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ON THE ANTHROPOMORPHISM OF SALAFIS
The Sources of Ibn Taymiyya's Ideas (part 1 of 3)
The resemblance of Kawthari's censure of Ibn Taymiyya to Ibn al-Jawzi's censure of the anthropomorphizing Hanbalis of his time is striking. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Ibn Taymiyya in fact took his own materials from a related group, as Kawthari says: "Ibn Taymiyya replicates part and parcel what is found in `Uthman ibn Sa`id al-Darimi's al-Radd `ala al-jahmiyya, and the Kitab al-sunna attributed to `Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and Ibn Khuzayma's al-Tawhid wa sifat al-rabb." A look at these three sources of Ibn Taymiyya:* `Uthman Ibn Sa`id al-Darimi al-Sajzi (d. 280; not `Abd Allah ibn `Abd al-Rahman al-Darimi, author of the Sunan, who died in 255): He is said by some biographers to have studied with Ahmad, al-Buyuti, Yahya ibn Ma`in, and Ibn al-Madini. However, he is never mentioned in the Six Books of traditions, which points to problems concerning his person, in view of the teachers he is said to have studied with. He wrote his books against Bishr al-Marisi and the Jahmiyya at large. In his fervor to refute their excessive figurative interpretations, he fell into the opposite extreme of anthropomorphism illustrated by the excerpts of Kitab al-sunna quoted after the section below. One also wonders why Ibn Taymiyya would take up arguments originally meant for Jahmis, who were heretics, and redirect them to the Ash`aris, who are the Ahl al-Sunna. Here are some examples of what his book al-Naqd `ala al-jahmiyya (The critique of the Jahmis) contains:1 p. 20: "The Living, the Self-Subsistent, does what He wills, moves if He so wills, descends and ascends if He wills, collects and spreads and rises and sits if He wills, for the distinguishing mark between the living and the dead is movement: every living thing moves without fail, and every dead thing is immobile without fail. "In this phrase the author has compared Allah to every living thing, although nothing is like Him whatsoever. p. 23: "Those who object claim that Allah has no limit, no boundary, and no end, and this is the principle upon which Jahm has built all of his heresy and from which he has carved his falsehoods; these are statements that we have never heard anyone say before him... Allah certainly has a limit... and so has His place, for He is on His Throne above the heavens, and these are two limits. Any person who declares that Allah has a limit and that His place has a limit, is more knowledgeable than the Jahmis. "In these statements we see that al-Darimi considers Imam al-Shafi`i a Jahmi, since the latter explicitly stated: "Know that limit and finiteness do not apply to Allah."2 We wonder at those who revived the views of al-Darimi in later times such as Ibn Taymiyya, and in modern times such as those who call themselves "Salafis," and who could not be farther from the doctrine of the true Salaf. Does any rational person doubt that one who declares "Allah has a limit" is worshipping an idol? As `Abd al-Qahir al-Baghdadi said in al-Tabsira al-baghdadiyya, al-Asma' wa al-sifat, and al-Farq bayn al-firaq: it is obligatory to declare as unbeliever someone who says that Allah has limits.3 Although today's "Salafis" dare not show the same openness as al-Darimi in claiming limits to the Creator, yet this belief of theirs is couched in their repeated denial that Allah is everywhere, which no Muslim asserts in the first place. Oblivious of the point, Wahhabis and "Salafis" are most confused about this in their belief that the only alternative to the constructed claim that "Allah is in every place" is their real claim that "He is in one place only, above His throne." Each claim is as worthless as the other since both ascribe spatial location to Allah, Exalted is He above what they claim. Both are equally false in devising for Him, respectively, dispersion in an infinity of places, and limitation in a single place. Both are disbelief according to Imam `Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi's limpid statement: "Whoever believes that Allah permeates the Heavens and the Earth, or that He is a body sitting on His Throne, is a disbeliever, even if he thinks he is a Muslim."
