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Ahl al-Sunnah View of Ibn Taymiya and his Works The following article is written by a Sunni brother From: mas@Cadence.COM (Masud Khan) Subject: Ahl al-Sunnah and Ibn Taymiya Ibn Taymiya and his writings and those of his students have
recently been used by Wahabbis and
Reformists to provide evidence against madhaib and
the Aqueedah of Ahl al-Sunnah wal Jamaat (The Four Schools).As can be seen from the following brief biography, taken from
The Reliance of the Traveller which is an AUTHENTIC
book of fiqh, Ibn Taymiya (Rahim-ullah) was considered an
innovaitor and a heretic and some scholars went so far as to
declare his writings as Kufr.Ibn Taymiya is Ahmad Ibn Abd al-Salaam ibn Abdullah, Abu al-Abbas
Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiya al-Harrani, born in Harran, east of
Damascus, in 661/1263.A famous Hanbali scholar in
Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir), hadith and jurisprudence, Ibn Taymiya was a voracious reader and
author of great personal courage who was endowed with a
compelling writing style and a keen memory.Dhahabi wrote of
him, I never saw anyone faster at recalling the Qur'anic
verses dealing with subjects he was discussing, or anyone who
could remember hadith texts more vividly.Dhahabi
estimates that his legal opinions on various subjects amount to
three-hundred or more volumes.He was imprisoned during much of his life in Cairo, Alexandria,
and Damascus for his writings, scholars of his time accusing him
of believing Allah to be a corporeal entity because of what he
mentioned in his al-aqida al-Hamawiyya and al-Wasitiyya and
other works, such as that Allah's 'hand', 'foot', 'shin' and
'face' are literal (haqiqi) attributes, and that He is upon the Throne in person. The
error in this is suggesting such attributes are literal is an
innovation and unjustifiable inferance from the Qur'anic and
hadith texts that mention them, for the way of early Muslims was
mere acceptance of such expressions on faith without saying how
they are meant, and withoutadditions, subtractions, or
substituting meanings imagined to be synonyms, while
acknowledging Allah's absolute transcedence beyond the
characteristics of created things, in conformity with the
Qur'anic verse There is nothing whatsoever like unto him [Qur'an
42:11]. As for figurative interpretations that preserve the divine
transcendence, scholars of tenents of faith have only had recourse to them in
times when men of reprehensible innovation (bid'a), quoting hadiths
and Qur'anic verses, have caused confusion in the minds of common
Muslims as to whether Allah has attributes like those of His creation or whether He is transcendently beyond any image conceivable to the
minds of men.Scholars' firmness in condemning those who
have raised such confusions has traditionally been very uncompromising, and this
is no doubt the reason that a number of the Imams of the Shafi'i
school, among them Taqi al-Din Subki, Ibn Hajar Haytami and al-Izz ibn
Jama'a, gave formal legal opinions (fatawa) that Ibn Taymiya was
misguided and misguiding in tenents of faith, and warned people from accepting
his theories.The Hanafi scholar Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari
has written Whoever thinks that all the scholars of his time joined in
a single conspiracy against him from personal envy should rather impugn
their own intelligence and understanding, after studying the
repugnance of his deviations in beliefs and works, for which he was asked to
repent time after time and moved from prison to prison until he passed
on to what he'd sent ahead.While few deny that Ibn Taymiya was a copious and eloquent
writer and hadith scholar, his career, like that of others, demonstrates
that a man may be outstanding in one field and yet suffer from radical deficiencies in another, the most reliable index of which is how
a field's Imams regard his work in it.By this measure,
indeed, by the standards of all previous Ahl al-Sunnah scholars, it is clear
that despite voluminous and influential written legacy, Ibn Taymiya
cannot be considered an authority on tenents of faith (aqueeda), a
field in which he made mistakes profoundly incompatible with the beliefs
of Islam, as also with a number of his legal views that violated
the scholarly consensus (ijma) of Sunni Muslims.It should
be remembered that such matters are not the province of personal reasoning (ijtihad), whether Ibn Taymiya considered them to be so out of sincere
conviction, or whether simply because, as Imam Subki said, his
learning exceeded his intelligence.He died in Damascus in 728/1328.Taken From:English/Arabic Traditional Sunni Manual of Shariah Reliance of the Traveller (Umdat al-Salik): | A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law (Fiqh) | By Ahmad ibn al-Naqib al-Misri (d.
