"ملاحظات ميدانية عن المملكة العربية السعودية، ١٩٣٥" [ظ‎‎٢‎٢] (٢٤٨/٤٩)

5. Religion
(a) General .
The state religion of Saudi Arabia is Islam (Muhammadanism),
of the Wahhabi code.
An exact estimate of the number of the population following this
code is not possible, more especially as a number of the tiibesmen in
Nejd, and large numbers of the tribesmen and townsmen of the Hejaz,
followers of the Abu Hanifa school of the Sunni, are now obligatorily
tinged with Wahhabism in their practices.
In paragraph [d) below, an estimate is made of the minority sects.
Probably under a third of the total population are willing
Wahhabis.
(b) Brief note on Wahhabism
The Encyclopaedia Islamica or Encyclopaedia Britannica may be
consulted for a description of the sects mentioned in this section of
the report, but a brief note on Wahhabism is here given for
convenience.
Properly speaking, the Wahhabi belief is not sectarian, but
represents the purity of Muhammadanism, as revealed by the
Prophet of orthodox Islam. Outside Wahhabism, in all the great
Muhammadan centres, Islam has adapted itself to changing human
conditions. Various sects favoured various means to this end.
Innovations by general consent, and the reading into “ the
traditions ” of the Prophet’s sayings (many of doubtful authenticity),
of instructions which could be applied to cases arising out of con
ditions non-existent in the Prophet’s day, enabled Islam to adapt
itself to a progressing world.
Zealots were not wanting who slowed up this process.
The most singular of these was one Ibn Taimiyya, a Syrian
logician and an indefatigable detector of heresies who lived, mostly
in prison for his opinions, in the 14th century. He was an adherent
of the Hanbalite school, and demanded the most drastic punishments
for any departure from the purity of revealed Muhammadanism.
His polemical pamphlets bore suggestive titles, such as the
Unsheathed Sword,” and his intemperate zeal, nourished by an
incontestable erudition, led to disturbances wherever he went.
It was a follower of the tenets of this martyr (for Ibn Taimiyya
died in prison in Damascus), one Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab of
Awaina (or Uyaina) in Nejd, who was to put new life into this
extreme Islamic puritanism, in the 18th century.
Himself the son of a Hanbali “Alim,” Muhammad ibn Abdul
Wahhab studied in Medina, and there was fired with enthusiasm for
the works of Ibn Taimiyya.
His criticism of existing customs at Medina led to his being
expelled, and, removed to Basra, he was again expelled for the same
reason.