ala) to get benefits from the graves of the Awliya by visiting them. On its 181 and 211th pages, it states that to ask for shafaat means to attribute a partner to Allahu ta'ala; 258, 259 and 260th pages state that it is forbidden to approach Rasulullah's Hujra-i Saadat in order to greet him. It says on its 486th page that the Ashab al-kiram "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain' used to pray turning their back to Rasulullah's grave.

Islamic savants had given answers to these slanders of the Wahhabis hundreds of years before they appeared. Among these answers, Shifa by Hadrat Qadi 'Iyad, At-targib wat- tarhib by the hadith savant Abdul'azim-i Munziri, Mishkat-ul-Masabih by Waliyyuddin-i Tabrizi, Mawahib-ul-ladunniyya by Imam-i Qastalani, Jami'us-saghir by Imam-i Suyuti, Al-yawaqit-wal-jawahir by Abdul-wahhab-i Sharani, Khulasa-tul-wafa by Imam-i Semhudi, Jam'ul-asrar by AbdulGhani Nabulusi, Taqrib-ul-usul by Sayyid Ahmad Dahlan, Matalib by Fakhruddin-i Radi, Tuhfat-uz-zuwwar by Ibni Hajar-i Asqalani, Sharh-i Shifa by Shihab-ud-din Haffaji, Mansak by Allama Halil Maliki, Sharh-ul-mawahib by Muhammad Zarqani Maliki, Sharh-i shamail by Imam-i Manawi, Nuqul-ush-Shariyya firraddi alal-wahhabiyya by Mustafa Shatti Hanbali, Nashr-ul-Mahasin by Abdullah Yafii, Sharh-ul-Ihya by Sayyid Murtada Hanafi, Saadat-i Darayn by Yusuf Nabhani, Masalik-ul- hunafa by Imam-i Qastalani, Kitab-uz-zuhd by Imam-i Ahmad, Hilya-tul-awliya by Abu Muhammad Halil, Safwatussafwa by Ibni Abiddunya, Karamat-ul-awliya by Alkai, Fatawa-i hadithiyya and Al jawhar-ul-munzam by Ibni Hajar-i Makki, the books Misbah- uz-zulam by Allama Abu Abdullah Maliki and by Kilai, Bugya-tul-ahkam by Nuraddin Ali Shafi'i, Hujjat-ullahi alal-alamin by Yusuf Nabhani, Al-intisar lil-awliya-il-abrar by Tahir Sunbul Bey, Jawahir-ul-aqdayn by Nuraddin Ali Samhudi, Nafahat-i Shaziliyya by Hasan Adwi Misri, Ajwiba-tul-mardiyya and Bahr-ul-mawrud by Abdulwahhab-i Sharani, Bar'ul-askam and Lam'u-Barq-il-maqamat by Mustafa Bakri, Kashf-un-nur by AbdulGhani Nabulusi, Sharh-i-Hizb-ul-Bahr by Ahmad Zarruq Maliki, Jila-uz-zulam firraddi alan- Najdillazi adallal-awam by Allama Sayyid Ulwi, Sayf-ul-Jabbar by Fadl-i Rasul Badayuni and the Turkish book Tarih-i Wahhabiyyan by Ayyub Sabri Pasha, printed in Istanbul in 1296, have become famous from among the men of knowledge "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain'.

When a grave is visited, the soul of the one in the grave is reflected on the visitor's soul like a mirror. If the visitor's soul is higher, his heart becomes uneasy, disturbed, and he suffers harm. For this reason visiting graves had been prohibited during the early years of Islam. Later on, when deaths took place among Muslims, too, it became permissible to visit them. The hadith ash-Sharif, "He who visits my grave will have visited me when I was alive," orders us to visit the Hujra-i saadat and get blessed with it. Those who visited him (Rasulullah) when he was alive would leave him having been blessed very much. This hadith ash-Sharif informs us that those who visit his blessed grave will leave him having been very much blessed.

Great Islamic savants, such as AbdulQadir-i Geilani, Muhyiddin-i Arabi, Taqiyyuddin-i Ali Subki, Ahmad Ibni Hajar-i Makki and AbdulGhani Nabulusi had proved through documents that it was permissible to visit the graves of Awliya and to beg for Allah's pardon and mercy by benefiting from them as intermediaries, long before the Wahhabis appeared. Hadrat Yusuf Nabhani, extracting long excerpts and documents from the books of those exalted savants, disgraces the Wahhabis in his book Shawahid-ul haqq. Fifty pages of this Arabic book were published in the book 'Ulama-ul-muslimin wal-wahhabiyyun in 1972. And another section in Turkish was appended to the book The Religion Reformers in Islam. Those wise and reasonable youngsters who have read them will immediately realize that Wahhabis are extremely ignorant, stupid and untruthful.

Hadrat Alauddin-i Attar wrote in his book Rashahat: "The person who visits the grave of a Wali receives fayd to the extent that he has realized the greatness of the great person in the grave and to the extent of the amount of good thoughts with which he has turned towards that Wali, that is, to the extent that he has attached his heart to him. Though there are many benefits to visiting graves, distance is not a hindrance to a person who can attach his heart to Awliya's souls. Hadrat Khwaja Bahaaddin-i Naqshiband commanded [those who can] to attach their hearts [directly] to Allahu ta'ala.

Visiting the graves of the Awliya should be intended to turn towards Allahu ta'ala. The soul of a Wali should be made an intermediary for completely turning towards Allahu ta'ala. Likewise, while being modest towards human beings one should turn towards Allahu ta'ala. For modesty towards human beings is acceptable when it is done for Allah's sake." To obtain -by attaching one's heart directly to Allah- one's share from fayd-i ilahi (Divine Grace), which emanates every moment, the heart must be purged from ghaflat (forgetfulness of Allah) and worldly interest. A heart that is not so and which has been blackened by the darkness of disbelief, bidats and sins cannot get attached to Allahu ta'ala or get fayd-i ilahi. Such people, by following the hadith ash-Sharif "La-yasa'uni...," should find a murshid-i kamil and mukammil who has attained Allahu ta'ala's fayd and who is an inheritor of Rasulullah, and should sit in his presence in good manners and strive to get fayd from the fayds that come to the murshid's heart. When a real murshid cannot be found, one should not be taken in by false shaikhs who do not know their place and who cannot distinguish disbelief from belief.

Hadrat Abdullah-i Dahlawi wrote in his eighth letter, "Attach your heart to this faqir's soul! Or, go to Mirza Mazhar-i Jan-i Janan's tomb and attach it to his soul! By attaching the heart to him, one can attain Allahu ta'ala's fayds. He is more beneficial than thousands of people from our time." Mazhar-i Jan-i Janan "qaddasallahu ta'ala sirrahul'aziz' declared: "Visit the graveyards of the Awliya and beg them to give you fayd! Recite the Fatiha and Salawat, send the blessings to their blessed souls, and make them a means to attain Allahu ta'ala's love, which is the way of bliss for the body and the soul. But, without purifying the heart, it is very difficult to receive fayd from the hearts of the Awliya. That is why Khwaja Bahaaddin "qaddasallahu ta'ala sirrahul'aziz' had said that it was better to ask directly from Allahu ta'ala than to ask through the hearts of the Awliya."

Some people also say that it is bidat to perform the mawlid. Besides having written a book as a documentary to answer them, Hadrad Ahmad Said-i Faruqi proves in the thirty- seventh letter of his Maktubat-i-Ahmadiyya that it is permissible to perform the mawlid, which is also proven on the two hundred and thirty-third page of Yusuf-i Nabhani's Hujjat- ullahi alal'alamin fi mujizat-i Sayyid-il-Mursalin, at the end of the book Al-basair li- munkirit-tawassul-i bi-ahl-il-maqabir, and in the book An-nimat-ul kubra al-alam fi- mawlid-i sayyid-i walad-i Adam. These books have been printed by offsett printing method by Hakikat Kitabevi in Istanbul.

29- In the book Atta'akkub-ul-mufid by Abu Hamid bin Marzuq "qaddasallahu ta'ala sirrahul'aziz', a Damascene savant, and in At-tawassul-u bin Nabi wa bis-Salihin, which is an abridged version of two volumes of Al-barat-ul-ashariyyin, there are answers to the ideas of Ibni Taymiyya, Ibni Qayyim, and the son of Abdulwahhab.

