Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, the “Expert” on Tawhid

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

It is a Wahhabi belief that only Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab an-Najdi understood tawhid.  This heretic even says that he knows tawhid better than the swahabah, the true salaf, and the pious predecessors.  This is the basis that he built his case to declare the Muslims were engaged in shirk, kufr and nifaq. 

The founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab wrote, in his Rasa’il ash-Shakhswiyyah, “And I inform you about myself – I swear by Allah Whom there is none worthy to worship except Him – I have sought knowledge, and those who knew me believed that I had knowledge while I did not know the meaning of Laa Ilaha Illa Allah at that time, and did not know the religion of Islam before this grace that Allah favoured.  As well as my shuyukh, no one among them knew that.  And if someone from the scholars of al-Arid (the lands of Najd and surrounding areas) claims that he knew the meaning of Laa Ilaha Illa Allah or knew the meaning of Islam before this time, or claims on behalf of his teachers that someone from them knew that, then he has lied and said falsehood and deceived people and praised himself with something he does not possess.” 

What this essentially means is that according to ibn ‘Abd al-Wahab, no one in the entire ummah, including his teachers and the people from his tribe knew Islam before he did.  And because they “did not know Islam”, they were not considered Muslims.  The people of ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab branded all Muslims as apostates and forced any who came to him to retake their shahadah.  And that is the default position of this sect even to the present day.