Pure Anthropomorphism
Part2
al-Naqd `ala al-jahmiyya
&
Kitab al-sunna
`Uthman Ibn Sa`id al-Darimi al-Sajzi
(d. 280AH)
Note:
(Not `Abd Allah ibn `Abd al-Rahman al-Darimi, author of the Sunan, who died in 255AH)
Uthman Ibn Sa`id al-Darimi al-Sajzi
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 fervour 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.
The Sources of Ibn Taymiyya's Ideas!
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.
al-Naqd `ala al-jahmiyya
(The critique of the Jahmis)
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. "
`Uthman ibn Sa`id al-Darimi, Kitab al-naqd `ala al-jahmiyya (Cairo, 1361/1942).
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:
Excerpts from `Uthman Ibn Sa`id al-Darimi al-Sajzi's book:
al-Naqd `ala al-Jahmiyya
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."
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. (Ibn Taymiyya, al-Ta'sis fi al-radd `ala asas al-taqdis 1:568.)
p. 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."
`Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 290AH): 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:
p. 5: "Is istiwa other than by sitting (julus)?"
"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."
Someone forged this anthropomorphic tract called
"Kitab al-sunna"
[The book of the sunna]
and put the name of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s son Abdullah on it.
It was published in two volumes in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, by Ibn al-Qayyim Publishing House, in 1986CE.
Abu Ya`la's
"Tabaqat"
in his biography of al-Istakhri, and falsely attributed to Imam Ahmad.
On 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:
On p.71:
"Allah sits on the kursi and there remains only four spans vacant."
Al-Khallal (d. 310AH), 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.
(al-Khallal, al-Sunna p. 215-216.)
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
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).
Ibn Khuzayma (d. 311AH)
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
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:
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.
11 Abu Dawud, Sunan, Kitab al-Sunna, ch. 19, last hadith.
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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."
[ al-Bayhaqi, Manaqib Ahmad. Unpublished manuscript.]
Ibn Hajar
"They ascertained that he had blurted out certain words concerning doctrine which came out of his mouth in the context of his sermons and legal decisions, and they mentioned that he had cited the hadith of Allah's descent, then climbed down two steps from the minbar and said: "Just like this descent of mine" and he was categorized as an anthropomorphist."
[ Ibn Hajar, al-Durar 1:153.]
Ibn Taymiyya
Ibn Taymiyya's conception of Allah's bodily descent is also stated in his own writings, as shown from the following excerpt from his al-Ta'sis fi al-radd `ala asas al-taqdis, written as a refutation of Imam al-Razi who was a fierce enemy of the Karramiyya and other 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. It may be said of the precedence of a certain object over another that it is with respect to dignity or rank, or that it is with respect to location. For example, respectively: the precedence of the learned over the ignorant and the precedence of the imam over the one praying behind him. Allah's precedence over the world is not like that, rather, it is a literal precedence (i.e. in time). Similarly the elevation above the world could be said to be with respect to dignity or rank, as for example when it said that the learned is above the ignorant. But Allah's elevation over the world is not like that, rather He is elevated over it literally (i.e. in space). And this is the known elevation and the known precedence
Ibn Taymiyya establishes a clear-cut case of tamthil or similitude for Allah and His attributes by comparing Him to the moon in his interpretation of the verse 57:4:
"He is with you wherever you are":
The phrase "and He is with you" does not mean that He blends into creation... Nay the moon... one of the smallest of Allah's creations, is both placed in the heaven (mawdu`un fi al-samaa') and present with the traveler and the non-traveler wherever they may be. And the Exalted is above (fawq) the Throne, as a watchful guardian of His creatures and their protector Who is cognizant of them.
(Ibn Taymiyya, al-`Aqida al-wasitiyya (Salafiyya ed. 1346 / 1927) p. 20)
In the 'Ta'sis'
he says this:
"Indeed 'al-`arsh' (the throne) in language means 'al-sarir' [elevated seat or couch], so named with respect to what is on top of it (wa dhalika bi al-nisba ila ma fawqihi), just as 'the roof' is so named with respect to what is under it (ka al- saqfi bi al-nisba ila ma tahtihi). Therefore, if the Qur'an attributes a throne to Allah -- which is not like a roof with respect to Him (but the reverse) -- it is then known that this throne is, with respect to Allah, like the elevated seat is with respect to other than Allah. And this makes it necessarily true that He is on top of the throne (wa dhalika yaqtadi annahu fawqu al-`arsh)."
In the same book he also says:
"It is well-known that the Book, the Sunna, and the Consensus (of scholars) nowhere say that all bodies are created (lam tantiq bi anna al-ajsama kullaha muhdathatun), nor that Allah Himself is not a body (wa annallaha laysa bi jismin). None of the imams of the Muslims ever said such a thing. Therefore if I also choose not to say it, it does not expel me from religion nor from shari`a."
