🧵 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐢𝐭-Ḥ𝐚𝐧𝐛𝐚𝐥ī 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝: 𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐈𝐛𝐧 𝐓𝐚𝐲𝐦ī𝐲𝐲𝐚𝐡’𝐬 𝐕𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐎𝐟 𝐀𝐥𝐥ā𝐡’𝐬 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐕𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞 Ḥ𝐚𝐧𝐛𝐚𝐥ī 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐬? Ibn Taymīyyah is accused of violating the Ḥanbalī position on Allāh’s speech, a claim that is common among the Counterfeit-Ḥanbalīs. This thread will focus on the scholars after Ibn Taymīyyah who adopted this position.... Quotes from pre-Ibn Taymīyyah Ḥanbalī scholars, the Salaf and evidences from revelation will be the subject of another thread(s). Examples of said accusation below 👇 [1] Ibn Taymīyyah’s Position [2] Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (773-852H) [3] Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī (705-744H) [4] Shams al-Dīn Ibn al-Qayyim (691-751H) [5] Shams al-Dīn Ibn Mufliḥ (710-763H) [6] Ibn Qāḍī al-Jabal (693-771H) [7] Jamāl al-Dīn al-Sarmarī (696-776H) [8] Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (736-795H) [9] Yūsuf Ibn Aḥmad al-Maqdisī (Died 798H) [10] Abū Bakr al-Jurāʾī (825-883H) [11] Burhān al-Dīn Ibn Mufliḥ (816-884H) [12] ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Mardāwī (817-885H) [13] Jamāl al-Dīn Ibn al-Mibrad (840-909H) [14] ʿUthmān Ibn Qāʾid al-Najdī (1022-1097H) [15] Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī (1044-1126H) [16] Shams al-Dīn al-Saffārīnī (1114-1188H) [17] Shihāb al-Dīn al-Baʾlī (1108-1189H)show more

𝟭) 𝗜𝗯𝗻 𝗧𝗮𝘆𝗺ī𝘆𝘆𝗮𝗵’𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Speech encompasses both the words and meanings. So when it is stated that the Qurʾān (or other revelations) is Allāh’s speech, it includes both the words and meanings of the Qurʾān. - Allāh’s speech comprises of letters and a voice that can be heard

- Allāh’s speech is an attribute established with his essence (قائم بذاته), eternal in its genus, meaning Allāh has always had the attribute of speech, one who speaks (mutakallim) - Each instance of Allāh speaking happens when Allāh chooses, at different times (like saying “kun” when he creates something, Allāh speaking to Mūsā, questioning those on the day of judgement)

- This belief is what is outlined in scripture, is intellectually sound and lines up with divine perfection - The people of kalām reject this because their kalām proofs for the creation of the universe (like ḥudūth al-ajsām) would render Allāh having a beginning

𝟮) 𝗜𝗯𝗻 Ḥ𝗮𝗷𝗮𝗿 𝗮𝗹-ʿ𝗔𝘀𝗾𝗮𝗹ā𝗻ī (𝟳𝟳𝟯-𝟴𝟱𝟮𝗛) Whilst not a Ḥanbalī scholar, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī admits that most Ḥanbalī scholars actually agreed with Ibn Taymīyyah’s understanding of Allāh’s speech. • Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī said: ❝And the fifth: is that it (the Qurʾān) is the speech of Allāh, uncreated, and that He has been, since before creation, speaking whenever He wills, Aḥmad expressed that in Kitāb al-Radd ʿAlā al-Jahmīyyah. And his associates split into two factions: Amongst them are those who said that it (the Qurʾān) is inherent, imperative to His essence, and that the letters and voices are simultaneous and not successive, and that He causes whomever He wills to hear His speech. But the majority of them (associates of Aḥmad) said that He is one who speaks with whatever He wills, whenever He wills and that He called out to Mūsā when He spoke to him, and had not called out to him previously.❞ 📚 (Fatḥ al-Bārī 26/504)

