Literalism and Textualism in Wahhabism: From Claim to Reality

One of the most important characteristics of Wahhabism, which is sometimes not well understood, is this group's specific view of the verses of the Holy Quran. What Wahhabism claims, and many have accepted, is the claim of textualism and literalism in their approach to Quranic verses. However, by referring to the works of Wahhabism and their method of dealing with the verses of the Holy Quran, we find that Wahhabism is not textualist and literalist, but rather a group of interpreters and distorters. This approach, after forming its own special intellectual structure, which results in nothing but the excommunication of Muslims and considering Islam as disbelief, has sought to prove its own thinking by instrumental use of the verses of the Holy Quran. Thus, in important subjects (such as divine oneness and the attributes of God), which are points of disagreement between this group and Muslims, they turn to ambiguous verses and adhere to the initial meaning of the words without considering the clear verses of the Quran and Islamic beliefs. Moreover, when they reach clear texts, they deny the apparent meaning of the verses and Quranic texts and resort to interpretation and distortion of these verses.