Monotheism of the Divine Names and Attributes as a Defining Criterion of Salafism

Abstract This study examines how Saudi Salafism, as a modern ideological construct, has gradually linked the theological teachings about the monotheism of the Divine names and attributes ( tawḥīd al-asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt ) of the Ḥanbalī scholar Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328) with the teachings of his later Ḥanbalī fellow Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (1703/04–1792). Within this process, the topic has been turned from a peripheral one into a crucial criterion of defining “Salafī-ness” as such. In this sense, to be a Salafī means to be a follower of the Divine names and attributes in the Ḥanbalī interpretation of Ibn Taymiyya as opposed to the mainstream Ashʿarī (and Māturīdī) theology. This criterion, as the authors argue, has been instrumentalized as a tool of claiming one’s legitimacy and superiority.