11. INNOVATORS (MUBTADAIN)
Know that the Islamic law operates within a guideline of principles and is protected by a set of rules. It neither has a flaw nor accommodates alien content, similar to all other divine laws.
It should be known however, that the problem lies in what innovators (mubtadain) and ignorant people (Juhhal) introduce into religions (din).
For example, when the Christians witnessed the miracle of Prophet ‘Isa (‘alayhi as-salam) resurrecting the dead, they thought no human being is capable of performing this supernatural act that, ending to take the doer (i.e. Jesus) as worthy of worship and godly.
However, if they thought about his nature, they would have realised his unsuitability to be a God due to his imperfect human nature that is in need of others, which is enough evidence to show them that the supernatural miracles he performed are most certainly bestowed by someone else Who allowed them to be executed on his hands.
The deviation may also effect other tertiary issues in religion such as how Christians were ordained to fast one month but they added to it another twenty days, and then decided to assign a particular time in the year to do it; all out of their mere opinions.
This kind of deviation and distortion is also noted in Judaism when the innovations and deviations of the Jews harmed the fundamental and tertiary tenets of their religion. This misguidance is sadly also found in our nation, even though Allah promised to protect the nation in general from idolatry (shirk), doubts (shak) about the religion and the severe disputes (about its fundamentals), because this nation is the most reasonable and most understanding.
However, Iblis seduced some of them and despaired from being able to drown the entire nation [into disbelief], although he succeeded in drowning some of this nation into the seas of misguidance. This is because Allah sent down to His Messenger a divine Book that He said,
“We have not neglected in the book a thing.” [al-An’am (6):38]
The Messenger of Allah then explained what needed to be explained and clarified through his Sunnah as he was commanded,
“And We revealed to you the message that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them.” [al-Nahl (16): 44]
Then, he stated [after he completed his mission]: “Indeed I have left you upon a white plain [clear guidance]”
However, some people came afterwards— neither content with what the Prophet explained and clarified nor satisfied with the way of his Companions— and began to indulge into investigating additional details causing them to divide amongst themselves: One group investigated what religion endeavoured to affirm in the hearts of people and so end up removing this affirmation from people’s heart, that the Qur’an and the hadith both affirm the existence of Allah through the mentioning of His Divine Attributes. For example, Allah said,
“Then He rose above the Throne.” [al-A’raf (7): 54]
and
“Rather, both His hands are extended.” [al-Ma’idah (5):64]
and
“that you would be brought up under My eye.” [Taha (20):39],
and the Prophet said “Allah descends to the lower sky” and that “He extends His Hand to accept the repentance of those who sinned during the day and during the night.”99 And he also stated that Allah laughs1″” and gets angry. All these statements, though their apparent meanings may let one imagine these attributes resembling creation’s attributes and qualities, were only said to affirm the existence of Allah. Yet Allah knows that hearts perceive everything in form of images, it hindered the process of imagination by stating,
“There is nothing like unto Him.” [al-Shura (42): 11],
This group of people then decided to delve into the utmost miracle, the Qur’an, for which Allah confirms its existence; He said,
“We sent the Qur’an down.” [al-Qadr (97):1]
and
‘The Trustworthy Spirit has brought it down.” [al-Shurah (26): 193)
And
“So leave Me, [O Muhammad], with [the matter of] whoever denies the Qur’an.” [Qalam (68):44]
And
“And this is a Book which We have sent down.” [al-An’am (6):92]
Then, He affirmed its existence in the hearts of people,
“The Qur’an is distinct verses [preserved] within the breasts of those who have been given knowledge.” [al-Ankabut (29):49]
He then affirmed its existence in [the pages of] the book,
“[Inscribed] in a Preserved Tablet.” [al-Buruj (85):22]
The Prophet said “Do not travel with the Qur’an to the lands of the enemy.”
Yet, despite all of that, part of these astray groups claimed the Qur’an is created (makhluq) causing people to no longer hold it in esteem. And claimed it was neither sent down nor possible to be sent down because how can the attribute be indispensable to the One who has the attribute, while the Qur’an only contains paper and ink? This made them negate what religion endeavoured to affirm by its existence.
This is similar to their attempts to claimed that Allah, Most High, is neither above the sky nor that He is above His Throne nor descends to the lower sky, as all those are metaphors referring to His Mercy.
This claim, however, resulted with the removing from the hearts of people what religion wanted to affirm, thus it opposed the purpose of religion.
Another astray group was not content with what the religion revealed and insisted on employing their own reasoning and opinions so they said: “Allah is on His Throne” as they did not suffice with His statement,
“Then He rose above His Throne.” [al-Ar’af (7): 54]
They were influenced by early fabrications introduced by some deviated people and the forged reports made up by some atheists, hence they become unaware of what is possible to be said about Allah, and what is not. This made them accept divine Attributes at their face value while in fact, most of these Attributes are said figuratively since Arabic Language is knowingly rich enough to encompass this approach of speech, but this group understood them literally.
Their example is like Juha whose mother asked him to protect the door of the house but what he did was that he pulled off the door and carried it with him which made thieves steal everything in the house. When his mother blamed him for what he did, he replied: “you said protect the door not what is in the house!”
