瓦哈比派崛起于内志，内志土地贫瘠，多为废土。与汉志的贸易繁荣不同，商旅车队绝少经过此地，因此也造就了其孤立世外的大环境。强大的帝国如奥斯曼帝国、大英帝国对内志亦不抱有战略上的兴趣。据波士顿学院宗教学者、瓦哈比主义研究专家娜塔娜·德隆巴（Natana J. DeLong-Bas）的著作《瓦哈比伊斯兰》，瓦哈比主义的兴起的内在动力来源于对当时松弛的教规以及退化了的信仰的反应。瓦哈比派着重关注的是当时穆斯林社群在认主学上的偏差，尤其是对一神论坚持的不彻底。瓦哈比派的兴起是一种旨在解决伊斯兰教与现代化之间的矛盾的尝试。[1]
^Ahsan, Sayyid. CHAPTER - IV FOUNDATIONS OF THE SAUDI STATE - ll : Reforms of Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. Trends in Islam in Saudi Arabia. Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University. 1987: 141–142. Hanbalism suffered a continuous diminution till the eighteenth century. The dominant fact in the history of Hanbalism.. was the appearance of the Wahhabi movement in the eighteenth century under Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab... his disciples were much influenced by the works of Ahmad ibn Taymiyya (d.728/1328) and .. his disciple Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350)....Thus 'Wahhabism is in the main a form of Hanbalism, or a revival of it.
