Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani on the Meaning of Tawhid

 

Ibn Hajr Al Asqalani (d.852AH) in his renowned commentary work on Sahih Al Bukhari, at the beginning of Chapter of Tawhid, provides the definition of Tawhid in the following way:

وَقَالَ أَبُو الْقَاسِمِ التَّمِيمِيُّ فِي كِتَابِ الْحُجَّةِ التَّوْحِيدُ مَصْدَرُ وَحَّدَ يُوَحِّدُ وَمَعْنَى وَحَّدْتُ اللَّهَ اعْتَقَدْتُهُ مُنْفَرِدًا بِذَاتِهِ وَصِفَاتِهِ لَا نَظِيرَ لَهُ وَلَا شَبِيهَ

وَقِيلَ مَعْنَى وَحَّدْتُهُ عَلِمْتُهُ وَاحِدًا

وَقِيلَ سَلَبْتُ عَنْهُ الْكَيْفِيَّةَ وَالْكَمِّيَّةَ فَهُوَ وَاحِدٌ فِي ذَاتِهِ لَا انْقِسَامَ لَهُ وَفِي صِفَاتِهِ لَا شَبِيهَ لَهُ فِي إِلَهِيَّتِهِ وَمُلْكِهِ وَتَدْبِيرِهِ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَلَا رَبَّ سِوَاهُ وَلَا خَالِقَ غَيْرُهُ

Here

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Abul Qasim Al Tamimi said in the book “Al Hujjat”, Tawheed is the oneness and unity of the source. And meaning of oneness of Allah, is to believe He is unique/single in His Essence and Attributes without an equal nor similarity.

It is said, the meaning of oneness is to know He is One.

And it was said, It is to negate Him of howness and quantity. He is one and indivisible in His Essence and in His attributes. There is no equal/likeness to Him in His divinity, dominion, and management. He has no partner and there is no Lord besides Him, and there is no creator besides Him.

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Note how Tawheed is a matter of “belief” and not mere outward actions.

And compare the entirety of the definition with the completely alien understanding of Tawhid the Wahhabi movement invented which is that, “Tawhid is to not call for help an invisible, distant or incapable object, and to not call anyone besides Allah for help for a supernatural matter or for a matter which only Allah is capable”. 

Neither the Quran nor any of the Prophets, nor the Sahabah nor the Salaf nor the Imams nor any of the books of Islamic creed have taught this fabricated definition of Tawhid. Based on such fabrications, they engage in mass takfir of the entirety of Muslim world past and present. And they consider only a select few mostly from the post 18th century world to have truly understood tawhid and the vastness of heavens are reserved only for these select few. 

Source: Here

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Edited by ADHM

Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari (d.749AH) on Ibn Taymiyya

 

He is the jurist and renowned historian and a descendent of Umar bin Al Khattab (رضي الله عنه), Abu Al-Abbas Shihab Al-Din Ahmed bin Fadlallah bin Yahya bin Ahmed Al-Umari (700 – 749AH).

One of his sheikhs was Taqi ad Din Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728H) and he had penned down a biography of Ibn Taymiyya in Vol 5 of his popular encyclopedic work Masalik al-abṣar fi mamalik al-amsar. Being a direct student, it is fair to say that Ibn Fadlallah can be considered a reliable biographer of Ibn Taymiyya. There are no reports of criticism against Ibn Fadlallah’s character and scholarship nor any reports of conflict with Ibn Taymiyya that would warrant any doubts of bias against Ibn Taymiyya.

On the contrary, Ibn Fadlallah spent several pages of his book pouring lavish praises upon Ibn Taymiyya, starting off with calling him the “the Allamah”, “the Hujjat”, “the Mujtahid”, “sheikh al Islam”, “the ocean”, “the full moon” and so on; exhibiting his impartial and unprejudiced nature in this case.

That being the case, he also left us with some critical evaluation of Ibn Taymiyya, which we see below:

Here

However, in accordance with what was predestined he fell into faulting on certain matters, and he made mistakes which anyone who speaks on a lot of issues are not free from. And I think – may Allah forgive him – that he received the repercussion/retaliation of it in this world itself, and he took the share of its afflictions in general and in particular. This is due to his disparagement of some of the ulema who preceded him, and his untying/dissolution of many of the rules/foundations laid by the great scholars of the past, and his backing away from showing reverence to the elders, and his takfir against many of the fuqara (i.e. sufis),

Here

Continue:

and his falsifying of most of the opinions (of the scholars), and tried to bring the ignorant common folk and people of disputation closer to himself, and in the end he gave fatwa on the matter of ziyarat and divorce, and then he publicized it until people with no religion and morals started to speak of it. 

So he got overpowered and consumed by his enemies, and released the hands of enemies against him, and assisted in feeding their fire, …..and until he died his honor was plundered and his qualities shattered and its remains could not be assembled, perhaps this was a goodness intended for him (by predestination), 

…. however this was due to him intentionally creating discord, and in following a path other than that of the predecessors, and his strengthening of weak masaail, ….. , and that caused him to be alienated from his homelands, and him getting pierced by arrows of the tongue, and him handing over spears to everyone who wanted to beat him. For this reason he continued to be grieved throughout his life. …….

And then Ibn Fadlallah continues along going back to generously praising Ibn Taymiyya and relating other information on his life and work. Here

For more, one can also see Ibn Fadlallah’s entry on Sheikh al Islam Taqi al-Din al-Subki (683-756 AH) praising him for staunchly clearing up controversies created by Ibn Taymiyya:

What is important here is that the qualities which were criticized by Ibn Fadlallah are the characteristics that modern day pseudo salafis take from Ibn Taymiyya whereas none of his praiseworthy qualities can be found among pseudo salafis. 

If there is a matter in which Ibn Taymiyya differed from the ijma or vast majority of scholarship then they they consider Ibn Taymiyya to have the final say on it and impose it on the Muslim world and label those who disagree as unbelievers & heretics. 

And if there is a matter in which even Ibn Taymiyya agrees with the vast majority of Islamic scholarship and goes against the views propagated by pseudo salafism today then they swiftly abandon Ibn Taymiyya as “only a human who is not free from error” and continue their campaign of dividing and fighting Muslims. 

source: Here 

(Edited by ADHM)

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