| abstract | - Wahhabi (Arabic: Al-Wahhābīyya الوهابية) or Wahhabism is a sect attributed to Abd-al-Wahhab, an 18th century scholar from what is today Saudi Arabia. He advocated a process of purifiying Islam from what he considered (based on his own views and understanding of Islam) innovations in Islam (Bidah). He believed that those who practice innovation in Islam are Kafir. The word Kafir comes from the Arabic noun Takfeer (declaring that a person is Kafir). Such declaration by the Wahhabis has many potential consequences. Because they gave themselves the ultimate right to declare people Kuffar (plural of Kafir or infidels), Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab's followers led an army which occupied Ta’if and Mecca (Makkah). This was followed by massacres of unarmed Muslims (including men, women, and children) and the destruction of many graves and holy sites. Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab also considered destroying the house where the Prophet Muhammad was born and tried to destroy the holy grave of the Prophet Muhammad, out of fear that it might be worshipped. It is often referred to as a sect within Sunni Islam, although this designation is disputed. The term "Wahhabi" (Wahhābīya) was first used by opponents of ibn Abdul Wahhab. It is considered derogatory by the people it is used to describe, who prefer to be called "unitarians" (Muwahiddun). The terms "Wahhabi" and "Salafi" are often used interchangeably, but Wahhabi has also been called "a particular orientation within Salafism", an orientation some consider ultra-conservative. Wahhabism is specifically a theological sect, while the focus of Salafism was historically confined to reinterpreting Islamic jurisprudence, or fiqh. That many modern Wahhabis are also Salafis, and now refer to themselves nearly exclusively as such, has led to confusion. Wahhabism predominantly influenced the central Arabian peninsula, known as Najd, originally advocating the Hanbali school of jurisprudence. It has developed considerable influence in the Muslim world through the funding of mosques, schools and other means from Persian Gulf oil wealth. The name stems from following the strict interpretations of Muhammed Ibn Wahhab. The primary doctrine of Wahhabi is Tawhid, or the uniqueness and unity of God as pronounced by Ibn Abdul Wahhab and influenced by the writings of Ibn Taymiyya, a Hanbali jurist who in some of his writings considered calling on pious figures as intermediaries for one's prayers to be an innovation. Ibn Abdul Wahhab went further in considering it an act of idolatry, and despite being accepted by centuries of Muslim scholarship, his sect considered its practitioners and advocates to be outside of Islam and permissible to kill, raid, and enslave (see First Saudi State). He preached against a "perceived moral decline and political weakness" in the Arabian Peninsula and condemned what he saw as idolatry in the form of shrine and tomb visitation.
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