Al-Qawāʿid al-Arbaʿ

Four foundational principles that dismantle the logic of intercession-based shirk, showing why those who worship intermediaries are not excused. Typically the first tawhid text taught, its four-rule structure gives students a clear rational framework for distinguishing pure monotheism from polytheism.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (1703–1792 CE) was born in the ʿUyaynah region of Najd, Arabia, and received his education in Medina, al-Aḥsāʾ, and Basra. Returning to Najd, he launched a reformist daʿwah calling Muslims back to pure tawḥīd and away from innovated practices he witnessed spreading through Muslim lands. His alliance with the ruler Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd established the first Saudi state and gave rise to a global Salafi reform movement. He authored over twenty works in creed, fiqh, and biography, of which Kitāb al-Tawḥīd remains the most widely studied.

• Principle 1: Knowing Allah requires knowing His exclusive right to worship
• Principle 2: The Arabs of the Prophet's time affirmed Allah's lordship yet still committed shirk
• Principle 3: The mushrikun claimed to worship intermediaries only for proximity to Allah
• Principle 4: Those who commit shirk today are more misguided than those the Prophet was sent to
• The logic of intercession-based worship dismantled
• The meaning of La ilaha illa Allah as the sole right of Allah to be worshipped