63. Is Wahhabism true Islam?

No, it is not Islam. Wahhabism is extremism and extremism is not permitted in Islam. An example of this extremism is that there were several houses of the Companions of the Prophet in Makkah and Madinah, the most important one being that of Hazarat Khadija in Makkah where the Prophet had spent his early life. People used to visit these places to experience the early history of Islam and the life of the Prophet. When Wahhabis came into power, they razed down these houses on the plea that people would start holding these places sacred or associating sanctity to them. The Wahhabis thought that such sacred veneration of objects other than God was equivalent to shirk or associating partners with God. This they believed would go contrary to monotheism, or the belief in the oneness of God.

However, in razing down these houses, the Wahhabis deprived future generations of Muslims from having an experiential realization of prophetic history which they would have gained by seeing these historic places.