𝟯) 𝗜𝗯𝗻 ʿ𝗔𝗯𝗱 𝗮𝗹-𝗛ā𝗱ī (𝟳𝟬𝟱-𝟳𝟰𝟰𝗛) • Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī said: ❝Reason and tradition have indicated that voluntary actions (afʾāl al-ikhtīyārīyyah) are carried out by him, so he is the chosen actor to do whatever he wants and chooses, with full power, great wisdom, and absolute perfection. And it is proven in the Ṣaḥīḥ that he transforms from one image to another, and it is proven that he appears to them in an image other than the one in which they saw him the first time, then he returns to the image in which they first saw him. And all of this is true, because the truthful, the trustworthy, the infallible, who does not speak out of whim, has been informed of it. There is nothing in the intellect that denies it, but rather everything that the author of the sharīʾah commanded is in agreement with the sound mind, supports it, and does not contradict it at all. If one understands this, it can be said that the evidence indicates the greatness and grandeur of Allāh’s essence, there is no contradiction or opposition between them. Rather all of that is true, and combining all of that is easy after knowing the proof of voluntary actions, and that Allāh is the Doer of what He wills, and He is the choiceful Doer, He does whatever He wills and chooses, there is no god but Him and there is no Lord but Him.❞ 📚 (Al-Ṣārim al-Munkī Fī al-Radd ʿAlā al-Subkī p. 233-234)

𝟰) 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗹-𝗗ī𝗻 𝗜𝗯𝗻 𝗮𝗹-𝗤𝗮𝘆𝘆𝗶𝗺 (𝟲𝟵𝟭-𝟳𝟱𝟭𝗛) In his creedal masterpiece, Mukhtaṣar al-Ṣawāʾiq al-Murṣalah, he speaks about the view of the Ahl al-Ḥadīth regarding Allāh’s speech. • Ibn al-Qayyim said: ❝The Qurʾan, the clear and reasonable Sunnah, and the words of the pious predecessors indicate that Allāh, Glory be to Him, speaks according to His will, just as it indicates that His speech is an attribute established with his essence, and it is in attribute of of the essence and action. Allāh the Almighty said: {Verily, Our Word unto a thing when We intend it, is only that We say to it: “Be!” - and it is}. [16:40] And His saying: {Verily, His Command, when He intends a thing, is only that He says to it, “Be!” - and it is}. [36:82] So, when the verb is in the form of “istiqbal” (anticipation) such as “and we say,” it indicates the state of anticipation, and “kun” is a two-letter word where one letter comes before the other. This is what this āyah implies, and it is clear to those who have sound reasoning and fiṭrah.❞ 📚 (Mukhtaṣar al-Ṣawāʾiq al-Mursalah p. 1318)

𝟱) 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗹-𝗗ī𝗻 𝗜𝗯𝗻 𝗠𝘂𝗳𝗹𝗶ḥ (𝟳𝟭𝟬-𝟳𝟲𝟯𝗛) • Ibn Mufliḥ said: ❝Al-Imām Aḥmad said: Allāh has always decreed and ordained what He wills.” And he also said: “Allāh has always spoken whenever He wills.” Al-Qāḍī said: “When He wills for us to hear it.”❞ 📚 (Uṣūl al-Fiqh 1/296) This wording is something constantly found in the works of the Ḥanābilah. There is an additional quote of Ibn Mufliḥ that is pertinent to the topic.

• While ascertaining the definition of a sharʾī ḥukum (divine legal ruling), he relates an objection to it: ❝His address is pre-eternal, since it is attributed to Him, and the ruling itself is temporal.❞ • He then says in counter to it: ❝Counter argument: this is not a necessary corollary of one who believes that He speaks when He wills. Furthermore, temporal events are relations, a ruling is related to the action of a slave and not to his attribute [of being a slave], such as speaking to something non-existent, so actions define rulings, like the cosmos define The Creator, and this is why it is called ʿālam (encompassing of knowledge).❞ 📚 (Uṣūl al-Fiqh 1/181) Ibn Mufliḥ presents the first rebuttal in response to the claim that upholding the creed of “He speaks when He wills” necessarily entails believing in an eternal address with temporal rulings. This allows us to see how Ibn Mufliḥ understood Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal’s words, which is the exact same as how his Shaykh, Ibn Taymīyyah, understood them.

