to what Ibn Taymiyyah had expounded—a statement that, in effect, accuses Ibn Taymiyyah of devising novel doctrines of his own and alleges that the Wahhābīs treated him as a law-giver. We have already answered this calumny: Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah innovated nothing. He held fast to the creed of the righteous predecessors—the Companions, the Followers, and the preferred generations—introducing absolutely nothing on his own. We challenge anyone who repeats this unjust claim to present even a single issue in which Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah departed from those who preceded him among the salaf. All he really did was to revive, disseminate, and restore the creed of the early Muslims after it had faded and been forgotten by many.

We add further that Shaykh al-Islam Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab and the other imams of the call did not confine themselves to the works of Ibn Taymiyyah. They benefited from his writings and from other sound, useful books that follow the methodology of the salaf—as anyone who reads their works will readily see.

Second: his claim that they “were not content to leave worship as Islam has defined it in the Quran and the Sunnah” is a colossal fabrication and a grave accusation, suggesting that the scholars of the monotheistic revival in Najd introduced acts of worship that Allah and His Messenger never prescribed. Yet Allah has exposed his falsehood, for he could produce no example except their prohibition of tobacco. This alone reveals his ignorance, for declaring tobacco unlawful is not a matter of worship; it falls under the rulings on foodstuffs and the lawful and the unlawful. Moreover, the proscription of tobacco was not unique to the scholars of Najd; many other scholars of the ummah have likewise forbidden it because of its filthiness and harm. Indeed, even now intensive campaigns are conducted by international health organizations to warn people against smoking and to educate them about its dangers.