769/1386) | | Translated by Noah Ha Mim
Keller&
English/Arabic
(dual columns) xxii+1232 pages,
Hardcover
Published by Sunna Books 1991,
1993
Umdat al-Salik in Arabic with facing
English Text, Commentary, Appendices,
Biographical Notes, Bibliography and Index *Umdat al-Salik is a traditional Fiqh manual by Ibn al-Naqib (d.
769/1386).It summerizes the conclusions of Imam al-Nawawi (d.
676/1277),the
great Hadith scholar and Shafii jurisprudent.It
is based mainly on al-Nawawi's Fiqh works; al-Majmu and al-Minhaj.*Reliance of the Traveller contains Umdat al-Salik in
Arabic with facing English translation, Commentary, Appendices,
Biographical Notes about every person mentioned (391 biographies),
Bibliography of each work mentioned (136 works), and a detailed subject
Index (95 pages).The Appendices form an integral
part of the book and present readers with original texts and translation from
classical works by Imam al-Nawawi, al-Ghazali, al-Dhahabi and other
famous scholars on many Islamic topics such as Islamic Law (Fiqh),
Principles of Jurisprudence (Usul al-Fiqh), Faith (Iman/Aqidah),
Spirituality (Tazkiyah/Suluk).Of the 136 works drawn upon
in its commentary and appendices, 134 are in the original Arabic.The
sections and paragraphs have been numbered to facilitate
cross-reference which is utilized extensively.*Noah Ha Mim Keller is an American Muslim who produced
this work in Damascus and Amman from 1982 to 1990.He
studied the book word by word in the traditional way with two Shaykh-s
(teachers) over a period of five years after which they gave him their
written warrant (ijazah) to expound the book and translate it into
English.*Certificate:...We certify that the
above-mentioned translation corresponds to the Arabic original and conforms to the practice and faith of
the orthodox Sunni Community (Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jamaa)...Islamic Research Academy (Majma al-Buhuth al-Islamiyyah),
al-Azhar.al-Azhar is the Muslim world's most prestigious
institution of higher Islamic learning, Cairo.The following article is written by a Sunni brother From: dabbous@milou.inria.fr (Walid Dabbous) Subject: Re: Ahl al-Sunnah and Ibn Taymiya Dear brothers, as-Salamou alykum wa rahmatoullahi wa barakatouh, I agree with brother Masud when he says that we can NOT rely on ibn taymiyya in matters os aqueedah in the end part of his posting (I only pur the beginning here above).Someone was defending ibn taymiyya a few weeks, so please find a contribution on this subject taken from the aqueedah of Ahl-es-Sunna wal Jamaa (ashaira wa maturidiyya).In article <11789@blue.cis.pitt.edu, U58369@uicvm.uic.edu
writes:Assalamo Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatu Concerning the accusation of Ibn Taymiyyah that he
attempted to ascribe human qualities to Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala: Some of the people
who lived in the same era as Ibn Taymiyyah accused him of this and they had no
proof to back up their accusations whatsoever.The people after them
received this information from what Ibn Batutah collected.As most of us
know, Ibn Batutah was not a scholar either of hadith OR aquidah.Besides, he never
met nor heard Ibn Taymiyyah speak.The biography of Ibn Taymiyyah shows
that he always strongly opposed those people who attempted to ascribe human qualities to
Allah Subhana waTa'ala (See Hayat Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah by Muhammad al-Baytar).You can find more proofs in Ibn Taymiyyah's book, Sharh Hadith An-Nuzool
(Commentary on the Hadith of Nuzool).There are many proofs that
Ibn Taymiyyah had the same be- lief and aquidah as the Sahabah and the scholars of As-Salaf.To show just one example: Ibn Taymiyyah says in his book, al-Aquidah
al-Wasitiya, pg.9,...
and from the belief in Allah is the belief in what Allah
ascribed for himself in the Quran and in the Sunnah without falsifying or denying
or takeef (ie-to question how his attributes are).And he
quotes this ayah from the Quran, Sur- ah al-Shurah, Ayah 11:...