𝟲) 𝗜𝗯𝗻 𝗤āḍī 𝗮𝗹-𝗝𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗹 (𝟲𝟵𝟯-𝟳𝟳𝟭𝗛) • Ibn Qāḍī al-Jabal said: ❝Al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʾlā interprets will in his (Aḥmad’s) words “when He wills” as willing one to hear, he premises this on Divine Speech being an essential attribute that does not pertain to volition but rather is an essential trait like life and knowledge. This has been falsified in three ways: The first is that interpreting “when He wills” as the will to allow someone to listen is a misinterpretation that departs from the apparent without valid grounds. The second way is that this would necessitate pre-eternal ability to hear since the words “always having” is an all encompassing statement. The third is that Imām Aḥmad says in his refutation of the Jahmīyyah on the exegesis of the āyah: {Certainly, we have made it an Arabic Qurʾān} that the meaning of made here is to induce as fʾala from afʾālan.❞ 📚 (Al-Radd ʿAlā Man Radd ʿAlā Shaykh al-Islām Fī Masʾalat al-Ḥawādith p. 14)

𝟳) 𝗝𝗮𝗺ā𝗹 𝗮𝗹-𝗗ī𝗻 𝗮𝗹-𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗿ī (𝟲𝟵𝟲-𝟳𝟳𝟲𝗛) Al-Sarmarī wrote an ode titled: “A Valorous Championing of Ibn Taymīyyah’s Madhhab,” in it he rebukes Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī’s vilification of Ibn Taymīyyah. • Al-Sarmarī relates al-Subkī’s claim levelled at Ibn Taymīyyah: ❝He sees temporal events (ḥawādith) that have no origin … in Allāh, glorified is He from such assumptions.❞ 📚 (Al-Ḥamīyyah al-Islāmīyyah Fī al-Intiṣār li-Madhhab Ibn Taymīyyah p. 64)

• He rebukes al-Subkī in several lines, beginning from: ❝If you say He was and had no knowledge … no speech and no omnipotence then as a priori you have disbelieved in Him.❞ • Until he says: ❝Or if you claimed that choice-based actions are impossible for Him … you have akined yourself to a man who takes his share of deviance. He has always been attributed with His actions … and with His Divine Speech while being far in His closeness. Glory to He, who has always acted on what He wills … in all of time there has been none who may question Him. The class of His speech and actions are pre-eternal … not their particulars which are sequential events.❞ 📚 (Al-Ḥamīyyah al-Islāmīyyah Fī al-Intiṣār li-Madhhab Ibn Taymīyyah p. 71-74) The point of evidence is him affirming the eternality of the genus of speech, but not its particulars, which is what Ibn Taymīyyah establishes.

𝟴) 𝗜𝗯𝗻 𝗥𝗮𝗷𝗮𝗯 𝗮𝗹-Ḥ𝗮𝗻𝗯𝗮𝗹ī (𝟳𝟯𝟲-𝟳𝟵𝟱𝗛) • Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī said: ❝Zayd Ibn Khālid al-Juhanī said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ led the Fajr prayer at al-Ḥudaybīyyah after a rainfall during the night. At the conclusion of prayer, he turned towards the people and said: Do you know what your Lord has said?” And an addition in some transmissions of (it saying): “tonight,” these prove that Allāh speaks by His will and choice. As Imām Aḥmad would say: “Allāh has always been one who speaks when He wills.”❞ 📚 (Fatḥ al-Bārī 9/258-259) This is a clear affirmation of Allāh’s speech and its relationship to Divine Volition and voluntary choice, he evidenced this by quoting Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal’s “al-Radd ʿAlā al-Jahmīyyah” without mentioning the book’s name.

• Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī said: ❝From amongst the Attributes of Allāh that we have faith in, and that the salaf read over them [in context of understanding them] in the manner they were revealed, is Allāh’s saying: {and your Lord will come, and the angels as well, lined up in rows} and other such ayāt that prove His arrival or coming on The Day of Judgement. Aḥmad [Ibn Ḥanbal] and Isḥāq [Ibn Rāhūyah] explicitly state that these are voluntary actions of Allāh and are acted upon by His Divine Will and Choice.❞ 📚 (Fatḥ al-Bārī 7/236)

