Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb was fond of saying that he did not pronounce takfīr on Muslims. As he writes in his letter to Riyadh and Manfūḥa, “We have not pronounced takfīr on Muslims; rather, we have only pronounced takfīr on polytheists [mā kaffarnā illā ʾl-mushrikīn].”125 While these words are intended to signal restraint in takfīr, they in fact mean something different. What Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb is really saying is that all those we declare to be unbelievers are just that—unbelievers—and so we cannot possibly be accused of having excommunicated Muslims.