Indeed the above is complete impudence. What did he do with all the verses declaring Allah to be far removed from having anything like unto Him?
Does he expect that the idiocy that every single idiot can come up with be addressed with a specific text?
Is it not enough that Allah the Exalted said: "Nothing is like unto Him" (42:11)? Or does he consider it permissible for someone to say: Allah eats this, and chews that, and tastes the other thing, just because no text mentions the opposite?
Now this is disbelief laid bare (al-kufr al-makshuf) and pure anthropomorphism (wa al-tajsim al sareeH).
Ibn Taymiyyah approves of the claim that Aļļaah sits
Ibn Taymiyyah condones of the claim that Aļļaah sits saying: “It has been narrated through the acceptable scholars and Muslim saints (‘awliyaa’) that Muĥammad, the Messenger of Aļļaah (صلى الله عليه وسلم will be seated by His Lord on His throne with Him. 1
قال ابن تيمية في مجموع الفتاوى – (4 / 374) فَقَدْ حَدَثَ الْعُلَمَاءُ الْمَرْضِيُّونَ وَأَوْلِيَاؤُهُ الْمَقْبُولُونَ : أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يُجْلِسُهُ رَبُّهُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ مَعَهُ .
[1 Aĥmad Ibn Taymiyyah (728 AH) Al-Ĥarraaniyy, Majmuuˆu-l-Fataawaa, 4 / 374.]
Regarding Ibn Taymiyyah’s extremely blasphemous anthropomorphism, which includes affirming 6 physical boundaries, divisibility in the mind’s eye due to size, ability to shrink, possibility of being hit by a bucket, having the world physically inside of Him, and more...
All of this, of course, he claims is affirmed by the Qur’aan and the Sunnah and the Salaf and Muslim saints!
Such statements of his are buried in ridiculously long books saying very much about very little, and that is why some scholars did not discover him, and praised him based on other things.
Those who did discover him, however, such as Taqiyyu-d-Diin Al-Ĥuşniyy, the famous Shaafiˆiyy jurist and author of the widely studied fiqh manual “Kifaayatu-l-’Akħyaar” called him “an absolute kaafir (zindiiq – which originally means fire worshiper, but later used to mean a particularly mean kaafir),” and alluded to how he considered having his remains extracted from his grave and burned in public as an admonition to the public.
Ibn al Qayyim
said in his book:
'Badaa'i` al-Fu'aad' (4:40):
"The hadith about the intercession of Ahmad is upon the authority of Ahmad al-Mustafa (s) himself, and the hadith of his being made to sit on the Throne has also come to us, so we do not reject it (hadeethu al-shafaa`ati `an aHmad ila aHmad al-muSTafa musnaduhu wa jaa'a al-Hadeethu bi iq`adihi `ala al-`arshi ayDan fa la najHaduhu)."
Related to The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him)
"Sitting by His side on the Throne"
Ibn `Uthaymeen says,in his own words:
"The proof that Allah is (directly) in front of the person who prays is the Prophet's (s) saying: If one of you stands in prayer, let him not spit in front of him (qibala wajhihi) for Allah is in front of him (fa inna Allaha qibala wajhihi)'; and so this confrontation (muqaabala) is established for Allah literally (thaabitatun lillahi Haqeeqatan), in the way that befits Him. Nor does it contradict His elevation (`uluwwahu), for what reconciles the two matters is that with respect to the creature (fi Haqq al-makhlooq) both can be put together, just as the sun at its rising (kama law kaanat al-shamsu `inda Tuloo`iha) is facing him who faces the East (fa innaha qibalu wajhi man istaqbala al-mashriq), at the same time being in the heaven (wa hiya fi al-samaa'). And if this is true for created things, then it is more rightfully so for the Creator."
(‘SharH al-`aqeedah al-waasiTiyya' p. 44)
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It is possible to force upon him the proof (based on his own words) that the external meaning (zaahir) of Allah's words: "Prostrate thyself, and draw near (unto Allah)" (96:19) indicates physical proximity. But no rational person can say that such a meaning is meant here, for when the person at prayer prostrates, he does not draw near to a body nor to Allah's body! This proves that the proximity in question is that of His mercy (al-iqtiraab iqtiraabu raHmatih), and that the words "in front of him" in the above hadith mean that Allah is looking over him and taking account of his works (Allah naaziruhu wa muHSi `alayhi a`maalahu).
From 'Daf` al-shubuhaat `an al-Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali'
[The Refutation of False Arguments Made Against the Shaykh Muhammad al- Ghazali] (Cairo: Maktabat al-kulliyyaat al-azhariyya, 1410/1990) p. 58-59.