Ibn Rajab comments on the debate that took place between the Ashāʾirah and ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī, where they accused him of heterodoxy by distorting his theological position. One of the many critiques made by them was that by establishing the Descent of Allāh one would corollarily affirm the act of displacement, intiqāl. • Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī replies from two angles: ❝Firstly: We do not concede this mode or understanding of descent, for His Descent is not like that of creation. This is why a large group of the Imāms say: “He Descends, and does not vacate the ʿArsh.” Secondly: This issue is axiomatically built upon affirming voluntary actions emanating from Allāh’s essence, there are two positions on the matter with our companions from the later school of Ahl al-Ḥadīth.❞ 📚 (Al-Dhayl ʿAlā al-Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah 3/33-35)

𝟵) 𝗬ū𝘀𝘂𝗳 𝗜𝗯𝗻 𝗔ḥ𝗺𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝗹-𝗠𝗮𝗾𝗱𝗶𝘀ī (𝗗𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝟳𝟵𝟴𝗛) ❝I have placed upon myself a conditional recompense of a thousand dinars … this is why I have placed a conditional recompense upon myself regarding the issue of taking a vow of divorce, the issue of ziyārah (visiting the grave of the prophet ﷺ), and the issue of hawadith (temporal events) … the amount I have allocated is equivalent to my own worth and status in respect to these esteemed issues and not the worth of the evidence itself, nor those who know and understand them. My influence in the matter is not enough to command everyone, the obstructions in implementing these matters, despite the clear evidence and legal entailment, causes great sorrow in my heart.❞ 📚 (Siyar al-Ḥāth Ilā ʿIlm al-Ṭalāq al-Thalāth p. 59) The point of relevance from the above is his mentioning of ḥawādith and swearing a legally binding recompense to any who can establish proof against what Ibn Taymīyyah opined, and that these positions are the entailments of legal text.

𝟭𝟬) 𝗔𝗯ū 𝗕𝗮𝗸𝗿 𝗮𝗹-𝗝𝘂𝗿āʾī (𝟴𝟮𝟱-𝟴𝟴𝟯𝗛) • Abū Bakr al-Jurāʾī said: ❝Our Imām said: “He has never ceased in being one who Spross when he wills.” The people of knowledge from Ahl Al-Sunnah and Āthār are upon the creedal belief that Allah has pre-eternally spoken when He Wills, with comprehensible and audible speech, for speech is from the attributes of The Perfectly-Alive, The Omnipotent, and the opposite of speech is a deficiency, and Allah is exonerated from such.❞ 📚 (Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar Uṣūl al-Fiqh 1/512-513)

𝟭𝟭) 𝗕𝘂𝗿𝗵ā𝗻 𝗮𝗹-𝗗ī𝗻 𝗜𝗯𝗻 𝗠𝘂𝗳𝗹𝗶ḥ (𝟴𝟭𝟲-𝟴𝟴𝟰𝗛) • Burhān al-Dīn Ibn Mufliḥ said: ❝Most of the Ahl al-Ḥādith, such as Ibn al-Mubārak and his like, al-Bukhārī, ʿUthmān al-Dārimī, Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Ḥāmid, Ibn Mandah, [Abū] Ismail al-Anṣārī, Ibn Abd al-Barr, and others - may Allāh be pleased with them - say: He is a locus for voluntary actions tied to His will and power.❞ 📚 (Still in its manuscript form, he states this in al-Istiʾādha Min al-Shayṭān wa-Aḥkāmihi, folio 16)

𝟭𝟮) ʿ𝗔𝗹āʾ 𝗮𝗹-𝗗ī𝗻 𝗮𝗹-𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗱ā𝘄ī (𝟴𝟭𝟳-𝟴𝟴𝟱𝗛) • Al-Mardāwī said: ❝I have written in great detail on this matter and have narrated the words of many authoritative scholars so that it may be understood for most people in this era say: ‘Whoever says that Allah speaks with a voice has done kufr’ and here we find the Imām (Aḥmad), may Allāh have mercy on him and be pleased with him, unequivocally stating in numerous narrations that Allāh speaks with a voice, by His Omnipotence and Divine Will, when He wills, however He Wills. We see he would disavow, hereticate, and distance himself from anyone who said: “He does not speak with a voice” and his innovation.❞ 📚 (Al-Taḥbīr Sharḥ al-Taḥrīr p. 1351-1352)