1 `Uthman ibn Sa`id al-Darimi, Kitab al-naqd `ala al-jahmiyya (Cairo, 1361/1942). 2 al-Shafi`i, al-Fiqh al-akbar fi al-tawhid li al-imam Abi `Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi`i, 1st ed. (al-Azbakiyya, Cairo: al-matba`a al-adabiyya, 1324/1906 or 1907) p. 8. The original manuscript of this work is kept at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus, Ms. #Q-2(3). 3 Cited in Kawthari's Maqalat p. 314. Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M. Hisham Kabbani's The Repudiation of "Salafi" Innovations (Kazi, 1996) p. 84-86. Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions
ON THE ANTHROPOMORPHISM OF "SALAFIS"
The Sources of Ibn Taymiyya's Ideas (part 2 of 3)
Excerpts from `Uthman Ibn Sa`id al-Darimi al-Sajzi's book al-Naqd `ala al-Jahmiyya (cont'd) p. 25: "He created Adam by touching him (masisan)."p. 75: "If He so willed, He could have settled on the back of a gnat and it would have carried Him thanks to His power and the favor of His lordship, not to mention the magnificient Throne." This is a risible, ugly, astonishing combination of tajsim, takyif, tashbih, and tamthil. In a word, the author's premiss for inferring that the object of his worship can settle on top of a gnat is his understanding that Allah physically settles on the Throne. One of the greatest indications of Ibn Taymiyya's anthropomorphist views is that in advocating the interpretation of istiwa' as istiqrar or settling -- absolutely condemned by the Salaf, as we mentioned -- he does not hesitate to reproduce the above statement verbatim. It is ironic that he does so in his Ta'sis, an attack on al-Razi for a book the latter wrote in refutation of anthropomorphists.1p. 79: "He is distinguished from His creation and above His Throne with a patent distance in between the two, with the seven heavens between Him and His creatures on earth."p. 92 and 182: "If the Lord sits on the chair or foot-stool (kursi), a kind of groaning is heard similar to that of the new camel saddle. This is because of the pressure of Allah's Essence on top of it." The latter view -- also held by Abu Ya`la -- is but another illustration of the aberrations of the hashwiyya or populist anthropomorphists. As Ibn al-Jawzi and Kawthari mentioned, if the hadith of the groaning is established then it is a foremost case of figurative interpretation (ta'wil) whereby the groaning stands for the submission of the chair or foot-stool to the Creator. Yet, the authenticity of the hadith has been questioned. Ibn al-Jawzi mentioned the weakness of two of its narrators and Ibn `Asakir wrote a monograph entiled Bayan al-wahm wa al-takhlit fi hadith al-atit (The exposition of error and confusion in the narration of the groaning). Concerning its meaning Ibn al-Jawzi said after citing al-Khattabi:The meaning of the groaning of the kursi is its impotence before Allah's majesty and greatness, as it is known that the groaning of the camel saddle under its rider is a indication of the power of what sits on top of it, or its impotence to bear it. The Prophet drew this kind of simile for Allah's greatness and majesty in order to teach the Arab who had sought Allah's intercession with the Prophet that the One whose greatness is overwhelming is not to be sought as an intercessor with those under His station. As for al-Qadi Abu Ya`la's words: the groaning is because of the pressure of Allah's Essence on it: this is overt anthropomorphism.2 p. 100: "Who told you that the top of the mountain is not closer to Allah than its bottom?... The top of the minaret is closer to Allah than its bottom."According to the author the tall man is closer to Allah than the short one, and so is the one who flies a plane in comparison to those on the ground. The nearest to Him would then be the astronauts. However, this is contrary to the teaching of our religion, whereby Allah's servant is closest to Him when in prostration,3 and prostration is abasement not elevation. Allah explicitly equated prostration with proximity to Him when He ordered: "Prostrate and draw near" (96:19). And the Prophet revealed that no Muslim uses the Prophet Yunus' prayer: la ilaha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu min al-zalimin (21:87) except it is answered, yet Yunus spoke it in the belly of the whale, deep under the sea.4 Besides this, Muslims clear Allah from place, whether high or low, and for them His `uluw or elevation is a loftiness of rank not spatial height, just as his `azama or greatness has nothing to do with bulk. The author's influence on Ibn Taymiyya is undeniable, as the latter formulates a few centuries later the exact same view Darimi forwards. As Ibn Taymiyya explicitly declares in his Ta'sis, written against al-Razi's Asas al-taqdis (The foundation of declaring Allah transcendent) itself written in refutation of Karrami anthropomorphists: "The Creator, Glorified and Exalted is He, is above the world and His being above is literal, not in the sense of dignity or rank."5 We quote this passage in full below, in the section on Ibn Taymiyya's conception of Allah's "descent." It is enough for now to show his remoteness from the position of Ahl al-Sunna in this respect. As Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani stated in Fath al-Bari:Al-Kirmani (d. 786) said: "The external meaning of "in the heaven" (fi al-sama') is not meant (in the Prophet's hadith: "Do you not trust me who am trusted by the One in the heaven?"), for Allah is transcendent above incarnation in a place; but because the direction of elevation is nobler than any other direction, Allah predicated it to Himself to indicate the loftiness of His Essence and Attributes." Others than Kirmani addressed in similar terms the expressions that came down concerning elevation and similar topics.6p. 121: "We do not concede that all actions are created. We have agreed by consensus that the movement, the descent, the walking, the running (al-harwala), and the establishment on the Throne and to the heaven are eternal without beginning (qadim)."The consensus of scholars says the exact reverse, and Ibn Hazm al-Zahiri (d. 456) explicitly states in his al-Fasl fi al-milal wa al-ahwa' wa al-nihal: "If the establishment on the Throne is eternal without beginning, then the Throne is eternal without beginning, and this is disbelief."7 It is not only the false reference to consensus that is unsettling in these statements, or their utter lack of foundation in the Qur'an and the Sunna. Rather, the author should have begun by questioning the logic of attributing eternity without beginning to the establishment on the Throne and to the heaven, when the Throne and the heaven themselves are not eternal without beginning! This has been pointed out by Kawthari and others.
