Thursday, December 27, 2018

Ibn Taymiyya on Imam al-Tirmidhi’s alleged ‘clear corruption’ in his Ta’wil of a Hadith




Ibn Taymiyya on Imam al-Tirmidhi’s
alleged clear corruption
 in his Ta’wil of a Hadith

Imam al Tirmidhi in his al-Jami (vol.5, pp. 376-377, no. 3298, under Kitab Tafsir al Qur’an, as edited by the “Salafi” – Ahmad Shakir) narrated:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم حدثنا عبد بن حميد ، وغير واحد ، والمعنى واحد ، قالوا : حدثنا يونس بنمحمد قال : حدثنا شيبان بن عبد
الرحمن ، عن قتادة ، قال : حدث الحسن ، عن أبي هريرة ، قال : بينما نبي الله صلى الله عليه وسلمجالس وأصحابه إذ أتى عليهم سحاب ، فقال نبي الله صلى الله عليه وسلم : ” ” هل تدرون ما هذا ؟ ” “فقالوا : الله ورسوله أعلم . قال : ” ” هذا العنان هذه روايا الأرض يسوقه الله تبارك وتعالى إلى قوم لايشكرونه ولا يدعونه ” ” ثم قال : ” ” هل تدرون ما فوقكم ” ” ؟ قالوا : الله ورسوله أعلم . قال : ” “فإنها الرقيع ، سقف محفوظ ، وموج مكفوف ” ” ، ثم قال : ” ” هل تدرون كم بينكم وبينها ؟ ” ” قالوا: الله ورسوله أعلم . قال : ” ” بينكم وبينها مسيرة خمس مائة سنة ” ” . ثم قال : ” ” هل تدرون مافوق ذلك ؟ ” ” قالوا : الله ورسوله أعلم . قال : ” ” فإن فوق ذلك سماءين ، ما بينهما مسيرة خمسمائةعام ” ” حتى عد سبع سماوات ، ما بين كل سماءين ما بين السماء والأرض ، ثم قال : ” ” هل تدرونما فوق ذلك ؟ ” ” قالوا : الله ورسوله أعلم . قال : ” ” فإن فوق ذلك العرش وبينه وبين السماء بعد مابين السماءين ” ” . ثم قال : ” ” هل تدرون ما الذي تحتكم ” ” ؟ قالوا : الله ورسوله أعلم . قال : ” “فإنها الأرض ” ” . ثم قال : ” ” هل تدرون ما الذي تحت ذلك ” ” ؟ قالوا : الله ورسوله أعلم . قال : ” ” فإن تحتها أرضا أخرى ، بينهما مسيرة خمس مائة سنة ” ” حتى عد سبع أرضين ، بين كل أرضينمسيرة خمس مائة سنة . ثم قال : ” ” والذي نفس محمد بيده لو أنكم دليتم بحبل إلى الأرض السفلىلهبط على الله ” ” . ثم قرأ هو الأول والآخر والظاهر والباطن وهو بكل شيء عليم . هذا حديثغريب من هذا الوجه . ويروى عن أيوب ، ويونس بن عبيد ، وعلي بن زيد ، قالوا : لم يسمع الحسنمن أبي هريرة ، وفسر بعض أهل العلم هذا الحديث ، فقالوا : إنما هبط على علم الله وقدرته وسلطانه .علم الله وقدرته وسلطانه في كل مكان ، وهو على العرش كما وصف في كتابه *

“By Him in whose hand Muhammad’s soul is, if you were to drop a rope to the lowest ard (land/earth), it would descend upon Allah.”

Imam al-Tirmidhi expounded on this narration by saying (blue text):

“Some of the people of knowledge explained this Hadith by saying: Verily it would descend upon the knowledge of Allah, and His power and His authority, for Allah’s knowledge, His power and His authority is in every place, and He is ‘alal-arsh, as He described Himself in his Book”

Ibn Qayyim al Jawziyya, the student of Ibn Taymiyya commented on this in his 
al-Sawa’iq al-Mursala:

قال ابن القيم في الصواعق ص 400
فقوله ” لو دليتم بحبل لهبط على الله ” اذا هبط في قبضته المحيطة بالعالم فقد هبط عليه والعالم فيقبضته وهو فوق عرشه , ولو ان احدنا امسك بيده او برجله كرة قبضتها يده من جميع جوانبها ثموقعت حصاة من اعلى الكرة الى اسفلها لوقعت في يده وهبطت عليه , ولم يلزم من ذلك ان تكونالكرة والحصاة فوقه وهو تحتها , ولله المثل الاعلى وانما يؤتى الرجل من سوء فهمه او من سوءقصده من كليهما , فاذا هما اجتمعا كمل نصيبه من الضلال
واما تأويل الترمذي وغيره له بالعلم فقال شيخنا : هو ظاهر الفساد من جنس تأويلات الجهمية بلبتقدير ثبوته , فانما يدل على الاحاطة , والاحاطة ثابتة عقلا ونقلا وفطرة

The red portion above states that the Ta’wil of al Tirmidhi and other than him was commented on by his Shaykh – meaning Ibn Taymiyya – as follows:

It is clear corruption / evil (zahir al fassad) from the sort of figurative interpretation’s (Ta’wilat) of the Jahmiyya…” 

Of course, Ibn Taymiyya is speaking nonsense but his comments highlight that even the Ahl al-Hadith were not safe from his slander.

