hat shedding the blood of Muslims and taking away their property and defiling their honour

An interesting fatwa from the shaykh:

Shaykh Khalil Saharanfuri in al-Muhannad (Karachi Dar al-Isha`at ed. p. 28-30):

"Question number 12: Muhammad Ibn `Abd al-Wahhab held the view that shedding the blood of Muslims and taking away their property and defiling their honour, all these things were lawful. He also termed them idolaters.

He was insolent towards the elders. What is your view of him? And do you think that calling the Ahl al-Qibla as apostates is a lawful act? Or do you think that he who does these things belongs to a legitimate sect?
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"Our ruling concerning them [Wahhabis] is:

"[1] what the author of al-Durr al-Mukhtar [al-Haskafi] said,
'and the  Khawarij are a group of people possessing some power who rebel against him [the Sultan of the Muslims] on the basis of their own interpretation [of the Religion], considering him to be following falsehood and committing disobedience to the point that it is obligatory to fight him on the basis of such interpretation so that they consider it licit to kill us, seize our property, and capture our women'

until he said,

'and the ruling concerning them is the ruling of political rebels (bughaat).'

Then he said,

'We do not declare them kafir, because this [their rebellion] is on the basis of their interpretation, even if such interpretation is false.'

"And [2] what al-Shami [= Ibn `Abidin] said in his commentary (Hashiya):

'Just as what befell in our time with the followers of [Muhammad Ibn] `Abd al-Wahhab who came out of Najd and overcame the Two Noble Sanctuaries (Mecca and Madina). / They (Wahhabis) CLAIMED TO FOLLOW (kaanu yantahilun) the Hanbali School, but their belief was such that, in their view, they alone are the Muslims and that all that differ from their belief are idolaters (mushrikun). Under this guise, they said that killing Ahl al-Sunna and their scholars was permissible, until Allah the Exalted the obligation that the Muslims gathered under the authority of one Amir al Mu'mineen,

"[3] I also add to this:

Neither he [Muhammad Ibn `Abd al-Wahhab] nor any of his followers and clan are among our teachers in any of our chains of transmission in Islamic knowledge whether in fiqh, hadith, tafsir, or tasawwuf. [I.e. We are uncontaminated by their heresy.]

"As for their treating as licit the lives, property, and sanctity of
Muslims, this is done either injustly or justly. If injustly, then either on
the basis of interpretation or not. If without interpretation, then it is
kufr and abandonment of Islam. If on the basis of interpretation that is
unjustifiable in the Law then it is depravity (fisq). If justly, then it is
permissible or rather obligatory. As for declaring kafir the Muslims of the past, then Allah forbid that we should declare kafir anyone of them! We consider doing so extreme Shi`ism (rafd) and innovation (ibtida`) in the Religion. As for branding as kafir the People / of the Qibla among the innovators, we do not declare them as kafir as long as they do not reject an aspect of the Law that it is obligatory to accept. If it is established that they denied an obligatorily known matter, then we declare them kafir but with caution. This is our practice and the practice of our teachers - Allah have mercy on them."
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Imam al-Zarqani said in his book Manahil al-Irfan: 'Our Scholars agreed that if a word carries 99 aspects of disbelief and one aspect of faith, it must be interpreted according to the best of meanings, which is faith'.

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