Ibn Taymiyya gave up Takfir in his last days

The following is an interesting quote from Imam al-Dhahabi's Siyar a'lam an Nubala (15/88) where he mentions Ibn Taymiyyah giving up his Takfir in his last days:

وَكَذَا كَانَ شَيْخُنَا ابْنُ تيمِيَّة فِي أَوَاخِرِ أَيَّامه يَقُوْلُ:أَنَا لاَ أَكفر أَحَداً مِنَ الأُمَّة،

[Shukran Sidi Abul Hasan for passing this my way!]

Mahabbah!

Aboo Bakr al-Kataanee said:

A discussion about mahabbah took place in Makkah, during pilgrimage season. The Shaykhs who were present spoke about this topic, al-Junayd being the youngest of them.

They said to him: What do you say, O ’Iraaqee?

So al-Junayd lowered his head and tears were gushing from his eyes, then he said:

“A servant should overcome his soul,
And be continuous in the remembrance of his Lord,
Establishing the rights of his Lord,
Focusing upon Him with his heart,
The light of fear setting ablaze his heart,
Whilst drinking from the vessel of pure love,
And certain hidden realities being unveiled for him.
So when he talks, it is due to Allaah,
When he speaks, it is from Allaah,
When he moves, it is by the Command of Allaah,
And when he is serene, then it is from Allaah,
He belongs to Allaah, is for Allaah and is with Allaah.”


Upon hearing, the Shaykhs all started weeping, and they said:

"There is nothing left to add to that, may Allaah reward you O Crown of the Knowledgeable Ones.”

The Abdal [substitute-saints]

It is obligatory for Muslims to believe that the abdal or Substitute-saints exist -- so called because, as the Prophet said (see #3 below), "None of them dies except Allah substitutes another in his place" -- and that they are among the religious leaders of the Community concerning whom there is no doubt among Muslims. No less than Ibn Taymiyya writes at the end of his `Aqida wasitiyya:

"The true adherents of Islam in its pristine purity are Ahl al-Sunnat wal-Jama`a. In their ranks the truthful saints (siddiqin), the martyrs, and the righteous are to be found. Among them are the great men of guidance and illumination, of recorded integrity and celebrated virtue. The Substitutes (abdal) and the Imams of religion are to be found among them and the Muslims are in full accord concerning their guidance. These are the Victorious Group about whom the Prophet said: "A group within my Community manifestly continues to be in the truth. Neither those who oppose them nor those who abandon them can do them harm, from now on until the Day of Resurrection." [Ibn Taymiyya, `Aqida wasitiyya (Salafiyya edition) p. 36.]

The Prophet emphasized in many authentic narrations the benefits brought to all creation through the intercession of Allah's saints and their standing with Him. Suyuti in his fatwa on the abdal in his Hawi li al-fatawi provided many examples of this type of universal intercession from which we quote the following:

1. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal says in his Musnad (1:112):

... The people of Syria were mentioned in front of `Ali ibn Abi Talib while he was in Iraq, and they said: "Curse them, O Commander of the Believers." He replied: "No, I heard the Messenger of Allah say: "The Substitutes (al-abdal) are in Syria and they are forty men, every time one of them dies, Allah substitutes another in his place. By means of them Allah brings down the rain, gives (Muslims) victory over their enemies, and averts punishment from the people of Syria."" al-Haythami said: "The men in its chains are all those of the sahih except for Sharih ibn `Ubayd, and he is trustworthy (thiqa)."[That is: this is a sound (sahih) hadith.]

2. al-Hakim narrated the following which he graded sound (sahih), and al-Dhahabi confirmed him:

`Ali said: "Do not curse the people of Syria, for among them are the Substitutes (al-abdal), but curse their injustice."

Note that any religious knowledge unattainable through ijtihad and authentically conveyed from one of the Companions is considered a hadith by the experts of that science.

3. Tabarani said in his Mu`jam al-awsat:

Anas said that the Prophet said: "The earth will never lack forty men similar to the Friend of the Merciful [Prophet Ibrahim], and through them people receive rain and are given help. None of them dies except Allah substitutes another in his place."

Qatada said: "We do not doubt that al-Hasan [al-Basri] is one of them."

Ibn Hibban narrates it in al-Tarikh through Abu Hurayra as: "The earth will never lack forty men similar to Ibrahim the Friend of the Merciful, and through whom you are helped, receive your sustenance, and receive rain."

4. Imam Ahmad also narrated in the Musnad (5:322):

The Prophet said: "The Substitutes in this Community are thirty like Ibrahim the Friend of the Merciful. Every time one of them dies, Allah substitutes another one in his place."