there is nothing whatsoever like unto Him and He is
the one that hears and sees.And Ibn Taymiyyah explains that the Muslims from Ahl al-Sunnah
wa Jama'ah don't deny what Allah ascribed to Himself & don't falsify His
words.And they believe in all His names and ayat.And they don't make
comparisons between Allah and his creatures because there is nothing like Him.And
Allah knows best about everything and about Himself.This is one of many examples that proves that Ibn
Taymiyyah never claimed tashbeeh (ie-never attempted to ascribe human
qualities to Allah).I read many of ibn taymiyya books and the books wrote by other scholars to refute him.It is very clear that ibn
taymiyya was refuted by the majority of scholars.he was accused not to
belong to the Salafi school.I showed this in a previous message and
I will repost this message soon in sha'a Allah.The scholars of Ahl
eSunna wal Jamaa from the 4 schools refuted his opinions and ibn taymiyya always
tried to escape from punishment by saying the 2 shahadas.ibn taymiyya and his disciple ibn aljawziyya (different from the
great hanbali scholar Ibn alJawzi) are not considered to belong to the salafi school.ibn taymiyya was put in jail because of
many of his wrong teachings concerning the aqeeda.He was not put
in jail by some tyranic ruler.He was put in jail to preserve the
people from his ideas.(See Rihlat Ibn Battoutah where ibn battoutah
said: when i came to damascus there was a man called ibn taymiyya speaking
about religion science, but there was something strange in his mind.Once he was doing kutbat aljuma'a and he said yanzilou
rabbuna ila assam'a adunya, then he went down two steps on the minbar and he
said kanuzuli hatha (like my descending).the
people of damascus jumped on him and wanted to kill him.al-'imam al-mujtahid
asSubkiy wrote many books to refute ibn taymiya.This event of ibn
Taymiya is registered by the bokks of history and they are available and
may be the Muslims need to read them or some of their contents.Ibn Taymiyah was put in jail by the agreement of the Muslim scholars of Egypt
and ashSham.His imprisonment came as a result of the ijma^
of the scholars of his age.In addition, not only ibn battouta spoke about ibn taymiyya but
a lot of scholars wrote books and letters to warn the people from this
man.i have a long list of these Ulema and their books.I
have a lot of their books also.Among the great Ulemas from ahl es-Sunna wal jama'a who refuted
him and decalred that his is out of the right way of islam:1) aSubki in his aRasae'l aSubkiyya
firrad ala ibn taymiyya, 2) ibn hajar alhaytami, in al-Fatawa al-Hadithiyya 3) Abou hayyan alandaloussi in an-Nahr almaadd 4) ibn hajar alaskalani in fath albari page 410 fascicle 13
kitab atawhid.
from the 12th hegire century 5) Sheikh ahmad ibn Zayni dihlane in finat alwahhabiyya, 6) sheikh Muhammad ibn darwiche al-Hout from beirut in his book Rasail fi akidat ahl-esunna waljamaa.
from the 20th century 7) sheikh muhammad Ouwayss from alAzhar in his book ibn taymiyya
laysa salafiyyan, and many others.In fact, there are many sayings of ibn taymiyya related to
TAJSIM, in his own books.He pretended in his fatawa, (al-asma'a
was-sifat) that the ahl-esSunna wal Jamaa did not refute Mujassima (those who attributed body to Allah).He even said that there
isn't any single text from the Salaf to refute mujassima.While in
fact, al-'imam Ahmad said that the person commits kufr if he says Allah is a body (jism) even if he says that Allah is a body not like other bodies (jism
la kalajsam).He was quoted saying that The terms
are taken from language and al-'Islam and the people of language have put this
term (body) on something that has length, width, thickness, image, structure and components and it was not narrated in ash-shari^ah (Islamic law).Therefore, it is invalid and cannot be
used (end of quotation of Imam Ahmad).al-bayhaqiyy narrated that
about Ahmad in his book manaqib Ahmad and az-Zarkashiyy narrated the first
saying of Ahmad.Notice that Ahmad did not accept the term (body
not like other bodies) because it does not befit Allah and the language does
not accept that.I also quoted the saying of al-Imam
al-Ash^ary from Kitab An-Nawader:If someone belives that Allah is a body then he
ignores Allah and he is a kafir.
To be continued.In sha'a Allah Walid Dabbous Ibn Taymiyyah:Ibn Taymiyah (d.