• We find al-Mardāwī quoting Ibn Taymīyyah saying: ❝And from them (Ḥanābilah) are those who understood that Allāh uttered the Qurʾān in Arabic and the Tawrāt in Hebrew, He called Mūsā with a voice, He addressed His slaves with a voice, and that The Qurʾān is the real speech of Allāh, it’s very letters and their meanings. Yet, with all of this prior knowledge, they (i.e the claimants of this orientation) insist on assuming the Qurʾān to be qadīm, while believing at the same time that Allāh speaks with His Divine Volition. In the pursuit of consistency, they maintain the corollary of this theology. They say that the very words and sounds of the Qurʾān are in themselves qadīm, they have always been and will always be. The elaboration offered is that the letter ب (in Bismillah) did not sequentially ever exist before the letter س, and س was never said before م. With this, they insist that all the letters of the Qurʾān have co-eternally existed, pre-eternally. They are sequential, to them, in their extramental and mental presence but not in the true essence of their (ontological) existence. Many of them still maintain it is but a single thing and other such entailments, which the majority of intellectuals know by necessity to be false. And there are those among them who say it is qadīm and do not understand what qadīm means.❞ 📚 (Al-Taḥbīr Sharḥ al-Taḥrīr p. 1268)

Al-Mardāwī then quotes an important passage that is found, either fully or partially, within the Ḥanbalī creedal and Uṣūlī works. • This quote is from Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymīyyah where he says: ❝The Imāms and the Salaf said: “Verily Allāh speaks with His Will and Power while it (His speech) is eternal in its genus.” This means He has always spoken when He wills, for the attribute of speech is an attribute of perfection, and whoever speaks is greater than one who cannot. Whoever can speak with independent volition is greater than one without volition, it then stands to reason that whoever has eternally spoken with their own volition is greater than someone who acquired the ability, after the relegated impossibility of it, or had the potentiality but did not. What if it was impossible for this to occur, since it is impossible for The Creator to have become capable after not having been so, and for speech and action to have become possible after having been impossible?❞ 📚 (Al-Taḥbīr Sharḥ al-Taḥrīr p. 1269)

• He recounts Ibn Taymīyyah expositing the eight positions on the attribute of speech, he then relates the ninth position from which reads: ❝Allāh has never ceased in being one who speaks whenever He wills, however He wills, with speech that continues to emanate from Him, and He speaks in a voice that is heard. The genus of His speech is qadīm even if His specific manifested voice is not qadīm, and this is the opinion related from the Imāms of Sunnah and Ḥadīth.❞ • Al-Mardāwī comments on this passage: ❝Among the greatest who upheld this last position is Imām Aḥmad, where he said: “Allāh has never ceased in being one who speaks however He wills, without specifying a modality,” and in another wording: “When He wills.”❞ 📚 (Al-Taḥbīr Sharḥ al-Taḥrīr p. 1312)

Al-Mardāwī relates the farfetched interpretation offered by al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʾlā in the saying of Imām Aḥmad, pertaining to willful speech. Al-Qāḍī says: “If he willed us to hear,” he then brings Aḥmad’s quote “Allāh has never ceased in ordaining and commanding what he wills.” • He follows up what al-Qāḍī said with a quote of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymīyyah again: ❝Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn also said: “There is nothing in the words of Imām Aḥmad or the imams to affirm that the voice in which it (the Qurʾān) was spoken is qadīm, rather they would say that Allāh has always been one who speaks when and how He wills, as Imām Aḥmad, Ibn al-Mubārak, and others have said.”❞ 📚 (Al-Taḥbīr Sharḥ al-Taḥrīr p. 1312-1313)

To summarise: Al-Mardāwī established his opinion by citing Ibn Taymīyyah on the matter of relating Divine Will to Speech, and that whoever believes that specific letters are pre-eternal or co-eternal and non-sequential (like ب not preceding س and it not preceding م in order) is blatantly incorrect, by accounts of most people of rationale and by necessary logic. He then narrates from Ibn Taymīyyah on the eternality of speech as a genus but not the specific instances of speaking. Al-Mardāwī then says that the greatest champion of this ninth position (which is Ibn Taymīyyah’s) is Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, he shows this by quoting the Imām where he is in agreement with Ibn Taymīyyah’s position.