Hakim Tirmidhi cites it in Nawadir al-usul and Ahmad's student al-Khallal in his Karamat al-awliya'. Haythami said its men are those of the sahih except `Abd al-Wahid who was declared trustworthy by al-`Ijli and Abu Zar`a (as well as Yahya ibn Ma`in).

5. Abu Dawud through three different good chains in his Sunan (English #4273), Imam Ahmad in his Musnad (6:316), Ibn Abi Shayba in his Musannaf, Abu Ya`la, al-Hakim, and Bayhaqi narrated:

Umm Salama the wife of the Prophet said: "Disagreement will occur at the death of a Caliph and a man of the people of Madina will come forth flying to Mecca. Some of the people of Mecca will come to him, bring him out against his will and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. An expeditionary force will then be sent against him from Syria but will be swallowed up in the desert between Mecca and Madina, and when the people see that, the Substitutes (abdal) of Syria and the best people (`asaba) of Iraq will come to him and swear allegiance to him..."

6. Imam Ahmad cited in Kitab al-zuhd, also Ibn Abi al-Dunya, Abu Nu`aym, Bayhaqi, and Ibn `Asakir narrated from Julays:

Wahb ibn Munabbih said: I saw the Prophet in my sleep, so I said: "Ya Rasulallah, where are the Substitutes (budala') of your Community?" So he gestured with his hand towards Syria. I said: "Ya Rasulallah, aren't there any in Iraq?" He said: "Yes, Muhammad ibn Wasi`, Hassan ibn Abi Sinan, and Malik ibn Dinar, who walks among the people similarly to Abu Dharr in his time."

Nawawi in Bustan al-`arifin (1985 ed. p. 31) mentions that the hadith master Hammad ibn Salama ibn Dinar (d. 167) was considered to be one of the abdal.




[www.sunnah.org]

Tawassul

http://hadithproofsfortawassul.blogspot.com

The Main Focus of Muslim Activists...

Shaykh Muhammmad al Yaqoubi sums up his way in the following words:

"The main focus of Muslim activists in the field of Da'wa should be on making people aware of the importance of learning the Deen, studying the Shariah, and diving into the depths of Sacred Knowledge in order to ultimately live upon it. The key to the success and triumph of the Muslim Umma unequivocally lies in Sacred Knowledge. Only through studying the Qur'an, the Hadith, the Fiqh and the related subjects may we increase the fear of Allah in our hearts and precisely emulate the exemplar of the Prophet sallla Allahu alayhi wa sallam and follow the footsteps of the Ulama. In order for the Umma to regain its intellectual consciousness and reinstate its sense of civilisation, we need, beside following the Qur'an and Sunna, to adhere to the way of the Ulama that spans over fourteen centuries, a way that, in reflecting the Qur'an and Sunna, articulated the corpus of Fiqh and the exegeses of the Qur'an and Sunnah, thus introducing the way to the following generations. Recognising their legacy and digging out its treasures is vital to the recovery of the Umma. This can only be done through reviving the tradition of learning and teaching in Islam, where a teacher represents the spring of knowledge and the exemplar of righteousness, the continuation of the glorious past and the embodiment of the blessing and light of an unbroken chain of transmission. People should know that unlike political movements and sectarian groups, we do not call to our own way, nor do we have our own new agenda."

There is No Tariqa Outside of the Shariah!

Sheikh Izz Ibn ‘Abd al-Salam’s book, al-Imam al-’Izz Ibn ‘Abd al-Salam wa atharuhu fi al-fiqh al-Islami, explains the importance of Sacred Law, Sharia for the Sufis:


The Sacred Law is the scale upon which men are weighed and profit is distinguished from loss. He who weighs heavily on the scales of the Sacred Law is of the friends (awliya) of Allah, among whom there is disparity of degree. And he who comes up short in the scales of the Sacred Law is of the people of ruin, among whom there is also disparity of degree. If one sees someone who can fly through the air, walk on water, or inform one of the unseen, but who contravenes the Sacred Law by committing an unlawful act without an extenuating circumstance that legally excuses it, or who neglects an obligatory act without lawful reason, one may know that such a person is a devil Allah has placed there as a temptation to the ignorant. Nor is it farfetched that such a person should be one of the means by which Allah chooses to lead men astray, for the Antichrist will bring the dead to life and make the living die, all as a temptation and affliction to those who would be misled.

