{"id":26,"date":"2014-12-11T21:03:27","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T21:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/paladino\/?p=26"},"modified":"2014-12-11T21:07:57","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T21:07:57","slug":"final-project-how-the-grinch-stole-wahhabism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/2014\/12\/11\/final-project-how-the-grinch-stole-wahhabism\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Project – How the Grinch Stole Wahhabism"},"content":{"rendered":"

How the Grinch Stole Wahhabism<\/span><\/p>\n

Characters: The Grinch, Max (The Grinch’s dog)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: [Grinch goes up to Max] What\u2019s that you\u2019re doing?!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max: Well, sir, I\u2019m praying \u2013<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: Yes, I can see that.\u00a0 But to whom <\/em>are you praying?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max: Well, to a Muslim Saint.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot to be said abou-<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: THAT\u2019S EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT. You\u2019ve been caught in the act, bud.\u00a0 Worshipping a saint\u2026 you know that\u2019s heresy, right?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max:\u00a0 It most certainly is not! Saints provide very real and very important conduits between us and Allah Himself, just as Muhammad does as a Prophet<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: Don\u2019t you dare say His name!\u00a0 By praying to these saints you are putting them at level with God, which the Qu\u2019ran strictly forbids.\u00a0 You\u2019re making a mockery of our faith, of our MONOTHESTIC FAITH, just like those heathen Hindu\u2019s.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max: I beg your pardon!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: You must know as well as I do, as Shah Waliullah says in Al-Balagh al-Mubin, <\/em>\u201c\u2026one must know that whatever the Hindu polytheists do for their idols, the tomb worshippers also do exactly in the same way in the name of tombs and saints\u201d (qtd. In Gaborieau)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max:\u00a0 Ah, I see, we have a Wahhabi here<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: That\u2019s right.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max: Look, my friend\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: I\u2019M NOT YOUR FRIEND<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max: \u2026Look, you\u2019ve got your opinion, and I\u2019ve got mine.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see the cult of saints as heretical, but rather enlightening \u2013 by praying with the help of the saints, they help me grow closer to God by mediating my communication.\u00a0 After all, do we not pray through Muhammad? In fact, that is what your Shah Waliullah actually believes on the issue \u2013 the Al-Balagh al-Mubin\u2019s<\/em> authorship is seriously in doubt.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: Is that so?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max: Yes, it is.\u00a0 And look, I have no problem with you \u2013 As I said, you have your opinion, and I\u2019ve got mine.\u00a0 There\u2019s no one way to practice Islam \u2013 after all, what is \u201cIslam\u201d anyway? \u00a0We all submit ourselves to God in different ways, and this is mine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: Well, I think I\u2019ve learned something here today.<\/p>\n

Max: Good, now go give back all the presents.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: Why, what ever do you mean about pre-<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max: You know what I mean you bum, all the presents we stole last night, give them back and your heart will grow or something<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grinch: Eh fine<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Max: Happy Holidays, everyone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[End]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This short, rather comical video represents a debate between a member of the Wahhabi movement (Grinch) and a member of the cult of saints (Max) within Islam, in response to “A Nineteenth Century Indian ‘Wahhabi’ Tract Against the Cult of Saints:\u00a0Al-Balagh al-Mubin<\/em>” by Mark Gaborieau. \u00a0In the article, Gaborieau describes a Muslim reformist movement, the Wahhabi movement, which criticized what was known as the cult of saints for worshipping and praying to Muslim saints. \u00a0The Wahhabis viewed this as akin to idolatry, as no on should be worshipped except for Allah, and to pray to anyone else was sinful and polytheistic. \u00a0This was manifested in the\u00a0Al-Balagh al-Mubin<\/em>, which was supposedly written by a nineteenth-century Muslim ruler, Shah Walliulah, in condemning the saint-worshippers. Later, however, as Gaborieau explains, it was discovered that Shah Walliulah was not likely the actual author, but that a political group that came about after his death may have written it under his name so that the ideas within the\u00a0Al-Balagh al-Mubin<\/em> would be legitimized – In fact, Gaborieau writes, Shah Waliullah’s views were actually more moderate, such that he believed praying to saints is acceptable on the condition that one prays through them as a bridge to God, rather than actually praying to the saints themselves. \u00a0These ideas are reflected in the video and the dialogue: The Wahhabist is the Grinch, aptly so since he is a bit cranky and is very strict in his views as he condemns Max for being a saint-worshipper. The Grinch tells Max he is sinful and that saint worship is polytheistic in the same manner as Hinduism, another idea brought up in the Gaborieau text. \u00a0Max retorts by\u00a0informing the Grinch of the Shah’s actual likely views, and by saying that Islam is practiced in many different ways. \u00a0The Grinch backs down by the end, and agrees, at Max’s urging, to go give all those presents back to the citizens of Whoville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How the Grinch Stole Wahhabism Characters: The Grinch, Max (The Grinch’s dog)   Grinch: [Grinch goes up to Max] What\u2019s that you\u2019re doing?!   Max: Well, sir, I\u2019m praying \u2013   Grinch: Yes, I can see that.\u00a0 But to whom are you praying?   Max: Well, to a Muslim Saint.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7097,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7097"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/paladino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}