The Crime of Abandoning the Major Scholars and the Travesty of Falsely Accusing a Salafi of Belittling Them.
Imām At-Tahāwī (rahimahullāh) stated in his famous work of ʿAqīdah: “And the scholars of the Salaf, from the early ones and those who came after them from the Tābiʿīn: they are the people of goodness, people of narrations (ahlul-Athar), and people of understanding (ahlul-fiqh) and insight – they are not to be mentioned except with fine and beautiful speech. The one who speaks of them with bad speech is not upon the correct path.”
Abdullah Ibn Mubārak (d. 181H, rahimahullāh) said: “Whoever belittles the scholars has lost his Hereafter. Whoever belittles the rulers has lost his worldly affairs. Whoever belittles his brothers has lost his honour.” (See Siyar of Adh-Dhahabī, 8/408)
Imām At-Tirmidhī reported from Ibn ʿUmar that Allah’s Messenger (salallāhu ʿalayhi wasallam) said: “Allah will not unite my Ummah upon misguidance. And the Hand of Allah is with the Jamā’ah, and whoever deviates from that, he deviates himself to the Fire.” (no. 2167)
Abu ʿĪsā At-Tirmidhī said: “And the meaning of Al-Jamā’ah in the view of the scholars is: The people of understanding and knowledge and hadīth (ahlul-fiqh wal-ʿilm wal-hadīth).”
These narrations were gathered in an article on my website – and I commented after the statement of Imam At-Tirmidhī:
“So the Jamāʿah about whom the Messenger (salallāhu ʿalayhi wasallam) said: ‘The Hand of Allah is with the Jamā’ah,’ are the scholars – and whoever deviates from that Jamāʿah ‘deviates to the Fire.’ So beware of being drawn into innovated speech that seeks to belittle the great Salafi scholars of our time. And we remind those who fell into this sin with the words of Shaikh Rabīʿ Al-Madkhali (hafidhahullāh) who said: ‘We ask Allah that He guides them to repent and that they return to the Truth, that they recognise the station of the People of Truth (Ahlul-Haqq), that they abandon their stance in front of those who are eager for the Truth so they do not prevent them from the Path of Allah.’”
It is the sects of Al-Ikhwān Al-Muslimūn, the Surūriyyah, the Qutbiyyah and so on, who revile and belittle the scholars of the Sunnah declaring them to be ‘scholars of menstruation and postpartum blood’ and those who ‘merely announce the start and end of Ramadān’. They scorn them, accuse them of being ignorant of current political affairs, and declare them unfit for anything beyond Fatāwa in basic Fiqh rulings. It is the Muslim Brotherhood [of Hasan Al-Bannā] and their offshoots who claim that our scholars are nothing but ‘paid workers in the pockets of the rulers’. What slander and falsehood they have fabricated against the scholars of Sunnah and Salafiyyah! Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 H) said: “Whoever lets loose his tongue against the scholars with slander, Allah will afflict him before his death by killing his heart.” (See Tabyīn Kadhib Al-Muftarī pp. 425)
It is Ahlus-Sunnah, their Imāms, scholars, students and allies who have carried the banner in battling the misguidance of these Surūriyyah and Qutbiyyah who seek to undermine the Major Scholars. Al-Imām Al-Albānī (rahimahullāh) said about these Qutbiyyeen: “[They are the] Khawārij of the era.”
When one comprehends the severity of this crime of belittling the scholars, he understands that accusing them is misguidance and reviling them is from the distinguishing signs of Ahlul-Bidʿah worthy of refutation, rebuke and abandonment, as Abu Hātim ar-Rāzi, one of the great scholars of his age (d. 277 H, rahimahullāh) stated, “The distinguishing sign of Ahlul-Bidʿah is revilement of Ahlul-Athar.” (See Al-Lālakā’ī in Sharh Usool Iʿtiqād Ahlus Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah (1/204). Ahlus-Sunnah do not speak ill of the least of those who adhere to the Sunnah from the common people, let alone the Major Scholars.