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Majority Hanbali Mashayikh
of 
Ibn Taymiyyah were upon Tafwid

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Ta’wil of Saaq Al-Kursi
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Ibn Abd al-Salam (d.660AH)
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Quote:
 Wahhabi/Salafi Questions:
Meaning of the Hadeeth "And both of His Hands Are Right"

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al Rajhi said:
يعني: كلتا يديه يمين في الشرف والفضل، وعدم النقص. وجاء في صحيح مسلم بلفظ: (الشمال)، لكن بعضهم طعن في هذه الرواية وقال: انفرد بها أحد الرواة. والصواب أن لله يميناً وشمالاً، لكن كلاهما يمين في الشرف والفضل وعدم النقص، بخلاف يدي الآدمي، فالشمال عنده ضعيفة، أما الرب سبحانه وتعالى فكلتا يديه يمين في القوة والشرف والفضل وعدم النقص.

---- It means: Both of His hands are right in terms of honour and surplus, and lack defiency. And it came in Saheeh Muslim with the expression "Left" but some of them (i.e. scholars) have attacked that narration and said: "One of the narrators was secluded". However, the correct view is that Allah has a right and a left, however both of them are right in terms of honour and surplus and lack of deficiency in contrast to the hand of the human being, for his left hand is weak, but as for Allah (swt) both of His hands are right in terms of strength, honour, surplus and lack of deficiency.
---- Here

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---- Quote wahhabi/salafi said: “Its not taweel, its tafsir. Scholars have agreed that Allah says He has two hands. In another narration in Saheeh Muslim it is is said that He has a left hand.
----If we say that Allah has two right hands and one left hand, that makes it three hands, which contradicts the narrations that say He has two.” Here
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Mutashabihat: "Allah's Hand"

"The Right Hand of God"

'both of His Hands are Right Hands'
---- (...if that does not get  it out of your mind,  you know, ...God does not have a LEFT Hand, But  he is not saying that there are TWO Right Hands here...his trying to Get that out of your mind...that these are words ...)

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      -1. Forgetting.
---- We have mentioned above the Qur’anic verse,
---- “Today We forget you as you have forgotten this day of yours” (Qur’an 45:34),
---- which the early Muslims used to interpret figuratively, as reported by a scholar who was himself an early Muslim (salafi) and indeed, the sheikh of the early Muslims in Qur’anic exegesis, the hadith master (hafiz) Ibn Jarir al-Tabari who died 310 years after the Hijra, and who explains the above verse as meaning: “‘This day, Resurrection Day, We shall forget them,’ so as to say, ‘We shall abandon them to their punishment.’” Now, this is precisely ta’wil, or interpretation in other than the verse’s ostensive sense. Al-Tabari ascribes this interpretation, through his chains of transmission, to the Companion (Sahabi) Ibn ‘Abbas (Allah be well pleased with him) as well as to Mujahid, Ibn ‘Abbas’s main student in Qur’anic exegesis (Jami‘ al-bayan, 8.202). Here

---- 2. Hands.
---- In the verse,
---- “And the sky We built with hands; verily We outspread [it]” (Qur’an 51:47),
---- al-Tabari ascribes the figurative explanation (ta’wil) of with hands as meaning “with power (bi quwwa)” through five chains of transmission to Ibn ‘Abbas, who died 68 years after the Hijra, Mujahid who died 104 years after the Hijra, Qatada [ibn Da‘ama] who died 118 years after the Hijra, Mansur [ibn Zadhan al-Thaqafi] who died 131 years after the Hijra, and Sufyan al-Thawri who died 161 years after the Hijra (Jami‘ al-bayan, 27.7–8). I mention these dates to show just how early they wereHere

---- 3. Shin.
---- Of the Qur’anic verse,
---- “On a day when shin shall be exposed, they shall be ordered to prostrate, but be unable” (Qur’an 68:42),
---- al-Tabari says, “A number of the exegetes of the Companions (Sahaba) and their students (tabi‘in) held that it [a day when shin shall be exposed] means that a dire matter (amrun shadid) shall be disclosed” (Jami‘ al-bayan, 29.38)—the shin’s association with direness being that it was customary for Arab warriors fighting in the desert to ready themselves to move fast and hard through the sand in the thick of the fight by lifting the hems of their garments above the shin. This was apparently lost upon later anthropomorphists, who said the verse proved ‘Allah has a shin,’ or, according to others, ‘two shins, since one would be unbecoming.’ Al-Tabari also relates from Muhammad ibn ‘Ubayd al-Muharibi, who relates from Ibn al-Mubarak, from Usama ibn Zayd, from ‘Ikrima, from Ibn ‘Abbas that shin in the above verse means “a day of war and direness (harbin wa shidda)” (ibid., 29.38). All of these narrators are those of the sahih or rigorously authenticated collections except Usama ibn Zayd, whose hadiths are hasan or ‘well authenticated.’ Here


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Imam Tirmidhi (b.209 AH – d.279 AH) Here

Imam al-Tirmidhi (4/2167) reported on the authority of Ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), who said: "Verily my Ummah would not agree (or he said the Ummah of Muhammad) would not agree upon error and Allah's hand is over the group and whoever dissents from them departs to Hell." (see also Mishkat, 1/173)
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(Edited by ADHM)