29. FOLLOW THE QUR’AN AND THE SUNNAH TO BE GUIDED
I saw that Shaytan has deceived people in various ways, turning most of them away from knowledge—which is the guiding lamp of those walking the path—leaving them stumbling in the darkness of ignorance (yulmat al-jaht) and occupying them with empirical and sensory affairs that ignore consulting intellect.
If one of them faces adversity or a disaster, he objects (to Allah’s decree) and disbelieves. There are those who attribute calamities to time (dahr), and others who insult the worldly life. This is foolishness as neither time nor life does anything of its own accord— the slander is directed to the One who decides fate.
Some of them are driven to deny any wisdom, and say, ‘What is the benefit of demolishing what is built?’ Some of them claimed not to imagine the return of the demolished; they deny resurrection and say, ‘No one returned from there.’
They fail to understand that existence is in continuum and not over yet. If we were resurrected in this very life, then belief in the unseen would be meaningless, so it is not correct to deduce life from life.
Shaytan observed and found some Muslims with a good sense of acumen. He then convinced them that the mere understanding of the apparent meanings of Shan ah is known and shared even by the common people. This led to Muslims desiring ‘Ilm Al-Kalam to advance their theories, so they began to use and cite the words of Hippocrates, Galen and Pythagoras as evidence in sacred law. Even while these philosophers do not follow our Shan ah or our Prophet They only utter what their selves have enticed them with.
When the early Muslims had children, they would occupy them with memorizing the noble Qur’an and listening to hadith affirming firm belief in their hearts. People have slackened in that regard, so the intelligent child became occupied with the sciences of philosophy of such men, ignoring the Messenger’s narrations and traditions labeling them as casual reports. Among the names for hadith scholars, they call ‘H ashawis’.
They came to believe that the exact science is the science of the Mutation, the Hyle and the Monad. They proceed to talk about the Divine Attributes, and they refute the authentic hadiths from the Messenger with their actualities.
Al-Mu’tazilah said, ‘Allah cannot be seen because the visible must be in a certain direction and location,’ by which they contradict the Messenger’s saying, “You shall see your Lord [in the Hereafter] as you see the moon, and you shall have no inconvenience in seeing Him.”49 This hadith proves the ability’ of seeing him in a way we’re unable to comprehend.
These fools were prevented from occupying themselves with the Qur’an, and came to say, ‘It is created,’ so its sanctity was removed from the hearts. They reject the obligation of following the Sunnah, while plagiarizing their beliefs from Hippocrates and Galen.
Whoever followed the philosophers benefitted relieving themselves of prayer and fasting. The major scholars used to disapprove of ‘ilm Al-Kalam.
Al-Shafi’i said, ‘My judgment of them is to make them ride mules, defame them and publicise. This is the punishment of whoever leaves the Qur’an and the Sunnah and occupies himself with ‘Ilm Al-Kalam.’
They even believed that whoever does not know how to rationally deduce the evidence for the oneness of Allah is not a Muslim.
So beware mingling with the innovators [in religion], follow the Qur’an and the Sunnah to be guided and to gain salvation.
(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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