Official Wahhabiyya created consenting subjects. Wealth allowed the Saudi regime to consolidate aspects of religion in the public sphere while pursuing gradual but determined political secularisation. Saudi society and the public sphere were ‘Islamised’ while politics and the modern state remained an autonomous field beyond the reach of most senior religiousscholars. Official ʿulama developed a discourse that sanctioned thisschism. The Wahhabi tradition described in the last chapter ensured that politics remained in the hands of those who claim to know people's interest. The guiding principle was – and still is – ʿal-hukam aʿlam bi almaslaha' (the rulers know the public good). Official Wahhabi scholars removed not only themselves but the rest of society from political matters. They prohibited engagement in public affairs. Their religious discourse, especially that which confirmed the potential corruption and blasphemyof the umma, reinforced the marginalisation of the public and their exclusion from the political decision-making process. Under the banner of the state, official Wahhabiyya refined and consolidated a religious discourse that disenfranchised society and disenchanted politics.