728/1328) was a theologian who was
sent to the jail by the consensus (Ijma'a) of prominent Sunni scholars of his time (in
Egypt and Damascus) because of his heretical beliefs.He was
considered an innovator and a heretic and some Sunni scholars went so far as to declare
his writings as Kufr.Now he has become a Muslim scholar
for Wahhabis! I don't want to go into the details of the charges against Ibn Taymiyah
which was raised by prominent Sunni scholars about his heretical beliefs
such as his idea that Allah has limbs and these limbs are physical (Haqiqi)
and so on since it needs thousands of lines by itself.Among
those Sunni scholars who denounced him, are Taqi al-Din Subki, Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Ibn
Hajar al- Asqalani, al-Izz ibn Jama'a, Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari, Abu
Hayyan al- Andalusi, Shaykh Ahmad Ibn Zayni dihlani, Shaykh Mohammad
Ouwayss from al- Azhar, and many others.In their fatwa, they called
Ibn Taymiyah as a misguided person who was deserting the Sunni tenets.I
refer Sunni brothers to their authentic Fiqh book called The Reliance of the
Traveller for a biography of Ibn Taymiyah.Now, as for Ibn Taymiyyah: A number of prominent Muslim scholars of great repute -have- in fact pronounced kufr on Ibn Taymiyyah, although the majority of scholars of ahl-al-Sunnah have not pronounced kufr on him.Many have, however,
criticized him for innovation (bidah).Among those who
criticized him are -Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (FatH al-Baaree, [Vol 12, p202], [V 13, p 410]), -Ibn Hajar al-Haytami ([al-Fataawaa al-Hadeethiyyah p116, p203], [Haashiyah, p443, p489]) -Taqi al-Deen al-Subki ([al-sayf al-Saqeel], [al-durrah al- maDiyyah] Others include Taj al-Deen al-Subki, al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi, Ibn Daqeeq al-Eed and Zayn al-Deen al-Araaqee.Firstly, we should realize that those scholars who pronounced kufr on him based their verdicts on very real evidence from Ibn Taymiyyah's own books.
One of the primary contentions of these group of scholars was that Ibn Taymiyyah believed in
always existed.
Also a large number of scholars, of both former and latter times, have criticized some of Ibn Taymiyyah's opinions as innovations.It cannot be denied that in some issues, Ibn Taymiyyah (though he may have had good intentions) has contradicted the consensus (ijmaa) of the Muslim scholars.Some of these issues
are doctrinal (e.
g.
he believed that Allah can be
described with
p410), etc), others are related to fiqh (jurisprudence) (e.
g.
his opinion that three divorces pronounced together do not all take effect - this fatwaa incidentally was the reason that Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali forsook Ibn Taymiyyah).The following article is written by a Sunni brother.This
also shows the fact that ortodox Sunnis beleive that Allah can be seen but we
don't know how? He talks but we don't know how? He is stablished on the
trone but we don't know how? On the other hand Wahhabis attribute physical
entities to it, while shia do not beleieve Allah has hand at all.Shia
also beleive he can not be seen at all, and so on.From: mas@Cadence.COM (Masud Khan) Subject: The Aqeedah of Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l Jamma'ah Date: 3 May 1994 23:13:19 GMT THE AQEEDAH OF AHL AL-SUNNAH WA'L JAMA'AH - in contrast with the
Aqueedah of the Salafi sect.What follows are some examples of the anthropomorphic nature of
the neo- 'Salafite' Aqeedah, and how it varies from the actual Aqeedah
transmitted to us by the earliest generations of the Muslim Ummah.Today's
'Salafiyya' claim to have the original and pristine Aqeedah of the first
three pious generations of Islam; but in reality it is the Aqeedah of the
likes of Ibn Taymiyya and his disciple Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah when it
comes to describing Allah and His attributes and so on.The
following four points points have derived directly from the works of the Salafi
scholars (al- Harras and al-Uthaimin) themselves.In comparison to
these points I have also quoted from the Aqeedah of Imam Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi's [d.321
AH;Rahimullah] and others for you to compare and contrast.Imam
Tahawi's Aqeedah represents the Aqeedah as transmitted by the scholars of
his Madhab (which represents in the main the Aqeedah of the
Salaf-us-Salihin) - Imam al-Azam Abu Hanifa, Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam al-Shaybani
(Allah mercy be upon them) - three of the greatest Ahl al-Sunnah
scholars.1 The Vision of Allah in the
Hereafter Imam al-Tahawi (Rahimullah) said with regard to this issue in
al-Aqeedah at-Tahaweeah [English trans.
by I.
A.
A'zami,
under the title 'Islamic Belief'], Belief of a man in the 'seeing of Allah by the
people of the Garden' is not correct if he imagines what it is like, or
interprets it according to his own understanding, since the interpretation of
his 'seeing' or indeed, the meaning of any subtle phenomena which
are in the realm of Lordship, is by avoiding its interpretation and
strictly adhering to the submission.This is the din of Muslims.Anyone
who does not guard himself against negating the attributes of Allah, or likening
Allah to something else (anthropomorphism), has gone astray and has
failed to understand Allah's glory, because our Lord, the Glorified and
the Exhalted, can only possibly be described in terms of Oneness and Absolute
Singularity and no creation is in anyway like Him.In contrast, Muhammad Khalil Harras (a 'Salafi' scholar) said in
his Sharh- ul-Aqeedat-il-Wasitiyyah (of Ibn Taymiyya, pg.
