The State of the Muslims at the Rise of Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb’s Call:

The historians—such as Ibn Ghannām, Ibn Bishr, and others—have recorded at length the condition of the people of Najd in particular, and of the Muslim world in general, noting the spread of innovations, superstitions, blatant acts of polytheism, and widespread ignorance of the true faith. In Najd graves, trees, stones, and caves were worshipped besides Allah through various forms of devotion; similar practices abounded in the Ḥijāz, Yemen, and other lands.

The eminent scholar Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ṣanʿānī—himself a contemporary of the shaykh—depicts these idolatrous manifestations in a poem that praises the shaykh’s mission and describes the major shirk performed around graves:

“Reports have reached us that he restores for us the noble Law by all that he proclaims,
And openly spreads what every ignorant soul and innovator had hidden—thus it accords with what I hold.

He rebuilds the pillars of the Sharia, demolishing shrines where people strayed from right guidance;
At them they revived the cult of Suwāʿ and its like—Yaghūth and Wadd—how vile a loyalty that is!

In hardship they call upon their names as the distressed call upon the One, the peerless Lord;
How many beasts have been slaughtered in their courtyards, dedicated openly and deliberately to other than Allah!

How many circle the graves, facing them in devotion, and touch their corners with their hands!”

Imām al-Shawkānī, another contemporary of the shaykh’s daʿwah, likewise portrays the polytheism practiced at graves: “How many evils—enough to make Islam weep—have accompanied the construction and embellishment of tombs! Among them is the belief of the ignorant in them just as the pagans believed in their idols. Their veneration became so great that they imagined the graves could bestow benefit or avert harm, and they turned them into destinations where people seek the fulfillment of their needs.”