1 Ibn Taymiyya, al-Ta'sis fi al-radd `ala asas al-taqdis 1:568. 2 Ibn al-Jawzi, Daf` shubah al-tashbih p. 268. 3 Aqrabu ma yakunu al-`abdu min rabbihi wa huwa sajidun fa akthiru fihi al-du`a', related by Muslim, Salat #482, Abu Dawud, Salat #875, al-Nisa'i 2:226, and Ahmad in the Musnad 2:421. 4 Da`watu dhi al-nuni idha da`a rabbahu wa huwa fi batni al-hut... lam yad`u biha rajulun muslimun fi shay'in qattu illa istajaba allahu lah, related by Tirmidhi (#3500), al-Nisa'i in `Amal al-yawmi wa al-layla (#656), al-Hakim 1:505 and 2:383. The latter declared it sound (sahih) and Dhahabi confirmed him. 5 Ibn Taymiyya, al-Ta'sis al-radd `ala asas al-taqdis 1:111. 7 Ibn Hazm, al-Fasl fi al-milal wa al-ahwa' wa al-nihal 2:124. Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M. Hisham Kabbani's The Repudiation of "Salafi" Innovations (Kazi, 1996) p. 86-89. Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions
ON THE ANTHROPOMORPHISM OF "SALAFIS"
The Sources of Ibn Taymiyya's Ideas (part 3 of 3)
`Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 290): He wrote a book which he named Kitab al-sunna, but whose stand in relation to the Sunna and anthropomorphism can be judged by the following excerpts:1 p. 5: "Is istiwa other than by sitting (julus)?" p. 35: "He saw Him on a chair of gold carried by four angels: one in the form of a man, another in the form of a lion, another in that of a bull, and another in that of an eagle, in a green garden, outside of which there was a golden dais." This seems taken verbatim from the Bible, Book of Revelation (4:2-7): "There was someone on the Throne... from it issued lightning, voices, and thunder... in its midst and around it stood four angels... the first was like a lion, the second like a young bull, the third has the face of a man, and the fourth is like an eagle in flight." Kawthari appropriately calls this "the grossest idol-worship (al-wathaniyya al-kharqa') to which they ("Salafis") are calling the Umma today." p. 64: "Allah spoke to Musa with His lips" (mushafahatan), that is: upper lip against lower lip. Kawthari mentions that the same is found in Abu Ya`la's Tabaqat in his biography of al-Istakhri, and falsely attributed to Imam Ahmad.p. 68: "Verily Allah did not touch with His hand except Adam, whom He created with His own hand, Paradise, the Torah, which He wrote with His own hand, and a pearl which He wrought with His own hand, then dipped into it a stick to which He said: Stretch thyself as far as I please and bring out what is in thee with My leave, and so it brought out the rivers and the vegetation." p. 70: "If the Lord sits on the chair or foot-stool (kursi), a kind of groaning is heard similar to that of the new camel saddle." Ibn Sa`id al-Darimi also endorses this, the previous, and the next view in his book.p. 71: "Allah sits on the kursi and there remains only four spans vacant." This is a commonplace of the hashwiyya. Al-Khallal (d. 310), one of Imam Ahmad's companions, repeats it countlessly in his Kitab al-sunna, attributing it to Mujahid, and declares anyone who denies it to be a jahmi kafir zindiq.2 Ibn al-Qayyim endorses it unreservedly in his Bada'i` al-fawa'id,3 and the grammarian and commentator Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi relates the same about Ibn Taymiyya in his Tafsir al-nahr al-madd min al-bahr al-muhit (The commentary of the river extending from the ocean): "I have read in a book by our contemporary Ahmad ibn Taymiyya written in his own hand and which he entitled Kitab al-`arsh (The Book of the Throne): "Allah the Exalted sits (yajlisu) on the kursi, and He has left a space vacant for the Prophet to sit with Him." Taj al-Din Muhammad ibn `Ali al-Barnibari tricked him into thinking that he was supporting him until he obtained that book from him and we read this in it."4 It is related that the commentator of Qur'an and historian al-Tabari (d. 310) was nearly killed for questioning it, as Ibn Hibban was nearly killed for questioning that Allah had a limit. The Hanbalis asked about the purported hadith of the