Just to clarify, this article is only me documenting what has been recorded in regards to who has repented and turned to Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamāʿah, the claimed repentance of some of these scholars, I do not believe are strong.
Navigation Menu For The Summary Of Each Repentance
Repentance of Abu al Walid al Karabisi (d. 214 AH)
Repentance of Nuʿaym ibn Hammad (d. 229 AH)
Repentance of Abu al Hasan al Ashʿari (d. 324 AH)
Repentance of Abu al Maʿali al Juwayni (d. 478 AH)
Repentance of Abu Hamid al Ghazali (d. 505 AH)
Repentance of al Razi (d. 606 AH)
Repentance of Imam Ibn al Qayyim al Jawziyyah (d. 751 AH)
Repentance of Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1354 AH)
Repentance of Shaykh Muhammad Hamid al Faqi (d. 1387 AH) and the call to Tawhid
Repentance of Dr Muhammad Khalil Harras (d. 1390 AH)
Repentance of Shaykh al Hilali (d. 1406 AH)
Repentance of Al Adib ʿAli al Tantawi (d. 1420 AH)
Repentance of Shaykh Muhammad Jamil Zinu (d. 1431 AH)
Navigation Menu For The Translated Sources Of Each Scholar
Abu al Walid al Karabisi (d. 214 AH)
Nuʿaym ibn Hammad (d. 229 AH)
Abu al Hasan al Ashʿari (d. 324 AH)
Al Juwayni (d. 478 AH)
Abu Hamid al Ghazali (d. 505 AH)
Al Razi (d. 606 AH)
Imam Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH)
Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1354 AH)
ʿAbd al Qadir ibn Badran al Dimashqi (d. 1346 AH)
Shaykh Muhammad Hamid al Faqi (d. 1387 AH)
The Azhar Scholar Dr Muhammad Khalil Harras (d. 1390 AH)
The Salafi Scholar of Morocco Taqi al Din al Hilali (d. 1406 AH)
Al Adib ʿAli al Tantawi (d. 1420 AH)
Muhammad Jamil Zinu (d. 1431 AH)
Summary
Repentance of Abu al Walid al Karabisi (d. 214 AH)
Abu al Walid al Karabisi, a leading scholar of kalam and the maternal uncle of Ahmad ibn Sinan al Qattan, repented near death from his former path.
On his deathbed he asked his sons whether they knew anyone more knowledgeable than him in kalam and whether they suspected him.
When they answered no to both, he used that as a proof to make them accept his counsel. He told them to hold firmly to what the Ashab al Hadith were upon, because he had seen that the truth was with them.
He clarified that he did not mean the famous leaders alone, but the dispersed hadith people, the ones who would even go to their own leader, point out his mistakes, and criticise him. In this way he moved from defending kalam to affirming that the safe path was the way of the people of hadith. (Sharf Ashab al Hadith by al Baghdadi p. 55–56, Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala by al Dhahabi 10/548)
Repentance of Nuʿaym ibn Hammad (d. 229 AH)
Nuʿaym ibn Hammad confessed that he had once been a Jahmi. He explained that because of this he knew their kalam well.
When he later devoted himself to seeking hadith, he realised that the end of their affair was taʿtil, denying the attributes of Allah. His repentance was a clear move from Jahmi kalam to the way of hadith and affirmation. (Tarikh Baghdad 13/307, Tahdhib al Kamal folio 1419, Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala 10/597, Tarikh al Islam p. 426)
Repentance of Abu al Hasan al Ashʿari (d. 324 AH)
Abu al Hasan al Ashʿari was first raised upon Muʿtazili kalam under his stepfather Abu ʿAli al Jubbai, becoming a leading Mutazili. Later a doubt entered his heart concerning his belief, so he prayed two rakʿat at night and asked Allah to guide him to the straight path. He then saw the Prophet ﷺ in his sleep and complained to him about his confusion.
The Prophet ﷺ told him, “Upon you is to cling to my Sunnah.” When he awoke he compared the issues of kalam with what he found in the Qur’an and the narrations. He accepted what agreed with them and threw everything else behind his back, including his own opinions. (Tabyin Kadhib al Muftari p. 38–39)
In his book al Ibanah, which is from his last writings, he openly declared that his saying and his religion was to adhere to the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, and what had been narrated from the noble Companions, the Followers, and the imams of hadith.
He said that he held to what Abu Abd Allah Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal said, asking Allah to brighten his face, raise his rank, and reward him, and that he opposed whoever opposed Ahmad, describing him as the virtuous imam and complete leader by whom Allah clarified the truth, repelled misguidance, explained the path, and suppressed the innovations of the innovators and the doubts of the doubters. (al Ibanah ʿan Usul al Diyanah p. 20–21)
Ibn Taymiyyah explained that Abu al Hasan left the beliefs of the Mutazilah, exposed their contradictions, and then moved to the path of Ibn Kullab regarding the attributes.
