Origins
It is 1744. The Muslim world is ruled from three main centres – the Othmania Sultanat in today’s Turkey, the Shi’a in today’s Iran and Mughals in today’s India. All were deeply mired in superstition (sorcery, magic, jinn). All condoned, if not legitimised, by the prevalent Sufi system that degenerated into ‘winks and nods’.
In this dark world, in the middle of today’s Saudi Arabia, a new group came with a new plan.
Shifting the Paradigm
The first thing the Salafis did was change the rules that governed their daily lives: that is they changed the rules that governed the Shari’ah. This was indeed radical.
Taqleed was scorned and discarded while the usual protocols of Usul al-Fiqh were made secondary, though they professed to retain their Hanbali roots.
In deriving the rules, for their daily life, they will only trust the Qur’an and the Sunnah. But they also sought the narrations of the Salaf (the Companions of the Prophet) as their guide. However, the Shura of the political leadership + Salafi ulema will have the final say.
Initial Reactions in the Muslim World
Called Wahhabis, they were unknown to the wider Sunni community which was mostly illiterate, and mired in local strife and superstitions. No one was keen to understand the European Renaissance and creeping onslaught of Portuguese and Dutch Colonialism.
By 1800, taking a hard stance against the Sufis, the Salafis began raiding and destroying the local shrines. When they destroyed the Karbala shrine, the Shi’a rhetoric blamed the Wahabis as exclusively anti-Shi’a. Little did they know that the Muslim world was about to change for good. Not necessarily better.
Soon the Salafi militant activism invited the wrath of the Othmania Sultanat, the guardians of Sunni Sufi practice. The young Saudi-Wahhabi rule was suppressed by 1818, though, it was difficult to fully control the desert. The Saudis were back in business in their locality.
Unification and Consolidation
By 1921, the pretentious ‘Othmania Khilaafat’, as it was known then, was extinguished by their own Turkish young men, influenced by Socialist ideals. Neither the Salafis, the Muslim socialists nor the Arab revolt need be blamed: the Khilaafat had been sick for decades; the Shari’ah it followed was not well either.
By 1932, the Saudis had unified the desert into a modern state, while the rest of the Muslim world was colonised or subjugated by the Europeans. Significantly, the Saudis became friends with the new world-power – the United States, and struck oil. The Americans let them practice Islam as they wanted while Saudis let them extract oil as much as they desired.
All the Great Powers at the time (Britain, France, and the US) preferred them, over the bickering Arab tribes and some very unimpressive Sultans. After the end of the Great Wars of the 20th century, yet another war began: The Cold War.
Under the Wings of the Capitalism
From the 1970s, the Saudis began receiving Petrodollars. Importantly, they behaved as good world citizens: allied with the US in their fight against Communism in Arab lands, respected Israeli’s right to exist, and provided oil at cheap enough rate for the world to come into the digital age.
In return, the Saudis were allowed to spend their Petrodollars for the consolidation of Islam against Soviet Communist’s nasty plans. Almost all Muslim lands of this time were ruled by either communist-friendly or openly socialist states. In fact, Albania became the first (and the only) Muslim nation to declare itself openly as a communist nation.
The 1970’s ‘Muslim World’
Spread, and Revival of Ahadeeth
Chipping away the foundation stones of Taqleed slowly, they began propagating the importance of Ahadeeth in daily lives of the Muslims. Sufis and Shi’a were particular targets, for their practice of superstitions.
Credit must go to their intense battle for the hearts and the minds: today the Sufis and Shi’a happily quote ahadeeth regularly, attempting to justify whatever they want to justify. This wasn’t the case only fifty years back!
Issues with the Salafi Model
By the time the Soviet Union fell, in 1989, the Muslim world had internalised the idea of the sanctity of the ahadeeth where ahadeeth were given the status of Qur’an itself. This small difference began to cause intense strife between Muslims.
Though the Salafis plead for the purity-of-Islam by following the ahadeeth, their ulema cannot reconcile well-known seeming contradictions and weakness in ahadeeth tradition. So, their disputes are reconciled by the King’s appointed-Shura.
The Salafis managed to destroy Taqleed which barely needed a political patronage for sustenance, but they haven’t created another system to replace it. For the Muslims of the world, without a King’s Shura and the Petrodollars, following the core Salafi path has become a problem.
Challenge to the Salafis
Yes, we owe a great deal to Salafis for their attempt at getting rid of Sufi-superstitions. More work is needed here. Yes, we know the message of Qur’an – its concepts of justice, equality, and responsibility – largely due to Salafi efforts.
However, by destroying the principles of Usul al-Fiqh, the Salafis have under-resourced the Ummah by not providing us with tools to deal with the new world. So, here we are: bursting with multiple ways to interpret Shari’ah, and tearing ourselves apart.
Would we end up like the thousand-Christian Churches? We would have, as in the 10-11th century, had it not been for Imaam al-Shafi’i’s work to derive the rules – which are self-sustaining and without the interference for a populist political class.