𝟭𝟯) 𝗝𝗮𝗺ā𝗹 𝗮𝗹-𝗗ī𝗻 𝗜𝗯𝗻 𝗮𝗹-𝗠𝗶𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗱 (𝟴𝟰𝟬-𝟵𝟬𝟵𝗛) Ibn al-Mibrad disagrees with Abū Yaʾlā where he interprets Imām Aḥmad’s saying: “He has always spoken when He willed,” as the will to allow others to hear His voice. • Ibn al-Mibrad then says: ❝The matter, in my view, is different from how al-Qāḍī sees it, the issue has two possible foundational understandings. First: The Qurʾān is Allāh’s qadīm speech, this opinion cannot be substantiated from the works or sayings of Aḥmad. Second: the speech of Allāh by which He expressed the Qurʾān and spoke it is qadīm, and that Allāh has pre-eternally spoken. We do not believe that speech is an acquired attribute that is causally linked to anything else, for He has infinitely spoken in general, without needing to specify any further reality. Aḥmad saying “whenever He wills” means whenever He willed to speak something, He did, while His speech being unlike and contrary to the speech of one who has not spoken pre-eternally. If He willed, He spoke, and if He willed not to, He would not. His speech is not perpetually attached to Him (in a sequential series of causal events), rather He would be willing to speak and He would, while being described to have infinitely spoken. When He willed, He would speak a specific speech, and something else when He desired. As for the opinion that Allāh is necessarily speaking infinitely at every point in time and His speech being an infinite regress, this is something rejected and opposed by revelation and rationale. This is further exemplified by the saying of The Prophet ﷺ: “When Allāh speaks revelation, the inhabitants of the heavens hear the heavens ring, as if a chain was to be dragged across a rock.” This proves that there are times where He is not speaking and that He does not speak unless He wills, even if He is attributed speech pre-eternally, their theology would corollarily entail that if He ever uttered speech then He would in continuum be saying it. This is not the case, instead He speaks something which ends and He says something else.❞

• He then continues to say: ❝Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī narrates that Aḥmad said: “The speech of Allāh is continuous with no silence or lull,” and it was said to Aḥmad: Is it correct to say that Allāh speaks and it is possible for him to remain silent? He replied saying: “We say on the whole that Allāh, The Exalted, has always been one who speaks, and if we find a text that informs us of His silence then we will believe so. We believe as a principle that he He speaks how He wills, without ascribing a modality or anthropomorphism.❞ • Ibn al-Mibrad then says: ❝What is apparent from the second (quote) is my stance, and that Aḥmad does not negate the possibility of silence if a text was narrated. I firmly believe that the apparent of the text (revelation) is that He goes silent in certain situations.❞ 📚 (Tuḥfat al-Wuṣūl p. 116-118)

𝟭𝟰) 𝗜𝗯𝗻 ʿ𝗔𝗯𝗱 𝗮𝗹-𝗕ā𝗾ī (𝗗𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝟭𝟬𝟳𝟭𝗛)  Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī’s book generally tries to combine the approaches of both Ibn Taymīyyah and al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʾlā. The Mutakallimīn’s influence on him is evident, and yet, despite his convoluted theological methodology, he ultimately ends up agreeing with Ibn Taymīyyah regarding the affirmation of Allāh’s volitional attribute of speech. • While briefly defining his belief in speech, he says: ❝Allah has always one who speaks how He wills, when He wills, without defining a modality, He ordains and legislates what He wills. This is the madhab of Imām Aḥmad, his companions, the madhab of the Muḥaddithīn without a doubt, Muḥammad Ibn Ismāʾīl al-Bukhārī and the majority of the scholarship. Ibn Mufliḥ and Ibn Qāḍī al-Jabal corroborate this.❞ 📚 (Al-ʿAyn wal-Athar p. 65-66)

• He then begins to explain every word from his concise definition of speech, until he says: ❝And Allāh has always spoken how He wills, when He wills, without defining a modality, He ordains and legislates what He wills. The Imāms explain this by saying Allāh, glorified and transcendent is He, speaks with His Omnipotence and Divine Will, this means He has always spoken when He willed, for speech is an attribute of perfection, and whoever can speak is better (more whole and perfect) than he who cannot. Additionally, one who speaks through their own will and personal ability is more exemplary than one who has been made to possibly speak.❞ 📚 (Al-ʿAyn wal-Athar p. 68)