After that he learned hadith foundations from Zakariyyah as Sajji in Basra and, when he came to Baghdad, took other branches of the religion from the Hanbalis. Ibn Taymiyyah said that this final state, close to Ahl al Hadith and the Hanbalis, was what he died upon. (Majmuʿ al Fatawa 3/228, 12/178)
Repentance of Abu al Maʿali al Juwayni (d. 478 AH)
Abu al Maʿali al Juwayni, the famous Shafiʿi imam of kalam, later admitted that he had travelled through the people of Islam and their sciences, ridden the great ocean, and plunged into what they themselves had forbidden, all seeking the truth and fleeing blind following.
After that long journey he declared that he had returned from all of that to the word of truth, telling people, “Hold to the religion of the elderly women.” He feared that if the truth did not reach him by Allah’s subtle kindness he would die upon the religion of the elderly women and his end would be sealed with the word of sincerity, so he said, “Woe to Ibn al Juwayni.”
He also used to warn his students, “Do not busy yourselves with kalam. If I had known that kalam would take me where it has taken me, I would not have occupied myself with it.” (Talbis Iblis by Ibn al Jawzi p. 77, Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala 18/471)
Al Subki narrated, from the handwriting of Abu Jaʿfar al Hamadhani, that al Juwayni said he had studied 50,000 pages, then left the people of Islam with their Islam and their apparent sciences, sailing into disputes and matters they had forbidden, all seeking the truth and avoiding imitation.
Finally he returned from confusion to the same word, calling to the religion of the elderly women, and asking Allah to seal his departure upon the way of the people of truth and the word “La ilaha illa Allah”. (Tabaqat al Shafiʿiyyah al Kubra 5/185, Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala 18/474)
Repentance of Abu Hamid al Ghazali (d. 505 AH)
Abu Hamid al Ghazali described how the Sahabah, when debating Jews, Christians, idol worshippers, or those who denied resurrection, only used the proofs of the Qur’an to establish the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ, belief in Allah, and the Hereafter.
They did not add to these foundations anything beyond those Qur’an proofs. Whoever accepted that, they accepted him. Whoever did not, they fought him and turned to the sword and spear after spreading the proofs of the Qur’an.
He said that they did not go into detailed rational patterns, technical premises, and complicated disputation, because they knew that such methods bring tribulation and confusion, and that whoever is not satisfied by the proofs of the Qur’an is only restrained by the sword and spear. After Allah’s own clarification there is no further clarification. (Iljam al ʿAwam ʿan ʿIlm al Kalam p. 95–96)
Ibn Taymiyyah said that despite Abu Hamid’s sharp mind, devotion, deep knowledge of kalam and philosophy, and his path of zuhd and tasawwuf, he reached in these topics a state of suspension and confusion.
At the end of his journey he returned matters to the way of the people of unveiling, then after that came back to the way of Ahl al Hadith and wrote Iljam al ʿAwam ʿan ʿIlm al Kalam as a warning against kalam. This shows his eventual repentance from philosophical and kalam methods to the path of the Salaf and the people of hadith. (Majmuʿ al Fatawa 4/72)
Repentance of al Razi (d. 606 AH)
Fakhr al Din al Razi died in Herat on the day of Eid al Fitr in the year 606 AH. Towards the end of his life he openly acknowledged the failure of kalam and philosophy. He said that he had reflected at length on the paths of kalam and the approaches of the philosophers and had not found them healing for a sick person or quenching for a thirsty one.
He saw that the nearest and soundest path was the path of the Qur’an, so in affirmation he would read verses such as الرَّحْمَنُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ اسْتَوَى then “The Most Merciful rose over the Throne.” (Surah Ta Ha 5)
إِلَيْهِ يَصْعَدُ الْكَلِمُ الطَّيِّبُ
“To Him ascends good speech.” (Surah Fatir 35–10)
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ
“There is nothing like Him.” (Surah al Shura 42–11)
أَفَمَن يَهْدِي إِلَى الْحَقِّ أَحَقُّ أَن يُتَّبَعَ
“So is the one who guides to the truth more deserving to be followed?” (Surah Yunus 10–35)
He concluded, “Whoever experiences what I experienced will know what I know.” This was part of the will he gave to his student Ibrahim ibn Abi Bakr al Isfahani. (Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala 21/501, Tarikh al Islam, Tabaqat al Shafiʿiyyah al Kubra 8/96)
Ibn Kathir mentioned that from his poetry were lines turning to Allah alone, describing Allah as his refuge in every hardship, and that his study of kalam and philosophy had gained him nothing but “he said and they said.”