Prophet's sitting on the Throne next to Allah. This hadith is traced to Layth who is supposed to have related it from Mujahid. In the view of some of the Hanbalis it provided the meaning of the verse: `asa an yab`athaka rabbuka maqaman mahmuda, "Perhaps your Lord shall raise you to an exalted station" (17:79). Tabari replied: "It is absurd" and declaimed: subhana man laysa lahu anis wa la lahu fi `arshihi jalis which means: Glory to Him who has no comrade nor "one-who-sits-next-to-Him" on the Throne. When they heard this they threw their inkwells at him and he withdrew to his house. Suyuti mentions some of this in Tahdhir al-khawass min akadhib al-qussas (The warning of the elect against the lies of story-tellers), and Ibn al-Jawzi relates in Al-muntazam that Thabit ibn Sinan mentions in his "History": "I hid the truth about this because the mob had gathered and forbidden the visit of Tabari in the daytime, and said that he was a rejectionist (rafid) and a heretic (mulhid).5 Al-Khallal, Ibn al-Jawzi's offenders, Ibn Hibban's and Tabari's would-be killers, Ibn Qayyim, and Ibn Taymiyya all form the party that maintain that Allah sits on the Throne then places his feet on the kursi as one would on a footstool, and that the Prophet sits on the throne by His side. As a contemporary scholar remarked, all this seems to replicate another passage of the Bible, namely what is found in the Gospel according to Mark (19:16): "Then the Lord [Jesus], after he spoke to them, was raised to the heaven, and sat at the right of Allah."6 Yet these anthropomorphists claim that their views represent the way of the Salaf, and that to depart from it was to leave Islam. What is clear, on the contrary, is that to follow the views of Ibn Taymiyya and the persecutors of Ahl al-Sunna in ascribing Allah a body is to commit disbelief, while to leave the views of Ibn Taymiyya and the persecutors of Ahl al-Sunna is a sign that one follows the Salaf.p. 149: "He showed part of Himself."p. 164: "And His other hand was empty without anything in it."* Ibn Khuzayma (d. 311): He wrote a large volume which he named Kitab al-tawhid (Book of the declaration of oneness),7 which he later regretted having authored, as established by two reports cited by Bayhaqi with their chains of transmission.8 Imam Fakhr al-Din Razi was so repelled by Ibn Khuzayma's book that he renamed it: Kitab al-shirk9 (Book of associating partners to Allah) just as Kawthari later renamed `Abd Allah ibn Ahmad's book: Kitab al-zaygh (Book of aberration).10 Ibn Khuzayma cites, as a proof for establishing that Allah has a foot and other limbs, the verse: "Have they feet wherewith they walk or have they hands wherewith they hold, or have they eyes wherewith they see, or have they ears wherewith they hear?" (7:195). This contravenes the sound position of the Salaf expressed by al-Muqri as related by Abu Dawud in his Sunan: "Allah hears and sees" means: He has the power of hearing and seeing (not the organs)."11 Kawthari points out that Ibn Khuzayma's understanding is identical to that of the anthropomorphists of Tabaristan and Isfahan mentioned by al-Saksaki in his al-Burhan fi ma`rifat `aqa'id ahl al-adyan (The demonstration concerning the knowledge of the doctrines of the people of religion) who say: "If He does not have eyes, nor ears, nor hand, nor foot, then what we are worshipping is a watermelon!" and they claim in support of their views that Allah in the Qur'an has derided those who lacked limbs by saying: "Have they feet wherewith they walk?"12 Ibn al-Jawzi says the following about him: I saw that Abu Bakr Ibn Khuzayma compiled a book on Allah's attributes and divided it into chapters such as: "Chapter of the Asserting of His hand"; "Chapter of His Holding the Heavens on His fingers"; "Chapter of the Asserting of His foot, in spite of the Mu`tazila." Then he said: Allah said: "Have they feet wherewith they walk or have they hands wherewith they hold, or have they eyes wherewith they see, or have they ears wherewith they hear?" (7:195); then he informs us that he who has no hand