As they imagined Allah as a magnificent image on the throne they started to interpret it to negate the existence of this image on the throne. It is similar to what they did when they interpreted the phrase, “whoever comes to Me walking, I shall come to him running” to mean being close to Him in rank and position and not being close to Him in distance.
Yet, they interpret the verse,
“What are these people waiting for, perchance, for Allah to reveal Himself unto them in the shadows of the clouds.” [al-Baqarah (2):210]
Based on its apparent meaning that ‘He comes by His essence’ making them have an unstable and inconsistent understanding as they apply their understanding randomly.
Moreover, they call what Allah stated in reference to Him or what Allah mentioned next to His Name, as Attributes.
He stated that He blew [into Adam] and added ‘soul’ to His Name in some statements! They also affirmed that He created some things with His Hand so they said that the Hand is an attribute used to create Adam alone because otherwise there would be no virtue for Adam in this. However, if they just said He created Adam, no one would have objected. But, they were too busy looking into the virtue of Adam causing them to overlook what is acceptable and unacceptable to attribute to Allah Who cannot be said He is in physical contact with the creation or employs instruments or tools to create something. Rather, Allah, in this statement, wanted the virtue of Adam to be from adding his name to Him. They also said: “we call Allah with the name ‘image’ because the Prophet said ‘Allah created Adam in His image’
And they understood the statement of the Prophet, “When any among you strikes another man, he should avoid striking the face. He should also avoid cursing him by saying: ‘May Allah disfigure your face and the face of those whose faces resemble yours. For Allah created Adam in His image.’
But, if this is intended to refer to Allah, Exalted is He, it would mean that the Face of Allah resembles the face of the man. They also narrated the hadith related by Khawlah bint Hakim (radiyAllahu ‘anha) that the Prophet said, “The last step of Allah was in the battle of Biwaj”1″6 and thev did not know that the intended meaning is to assert that the last battle Muslims fought was in Biwaj, which is the battle of Hunain.
Further, they are unaware of how their lack of knowledge in hadith and the biography of the Prophet manifests, as they overlooked that the Prophet said “O Allah step hard on [the tribe of] Mudar.”
However, they insisted on taking the apparent meaning and that Allah literally stepped on that area. There is no doubt, according to their understanding, that they think that Allah was on earth then ascended high above!
They also claimed that its permissible to describe Allah with boredom and attribute Allah with that based on the hadith, “Allah does not get bored until you become bored,” and they said this only because they are ignorant in the Arabic language and did not comprehend that this understanding entails no praise because based on their understanding, if a person becomes bored then He becomes bored too and that is no praise by all standards.
Rather, the actual meaning is that Allah will never get bored even if people become bored. They even went further to say that “kinship hangs upon the knot of Allah’s garment and it is derived from His Name, al-Rahman) is evidence that Allah’s garment is an from His Essence though this report and what they rely on are too weak to even be accepted to generate a ruling about nullifying the wudu.
This is because most of the reports they bring forth are fabricated by atheists. Another example of their fabricated reports and their attempts to endorse such reports is what they quote to be allegedly reported from Abdullah Ibn ‘Amr (radiyAllahu ‘anhuma) that, ‘Allah created Angels from the light of His chest and arms.’”” They say: “we accept this report as per its apparent meaning” but then compromise to say: “yet, we do not affirm Allah has any limbs” so their reasoning became as if they are saying someone is standing up but he is not standing up. And, when they read the verse,
“Standing up (maintaining) His creation in justice.” [Al-‘Imran (3): 18]
they disputed over whether Allah can be described as standing up or not because with their idiocy, which is worse than the idiocy of Juha, they could not understand that,
“standing up” [Al- ‘Imran (3): 18]
is a metaphor meaning to maintain.
The purpose of mentioning some of their deviation in this regard is to hinder the effect of what they say, so that no one inclines or settles with what they say. Moreover, being careful and cautious about them— to avoid their deviation— is indeed a rewarding deed.
No doubt, the right path is the path of the righteous predecessors, but I would still like to quote what Imam Ahmad said: ‘It is a sign of lack of knowledge to ape [the principle creedal tenets of Islam] of someone else’ because when it comes to the principle creedal tenets of Islam, no one should ape anyone even if he was a person held in high esteem.
That being the case, whenever you come across a statement that does not conform to the sound principle creedal tenets of Islam spoken by a reputable person from the people of knowledge, you should say, this statement cannot be truly his and it must be a mistake from the one narrating it because this scholar has proven he does not state a view without relying on an evidence or principle.
And if we hypothetically assume such a statement was really said by him, then we know that no one is allowed to blindly follow any person, even if he was Abu Bakr (radiy Allahu ‘anhu) and Umar (radiy Allahu ’anhu) when it comes to the principle creedal tenets of Islam. This rule (no one is allowed to follow a fundamental belief blindly) is significant and vital; hence let no big names ever cause anyone to oppose what does not conform (to the principle creedal tenets).
I only intended to mention the aforesaid to explain that our religion is sound but some people introduced into it a deviation that harmed people.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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