73):
The Mutazila deny the vision.This denial is based on refusing to accept
Allah in any direction for it is necessary for a thing being seen to be in the
direction of the seer.Thus, al- Harras claims that for Allah to
be seen in the Hereafter, He (Allah) must have a direction!! In comparison, Imam al-Shahrastani
[d.
1153 CE; Rahimullah] said in his Kitab al-Milal wa'l Nihal
(Muslim Sects and Division, trans.
by A,K, Kazi and J.
G.
Flynn,
pg.
85): Imam Ash'ari (Rahimullah) says, however, that the vision of God does not
entail direction, place, form, or face to face encounter either by
impingement of rays or by impression, all of which are impossible.2 The Speech of Allah Imam al-Tahawi (Ramimullah) said: The Qur'an is the word
of Allah.It came from Him as speech without it being possible to say how.(next paragraph): It is not created, as is the speech of human beings,
and anyone who hears it and claims that it is human speech has become an
unbeliever.Allah warns him and censures him and threatens him with Fire
when He says, Exalted is He: 'I will burn him in the Fire.' [al-Muddaththir
74:26] When Allah threatens with the Fire those who say 'This is just human
speech' [al- Muddaththir 74:25] we know for certain that it is speech of the
Creator of mankind and it is totally unlike the speech of mankind.In contrast al-Harras stated in Sharh-ul-aqeedat-il-wasitiyyah
of Ibn Taymiyya [pg.
87]: His statement, voice
and speech take place with letters and sounds.One to whom He (ie Allah) speaks he hears.This
includes the refutation of the stand taken by the Ash'aria (e.
g.
Imam
al-Ghazali, Rahimullah, in his 'Ihya 'ulum al-din') that speech of Allah is
primeval and is without letter or sound.NB- Imam ibn Tahir al-Baghdadi (d. 429/1037; Rahimullah)
said with regards to this issue: Another group (of
anthropomorphists) is represented by those who draw a
resemblance between God's Word and the word of His creatures.They hold thatGod's speech consists of
sounds and letters belonging to the same species as the sounds
and letters which are ascribed to mankind.(vide: 'al-Farq bayn al-firaq', English
trans.
by A.Halkin: as 'Moslem Schisms and Sects', v2,
p35) 3 .Allah's Hands al -Harras stated without any definite proof (pg.
44,
above reference):How can 'hand' be interpreted to mean power when the text
proves mentioning of palm, fingers, right and left, closing,
opening, etc. whichcan happen only in the case of a real
hand.Imam al-Tahawi said [no.
34 in his above mentioned book]:
Anyone who describes Allah as being in anyway the same as a human being has
become an unbeliever.All those who grasp this will take heed
and refrain from saying things such as unbelievers say, and they will know that He, in
His attributes, is not like human beings.4 Allah's establishment on the
Throne Imam Malik (Rahimullah) was asked about Allah's establishment on
the Throne; he said: Establishment (Istiwa) is known, the how
of it is unknown, belief in it is obligatory, and questions about it are reprehensible innovation (bid'ah).(see Reliance of
the Traveller, pg.854).In contrast, Muhammad as-
Saleh al-'Uthaimin (a leading 'Saudi' scholar) said in 'The Muslim's Belief' (pg. 11, this work was
heard and approved by the foremost 'Saudi' Mufti - Abd al-Aziz
ibn B'az, trans.M. H.al-Johani): 'His (Allah's)
settling on the Throne' means that He is sitting in person on
his Throne in a way that is becoming His majesty and Greatness.Nobody
except He knows exactly how He is sitting.Imam al-Shahrastani
(Rahimullah) stated that the leader of the heretical sect called the 'Karramites - Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Karram
declared: God is firmly seated on the Throne and that he is sitting in person on
the upper side of it...(Muslim Sects and Divisions, pg.
92
trans.
A.Kazi and J.Flynn).The above are CLEAR proofs that the 'Salafi/Wahabi'
interpretation of Allah (swt) is in essence athropomorphic, the claim that indivduals
like Ibn Taymiyya, Bin Ba'z and al-Albani have the same Aqeedah as Ahl
al-Sunnah wa'l Jama'ah is blatantly untrue and misleading to Muslims in
genral.
