Originally posted by AmantuBillahi
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Ibn Taymiyyah's creed is complex and isn't the creed of the Salafus Saleh. Imam Mustafa ibn Ahmad Al Shatti al Hanbali said, "They (Najdi movement) claim advanced juridical reasoning and use Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah alone as an advocate for themselves. The very Imam exited from the Hanbali school in a number of areas in which he is isolated, and that would be tantamount to claiming advanced juridical reasoning (mujtihad Mutlaq). (1) The only problem is he never systematised these points as a separate legal school, as the four legal schols were written down, established and systematically discussed." (2) (The Divine Texts - Al Nuqul al Shariyyah fi al Raddial al Wahabiyyah by Mustafa Ibn Ahmad al Shatti al Hanbali)
(1) Shaykh Abu Jafar al Hanbali comments, "There were some 11 or more issues in which Imam Ibn Taymiyyah contradicted the school and breached consensus. These include:
1) The knowability of the Essence of Allah in this life;
2) the knowability of the names and attributes of Allah in this and Hereafter;
3) the infallibility of the prophets;
4) the abiding nature of the Great Fire;
5) the qualities of absolute ijithad;
6) three divorces in one sitting;
7) the intercession of the prophets, pious and saints;
8) visiting the graves and setting out on travel to them;
9) whether or not previous revelations were corrupted in nature or interpretation;
10) whether the world created from nothing or was eternally existent;
11) the state of the dead.
These and other issues are known by his contemporaries to have been breaches by Imam Ibn Taymiyyah."
(2) Shaykh Abu Jafar al Hanbali comments, "The author makes a number of points worth considering.
1) Imam Ibn Taymiyyah exited from the Hanbali school in some issues, which puts him outside the foundational principles under which he is restricted due to his not being an absolute mujitahid.
2) His doing this would be tantamount to setting up or claiming absolute ijithad.
3) If he had set up a separate school, he left no laid own principles of such a school.
4) There were no students who were licensed and continued to pass it down unbroken.
When this is the case, how could those who came after him, who were not even qualified, lay claim to something that is not systemized or left to posterity?"
According Abu Jafar Al Hanbali, who has studied traditionally with Hanbali scholars, there is no unbroken chain of transmitters of Ibn Taymiyyah's work. This leaves his works unusable, from the perspective of traditional Sunni Islam, because in traditional Sunni Islam everything is based on Isnad.
The importance of isnad is illustrated in this hadith.
The Messenger of Allah, sallahu alayhi wa salam, said, "There shall not cease to be a group from amongst my Ummah upon the truth. Those who forsake them will not be able to harm them, until the command of Allah comes." (Muslim)
Abdullah Ibn Mubarak (d181) said, "According to me the isnad is from the Religion. And if it were not for the isnad, whoever wished could have said whatever he wished." (Sahih)
Allah says, "Indeed, We revealed to you the remembrance, and We shall preserve it." (15:9)
You asked me once, why am I on this side of the fence?
Irregardless of the imperfections I may see in this madhab or that madhab, Allah has decided to use the scholars of four madhabs, Shafis, Malikis, Hanafis, and Hanbalis, to preserve the religion. These scholars are instrumental in the preservation of the Quran and Sunnah. And these scholars whether we agree or disagree with them on this point or that point, were Asharis, Maturidis and Atharis. They collectively are Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah, they preserved the religion. They transmitted what we know from the Salafus Saleh, in the form of these four madhabs of fiqh, and three madhabs of Aqida, through an unbroken chain of transmitters.
"And if it were not for the isnad, whoever wished could have said whatever he wished."
And Allah knows best.
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