And to accuse a Salafi wrongfully of attacking, belittling or undermining the Major Scholars is no small matter, especially since we know it is from the distinguishing signs of Ahlul-Bidʿah. It is not right or befitting to accuse a known Salafi student of knowledge and a caller to Allah who is known for his decades of teaching and defence of the Major Scholars of demeaning the scholars without clear proof. A man who has taught from the books of Ibn Bāz, Ibn ʿUthaimeen, Al-Albāni, Sālih Al-Fawzān, Muqbil Ibn Hādi, Rabeeʿ Al-Madkhali, Abdul-Muhsin Al-ʿAbbād, Ahmad An-Najmi, ʿUbayd Al-Jābiri and others is to be accused of belittling these great Scholars of the Sunnah?!
I recall a few years ago, a caller from Egypt accused Al-ʿAllāmah Rabīʿ Ibn Hādī Al-Madkhalī (hafidhahullāh) of engaging in behaviour resembling the manhaj of the Khawārij! And how audacious an accusation this was, considering that he was accusing the very person who Allāh (the Mighty and Majestic) had raised to be at the forefront of exposing and clarifying the methodologies and paths of the Khawārij of the era from Al-Ikhwan, Al-Qutbiyyah and Suroorriyyah. So, Shaikh Rabīʿ (may Allah preserve him) acquitted himself of this slander stating: “So the statement that we have secret gatherings is from the greatest of lies which is falsified by our clear and manifest manhaj which we have been traversing for 40 years or more. And this is the Manhaj of the Righteous Salaf, established upon the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (salallāhu ʿalayhi wasallam).”
Therefore, we should think carefully before sharing or approving accusations against the well-known People of Sunnah and Hadīth, the callers to Allah, since accusing a Salafi of belittling, demeaning and abandoning the scholars is to accuse him of misguidance, deviation and abandonment of the Jamāʿah — that is because adherence to the Jamāʿah (who are the ‘Ulamā of every age) is from the foundations of our sacred methodology.
Ahlus-Sunnah love the Sunnah, and they love the People of Sunnah and the carriers of the Sunnah. They believe that Ahlus-Sunnah are the ones through whom Allah has preserved His Religion. Allah beautified the hearts of Ahlus-Sunnah and illuminated them by their love of the ʿUlamā of Sunnah, as a bounty from Him (the Most High) as has been stated by Imām As-Sābūni in ʿAqīdatus-Salaf As’hābul-Hadeeth (p. 107).
Some of our brothers upon the Sunnah and Salafiyyah, the callers to Allah (in the Western lands) have been recommended over the decades by numerous scholars and Imāms of the Sunnah, such as Rabeeʿ Ibn Hādi, Muqbil Al-Wādiʿee, Abdullāh Al-Ghudayyān, Ahmad An-Najmi, ʿUbayd Al-Jābiri, Zayd Al-Madkhali, Muhammad Al-Bannā, Hasan Ibn Abdul-Wahhāb Al-Bannā, Sālih Al-Luhaydān and others (may Allah have mercy upon the deceased and preserve the living among them). It is important to be equipped with this knowledge as we should know from whom we are taking ‘ilm.
Additionally, criticism without proof is not to be accepted against the callers to Allah, the elders and shaikhs.
We should know that the Religion is sincere advice, so if we see a slip or mistake from our brothers or elders from the callers to Allah, we should call them or write to them, and then advise them sincerely as we would like to be advised ourselves for the sake of Allah.
Furthermore, Ahlus-Sunnah do not raise the student of knowledge or Shaikh to the level of the Great Scholars – rather each is placed in his rightful place. Al-Hākim reports that ʿĀ’ishah (radhiyallāhu anhā) stated: “Allāh’s Messenger (salallāhu ʿalayhi wasallam) commanded us to place the people in their rightful stations.” Whilst some scholars have found weakness in its chain, its meaning is correct as mentioned by Imām Ibn Bāz (rahimahullāh).
Finally, let us pay attention to the words of Al-Hāfidh Ibn Hajr (d. 852AH, rahimahullāh) regarding the criticism of a person known for the Sunnah, its adherence and its defence: “If the criticism (jarh) of an individual is general—and the criticised one is declared trustworthy by one of the scholars of this science [of Al-Jarh wat-Taʿdeel] then criticism of him is not accepted from anyone, regardless of who he is, unless it is detailed [with proofs]. That is because the standard of trustworthiness has been established for him, and it is not removed from him except with something clear-cut.” And Allāh knows best.
Abu Khadeejah ʿAbdul-Wahid.
Be the first to comment