30- The book Al-fajr-us-sadiq fir-radd-i alal-munkiri-t-tawassul-i wal-hawariq, by Jamil Sidqi Effendi, a savant of Baghdad, puts Wahhabis to shame. This book has been printed by offsett printing method by Hakikat Kitabevi in Istanbul.

31- The book Nur-ul-Yaqin, by Hadrat Mustafa bin Ibrahim Siyami, a savant in Thailand, was published in 1345, and reproduced by offsett printing method in 1396 [1976] by Hakikat Kitabevi in Istanbul. It answers Wahhabis with documents.

32- Muhammad Abdurrahman Silhati, a savant in India, proves with documents in his book Sayf-ul-abrar-il-maslul that Wahhabis are in a heretical way. The book is in Arabic and has been reproduced by Hakikat Kitabevi.

33- Mufti Ahmad Sahib, another savant in India, answers Wahhabis and teaches the way of the Ahl as-sunnat in his book Raddi Wahhabi. The book was published in the Farisi language in Ghur Namnad city in 1264, and was reproduced by photocopy in 1399 [1979] by Hakikat Kitabevi.

34- Mawlana Muhammad Kutty "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih', a professor at Faruq Collage in the city of Calicut in the Kerala state of India, answered Wahhabis with documents in his book Kitab-us-Sunni, which is written in Malayalam and has three volumes.

35- Muhammad Hilmi Effendi, from Darende, "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih', in his book Mizan-ush-Sharia Burhan-ut-Tariqa writes about the attacks of some people on the savants of sufism and then gives valuable answers to each. The book is in Turkish and hand- written. He had received fayd first from Ziyauddin Effendi from Gumushhane in Istanbul, and then from Hajji Ahmad Effendi in Sivas. Hajji Ahmad Effendi is the Khalifa to Ashiq Effendi and Ashiq Effendi is the Khalifa to Halid-i Baghdadi. He died in 1334 [1916 A.D.] in Mar'ash. His Khalifas, especially his sons Bahri and Abdurrahman and his son-in-law, Wahbi, and the author of this book, Muhammad Nafi Effendi continued to enlighten people afterwards.

36- Principal of Madrasat-ul-irfan college in the City of Koutiala in the State of Mali, writes in his book Al Haqaiq-ul islamiyya that Wahhabis in Africa have perpetrated divisive activities, and he gives good advice to them.

37- Mudarris-i allama and the imam of the Hamada Sultan Camii (Mosque) Muhammad Hamid, in his book, Luzum-i ittiba'i madhahib-il-aimma, explains in detail the Hanafi Madhhab and proves that it is wajib to follow one of the four Madhhabs. The book was written in 1388 [1968 A.D.] and was printed by offsett printing method in 1984 in Istanbul.

38- The book Nafahat-ul-qurb wal-ittisal bi-ithbat-it-tasarrufi li awliya-illahi ta'ala wal- karamati ba'dal-intiqal is a famous book of Sayyid Ahmad Hamawi, who is a Hanafi savant.

39- Ahmad Baba, a scholar in Ghana, an African country, and the director of Madrasa-i- wataniyya, confutes the Wahhabis with documents in his book Sayf-ul-haqq.

[In 1381 A.H., a Muslim who had gone on hajj from Istanbul, was praying in front of the Hujra-i saadat, "O Rasulallah, I have many sins. Do shafaat for me!" A Wahhabite khodja approached him, pulled him on the collar and said, "He is dead. He does not hear anything." The Sunni Muslim said, "The hundred and fifty-fourth ayat of Baqara Sura of Qur'an al-karim declares: "Do not say "dead' about those who died in the way of Allah! They are alive. But you do not understand this.' Since it is prohibited to say "dead' about one of the Ummat of this great Prophet, how can you say dead about the Highest of Mankind?"]

The first war between the Meccans and the Wahhabis was fought in 1205 [1791 A.D.]. In those years the Ottoman army had been warring against exterior enemies. There was chaos in the interior, too. [Though we had been at peace with France for many years, Napoleon Bonaparte had attacked Egypt with a fifty thousand strong army in 1213 A.H. In the battles on sea and on land, the enemy was repelled from Egypt. Russia having attacked our borders, a war was declared war upon Russia in 1221. The British navy entered the country through the Dardanelles and came up to Yedikule. All the officials, soldiers and people, led by Sultan Salim Khan III, with a great effort placed more than a thousand cannons on the coasts within three days, thus defeating the navy without a fight. Russia offered peace, but then attacked again and crossed the Danube in 1224. After long battles, the Pact of Bucharest was signed in 1227. Within the country, irreligious people had appeared here and there who had been tormenting the people and disobeying the State. Salim Khan III, who was the Khalifa at that time, had been training drilled soldiers on the one hand, and on the other hand, he had been building cannon factories and running them. Upon seeing the new trained soldiers, the Janissaries, particularly those at the bastions of the Bosphours, revolted under the command of Kabakchi Mustafa. The Sultan did not want bloodshed among Muslims. Therefore, the rebellion became larger and larger. All kinds of progress came to a standstill. They martyred Salim Khan. Mahmud Khan-i Adli II, who came to the throne after him in 1223, taught the irreligious their manners and brought them round to obedience. He made peace with Russia in 1227.]

In 1226, the Governor of Egypt was given a firman, and Mehmed Ali Pasha sent his son Tosun Pasha with an army corps to the Hidjaz. Yet he could not establish peace and amity. Most of what is written up to here from the beginning of the chapter has been derived from the books Khulasat-ul-kalam and Mirat-ul-haramain. No personal ideas have been added. Those who need documents for these writings might read the said two books, and also our Turkish book Kiyamet ve Ahiret (Doomsday and the Hereafter) and the English book Advice for the Muslim.

The blessed cities of Mecca and Medina were governed by the Ottomans with justice and reverence; millions were spent for the restoration and rehabilitation of the sacred places. The blessed people of the Haramain (Mecca and Medina) lived in comfort and abundance. This time of happiness lasted until the First World War. At the end of the First World War [1332 (1914) - 1336 (1918)], the enemies, who had fulfilled their desires of breaking Islam's unity, ousted the Amir of Mecca, Sharif Husain bin Ali, and the other notables of the Ahl as-sunnat, from the Hidjaz. And they announced to the whole world that he had fled. Abdul 'Aziz bin Suud, who had been living in Najd, came to Mecca in 1344 [1926 A.C.] and established a new government.

During the time of Ottomans, Wahhabism was spread in India and Africa. As Shiism settled in Minor Asia and in Baghdad, likewise the Egyptian men of the Din had been gliding towards Wahhabism. It is a pity that Muhammad Abduh from Egypt, who had read much and written many books, did not only adopt Wahhabism, but he also completely dissented from the Ahl as-sunnat by falling for the propaganda (of introducing irreligiousness under the false name of modernism to Islamic countries), which is the most effective gun in the war which the masons had started for annihilating Islam. Giving ayat al-karimas and hadith ash-Sharifs meanings suitable for westernization and squaring with his personal views, he deviated from the way of the Salaf-i salihin. Some of his books have been translated into Turkish (and English) by men of the same way, and have been offered to the youth as the books of Abduh, the great Islamic savant! The fact that Abduh and Jamaladdin-i Afghani are masons is written within the entry "Abduh', in the appendix at the end of the Turkish version of our book. In the book Ifadat-ul-akhyar by Muhammad Arabi, which was printed in Mecca, in the book Mawqif-ul-aql wal-ilm wal-alam by Shaikh-ul-Islam Mustafa Sabri Bey, and in the book of articles Majallatu Jami'ul Azhar by Yusuf-i Dajwi, a member of the council of advanced knowledge at the Madrasa of Jami'ul Azhar, which was edited in Egypt in 1966, their ideas unsuitable for Islam are refuted with strong documents. At one time Ibni Taymiyya, also deluded by the abundance of his knowledge, had fallen into heresy. But he had not been so excessive.

