Commentator’s Introduction

All praise belongs to Allah. May He send blessings, peace, and benedictions upon His servant and Messenger, upon his family and Companions, and upon all who heed his call until the Day of Judgment.

To proceed:

This is the treatise “Nawāqid al-Islām” (The Nullifiers of Islam) by the reviver-scholar Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, the leading figure of the Salafi movement in the twelfth century AH. He is a towering luminary of Islam, acknowledged by friend and foe, believer and disbeliever alike, for he undertook a momentous task: calling people to tawḥīd (pure monotheism) and to the Sunnah at a time when many features of tawḥīd had vanished across large parts of the Muslim world and when innovations and various forms of shirk had become widespread. Admittedly, the Muslim world still contained scholars, righteous people, and devoted worshippers who followed the correct path, and many of them recognized the truth and knew that the innovations, newly-introduced practices, and kinds of shirk prevalent among many Muslims were false. Yet they were unable to launch a reformist call—either because of personal shortcomings and apathy or because of external obstacles that hindered them from engaging in daʿwah and openly proclaiming the true reality of Islam, which the masses were ignorant of and which contradicted the practices of shirk and bidʿah upon which they had been raised.

Nevertheless, Allah—glorified and exalted—has guaranteed the preservation of this religion. The message of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is everlasting, for he is the Seal of the Prophets; there will be no prophet after him, and so it must remain