The Month of Fasting Has Come

"The month of fasting has come, the emperor's banner has arrived;
withhold your hand from food, the spirit's table has arrived.
The soul has escaped from separation and bound nature's hands;
the heart of error is defeated, the army of faith has arrived.
Fasting is our sacrifice, it is the life of our soul;
let us sacrifice all our body, since the soul has arrived as guest.
Fortitude is as a sweet cloud, wisdom rains from it,
because it was in such a month of fortitude that the Quran arrived....
Wash your hands and your mouth, neither eat nor speak;
seek that speech and that morsel which has come to the silent ones."

-Maulana Rumi

[Translation: AJ Arberry]

Qadi Thana'ullah Panipati [RH] on Allah & His Attributes

Praise and glory be to Allah, who is Self-existent while all things receive their existence from Him. They have need of Him for their origination and continuation while He has no need of anything.

He is one; in His essence, His attributes, and His acts.

No one has parnership with Him in any matter. His existing and His living are not of the same category as the existing and living of created things. His knowledge bears no resemblance to their knowledge. His seeing, hearing , power, will, and speech are not similar to, and share nothing with the seeing, hearing, power, will and speech of creation. Aside from the similarity of sharing these names, there is no similarity or sharing.

His acts and His attributes, like His essence, are both without mode and without comparison. The attribute of knowledge possessed by the Almighty, for example, is an eternal attribute. It is a non-composite, active awareness such that every piece of information from the beginning to the end of time, along with its similar and contrary states, in whole and in part, each and its particular time, is known to Him all at once. Thus, for example, He knows that so and so is to be living at a certain time, and that a certain time he is to die, and so forth. In a similar manner, His speech is a non-composite speech, the particulars of which are the revealed books.

Allah most High is above bodily incarnation, hulul, and likewise, there is nothing capable of becoming incarnate in Him.

Allah most High encompasses all things and is in the company of, and is close to, everything that exists by an encompassing, accompanying, and closeness of His own; not the sort that we can comprehend in our limited minds, as that is not worthy of His sacred Being.

Creation [shaping and bringing into being] is an attribute especially His own.

All beings, their senses, actions and attributes are all created by Him, exalted is He. He has veiled His acts with causes and means yet, at the same time, these are proofs that everything is of His doing. It is the way of Allah, whenever one of His servants makes an intention to perform a certain act, that He creates that act and brings it into existence. On the basis of this semblance of will and power, the individual is called an earner, kasib, and it is on this basis that he or she is praised or criticised, rewarded or punished. It is disbelief, kufr , to suppose that something other than Allah is the true creator of any part of creation.

Allah most High is above whatever visions othe Sufis may have of Him in their meditations. Thus, it is essential to have faith in the Unseen, ghayb. What the Sufi sees in his meditation is only an image or representation. It is the teaching of Sufis themselves that all such visions should be understood as coming under and being nullified by the negative particle "la" [corresponding ot the word "No" in the testament of faith, kalimah, 'La ilaha illa'allah, There is no god but Allah'].

Then, it is our belief that the Almighty encompasses all things, and that He is indeed close by, even theough we do not comprehend the full significance of these matters. Similarly, the Almighty's settling Himself on the Throne, 'arsh', His presence in the heart of every believer, His descent to the lowest heaven in the latter part of the night, and other such things, like the mention of His hand or face, as have come to us in the Qur'an and ahadith, must not be understood in their literal (physical) sense. Neither should we attempt to find interpretations, ta'wil, for them.

We should simply have faith in these things; and in order to protect ourselves from believing true that which is in fact false, we should entrust their interpretation to the knowledge of the Almighty. Man's lot in these matters, is no more than ignorance and confusion. To deny the texts (of the Qur'an and the Sunah) is kufr, and to try to explain them is compound ignorance.

Those at the Lord's court acknowledged as seers,
Venture no further than saying that, 'He is.'

There is another kind of accompanying and closeness to the Almighty which is of a separate category and which bears no relation, other than that they both share the same name, to the closeness and accompanying that was mentioned above. This is the lot of His special servants; the angels, the prophets, and the Sufi saints. Still, the ordinary Muslim is not without a share of closeness either, as the degrees of closeness to Allah are infinite. No matter how close one comes to Allah, there will always be room for an even closer approach.

Maulana Rumi has written:

Brother the court of the Lord is an endless one.
The closer you approach, the further you find you have to go....



[Malaa Budda Minhu [Essential Islamic Knowledge], Qadi Thana'ullah Panipati [RH] (Tr. Yusuf Talal De Lorenzo)]

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

All praise is due to Allah [subhanahu wa ta'ala], Lord of the Universe and may peace and blessings be upon Muhammad [salallahu alayhi wa sallam], His beloved Messenger.