A real man of the Din who wishes to serve Islam must say and write the meanings and the rules given and derived by the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat and by our Madhhab leaders; he must place the names and the greatness of the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat into the minds of the people and youngsters. If the person called Sayyid Qutb had read the tafsirs of Islamic savants, e.g. Tafsir-i Mazhari by Hadrat Sanaullah-i Dahlawi, who was specialized in Tafsir, in Hadith, and in Fiqh, honored with the grade of Marifat-ullah in tasawwuf, and who was loved most by the Ahl as-sunnat, he would perhaps realize the greatness of Islamic savants, know his own place, and perhaps would be ashamed to put forth his own jerry-built writings under the name of tafsir. The book Bariqa, in its treatment of the disasters incurred by a person's speech, makes the following observation within its explanation of the fiftieth disaster: "One condition for being a writer of tafsirs is to be an expert in each and every one of the fifteen Islamic sciences. He who attempts to read hadiths and tafsirs without having learned these branches of knowledge is like a person with a sick stomach who eats cookies and pies in order to get stronger. In fact, this person should first diet, cure himself with light things, such as vegetable juice, saltless rice, and start eating strong things not before ridding himself of the illness. If he eats meat and fat, while he is sick, his sickness will increase and drag him to death. Likewise, if we, who have not studied the main branches of knowledge, attempt to read translations of Qur'an al- karim, tafsirs and hadith ash-Sharifs in order to learn the Din, we cannot comprehend them. By misunderstanding them, we may lose our faith and iman. A few educated people who lost their faith, which they had acquired from their mother homes and which they had been strictly keeping for many years, were asked how that doubt which caused their renegation had been formed in their minds. They replied that they had become so after reading the tafsir of Elmali. Mazhar-i Jan-i-Janan "quddisa sirruh" prohibited one of his Khalifas from writing tafsirs, a fact which we have read on the hundredth page of his book Maqamat. Therefore, let us put aside those concocted tafsirs and translations that have been written without understanding. Even the well-known tafsirs have been harmful to anyone other than those who are educated and trained so as to understand them. Understanding the Qur'an's translation requires a complete acquisition of the eight branches of knowledge. He who attempts to read tafsirs and hadiths without knowing these branches may lose his iman. It is communicated on the one thousand two hundred and ninety-seventh page of the book Bariqa, "We have not been ordered to obey the books of tafsirs. We have been ordered to obey the savants of fiqh." It is written in Birghiwi Vasiyetnamesi, "Our savants of kalam and fiqh wrote thousands of books of Ilm-i hal in a clear and easily understandable manner in order to teach us who are ignorant of the Din what they had understood from tafsirs and hadiths. To learn Islam correctly, there is no other way than reading these books of ilmihal, which our ancestors prepared by spending their entire lives."

Sayyid Abdulhakim-i Arwasi "quddisa sirruh", who was a Wali-i kamil and a profound savant fully cognizant of the subtle particulars of the four Madhhabs, has said, "In Hanafi Madhhab, the best, the most valuable book of fiqh is the Explanation of Durr-ul-Mukhtar by Ibni Abidin. In Shafi'i, it is the book Tuhfa-tul-muhtaj. The best, the most valuable book of tasawwuf is Maktubat by Hadrat Imam-i Rabbani, and the most valuable book of ilmihal is the expounding of Birghiwi Vasiyetnamesi by Kadizada. The book Durr-ul-mukhtar is an explanation of Tanwir-ul-absar."

In order to mislead Muslims, another group of Wahhabis in Pakistan say, "We are Ahl as- sunnat. We are in the Hanbali Madhhab." On the contrary, they derive whatever suits their purposes from the books of the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat. For the sake of their depraved beliefs, they hush up whatever does not suit their purposes. They change the right meanings of ayat al-karimas given by the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat. The savants of the Ahl as- sunnat did not interpret ayat al-karimas according to their own understandings or ideas. They learned from the Sahaba what Rasulullah had understood and conveyed from ayats. They wrote these meanings which they learned in their books. But the Wahhabis disapprove of these meanings, which have come from Rasulullah. They give wrong and depraved meanings to ayat al-karimas with their own ignorant and stupid minds. They display these heretical writings of theirs as the teachings of the Ahl as-sunnat. Since they know nothing of religious knowledge, of scientific and moral knowledge, or of the rules of logic, they fall short of understanding the sublime and sacred subtleties of Qur'an al-karim. They say "mawdu" or "made-up" about those hadith ash-Sharifs which grasp and explain these. They dislike the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat, who hold the hadith ash-Sharifs superior to their own understandings. They try to draw Muslims away from these savants and to push them into the fabricated way which they call religious reforms. Islamic savants have given fatwas prohibiting the performance of namaz behind the Wahhabite imams. One of these fatwas exists at the end of Khulasat-ul-kalam, reproduced by Hakikat Kitabevi in 1979.

Muhammad Zihni Bey "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih' says on the thirty-ninth page in the section dealing with Nikah in his book Nimat-ul-Islam: "One of the twenty-five women who are haram to marry through nikah is Wasanniya, that is, those woman who worship idols. Those that worship the sun, the stars, pictures and statues, those who are of the Mu'attala, of the Batiniyya, of the Ibahiyya, and also the zindiqs, that is, those who consider the things causing disbelief as fundamentals of iman though pretending to be devoted Muslims; they are all idolaters (Fatawa-i Hindiyya). The Batiniyya are also called Ismailiyya, or Ibahiyya. They have recently adopted the name Wahhabi, and they are irreligious people who bear enmity and treason against Muslims under the name of Islam." Wasan is a statue made of stone. This excerpt reveals the fact that a number of zindiqs have mixed with Wahhabis and that these zindiqs are disbelievers.

In our country (Turkey), people with little knowledge of the Din are poisoned by reading translations from the books written by Ibni Taymiyya, Muhammad Abduh, Mawdudi, Sayyid Qutb, Abdussalam, who was given the Nobel prize, Ahmad Deedad, and Hamidullah. They suppose that the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat could not understand Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs. They deem the authors of the falsely-adorned excessive writings in those books, which stir up the nafs-i ammara, as superior to the savants of Ahl as-sunnat, and even to the Sahaba. Those who opened this great wound in Islam are particularly Ibni Hazm, Ibni Qayyim-i Jawziyya and the philosopher Ibn-ir-Rushd (Averros). Like Ibni Taymiyya, all these three are savants and have hundreds of books. The savants of the Ahl as-sunnat gave them valuable answers and exposed their errors. However, some people, whose educational capacity was too narrow to observe the greatness of the savants of Ahl as-sunnat, have been allured by their books and derailed from the right way.

Those who have been misled by them want to prove that they are right, and they try to deceive others also, by saying, "When the Wahhabis fought the Ottomans, the Ottoman savants slandered the Wahhabis. The hostility towards the State and political enmity was turned into a religious disagreement by religious authorities." These allegations of theirs are wrong from two points of view. As soon as Wahhabism appeared, the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat started amr-i maruf. They wrote that the Wahhabis were on a wrong way. They invited them to the right course. Beaten in knowledge, the Wahhabis took to barbarity. They attacked Islamic cities. The Ottoman State interfered with the matter only after these attacks. There was no war as the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat were writing their books to refute the Wahhabis. Therefore, how can one say that the savants mixed the Din with politics then? Furthermore, the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat had written these heretical ideas and refuted them through ayat al-karimas hundreds of years before the pestilence of Wahhabism appeared, as if they had foreseen through insight that these zindiqs would appear. Of these numerous valuable books, Tanwir-ul-halak fi imkan-i ruyatin Nabi Jiharan wal-malak and Tanbih-ul-ghabi bi-tabria-ti Ibn-il-Arabi by the great savant Jalaladdin-i Suyuti and the book Kashf-un-nur an Ashab-il-qubur by AbdulGhani Nabulusi are well known. We have published these Arabic books, adding them to the second edition of our book Alminha-tul-wahbiyya. Those who read them will realize well that Wahhabis are heretical and that they are on the way of demolishing Islam. It is written on the two hundred and ninety-sixth page of the third volume of Radd-ul-mukhtar, "A person who goes out of Islam by giving wrong meanings to ayat al-karimas and hadith-i-sharifs, that is whose iman is corrupt, is called a mulhid. The mulhid thinks of himself as a Muslim. A person who does not belong in any din and who tries to derange Muslims' iman by representing his irreligious thoughts and tries to make Muslims believe in them by showing false and corrupt documents, in the name of Islam, is called a zindiq." The mulhid and the zindiq try to demolish Islam by pretending to be a Muslim. Those, like Wahhabis, who deviate from the Ahl as-Sunnat by means of incorrect evaluations with weak proofs become either mulhid or ahl-i bidat.

