Wahhabis differ from orthodox Sunnis in many tenets of creed (`aqidah) and worship (`ibadah), including the following:

· Wahhabis follow Islam as represented by the founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad ibn Abdl-Wahhab, and his role model, Ahmed Ibn Taymiyah, who preceeded him by a few hundred years. Support from orthodox Sunni scholars is only used when it conforms to their understanding. Therefore, the entire corpus of Islamic scholarship is subservient mainly to two indivividuals (and their students), both of whom were rejected and opposed by the masses of scholars in their times and afterwards. Lists of scholars opposed to them are presented later in the article.

·Wahhabis have a trinitarin understanding of creed that they divide into three parts. Orthodox Sunnis understand creed simply as: ?There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad (pbuh) is His Messenger.?

· Wahhabis have a literal understanding of God?s Attributes, and is why they are opposed to orthodox Sunni scholars who applied interpretation (ta?wil) to God?s Attributes in conformity with the rules of the Religion and Arabic language, as the Ash?ari Sunni scholars did. (Ash?ari scholars followed Imam Abu al-Hassan al-Ash?ari?s understanding of Islamic creed. Famous Ash?ari scholars include Imam al-Baihaqi, Imam al-Daraqutni, Qadi `Iyad al-Maliki, Imam an-Nawawi, Shaykh al-Qurtubi, Imam Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani, Imam al-Ghazali, and Imam Fakhr ud-Din al-Razi.) This is the reason why Wahhabis believe that God literally exists above the Throne, therefore believing that God is bound by space and time. Orthodox Sunnis accuse Wahhabis of anthropomorphism (tajsim) and have always believed that God exists without a place, unbound by space and time as all of creation is.

· Wahhabis oppose the Islamic science of purification (tasawwuf), and accuse Sufis of being heretical innovators. They also reject some forms of invokation (dhikr) practiced by many Sufis, such as audible group invokation, use of rosaries (tasbih), etc. The Orthodox Sunni accepts Sufism as a genuine Islamic science who, unlike the Wahhabi, also believes in the special favors (karamat) granted to saints (awliyah) by God as a result of their high piety. Some of the many well known Sufis include Imam al-Ghazali, Imam Abd al-Qadir al-Jeelani, Imam Rabbani Ahmad as-Sirhindi, Imam Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri, Imam Jalal ud-Din al-Suyooti, and Imam an-Nawawi.

·Wahhabis believe that asking something from God through an intermediary (tawassul), when the latter is living the life of the grave (barzakh) is polytheism (shirk). Asking God for things through other means, such as amulets having protective/healing Words from the Qur?an (ruqiyya), or through objects associated with the pious (tabarruk) is also polytheism to Wahhabism. All practices, however, are orthodox Sunni practices. Because of this, Wahhabis prevent many Muslims from visiting graves, despite the high reward in it, for fear that Muslims will do tawassul and commit shirk. This will be explained in more detail below.

· Wahhabis classify all types of innovation (bid?ah) as heretical, whereas orthodox Sunnis have divided innovation into permissible and impermissible categories. It is because of this that Wahhabis accuse the masses of Muslims who commemorate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (Mawleed ash-Sharif) to be reprehensible. Some orthodox Sunni scholars who support Mawleed include but are not limited to Ibn Kathir, Imam Abu Shaama (teacher of Imam an-Nawawi), Ibn al-Jawzi, Imam Sakhawi, Imam Jalal ud-Din al-Suyooti, and Imam Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani, Imam Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, and Syed Mutawali ad-Darsh.

·Wahhabis believe that it is not necessary for Muslims to follow a Muslim scholar of the highest calibur (mujtahid mutlaq), and therefore refuse to follow one of the four existing schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence (Hanafi, Shafi?i, Maliki, Hanbali). They believe that following the Qur?an and Sunnah ? the two main sources of Islam ? directly is sufficient, without any required scholarship. Wahhabis, therefore, mostly rely on themselves or self-taught ?scholars? for religious judgments and interpretations of the Islamic sources. For example, they follow Naseerud-Din al-Albani as a master of hadeeth, even though he did not fulfill the minimum requirements of being a hadeeth master. All orthodox Sunnis, however, follow (taqleed) one of the four schools of jurisprudence today, each represented by a scholar of the highest eminence who was most qualified to deduce judgments from the sources (ijtihad) due to their vast knowledge, authentic chains of transmission from previous scholars, impeccable characters, and trustworthiness.

·Wahhabis, unlike orthodox Sunnis, do not believe that the recitation of the Qur?an is a means by which God rewards people in their graves. Wahhabis also rely on people for religious judgments and interpretations of the Islamic sources who fail to fulfill the minimum requisites of scholarship. For example, they follow Naseerud-Din al-Albani as a master of hadeeth, even though he did not fulfill the minimum requirements of being a hadeeth master.