He repeated that he had tried the methods of kalam and philosophy and found that they did not quench thirst or cure illness, and that the closest path was the path of the Qur’an, again citing verses of affirmation and negation such as:
الرَّحْمَنُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ اسْتَوَى
“The Most Merciful rose over the Throne.” (Surah Ta Ha 20–5)
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ
“There is nothing like Him.” (Surah al Shura 42–11) (al Bidayah wal Nihayah 13/56)
At the end of his treatise Dham Ladhdhat al Dunya he summed up his repentance in verses: that the furthest reach of intellects is a restraint, that most striving of people is misguidance, that beings live estranged in their bodies and the outcome of worldly life is harm, and that all he had gained from study was collecting “he said and they said.”
This poetic confession, too, was attributed to him by al Subki and others. (Risalat Dham Ladhdhat al Dunya p. 262, Tabaqat al Shafiʿiyyah al Kubra 8/96, Sahih Sharh al Aqidah al Tahawiyyah by Hasan al Saqqaf p. 67)
Repentance of Imam Ibn al Qayyim al Jawziyyah (d. 751 AH)
Ibn al Qayyim mentioned his own repentance in his Nuniyyah al Shafiyyah al Kafiyyah. He addressed the people sincerely, saying that he had personally tried all those paths and fallen into their nets, thinking himself one who could fly, until Allah, by His favour, granted him a scholar from the land of Harran. That scholar was Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.
Ibn al Qayyim welcomed him, asking Allah to reward him with the Garden of refuge and His pleasure. He said that Ibn Taymiyyah took him by the hand, walked with him without turning back, until he showed him the rising place of iman, the banners around the city where guidance had descended and the armies of the Qur’an had camped, and the great traces that had been hidden from the blind.
In this he explained that he had been affected by Ashʿaris, Jahmis, and Muʿattilah, then Allah sent Ibn Taymiyyah to remove those illusions and lead him to the path of truth and safety. (Kitab Nuniyyat Ibn al Qayyim p. 143)
Imam ʿAbd al Qadir ibn Badran al Dimashqi (d. 1346 AH)
ʿAbd al Qadir ibn Badran grew up in a Sufi environment with widespread ignorance. He searched intensely for knowledge, leaving his homeland and his sleep, visiting many institutes and taking every difficult way.
He immersed himself in philosophy and Aristotelian logic, throwing himself into what Ibn Sina had written in al Shifa and al Isharat, what Abu Nasr al Farabi had put in Aristotelian logic, and the books al Mawqif and al Maqasid and similar works.
He repeatedly turned to natural sciences and matters of belief, studying the structure of the heavens and seeking knowledge in them. He roamed the fields of those sciences for a period he likened to the number of the seven lean cows.
In the end his sight returned humbled and weary, and from knowing Allah he had gained only imaginings, thoughts, whisperings, and confusion born of that investigation, which he tried in vain to push away. (al Madkhal ila Madhhab al Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal p. 42–43)
When he became lost in that wilderness, he remembered the line of Abu al Tayyib that the clever person twists in fear of being lost like a chameleon.
Then the caller of true guidance called him to honour and perfection, telling him to leave the imagined salvation of Ibn Sina for true salvation. He realised that the reality of the Lord cannot be reached by creation, that safety is only in submission, and that the Book of Allah is truth and there is nothing after truth except misguidance. His heart then became calm.
He made his belief the Book of Allah, consigning the knowledge of Allah’s attributes to Him, without bodily description, without ta’wil, without resemblance, and without negation. The rust that Aristotelian principles had placed on his heart was removed, and he saw that the whisperings and hidden corruptions of those doctrines had misled him.
He asked how star worshippers could guide to the straight path when they themselves were not guided, and how people of doctrines could know the reality of the One who sustains the earth and the heavens.
He pointed out that if the reality of Allah’s attributes could be reached by minds, then the authors of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity and the author of al Najat and al Shifa would have reached it, but Allah has said, “They do not encompass anything of His knowledge except what He wills.” (Surah al Baqarah 255)
and “You have not been given of knowledge except a little.” (Surah al Isra 85).
He concluded by recalling the hadith, “Adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs after me.
Bite onto it with the molar teeth. Beware of newly introduced matters, for every newly introduced matter is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance.” He used this to show that the true way was the way of the Salaf and Ahl al Sunnah. (al Madkhal ila Madhhab al Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal p. 42–43)
Repentance of Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1354 AH)
Muhammad Rashid Rida explained that at the beginning of his engagement with ʿIlm al Kalam he was used to seeing strong attacks on the Hanbalis in the books.
He therefore imagined them to be a group stuck to the apparent wording of the transmitted reports, without correct understanding or knowledge of the sciences, and that they could not reconcile the transmitted texts with those sciences. He believed that the books of the Ashʿaris alone were the source of the religion and the path to certainty.