On the other hand, to say that the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain' turned the hostility towards the State into religious enmity betrays one's ignorance about Islamic savants or, even worse, a deliberate defamation of Islam. Making the Din a means for the world is a crime which Islam reproves of the most. Such a heavy accusation against Islamic savants in any country would mean to attempt to slander and to demolish Islam. The savants of the Ahl as-sunnat during the time of Ottomans did not speak ill of any Muslim in order to ingratiate themselves with the State.

Of those who have been deceived by Wahhabis, a person who is said to be an orator, a khodja, says in his book, "By asserting that the ayat al-karimas in Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs are limited in number versus the infinite number of events with which people confront, many amendments have been added through qiyas. This is wrong. There is no qiyas or ijtihad." Thus, he slanders hundreds of thousands of Ahl as-sunnat savants. For, qiyas and ijtihad does not mean, as this khodja supposes, "to add some amendments to the Qur'an and hadiths"; it means "to explore the profound, covered meanings in the Qur'an and in hadiths." It will be shown below that the Sahaba did ijtihad and that they had different Madhhabs, too. The tafsir of Baidawi and its explanation by Shaikhzada prove that qiyas and ijma' are commanded in the 108th ayat of Sura 'Imran.

On another page he says, "There is nothing secret in the Din. Everything has been said." But, by writing, "Everything which the Qur'an and the hadiths have not stated is mubah," on the following page, he indicates that not everything has been communicated. His statements contradict each other. On another page, he slanders by saying, "Through qiyas, the Shariat is increased and intensified. Many mubahs are made haram." The answer to this is written in the twenty-sixth (26) chapter of the first fascicle of Endless Bliss.

On another page he slanders: "Through qiyas, the Shariat has been intensified and made severe. Many mubah actions have been made haram." Its response is written in the twenty- sixth chapter of the first fascicle of Endless Bliss.

This man of the Din, again, says, "Because of qiyas, in the Islamic Din there is no longer agreement on any matter, and disagreements have been on the increase." However, there is no qiyas on iman, on matters pertaining to belief. Thus, someone making a wrong ijtihad on such subjects becomes a kafir. Those who perform an incorrect ijtihad on the knowledge of ijma, which is not obligatory and unanimously informed, will not become kafirs, but ahl-i bidat. They will be deviated Muslims. Of the actions that are to be done, there is no qiyas on the ones that have been communicated clearly in Qur'an al-karim and in hadith ash- Sharifs, either. He who provokes disagreements and invents like this khodja, have deviated from the Ahl as-sunnat.

There were three kinds of people during the time of Rasulullah "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam': Those who disbelieved and opposed him became kafirs; those who disbelieved but pretended to believe him were called munafiqs; those who believed him were called Sahaba. The beliefs of the Sahaba were all the same. They agreed with each other in doing those actions that were declared clearly in Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs. Our Din has not ordered us to believe anything which has not been declared clearly in Qur'an al- karim and hadith ash-Sharifs. So is the case with the majority of scientific teachings. Of these, the ones that are reasonable are believed. But the case is not so with those actions that are not commanded or prohibited clearly. Allahu ta'ala orders the profound savants to compare such actions to the ones that are declared clearly to see if they should be done or not. Those profound savants who are able to make this comparison are called Mujtahid. This job of comparison is called Ijtihad. All of the information which a mujtahid has acquired through ijtihad is called the Madhhab of that mujtahid. Each of the Sahaba was a profound savant, a mujtahid. Each of them was an ocean in the knowledge of the Shariat, in politics, in administration, in the scientific knowledge of their time, and in the marifats of tasawwuf. They acquired all these branches of knowledge in a short time by seeing Rasulullah's blessed face, by hearing his blessed words that penetrated into the hearts and attracted the souls. Each had a Madhhab. Their Madhhabs were more or less different from each other. There were mujtahids among the Tabiin and the Taba-i Tabiin, too. Only four of the Madhhabs of these mujtahids and of the Madhhabs of the Sahaba were transferred into books, and they spread all over the world. The Madhhabs of the rest were forgotten. The iman of these four Madhhabs is the unanimous iman of the Sahaba. For this reason, all four are called Ahl as-sunnat. There is no difference in their iman. They deem one another as brothers. They love one another. They do even their acts of worship which disagree with each other in accordance with the other's when there is a necessity. Allahu ta'ala willed this difference between the Madhhabs. Our Prophet communicated that this difference was a matter of compassion from Allahu ta'ala to Muslims. For, the trivial differences among the four Madhhabs facilitate Muslims' jobs. Each Muslim chooses the Madhhab which is easier for him with respect to his physical construction, climatical conditions and the conditions of his professional life. He does his worships and every action as this Madhhab prescribes. If Allahu ta'ala had decreed, everything would have been declared clearly in Qur'an al-karim and in hadith ash-Sharifs. Thus the Madhhabs would not have appeared. Until the end of the world every Muslim, in any part of the world, would have had to live under a single command, under a single order. Muslims would have been confronted very difficult situations.

After all the Sahaba died, the iman of the majority of the Muslims became corrupted. They deviated from the correct iman of the Sahaba. Heretical groups appeared. These corrupt groups are also called groups of bidat or the la-madhhabi, for they are outside of the four Madhhabs. This deviation of theirs did not cause them to become disbelievers, for they had based their interpretations on weak proofs. But the harm to Islam caused by them was much greater than that of kafirs. Muslims with correct iman who did not deviate from the iman of the Sahaba have been called the Ahl as-sunnat, for they have clung completely to Rasulullah's sunnat. The la-madhhabi have quarreled with one another and with the Ahl as-sunnat. They have fought one another and the Ahl as-sunnat. Much Muslim blood has been shed. They have sabotaged the Muslims' progress and improvement. The la-madhhabi groups of bidat should not be mistaken for the four right Madhhabs of the Ahl as-sunnat. The four Madhhabs say that all of them are on the right path, and they love each other. But the la-madhhabi groups have been undermining the unity of Muslims. Today there is no Ahl as-sunnat other than the four Madhhabs; Islamic savants unanimously communicated that these four Madhhabs could not be united together and become one Madhhab. Allahu ta'ala wishes not the uniting of the Madhhabs, but He wishes that they be different. Thus, He makes the Islamic din easier. The meaning of the hundredth ayat of Surat-u Al-i 'Imran is: "O Believers! Embrace the religion of Allahu ta'ala. Do not be separated." The owners of tafsirs, for instance Abussuud Effendi "rahmatullahi ta'ala alaih', while explaining the ayat, said, "It means not to become like the ahl-i kitab who split into groups, deviating from correct iman. And it means not to group into parts like those during the time of ignorance."

We are ordered to form unity around the correct iman; therefore, we should not be divided. Our Prophet informed us that the correct path is the belief communicated by the Ahl as-sunnat savants. Therefore, it is necessary for all Muslims to be Ahl as-sunnat, to gather under the Ahl as-sunnat Madhhab, to be brothers and sisters and to love one another. Those who deviate from this Islamic unity will have disobeyed this ayat-i karima. If we come together, by realizing that we are brothers and sisters, if we love one another, then we will be the strongest nation in the world, as well as attain comfort and peace on earth and endless bliss in the next world. We have to be very careful about not being taken in and being divided by the lies of our enemies, of those ignorant exploiters, by the lies that are for their benefit. For more detailed information in this respect, please read the book Radd-i Wahhabi-i Hindi in Persian.

On another page he writes that the statement, "My Sahaba are like the stars in the sky. If you follow any one of them, you will find guidance to the right way," is not a hadith ash- Sharif but it is an unsound utterance. In fact, this hadith ash-Sharif is written in the book Kunuz-ud-daqaiq by Imam-i Manawi and also on the thirty-sixth page of the explanation of Tahtawi by Imdad, who say that it has been communicated by Imam-i Baihaki. Also, the book Sawa'iq-ul-muhriqa writes that Darimi, Ibni Adi and others have reported that this is sahih. There is more information on this subject several pages ahead. Not realizing the greatness of the Sahaba, this man says, "fabricated' about this hadith, which has been communicated unanimously by Islam's savants.

