History Of Caste

[acharya]

Wahhabi Sect


_Wahhabi Sect._ [407]--A puritan sect of Muhammadans. The sect was not
recorded at the census, but it is probable that it has a few adherents
in the Central Provinces. The Wahhabi sect is named after its founder,
Muhammad Abdul Wahhab, who was born in Arabia in A.D. 1691. He set
his face against all developments of Islam not warranted by the Koran
and the traditional utterances of the Companions of the Prophet, and
against the belief in omens and worship at the shrines of saints,
and condemned as well all display of wealth and luxury and the
use of intoxicating drugs and tobacco. He denied any authority to
Islamic doctrines other than the Koran itself and the utterances of
the Companions of the Prophet who had received instruction from his
lips, and held that in the interpretation and application of them
Moslems must exercise the right of private judgment. The sect met
with considerable military success in Arabia and Persia, and at one
time threatened to spread over the Islamic world. The following is an
account of the taking of Mecca by Saud, the grandson of the founder,
in 1803: "The sanctity of the place subdued the barbarous spirit
of the conquerors, and not the slightest excesses were committed
against the people. The stern principles of the reformed doctrines
were, however, strictly enforced. Piles of green huqqas and Persian
pipes were collected, rosaries and amulets were forcibly taken from
the devotees, silk and satin dresses were demanded from the wealthy
and worldly, and the whole, piled up into a heterogeneous mass,
were burnt by the infuriated reformers. So strong was the feeling
against the pipes and so necessary did a public example seem to be,
that a respectable lady, whose delinquency had well-nigh escaped
the vigilant eye of the Muhtasib, was seized and placed on an ass,
with a green pipe suspended from her neck, and paraded through the
public streets--a terrible warning to all of her sex who might be
inclined to indulge in forbidden luxuries. When the usual hour of
prayer arrived the myrmidons of the law sallied forth, and with
leathern whips drove all slothful Moslems to their devotions. The
mosques were filled. Never since the days of the Prophet had the
sacred city witnessed so much piety and devotion. Not one pipe, not
a single tobacco-stopper, was to be seen in the streets or found in
the houses, and the whole population of Mecca prostrated themselves
at least five times a day in solemn adoration."

The apprehensions of the Sultan of Turkey were aroused and an army
was despatched against the Wahhabis, which broke their political
power, their leader, Saud's son, being executed in Constantinople in
1818. But the tenets of the sect continued to be maintained in Arabia,
and in 1822 one Saiyad Ahmad, a freebooter and bandit from Rai Bareli,
was converted to it on a pilgrimage to Mecca and returned to preach
its doctrines in India. Being a Saiyad and thus a descendant of the
Prophet, he was accepted by the Muhammadans of India as the true
Khalifa or Mahdi, awaited by the Shiahs. Unheeded by the British
Government, he traversed our provinces with a numerous retinue of
devoted disciples and converted the populace to his reformed doctrine
by thousands, Patna becoming a centre of the sect. In 1826 he declared
a _jihad_ or religious war against the Sikhs, but after a four years'
struggle was defeated and killed. The sect gave some trouble in the
Mutiny, but has not since taken any part in politics. Its reformed
doctrines, however, have obtained a considerable vogue, and still
exercise a powerful influence on Muhammadan thought. The Wahhabis deny
the authority of Islamic tradition after the deaths of the Companions
of the Prophet, do not illuminate or pay reverence to the shrines of
departed saints, do not celebrate the birthday of Muhammad, count
the ninety-nine names of God on their fingers and not on a rosary,
and do not smoke.