RNA – Speaking during his course at Qom’s Grand Mosque, Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi reacted to the claim of the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al ash-Shaykh, that Iranians are not Muslims, saying, “The Islam of the Prophet Muhammad is not the Islam of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab. We do not accept their Islam and they do not know Islam.”
The revered source of emulation pointed to other differences between original Islam and Wahhabi Islam and said: “The Islam of the Prophet Muhammad is full of affection and love and in all of his prayers, he invited others toward mercy and affection but the Islam of ibn Abdul-Wahhab promotes murder and bloodshed. Wahhabis behead other Muslims, as well as non-Muslims, and set them on fire and engage in acts of destruction.”
He added that with every crime the Wahhabis commit, we do not recognize their form of Islam as Islam and the true Islam of the Prophet of Islam is not Wahhabi Islam.
Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi referred to other differences between the two forms of Islam and said: “We say those who say the shahadah are brothers but they say everyone except for Wahhabis are infidels. Between true and original Islam and the Islam of ibn Abdul-Wahhab there is a huge difference.”
His Eminence said that we say if non-Muslims do not fight us, we must show affection toward them and this is expressed in the Holy Quran but the Islam of ibn Abdul-Wahhab says that non-Muslim girls and children who do not fight can be chained up and sold as slaves to lustful men. “If this is your Islam, we are not Muslims and this Islam of yours is not Islam,” he said.
The teacher in the Islamic Seminary of Qom said that fortunately, at a recent conference in Chechnya, Sunni scholars explicitly declared that Wahhabism is not part of the Sunni school of thought and said: “We also say that Wahhabism is not part of the Shi’a school of thought. Thus, they established through consensus that Wahhabism is a false religion and has nothing to do with Islam. Praise be to God, Wahhabism is beginning to decline and the world is waking up to the fact that the Wahhabis are dangerous creatures.”
After Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi’s remarks, the student’s chants of “Death to Al Saud” reverberated in the Grand Mosque.
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