He writes that the statement, "The disagreement of my Ummat is a compassion (of Allah)," is not a hadith ash-Sharif. However, Imam-i Manawi quotes this hadith ash-Sharif, too, and he says that it has been communicated by Ibni Nasr and also by Dailami. It is written in the preface of Ibni Abidin that the hadith ash-Sharif "The disagreement of my Ummat is a compassion" is mashhur. (See chapter six for kinds of hadith ash-Sharifs.) It is written in the book Maqasid-i hasana that this hadith ash-Sharif has been reported by Baihaki. And Ibni Hajib writes in his Mukhtasar that it is sahih. Imam-i Suyuti writes that it is given as a sahih hadith in the book Hujja by Nasr-ul-muqaddasi and also in the book Risalat-ul-ashariyya by Baihaki. Also, Halimi, Qadi Husain and Imam-ul-haramain have communicated that it is sahih. It is written in detail in the fourth part of the first volume of Mawahib-i ladunniyya, too. The Khalifa 'Umar bin Abdulaziz said that if the Sahaba had not disagreed with one another, there would not have been any permission, any facility in the Din. When the Khalifa Harun-ur-Rashid said to Imam-i Malik, "I will produce many copies of your books and send them everywhere, and I will order everybody to follow them," the Imam said; "O Khalifa! Do not do that. The savants' disagreement is a compassion. All of them are on the right way. Each Muslim follows the savant he likes." It is written on the hundred and tenth page of Bariqa that this hadith ash-Sharif exists in the book Jami'us-saghir. This hadith ash-Sharif is explained on the two hundred and forty- fourth page of the first volume and on the hundred and fourth page of the second volume of the book Hadiqa, which states that it has been reported by Nasr-ul-muqaddasi, Halimi, Baihaki and Imam-ul-haramain. It is also written on the forty-fifth page of the book Mizan. The poor khodja supposes that the ayat al-karimas and hadith ash-Sharifs that are intended lest there be disagreements on iman are about the Madhhabs, and thus he goes wrong.

It is written in Fatawa-i Hindiyya: "It is written in the book Nawazil that "a person who reads hadith ash-Sharifs only and who does not learn fiqh is a mufsid in Islam.' " Abu Asim "rahmatullahi 'alaih' has stated the same. Also, it is written so in the fatwa of Tatarhaniyya.

In one place of this book of his he says, "Those words of the Sahaba which disagree with Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs are to be rejected." He thinks that the Sahaba would say something that would disagree with Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs. He supposes that those superior men of the Din were like him. He does not know that the Sahaba "radi-Allahu ta'ala 'anhum ajmain' did not say anything disagreeing with Qur'an al- karim and hadith ash-Sharifs. Besides, it is the Sahaba who gathered Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs and communicated them to those who succeeded them. Some of the savants of Usul, that is, of the greatest Islamic savants, stated, "Even if there had not been any witnesses to prove that Rasulullah "sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam' was the Prophet, only seeing his Sahaba could suffice to prove that he was the Prophet. This is so because each of the Sahaba was an ocean in every branch of knowledge, in the knowledge of the Shariat, in political and scientific knowledges [that is, in the knowledge taught in high schools and universities], in all the branches of batini and Zahiri knowledge. However, none of them had read any books or seen any teachers. They acquired all this knowledge by being honored with Rasulullah's company a few times." Their statements disagreeing with one another are on facts that are not stated clearly in Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs.

On another page, writing, "The qiyas and ijtihad which mujtahids and the experts of qiyas established were done because they did not know all the sahih hadiths...," he reveals that he is completely ignorant. Hence, also, it is understood that he does not know what mujtahid means.

On another page he supposes that there is ijtihad that disagrees with Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs by writing, "Those ijtihads of the mujtahids that disagree with the Qur'an and with hadiths are not to be followed." With these mendacious statements he proclaims that he dislikes the savants of Ahl as-sunnat and that he is la-madhhabi.

At some other place of his book he also directs incorrect quotations from Imam-i azam Abu Hanifa and from Imam-i Malik. He slanders these two leaders of the Din. He does not know that they would not say anything disagreeing with hadith ash-Sharifs. Abdullah-i Dahlawi, the murshid of Mawlana Khalid-i Baghdadi, who was a profound savant of the Din, an educator of many Awliya and a great leader of tasawwuf, wrote a book entitled Maqamat-i Mazhariyya. In it he explains the way of tasawwuf and then reports a few of the karamats and letters of his master, Hadrat Mazhar-i Jan-i Janan. The book is in Persian and contains eighteen fascicles. There are twenty-three letters in the eighteenth fascicle. Mazhar-i Jan-i Janan says in the sixteenth letter:

My son! How should we follow the hadith ash-Sharifs? Muhammad Hayat "rahmatullahi 'alaih' wrote a book in order to explain this. He says in this book that Husain bin Yahya Bukhari says in his book Rawdat-ul-'ulama that Imam-i azam said to his disciples, "When you see Rasulullah's hadith ash-Sharifs and the Sahaba's statements, leave my ijtihad aside and follow them!" And he said once, "The sahih hadith ash-Sharifs are my madhhab." If a person who is learned and specialized in the science of hadith can distinguish nasikh and mansukh hadiths from each other and recognize strong and weak hadiths, and if he follows sahih hadiths he will not deviate from the Hanafi Madhhab. He will have done what the leader of the Madhhab said. In fact, if such a savant does not follow the sahih hadiths, he will have disobeyed Imam-i azam. Everybody knows that there is not a savant learned enough to know, to have heard of all the hadith ash-Sharifs. As a matter of fact, Imam-i azam's word, "When you see the hadith ash-Sharif leave my word aside!" indicates that he had not heard all the hadith ash-Sharifs. Furthermore, none of the Sahaba, who were the most learned of this Ummat and who spent their lives serving Rasulullah, had heard of all the hadith ash-Sharifs. It is wajib for every Muslim to follow the hadith-i-sharifs. But it is not wajib to follow a certain one of the leaders of the Madhhab. Each Muslim has a choice to follow whichever Madhhab he likes [of the four Madhhabs]. As it is seen, it is not permissible to follow those words which are said to be hadiths and which are interpreted without being fully understood in the books of those who are not learned in the science of hadith. We should follow those hadith ash-Sharifs which the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat and our Madhhab leaders communicated and those meanings which they understood. It is stated as follows on the three hundred and seventy-seventh (377) page of the fifth volume of the book Fatawa-i-Hindiyya: "A person who learns hadiths instead of learning fiqh will go bankrupt, [that is, he will lose his Din.] You must acquire knowledge from salih (pious, devoted) Muslims." You must read their books.

On another page of his book the above mentioned la-madhhabi man of the Din says, "Allahu ta'ala and His Messenger did not order anybody to adopt the Madhhab of somebody in this Ummat or to follow him in religious affairs." In this way, he slanders the Qur'an. For, the thirty-eighth ayat of Maida Sura declares: "look for a means to approach Allahu ta'ala!" And the Anbiya Sura declares: "Learn what you do not know by asking those who know about it!" Hadith-i-Sharifs about the leaders of the four Madhhabs are detailed in the Turkish book Ashab-i kiram. Our Madhhab leaders "rahmat-Allahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain' are the greatest savants of the Din. The hadith, "Savants are the Prophet's inheritors," is written in the book Bukhari. Our Prophet's way cannot be comprehended through the mind, through imagination, or through dreams. It is to be learned from savants of the Din. "To follow any one of the leaders of the Din" means "To follow our Prophet." Ahi Chalabi states in his book Hadiyya, "He who says that Abu Hanifa's qiyas is incorrect becomes a disbeliever."