and no foot is like cattle. I say: Verily I wonder at that man, with all his lofty skill in the science of transmission of hadith, saying such a thing, and asserting for Allah what he vilifies the idols for not having, such as a hand that strikes and a foot that walks. He should have asserted the ear also. If he had been granted understanding, he would not have spoken thus, and he would have understood that Allah reviled the idols in comparison to their worshippers (i.e. not to Him). The meaning is: You have hands and feet, how then do you worship what lacks them both? Ibn `Aqil al-Hanbali (d. 515)13 said: "Exalted is Allah above having an attribute which occupies space -- this is anthropomorphism itself! Nor is Allah divisible and in need of parts with which to do something. Does not His order and His fashioning act upon the fire? How then would He need the help of any part of Himself, or apply Himself to the fire with one of His attributes, while He is the one Who says to it: "Be coolness and peace" (21:69)? What idiotic belief is this, and how far remote it is from the Fashioner of the dominions and the firmaments! Allah gave them the lie in His book when He said: "If these had been gods, they would never have gone down to it" (21:99): how then can they think that the Creator goes down to it? Exalted is Allah above the ignorant pretenses of the mujassima!""14 These, then, are the sources of Ibn Taymiyya's stand on ascribing a body and a direction to the Creator. As we have seen these sources have little to do with the established position of Imam Ahmad on these questions. On the contrary, we know with certainty that Imam Ahmad irrevocably condemned the slightest ascription of a body to Allah, whether or not the speaker added: "but not like other bodies." In Manaqib Ahmad, al-Bayhaqi relates that he said: "A person commits an act of disbelief (kufr) if he says Allah is a body, even if he says: Allah is a body but not like other bodies." He continues: "The expressions are taken from language and from Islam, and linguists applied "body" to a thing that has length, width, thickness, form, structure and components. The expression has not been handed down in Shari`a. Therefore, it is invalid and cannot be used."15 Given that the correct followers of the madhhab of Imam Ahmad in the fourth and fifth centuries stand firmly on the side of Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a, we should not be astonished that they would reject the proponents of likening Allah to creation (tashbih) both then and later. Indeed, such views were contained and prevented from being disseminated far and wide until Ibn Taymiyya threw the full weight of his learning and skill behind them. In repayment for his efforts he was duly arrested more than once in his career.
1 `Abd Allah ibn Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Kitab al-sunna (Cairo: al-Matba`a al-Salafiya, 1349/1930). 2 al-Khallal, al-Sunna p. 215-216. 3 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Bada'i` al-fawa'id (Misr: al-Matba`a al-Muniriya, 1900?) 4:39-40. 4 Abu Hayyan, Tafsir al-nahr al-madd 1:254 (Ayat al-kursi). 5 See the introduction to Ibn Jarir al-Tabari's Kitab ikhtilaf al-fuqaha' (The differences among jurists), ed. Frederik Kern, Egypt 1902. 7 Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Khuzayma, Kitab al-tawhid wa-ithbat sifat al-rabb allati wasafa biha nafsahu... (Cairo: idarat al-tiba`a al-muniriyya, 1354/1935). 8 Bayhaqi, al-Asma' wa al-sifat, ed. Kawthari, p. 267. 9 Razi, al-Tafsir al-kabir 14:27 (#151). 11 Abu Dawud, Sunan, Kitab al-Sunna, ch. 19, last hadith. 13 One of the great early authorities of the Hanbali school. 14 Ibn al-Jawzi, Daf` shubah al-tashbih p. 172-174. 15 al-Bayhaqi, Manaqib Ahmad. Unpublished manuscript.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M. Hisham Kabbani's _The Repudiation of "Salafi" Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 90-95.Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his CompanionsAbu Hammad
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