• Then Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī begins to then report other invalid opinions on the topic, from the ones he mentions is: ❝And from them are those who believe the very letters and voice are qadīm, they have always been and will always be, the letter ب (in Bismillah) did not sequentially ever exist before the letter س, and س was never said before م. With this, they insist that all the letters of the Qurʾān have co-eternally existed, pre-eternally. They are sequential, to them, in their extramental and mental presence but not in the true essence of their existence. Many of them still maintain it to be but a single thing and other such entailments, which the majority of intellectuals know this to be false by necessity.❞ 📚 (Al-ʿAyn wal-Athar p. 69) Here Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī is quoting Ibn Taymīyyah to the letter, yet he does not attribute this statement to him, rather he mentions it as his own view.

𝟭𝟱) ʿ𝗨𝘁𝗵𝗺ā𝗻 𝗜𝗯𝗻 𝗤āʾ𝗶𝗱 𝗮𝗹-𝗡𝗮𝗷𝗱ī (𝟭𝟬𝟮𝟮-𝟭𝟬𝟵𝟳𝗛) ʿUthmān al-Najdī, like others from the latter Ḥanbalīs, tries combining differing viewpoints. Nevertheless he inclines more towards Ibn Taymīyyah’s theology, especially since he affirms speech to be a volitional attribute of Allāh. • ʿUthmān Ibn Qāʾid al-Najdī said: ❝Allah has always one who speaks how He wills, when He wills, without defining a modality, He ordains and legislates what He wills. This is the madhab of Imām Aḥmad, his companions, and he is an Imām of the Sunnah without dispute, Muḥammad Ibn Ismāʾīl al-Bukhārī and the majority of the scholarship. Ibn Mufliḥ and Ibn Qāḍī al-Jabal corroborate this.❞ 📚 (Najāt al-Khalaf Fī ʿAqāʾid al-Salaf p. 25)

𝟭𝟲) 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗹-𝗗ī𝗻 𝗮𝗹-𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗳ā𝗿ī𝗻ī (𝟭𝟭𝟭𝟰-𝟭𝟭𝟴𝟴𝗛) Al-Saffārīnī says that the Ashʾarīs only affirm seven attributes, deny reported attributes and the attributes connected to Allāh’s will, and that by doing so they oppose the Salaf and the majority of the ummah. • Al-Saffārīnī said: ❝Due to the fact that the people of this religion have differed, for from them are those who negated all the Attributes but affirmed the Names, and they are the Muʾtazilah. And from them are those who negated the Attributes affirmed by reports (ṣifāt al-khabarīyyah), the action connected to Allāh’s will (afʾāl al-ikhtīyārīyyah) and affirmed 7 attributes, such as the Ashāʾirah and those who agreed with them. While the Madhab of the Salaf, the rest of the Imāms and the majority of the Ummah is to affirm the Attributes of Essence, the Beautiful Names, the Attributes affirmed by reports (ṣifāt al-khabarīyyah), and the Attributes connected to His will (ṣifāt al-ikhtiyārīyyah). He [referring to the original author being himself] encouraged you to follow the Salaf of this Ummah, and warned you from innovations, and opposing the Sunnah and the noble Imāms, thus he said: “So beware of descending (or sinking)” from the peak of Īmān, the spear of religion, the certainty, the climax of high rank and cognition, to the lowliness of innovation, the filth of novelty. For safety only lies in following the first generation, the group upon whom we trust, not that which the offspring of the Jahmites innovated, nor that which the masters of philosophy professed from the Mashāʾī or the Ishrāqī sects [of Philosophers].❞ 📚 (Lawāmiʾ al-Anwār al-Bahīyyah 1/257)

🚨 Unimaginable news from Iran: 10 Baha'i women have been sentenced to a combined 90 YEARS in PRISON for activities as innocent as teaching music, art, and language to kids. Their "crime"? Simply belonging to a faith the regime doesn't recognize. Women in Iran deserve freedom, not fear. Share their story. Let the world know. 💔 #womanlifefreedom #iranianwomen