Even Alusi, who praises Ibni Taymiyya and Ibni Qayyim very much, states as follows in his book Ghaliyya: "Learning and teaching knowledge is one of the highest acts of worship. Abdullah ibni Abbas has communicated that savants are seven hundred degrees higher than those Believers who are not learned. A hadith ash-Sharif declares: "Savants are Prophets' inheritors." Since there is no rank above the rank of prophethood, there cannot be any honor superior to the honor of inheriting this rank. Most of the Islamic savants reached this rank. The savants of fiqh and hadith, principally the four leaders of mujtahids, are the highest of them. They revealed the concealed orders and prohibitions of the Shariat. They established the basis of knowledge. They divided the knowledge of the Din into classes and parts. We have been honored with knowing a few of the exalted values which they had. Ahead of all of them is the pure imam Abu Hanifa Numan bin Thabit. We have hadith ash-Sharifs describing his greatness. They are written in Bukhari and Muslim. Abdullah Ibni Mubarak reports that he performed five times of namaz with one ablution within a day for forty-five years. While washing the exalted imam after his death, Hasan bin Ammara said, "You fasted incessantly for thirty years. May Allahu ta'ala have mercy upon you." No other savant who practiced his knowledge as precisely as he did has ever been seen. No savant superior to him has been found. May Allahu ta'ala honor us with following such exalted savants. It is these mujtahids who conveyed Rasulullah's words to us. And today, there is nobody not in need of following one of the four Madhhabs or who could be exempted from following one of them. A hadith ash-Sharif conveyed by Ibni Maja declares: "My Ummat will part into seventy-three groups, of which only one group will enter Paradise. They are those who are on my and my Sahaba's way." This difference is a difference which is in usul, in iman. It is not a difference similar to that which is between the four Madhhabs. For, a hadith ash-Sharif declares: "The difference in my Ummat is Allah's compassion." And another hadith ash-Sharif declares: "Get what you cannot find in Allahu ta'ala's Book or in my Sunnat from the words of my Sahaba! My Sahaba are like the stars in the sky. If you follow any one of them, you will find guidance to the right way. My Sahaba's disagreeing with one another is Allah's compassion."

The books Al-insaf and Iqd-ul-jayyid by the great savant Shah Waliyyullah-i Dahlawi were published in Egypt in 1327 A.H. They exist at number 525 in the Izmirli section of the Sulaimaniya Library in Istanbul. It is written in the former, "There were Madhhabs during the time of the Sahaba, too. Each of them had a different Madhhab. The Tabiin adopted the Madhhabs of the Sahaba. Harun-ur-Rashid said to Imam-i Malik, "I will hang your book Muwatta on the wall of the Kaba. I will order all the Muslims to adapt themselves to this book. There shall be a single Madhhab everywhere.' But Imam-i Malik said, "Do not do that! The Sahaba parted into Madhhabs in the knowledge of fiqh.' This fact is communicated by Imam-i Suyuti." He says in the latter book, "There are great benefits in following any one of the four Madhhabs. There are many dangers in deviating from them. I can prove this through various ways. Today there is no correct Madhhab other than the four Madhhabs. The madhhabs of Imamiyya and Zaydiyya, [and Wahhabis], are corrupt. They are heresies. They are not dependable. "To go out of the four Madhhabs' means "to go out of the Siwad-i azam.' Ibni Hazm's statement, "Imitation is haram. It is not permitted to follow anybody other than Rasulullah,' is for mujtahids. Those who cannot distinguish the hadith ash-Sharifs should ask the leaders of the Madhhabs about them and follow them. Since the time of Rasulullah, those who did not know have followed those who knew by asking them."

On another page he writes altogether nonsense, stating, "To follow the leaders of the Madhhabs would mean to exalt them to the grade of prophethood. This is kufr." He accuses all Believers, those who follow their masters, of being disbelievers. He says, "The madhhabs appeared towards the end the second century (of Islam). In which madhhab were the Sahaba and the Tabiin?" It is written in the book Radd-i Wahhabi-yi Hindi (in Persian) and in the six hundred and ninety-sixth page of the book Hadiqa, "It is not permitted to follow any Madhhab other than the four Madhhabs. This statement of ours is not intended to slight the Madhhabs of the Sahaba and the Tabiin, for we do not know the Madhhabs of the Sahaba or of others precisely. If we knew those Madhhabs, too, we would be allowed to follow them also, for the Madhhabs of all of them were right. Because the four Madhhabs are known precisely, their books having spread everywhere, each Muslim has to follow one of these four only. It is not permissible to make up a Madhhab of facilities by making research into the facilities of the four Madhhabs and gathering them together. It is called Talfiq-i Madhahib. This is not permissible."

A Madhhab leader is a great savant who gathered the meanings, the facts which Rasulullah "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' derived from the Qur'an and conveyed to the Sahaba, and who transferred them into books. While explaining the disasters incurred by the tongue, the book Hadiqa states that Rasulullah interpreted all of Qur'an al-karim to his Sahaba. He who wants to understand the explanations of the meanings which Rasulullah derived from Qur'an al-karim must read the books of a Madhhab leader and follow them. A person who reads these books and adapts himself to them enters the Madhhab. And this means to follow Rasulullah "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' and Qur'an al-karim. The Sahaba "alaihim-ur-ridwan' used to follow what they heard from Rasulullah "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam'. They did not need to follow one of their disciples, that is, to be in one of the four Madhhabs. Each of them derived all the knowledge from the main source. They learned by asking one another, too. They were all mujtahids and were more learned and more exalted than the leaders of the Madhhabs. They had their own Madhhabs.

On another page he says, "The ijtihads are ideas and opinions. Those books which we have now are the books of madhhabs, not books of the Din. Since there are no Turkish books of the Din in Turkey, I wrote this book." He thinks of himself as a mujtahid. We have seen that Omar Riza Dogrul wrote a preface to this book and extolled it extravagantly. In this preface he wrote, "The century's needs should be expected not from the Din through qiyas, but from the progressive efforts of civilization. Qiyas does not have anything to do with Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs, nor is it based on the fundamentals of the Din, but it is the invention of the mujtahids who want to base everything on the Din..." These words of his indicate that he is not Sunni, either, and that he has not comprehended the Din, qiyas or ijtihad. Those who speak ill of the savants of the Din are those who cannot reach their knowledge. It is written on the three hundred and ninety-sixth page of the first volume of the book Radd-ul-mukhtar, "After 400 A.H., no savant was educated deeply enough to do qiyas." It is written on the forty-second page of the first fascicle of Mizan, "After the four leaders of the Madhhabs, no savant claimed to be a mutlaq mujtahid. They were mujtahids educated within the Madhhabs. But no mutlaq mujtahid was educated. Yes, the information and the rules in Qur'an al-karim are infinite. But the four leaders have understood the rules that will be needed by all the people until the end of the world, and these have been written in books. If a person says that he can derive rules from Qur'an al- karim and hadith ash-Sharifs now, we will ask him to derive a rule which does not exist in any of the four Madhhabs. He cannot do this!"

These facts are written more circumstantially in the books Al-Basair li-munkir-it- tawassul-i bi-ahl-il-maqabir and At-Tawassul-u bin-Nabi wa jahalat-ul-wahhabiyyin and Usul-ul-arba'a fitardid-il-wahhabiyya. These three books quote the heretical statements of Wahhabis and answer them with documents. In the first book, there are passages taken from the book Kashf-ush-Shubuhat by Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab and answers to each. The first two books are in Arabic; the first was published in India and reproduced in 1395 [1975] by Hakikat Kitabevi in Istanbul. The book At-Tawassul-u bin Nabi is a summary of Abu Hamid bin Marzuqi's book Barat-ul-ashariyyin, which was published in Damascus.

It is written in the Zabayih section of Sayyid Ahmad Tahtawi's Durr-ul-mukhtar explanation: "Today it is wajib for every Muslim to be in one of the four Madhhabs. A person who is not in one of the four Madhhabs has dissented from the Ahl as-sunnat. And a person who is not Sunni is either a heretic or a disbeliever." Also, the books, Al-Basair, Al-Mustanad, and Sayf-ul-Abrar, which extirpate Wahhabism in India, write so and add that they derive the fact from Ihya-ul-'Ulum. The last two of them were written in India and the second edition of both books were published in Istanbul.

We are not knowledgeable enough to understand Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs. We read Qur'an al-karim not to understand and do as it says, but to get blessed with it, to get benefits from it. We imitators do not know the science of tafsir, so we learn the rules of the Shariat from the books of our leaders of the Din. Our Madhhab leaders learned the meanings of Qur'an al-karim from the Sahaba and from the Tabiin, and they wrote them in their books in such a way that we can understand them easily. Allahu ta'ala declares in the Suras Nahl and Anbiya: "Learn by asking the savants!" It is declared in a hadith ash-Sharif: "Each century will be more corrupt than the one preceding it. Thus it will always go on becoming more corrupt until the end of the world." This hadith ash-Sharif is written in Hadiqa, in the chapter about the disasters incurred by one's speech. May Allahu ta'ala protect us from disliking the books written by the best of people during the best of times and from being deceived by the corrupt men of the corrupt centuries!

