Muhammad Kurd ‘Alī, the Sunnī historian, has also vehemently assailed those who do not differentiate the Shī‘ism from the Extremism, saying, “Certain authors falsely believe that the Shī‘ism is an innovation introduced into religion by ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sabā, a vain assertion stemming from insufficient knowledge. How false such an assumption seems to anyone who is aware of ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sabā’s stand among the Shī‘ahs, of the Shī‘ahs’ aversion to his words and deeds, of the Shī‘ah scholars’ opinion of him who have unanimously pronounced their hatred of him.”[1]
Greatly surprised at the identification of the Shī‘ism with the Ghulāt, ‘Umar Tilmasānī, the leader of the Ikhwān al-Muslimīn says, “The Shī‘ah jurisprudence has, with its power and culmination of thought, enriched the Muslim world.”[2]
A leader of the Sunnīs, a religious erudite of the time, Muhammad Abū Zahrah, greatly bewildered by the Wahhābī approach, has criticized the Wahhābīs’ invalid interpretations of some Shī‘ah theological expressions. Also, he has proved that the Wahhābīs have not understood the purport of “dissimulation”. This word, as explained by the Shī‘ahs, is derived from the Qur’an. He says, “Dissimulation means that a believer who fears to be persecuted, or who desires to achieve his lofty goal—rendering a service to the God’s religion—keeps a part of his belief in secret. This stems from the Qur’an.”[3]
“Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends rather than believers; and whoever does this, he shall have nothing of (the guardianship of) Allah, but you should guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully; and Allah makes you cautious of (retribution from) Himself; and to Allah is the eventual coming.” (3:28)
In answer to the Wahhābīs who take the Shī‘ah view on the Imamate as identical with that of the extremists, Abū Zahrah says, “The Imāmiyyah do not rank the Prophet (s) and the Imām (‘a) on the same level.”[4]
The great leader of the Sunnīs, the dean of the al-Azhar University, Shaykh Mahmūd Shaltūt, is among those who supported the Sunnīs’ dealing with the Shī‘ahs. He ardently challenged the Wahhābīs’ manner of study because they had blundered badly, linking the Imāmiyyah with the extremists.
He made a great effort to lead the Wahhābīs back to the general Sunnī trend, and to stop the Shī‘ahs—the Sunnī tension plotted by the Wahhābīs’. The Wahhābīs, as a result, opposed him, accusing him of trying to bring the Sunnīs and extremists into closer contact. What he desired to do was to make the Wahhābīs understand that they were attributing to the Shī‘ahs what were in fact the Sabā’iyyah’s, Khattābiyyah’s and Bayāniyyah’s ideas, who the Shī‘ahs condemn as unbelievers. He maintained that the reason the Wahhābīs linked the Shī‘ism with perverted beliefs—as the Wahhābīs called them—was because to the Wahhābīs, the Shī‘ism was a branch of the Extremism.
Mahmūd Shaltūt was compelled to assail certain contemporary Sunnīs who, having been tainted with the Wahhābism, eyed their predecessors’ dealings with the Shī‘ahs negatively. He believed that these people formed the greatest impediment in the proximity [taqrīb] of the Sunnīsm to the Shī‘ism. He says, “The idea of taqrīb is being defied by the short-sighted and malicious found in every society. These are the people who think that their stability is dependent upon the discord of religious sects; they are the people in whose hearts there is a disease—those who lovingly dance around their whims—and have peculiar inclinations. These are the mercenary writers who are at the service of those who conspire against the Muslim unity, and, directly or indirectly, resist any reformatory movement that aims at uniting the divided Muslims.”[5]
