In defence of Imam Muhammad ibn 'Abdil Wahhab رحمه الله from the doubts and accusations that his opponents cast in the minds of believers who seek to understand the uncontaminated Tawheed.

(Miaw = Muhammad ibn abdil wahab)

Doubt 1:
'Miaw did mass takfeer'

Response:
His own statement: "as for the lies and slanders then an example is that I takfeer masses of Muslims...all of these are lies and slanders against me"

Doubt 2:
'Miaw does takfeer on assumption/association'

Response:
His own statement: "as for what my enemies said about me that I takfeer based on adaption or association or the Jaahil who has not been given hujjah, these are great accusations!"

Doubt 3: Miaw did takfeer on the ottoman khilafah.

Response: 1. It was takfeer mutlaq, not mu'ayyan which has the added conditions. 2. He wasn't the only one who said the ottomans had kufr, al jabarti al hanafi also speaks similarly. Even the ottoman scholars themselves did

takfeer on their own state especially during it's last century.

Doubt 4:
'Miaw spilled Muslim blood.'

Response:
It is infact the opposite. When miaw started his da'wah, the scholars and people he approached ex communicated him and made his blood halal, ibn ghannaam (rh) confirms this in his tareekh.

Doubt 5:
'Miaw does not excuse the ignorant'

Response: His own statement: check response to doubt 2

Doubt 6:
'Miaw brought something completely new and unprecedented.'

Response:
His own challenge to this doubt: "I challenge you from the books of the hanafiyyah, malikiyyah, shaafi'iyyah and hanabilah, nothing is new from what I have brought unto you"

Doubt 7:
'Miaw fought the ottoman 'khilafah'

Response:
No, he fought a perverse tyrant and his tyrannical army that was occupying Egypt. The 'heroic' ottoman commander that fought Miaw also happened to betray his own state by rebelling against them.

Doubt 8:
'miaw worked with the British against the ottoman state'

Response:
Clear myth, common historical facts tell us that the British didn't even step foot in Arabia until a century later. Infact the British praised the ottoman army from Egypt for fighting the 'wahabis'

Doubt 9:
'miaw disrespected the deceased awliyaa' by destroying their shrines/tombs'

Response:
Hadeeth of 'Ali (ra):
"Do not leave any statue without erasing it, and do not leave any raised grave without leveling it.”  (Narrated by Muslim, 969).

Imam al-Shaafa’i said: 'I saw the imams in Makkah ordering that what had been built (over graves) was to be knocked down.'

What are 'wahabis' doing in Makkah in the 2nd century

Doubt 10:
'Miaw was the only person to claim that shirk was widespread in his time'

Response:
Shah Ismael dehlawi (Indian) who lived in miaw's time yet did not know he existed says that the grave worshipping of the people of his time is just like the shirk of the Quraysh.

Ibn 'Aabideen Al Hanafi (rh) was also busy fighting shirk of wilaayah in Damascus, Syria despite his criticism.of miaw.

Doubt 11:
'No one liked/supported miaw'

Response:
Notable imams contemporary to miaw praised him and his endeavours, e.g. as shawkaani and as san'aani wrote poems of praise for the Shaykh. al jabarti, as sehsawaani, al alusi were latter scholars that also praised miaw.

Numbers do not really matter when it comes to the haqq anyways, it's a non argument.

Doubt 12:
''miaw was the only scholar to view making du'a to the dead as shirk'

Response:
Imam ash shawkaani in his badr at taali' & basheer as sahsawani al hindi in his siyaanatul insaan also holds the same view, this is not even an opinion, it is what the Qur'an teaches us.

Doubt 13: 'Miaw did takfeer on scholars'

Response: yes scholars who allowed grave-worshipping. Why don't we ever look at his reasons first and then agree/disagree instead of just an emotional rant? Didn't many scholars including al Balqeeni al-ash'ari takfeer ibn Arabi by name?

Sufi 'ulamaa were the harshest in takfeer and way before miaw. Extreme kalamis would takfeer 'mujassimah' who are basically atharis, maturidis would takfeer ash'aris, extreme Sufi scholars would takfeer ibn taymiyyah and anyone that propagated his views, etc.

And before you shout whataboutism, miaw would do takfeer (if established) based on Qur'an and sunnah and although it's not Wajib to agree with it, it's still valid. The takfeer of people before him was largely based on reasons outside of texts.

If the critics of miaw had an ounce of justice and consistency, they would criticise and villify all the Sufi 'ulamaa that did takfeer before miaw instead of pointing all the guns at one man who actually tried his best to use Qur'an and ahadeeth before giving a verdict.

Doubt 14: 'Miaw's own brother, Sulayman disagreed with him and turned against him'

Response: ibn bishr states in his tareekh that sh Sulayman spread a few doubts about miaw but was subsequently sent letters of advice and responses by his brother after which sulayman apologised

And retracted his statements. This was in the year 1167 hijri.

The most he did was not join the da'wah of miaw, there is no concrete evidence of Sulaiman publicly disagreeing with or refuting his brother.

Doubt 15: 'sh sulaiman (Mia's brother) wrote a book refuting miaw'

Response: The book that was supposedly written by sulaiman ibn abdil wahab is called 'as-Sawaa'iq ul-ilahiyyah fir radd 'ala al-Wahabiyyah' and the attribution of this book to sh sulaiman is problematic due to:

1. The text in the book is completely identical to the book 'Ashaddul jihad fi ibtaal da'wal ijtihad' by ibn jarjees, an opponent to miaw and his book refutes the 'najdi hanbalis'

2. Other books/titles have been falsely attributed to sh sulaiman such as 'al-Fasl al-Khitaab...' by Ahmad al-Qubbaani from Iraq so it is fair to be skeptical about the other books.

3. There is no mention in any of the letters and writings of miaw of a book written by his brother. If sh sulaiman really wrote a book against his brother, miaw would've responded to it in his letters and books like he did with his brother's other statements as noted by ibn bishr

4. The term 'wahabiyyah' that is used in the book also is an indication that the book was not written by Sulaiman due to the term first surfacing after imam sa'ud ibn Abdul azeez entered Makkah in the year 1218. Sulaiman died in the year 1208, just 2 years after his brother miaw.