Yusuf Nabhani was one of the greatest savants of the fourteenth century. He remained in Medina for many years, and thereby got the opportunity of observing Wahhabism closely. In order to spread the information which he gathered, he wrote forty-seven valuable books. In his book Al-Fath-ul-kabir, there are fourteen thousand, four hundred and fifty hadith ash- Sharifs arranged in alphabetical order. It was published in three volumes. His book Jami'u karamat-il-Awliya, which consists of two volumes, proves that karamat is true. It was printed in Egypt in 1329 [1911]. All his forty-seven books were printed. His Shawahid-ul- haqq, which is well-known, was printed for the third time in Egypt in 1385 A.H. [1965]. The book consists of five hundred and seventy pages, of which four hundred and fifty pages refute Ibni Taymiyya and Wahhabis, and the remaining hundred and twenty pages explain the superiorities of the Sahaba, the virtues of Hadrat Muawiya and Amr ibni As "radi- Allahu 'anhum' and their service to Islam.

The professors of Jami'ul-Azhar, such as Allama Shaikh Ali Muhammad Bablawi Maliki, Allama Shaikh Abdurrahman Sharbini, Shaikh Ahmad Husain Shafi'i, Shaikh Ahmad Basyani Hanbali, Arif Allama Sulaiman Shubrawi Shafi'i, Shaikh Abdulkarim Rafii, and also the Chief Mufti of Egypt Allama Bakri Muhammad Sadafi Hanafi, Professor Allama Muhammad Abdulhayy Katani Idrisi Fasi, Allama Sayyid Ahmad Bey Shafi'i, Fadil Allama Shaikh Said-i Muji Shafi'i, Allama Shaikh Muhammad Halabi Shafi'i, and many another savant of the Ahl as-sunnat liked the book Shawaid-ul-haqq and praised it by writing long articles.

In its fifth chapter it takes passages from the three books which defend the bidats of Ibni Taymiyya and refutes them with ayat al-karimas and hadith ash-Sharifs. These three corrupt books are Ighasat-ul-lahfan, by Ibni Qayyim, Firradd-i 'alas-Subki, by Ibni Abdul-Hadi, and Jila-ul-aynayn fi muhakama-til-ahmadayn, by Numan Alusi Baghdadi, all of which have been written against Ibni Hajar-i-Makki "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih'.

Deriving material from the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat, the book Shawadid-ul-haqq writes, "Islamic savants unanimously communicate that after the fourth century of the Hegira the world no longer had any savants capable of performing ijtihad. Today all Muslims have to follow one of the certain four Madhhabs, for there is now nobody learned enough to understand Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs or to derive rules from them. Qur'an al-karim and Rasulullah's "sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' Sunnat will be followed by following the leader of a Madhhab. Reporting from Ibni Hajar-i Haitami, Imam-i Manawi wrote, Jalaladdin-i Suyuti "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain', who was a very great savant, claimed to be a mujtahid. Upon this the savants of his time asked him a written question. "The former savants gave this question two different answers. Even a person who is at the lowest grade of ijtihad can choose one of these. Take your choice and write it to us,' they said. He did not dare to choose one, and he said, "I am too busy, I do not have any time to do this.' Ibni Hajar says that since the lowest grade of ijtihad is too difficult to reach, one should realize that it is impossible to claim to be a mutlaq mujtahid.

Some ignorant people now think of themselves as savants. They attempt to derive rules from Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs by following scholars who are holders of bidat. They say that they do not need to follow one of the Madhhab leaders. They even disapprove the knowledge derived and understood by the ijtihads of the Madhhab imams, and they say that they are not suitable for the contemporary age. They are arrogant ignoramuses. They presume that they follow Qur'an al-karim. Yet in fact they follow their own nafs and the devil. And they encourage everybody to derive meanings from Qur'an al- karim and from Bukhari. We should not believe these fools. Every Muslim must have the Ahl as-sunnat itiqad and must follow one of the four Madhhabs. Uniting the four Madhhabs by searching and combining the easy aspects of each is called talfiq. It is forbidden to practice talfiq out of indulgence in the desires of our nafs and satan. [It is permissible when only one act is concerned and when there is a necessity to do so.] The difference between today's men of the Din and those savants who were mujtahids is like the difference between the earth and the sky. In fact, it is equal to the difference between the devil and an angel. But, being unaware, stupid, and adherent to the nafs, they think of themselves as learned and perfect. Being deceived by the devil, they are reluctant to follow mujtahids. Such ignorant people are called la-madhhabi. They do not understand that ijtihad is not done concerning things that have been declared clearly through Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash- Sharifs. But this does not mean that ijtihad is done for nothing. Hadrat Abu Hanifa, who was ahead of all in ijtihad, would not perform ijtihad concerning something which had been declared through a daif hadith ash-Sharif. (See Kinds of Hadiths). It was the habit of all the Madhhab leaders that when they met with a question they would first search for its answer in Qur'an al-karim. If they could not find its clear answer in Qur'an al-karim, they would look it up among hadith ash-Sharifs. If they could not find it among hadith ash- Sharifs, they would look it up in the ijma'-i ummat. If they could not find it in the ijma' either, they would apply qiyas (analogy) and compare it to another similar question which has an answer in Qur'an al-karim or among hadith ash-Sharifs, or in the ijma', and thus they would find its answer through ijtihad. For a thousand years all the Muslims, the savants, the pious ones and the Awliya have been following one of these four Madhhabs. None of them claimed to be a mujtahid. We should not deviate from our Madhhab by believing a few ignorant and stupid men of the Din who have appeared recently. Even to the slightest degree, the four Madhhabs never left the Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs. Islamic savants command Muslims to follow one of the four Madhhabs. Their purpose is to secure them against two grave dangers awaiting them: becoming a disbeliever or a holder of bidat. For, if an ignorant person does not follow a Madhhab leader, he will deviate from the way, being left without a guide.

Hadrat Khwaja Muhammad Parisa takes evidence from Imam-i Ghazali and says in his book Tuhfat-us-salikin, "Three people cannot understand the meaning of Qur'an al-karim. The first one is one who does not know Arabic well and who has not studied Tafsir. The second one is one who commits a grave sin continuously. It is a grave sin to deviate from the belief of the Ahl as-sunnat. Therefore, a heretic, [e.g. a Wahhabi or a Shii], cannot understand the meaning of Qur'an al-karim. For, the zulmat of the heresy has darkened his heart. The third person who cannot understand Qur'an al-karim is one who has misunderstood one of the tenets of iman and who does not accept what is right because it disagrees with his wrong understanding." As it is seen, a person who is not in the Madhhab of the Ahl as-sunnat, much as he may know Arabic, cannot understand Qur'an al-karim correctly. Publishing his wrong understanding, he drifts others to perdition.

The statement, "Interpretations suitable with our time, with our age, are necessary," is not right. The savants of interpretation developed the tafsirs (interpretations) by writing the information coming from Rasulullah "sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam' and from his Sahaba. Their tafsirs are suitable with and enough for every century. The commandments in Qur'an al-karim are the same for everybody, no matter in what age he lives. A Muslim who believes Qur'an al-karim and who wants to obey it will find whatever he is looking for in the existing tafsirs. The person who does not obey the Shariat will absolutely not find his corrupt wishes in these tafsirs. It is not permissible to write tafsirs suiting our minds and the century. Ill-willed, ignorant and stupid people claim, despite their short sights, that they can make new tafsirs. There are many conditions to be fulfilled for being able to make tafsirs. The first of all these conditions is to live in one of the times praised in the hadith: "The best of times is my time. Then, the next best time is the one following my time. Next to it, is the time following it." [A savant of Tafsir has to know also those ayat al-karimas that are nasikh and the ones that are mansukh. It is written on the 355th page of Hadiqa that there are hundred and nine nasikh ayats in Qur'an al-karim.] None of the recent self- constituted writers of tafsirs fulfill these conditions. They deprave thoughts and oppose the savants of the Ahl as-sunnat. Proclaiming that they are Sunni, they have begun to spread their corrupt beliefs far and near. Upon reading their books, the savants of the Ahl as- sunnat immediately understand that they are wrong and tell Muslims that they are not Sunni. But the ignorant, falling short of distinguishing right from wrong, are deceived." The hadith ash-Sharif, "My Ummat will suffer much harm from the evil men of the Din," which is quoted in the explanation of the disasters incurred by the hand in the book Hadiqa, forewarns about Wahhabis.

