They considered such acts as tantamount to worshipping the...

They considered such acts as tantamount to worshipping the Prophet or those pious Muslims instead of Allah. Accordingly, they declared that there is no deity but Allah and there is no intercession except His. While these heated declarations are indisputable, the intentions behind them are open to suspicions. The Wahhabis chose to ignore the tradition established by the and early Muslims regarding the legality of visiting the Prophet's Mosque and other shrines and asking for intercession.

Ibn Taimia observed that the deviant group the Khawarij was the first bida' or corruption in Islam because its followers judged other Muslims as heretics and legalized killing them.[^5] It can be added that the Wahhabia, and for the same reason, is the last bida' in Islam. Some of the Prophet's comments on the rise of the Khawarij and their deviation from Islam also apply to the Wahhabis.

Consider, for example, the Prophet's saying that: «a group of people shall emerge from the east who reads the Quran without understanding it. They shall deviate from it like an arrow missing its target. Shaving the head shall be their distinguishing characteristic.»[^6] In commenting on this saying, al-Qastalani said that «'due east' means east of al-Medina such as Najid and further.»[^7] Najid is the birthplace of Wahhabia from which it spread to other places.

Also, shaving their heads was one of the Wahhabis' established tradition which was mandatory for all their followers including women. None of the deviant groups who predated them was known to impose it.

Some of the religious scholars who witnessed the rise of this movement maintained that there is no need to write books to refute the Wahhabia because it is sufficient to repeat the Prophet's saying that 'Shaving the head is their distinguishing characteristic,' since none has done it before them.[^8] The Prophet described the Khawarij as «those who will slaughter Muslims and leave the pagans unharmed.» This also applies to the Wahhabis who fought only Muslims.

Their scholars and books also call for waging war on other Muslims only.[^9] Al-Bukhari reported that Ibn Omar described the Khawarij as «having applied verses revealed regarding pagans to the believers.»[^10] Ibn Abbas is reported to have said on the same subject: Don't be like the Khawarij who interpreted some [verses] of the Quran to apply to the faithful. Those verses were revealed regarding followers of other divine messages and pagans.