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Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
said in his
Bada’i‘ al-Fawa’id:
Al-Qadi [Ibn Abi Ya‘la] said:
“Al-Marwazi compiled a book on the superlative merits of the Prophet (s) in which he mentioned his seating (iq‘âduhu) on the Throne (al-‘arsh).”
Ibn al-Qayyim’s report that this was the position of al-Tabari suggests that he and al-Qurtubi’s were looking at a common source and that al-Tabari held two opinions on the question, one in support of Mujahid’s narration, as mentioned by Qurtubi, Ibn al-Qayyim, and Ibn Taymiyya, the other opposing it, as mentioned by al-Birzali and al-Suyuti.
It is evident that Ibn al-Qayyim collects as many Hanbali authorities as he can find in support of the narration of the seating. Yet he omits to mention Abu Muhammad al-Barbahari,Abu Bakr al-Najjad, Ibn Batta – although Ibn Abi Ya‘la mentions all three supported it in his Tabaqat – and his own teacher Ibn Taymiyya.
Ibn al-Qayyim also avoids the distinction between Mujahid’s version mentioning “sitting with Allah” and other versions mentioning simply “sitting”. He merely wishes to show that all these authorities supported the lattter, and cautiously sidesteps the thorny issue raised by al-Qurtubi in his discussion of the verse of the Exalted Station.
long-time Second Fiddle and his rightful heir and successor in strange and unusual rulings.
"Can the vision of Allah Most High in the hereafter be other than in a direction?"
Dr. Ahmad Hijazi Saqqa wrote:
"Shaykh Ibn `Uthaymin differentiates between the kursî and the `arsh.
He says (Sharh p. 15):
"The kursî is the place of the two feet, and the `arsh is that upon which Allah made istiwaa'."
The meaning of his words is that Allah sits on the `arsh and then places his feet on the kursî.
This is anthropomorphism (tajsîm).
Furthermore, it is not permitted to differentiate (between kursî and `arsh), for the one who sits on the `arsh does not place his feet on the kursî; also, there are many texts adducing that the `arsh is the kursî.
"Shaykh Ibn `Uthaymin reinforces his anthropomorphism by saying (Sharh p. 42):
"It is established that Allah Most High has feet (al-qadam thâbit lillâhi ta`âlâ), and Ahl al-Sunna have explained the leg and foot (al-rijl wa al-qadam) as being literal according to what befits Allah (haqîqatan `alâ al-wajhi al-lâ'iq billâh); whereas the "People of Figurative Interpretation"
(By this expression are meant Ash`ari Sunnis, while the expression Ahl al-Sunna in these lines means the anthropomorphists!)
(Ahl al-Ta'wîl) have explained al-rijl as being the group which Allah will place in the Fire, and al-qadam as being those who are sent forth (muqaddamîn) to the Fire... and I reject and return their explanation to them on the grounds that it contravenes the external meaning of the words (mukhâlifun li zâhir al-lafz)."
"What inspired Shaykh Ibn `Uthaymin to say such words (as the feet or legs of Allah being literal) is the external meaning of hadiths such as the following: "al-Khallal said in Kitab al-Sunna on the authority of Qutat ibn al-Na`man who said: 'I heard the Messenger of Allah saying: "When Allah was relieved from His creation he established Himself over His Throne and reclined (istalqâ), placing one of His legs on top of the other (wa wada`a ihdâ rijlayhi `ala al-ukhrâ), and said: Verily it does not befit human beings."
Al-Dhahabi and others said: "Its chain of transmission is sound according to the criteria of Bukhari and Muslim."
And note well that the "Salafis" are the "People of hadith" (ahl al-hadîth), and that they do not practice figurative interpretation (la yu'awwilûn)!"
End of Dr. Saqqa's text.
(Saqqa, Daf` al-Shubuhat (p. 59)
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Haafiz al- Hakami (1924- 1958)
a former head teacher at the Salafi colleges, has said,
"Indeed Allah descends to the lowest sky and in each sky He has a Kursi (chair), so when he comes down to the lowest sky, He sits on His Kursi (chair)……….. then when the morning comes, He ascends and elevates and goes and sits on His Kursi (chair)."
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(Astaghfirullah)
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The Prophet’s (s) Seating on the Throne
(IQ‘ÂD AL-NABÎ (S) ‘ALÂ AL-‘ARSH)
Dr. G. F. Haddad
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“Muhammad the Messenger of Allah (s) will be seated
by His Lord on the Throne next to Him.”
(Ibn Taymiyya)
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“Whoever imagines that our Lord sits on the Throne and leaves space at His side for His Prophet to sit, has followed the Christians who hold that ‘Isa was raised to heaven and sat next to his Father – Allah (swt) is clear of the partnership they ascribe to Him!”
(Al-Kawthari)
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(Article on this Blog Edited by ADHM)