The book al-Mizan-ul-kubra writes at the beginning of the fifty-first page and at the end of the sixtieth page that the Sunnat, that is, hadith ash-Sharifs, explains Qur'an al-karim. The imams of the Madhhabs have explained the Sunnat. And the savants of the Din have explained the statements of the imams of the Madhhabs. So will it be until the end of the world. Had not it been for the Sunnat, that is, the hadith ash-Sharifs, no one would be able to find them in Qur'an al-karim; hence, no one would have learned about the different kinds of water, cleanliness, the number of rakats of each namaz, the limits for being rich for giving zakat, the binding rules of the fast and hajj, or the knowledge of nikah and laws. When somebody said to 'Imran bin Hasin, "Explain it from Qur'an al-karim only!" he answered, "O idiot! Could you find in Qur'an al-karim how many rakats there are in each prayer of namaz?" When Hadrat 'Umar was asked, "We cannot find in Qur'an al-karim how many rakats of the fard namaz we should perform when we are on a journey," he said, "Allahu ta'ala has sent Muhammad "alaihis-salam" for us. We do what we cannot find in Qur'an al-karim as we learn it from Rasulullah. He used to perform two rakats of those prayers of namaz that have four rakats when he was on a journey. And so should we." It is written on the forty-seventh page, "None of the words of the imams of the Din is outside of the Shariat, for each of them is learned both in the Haqiqat and in the Shariat."

Abridging the book Fatawa-i Hamidiyya, Ibni Abidin gave it the name Uqud-ud-durriyya, and he wrote in its final section that it is necessary to follow a Madhhab.

While explaining the faraid (binding rules) of an ablution, Ibni Abidin "rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih' states, "A person who rejects the hadith ash-Sharifs that have been reported by only one person or the knowledge that has been understood through qiyas, does not become a disbeliever, but he has deviated from the right way. He becomes a bidat holder. It becomes certain that he will enter Hell. He who accepts them but who does not do them becomes sinful; he has omitted the wajib. But he who does not do them because he has deduced another meaning from Qur'an al-karim and hadith ash-Sharifs, does not become sinful." Some people have been heard to say, "Wahhabis have softened now. Formerly, they used to attack Muslims' property and lives. They do not perpetrate such savagery now. They even say that they are Sunni." Such statements are not true. They are the sign of not seeing or knowing the truth. Yes, the sons of Suud brutally killed Muslims who would not become Wahhabis. They do not do so now. But the sons of Suud, who used to attack property and lives formerly, attack Muslims' faith and iman now. Formerly they used to destroy the Muslims' world. Now they attack their next world and eternal felicity. They try to annihilate the belief of Ahl as-sunnat by all possible means, e.g. by distributing among the hajjis a Turkish version of the book Tahqiq wa Idhah, written by Abdul 'Aziz Baz, director of the madrasa in Medina-i-munawwara. On August 5th, 1990, the daily Turkish newspaper Turkiye published an article confuting that perversive book, thus protecting Muslims against the dire threat. They strive with all their forces to drift Muslims into eternal perdition. They have established a Wahhabite center called Rabitatul'alamil-Islami in the blessed city of Mecca. They have opened its branch offices in every Muslim country. Spending money abundantly and buying those men of the Din with precarious faith and knowledge, they use them for promulgating Wahhabism. To men of the Din and students of Islam in every country they distribute Wahhabite books in their native languages free of charge. Every year, they spend millions of gold coins in this way. The world's Muslims, who have been left without books, without knowledge in the last fifty years as a result of the British policy, are easily misled into the wrong and heretical Wahhabite beliefs. Thus the Madhhab of the Ahl as-sunnat, which is right and which has been praised in hadith ash- Sharifs, is being forgotten, lost. Truth (right) is vanishing, and falsehood (wrong) is settling everywhere. For Muslims, and even for the whole humanity, no other calamity, no other disaster can be worse or more harmful than this.

Some people say about Wahhabis, "They have some wrong beliefs, but they have deduced them from ayat al-karimas and hadith ash-Sharifs. Perhaps they are bidat holders, but it is declared in hadith ash-Sharifs that bidat holders are in this Ummat. They are Muslims, too. They are ahl-i qibla. Mustn't we love Muslims and deem Wahhabis as brothers?" There is no doubt about the soundness of this reasoning. However, loving holders of bidat entails giving them good counsel. A person who reads with reason and understands the thirty-nine books we have named above will not have any hesitation or doubt about the truth our statement bears. For example, Hadrat Ahmad Rida Khan Barilawi, one of the greatest savants of India, wrote in his book Fatawa-ul-Haramain, "A hadith ash-Sharif, transmitted by Tabarani and others, declares: "A person who respects a bidat holder has helped Islam's destruction.' Our Din commands us to censure and abhor bidat holders. It is haram to respect them. Islamic savants wrote in their books, e.g. in Sharh-i maqasid, "It is necessary to bear hostility towards bidat holders, to abhor them, to refute and to degrade them.' Muhammad Mathum-i Faruqi, in his book Maktubat-i Mathumiyya, in the second volume, 110th letter states, "Don't be together with bidat holders! Save yourself from inattentive religious men, from fawning hafizes and ignorant shaikhs of tekke! Don't be close to those religious men who behave loose about obeying the rules of the Shariat. [For instance, those who do not have the Ahl as-sunnat itiqad, who allow their wives and daughters to go out without covering themselves properly, those who have drinks containing alcohol, those who play musical instruments, and those who are la- madhhabi or corrupt.] Don't hear their words! Even leave the city where they live, so that your heart later may not incline towards them! They should never be followed. They are not men of the religion, but thieves of the religion. They are traps of satan. One should never be deceived by their gilding and touching words, and should run away as if a lion is after one." When the bidat is widespread and its harm is on the increase, it is fard to refute it and to let Muslims know its harm. In fact, there is ijma'i ummat on the fact that it is one of the most important fards. The Salaf-i salihin and their successors always did so. A person who omits this fard will have disobeyed the ijma. A hadith ash-Sharif declares: "When fitna and bidat spread, when my Sahaba are slandered, the person who knows what is right should let Muslims know what he knows! If those who know the right way do not announce it to Muslims, may Allahu ta'ala, angels and all people curse them! Allahu ta'ala will not accept their fard or supererogatory worships." This hadith ash-Sharif is written at the beginning of as-Sawa'iq-ul-muhriqa and is reported to be included in al-Jami' by Khatib-i Baghdadi. [Ahl-i bidat, that is, a bidat holder is somebody who is trying to spread his bidats to corrupt the beliefs and worships of Muslims. Instead of not loving those who perform bidat, since they were deceived by the ahl-i bidat, we should pity them and give them advice.]

Adilla-i Shariyya consists of four sources. The first one is Qur'an al-karim. The second one is the hadith ash-Sharifs. Each one of these two is either "definite" or "conjectural." Ibni Abidin, while explaining the baghis (rebels), says, "The people called khariji misinterpret those sources, [i.e. ayats and hadiths], with conjectural, or ambiguous, meanings, [i.e. ayats and hadiths that can be understood in several ways]. Those who left Hadrat Ali's army and fought against him were so. They said that the only hakim (judge) is Allah and that Hadrat Ali, by leaving the Khilafat to Muawiya and following the Judgement of the two hakams (arbitrators), committed a grave sin. One who commits a grave sin will become a kafir. This wrong interpretation of theirs caused them to fight against him. They called "disbeliever' those who did not have the same belief as theirs. Nowadays, those who follow Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab, who appeared in Najd, call themselves "Muslim,' and they call those who do not have the same belief as theirs "mushrik.' They say, "It is halal to kill them and to plunder their possessions and women.' These are called Wahhabi, and Najdi."

As Wahhabism was manufactured and distributed by the British, likewise it was the British, again, who captured the Hidjaz from the Ottomans and established the Saudi government. It is written in Munjid: "By supporting the Wahhabi amir Faisal, the British spy Lawrence assisted him to disengage his country from the Sublime Porte in 1914." The mujtahid fiqh 'ulama did not say "disbeliever' about those who misinterpreted the ambiguous dalils and so left the faith of the Ahl as-sunnat. They said that they were 'asis (sinners), baghis (rebels) and bidat-holders. In Turkish, they are called deviants. Those who deny (any one of the) dalils with one definite [clear] meaning become disbeli