Later, when he studied the books of the Hanbalis and Ahl al Hadith, he found them to be the very books that make clear to Muslims the finest path of the Salaf and lead readers to their sweetest spring.
Whoever reads them feels brightness of iman and the coolness of certainty. He saw the difference between these books and the books of the Ashʿaris as like the difference between one who walks on a straight path and one who swims in a deep, dark sea, battered by the waves of philosophical doubts and pulled by the currents of speculative debate.
He concluded that discovering that the madhhab of the righteous Salaf is safer, more knowledgeable, and more wise is itself one of the signs of the truthfulness of the Prophet ﷺ, because Muslims, after exploring philosophy and the sciences of earlier peoples, did not bring anything that truly secures iman and leads to truth by proof except what came with the Qur’an.
Had the Qur’an been from human making, people would have gone beyond it after leaving illiteracy and immersing themselves in mathematics, natural sciences, and philosophy.
He added that among the merits of the Hanbali books is that they are needed in every age, while people have dispensed with most of the theoretical discussions in Ashʿari books, as they are taken from Greek philosophy and debates with the Muʿtazilah who are no longer present. He clarified that he did not claim infallibility for every Hanbali work, for infallibility belongs only to the Book of Allah. (Majallat al Manar 8/620)
Repentance of Shaykh Muhammad Hamid al Faqi (d. 1387 AH) and the call to Tawhid
Shaykh Muhammad Hamid al Faqi was a graduate of al Azhar and a specialist in philosophy and Aristotelian logic. At first he had studied the creed taught there, which was based on kalam. Later, in the Masjid al Haram, he held a circle explaining Tafsir Ibn Kathir, especially the verses of tawhid.
A young student, Hamad al Ansari, heard him and felt that this was what he had been searching for. This was the beginning of his link to the Salafi approach. (al Majmuʿ by Hamad al Ansari 1/294–297)
Hamid al Faqi himself told a story showing his repentance from the Azhar creed. After graduating from al Azhar with a certificate that would secure his livelihood, he passed by a farmer working his land. The farmer invited him to sit on a small bench and found in his hand the book Ijtimaʿ al Juyush al Islamiyyah ʿala Ghazw al Muʿattilah al Jahmiyyah by Ibn al Qayyim.
He began reading it to pass the time. The farmer, who had learned from a teacher known as al Rimal, delayed coming to him to give him time to take in the book, then came and praised his effort in seeking knowledge, but told him that his certificate could provide for him anywhere in the universe yet had not taught him the one thing that should come first, namely tawhid.
When Hamid asked what tawhid was, the farmer said, “The tawhid of the Salaf,” and listed for him books such as al Sunnah by Imam Ahmad the elder, al Sunnah by Imam Ahmad the younger, Kitab al Tawhid by Ibn Khuzaymah, Khalq Afʿal al ʿIbad by al Bukhari, and Iʿtiqad Ahl al Sunnah by al Hafiz al Lalikai, as well as later works and the books of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al Qayyim.
He urged him to go to Dar al Kutub al Misriyyah in Cairo, where all these books were present but covered in dust, to wipe the dust from them and spread them. (al Majmuʿ by Hamad al Ansari 1/294–297)
Those sincere words from a simple but understanding farmer settled in his heart. When he returned to his village and then to Cairo, he did as the farmer advised, found those books, and attached himself to the creed of the Salaf and the madhhab of Ahmad in tawhid. This repentance led him to become the founder of Ansar al Sunnah al Muhammadiyyah, calling to pure tawhid and the way of Ahl al Hadith. (al Majmuʿ by Hamad al Ansari 1/294–297)
As a young man (Burhan) studied in a department of tawhid and philosophy, learned tasawwuf, and even read a book by one of his teachers on Ibn Taymiyyah as seen through Ibn ʿArabi.
His heart then found some calm towards Ibn Taymiyyah after he had previously regarded him as misguided. Although he possessed some of Ibn Taymiyyah’s books, he was afraid to read them, fearing they would cause doubts about the awliya and mislead him, as his shaykhs had told him.
In time he was guided to the circles of Ansar al Sunnah al Muhammadiyyah and their founder, his spiritual father Muhammad Hamid al Faqi. There, by reflecting on the Book and Sunnah with their help, the veils were torn away.
He came to see reality clearly and to recognise that tasawwuf as he had known it was a religion of idolatry and Magianism that gives lordship and godhood to heretics, criminals, and their crimes, seeing in Iblis, Pharaoh, the calf of al Samiri, and pre Islamic idols lords and gods.
He saw how tasawwuf turned shirk into tawhid and kufr into iman and called barren materialism born from idolatry lofty spirituality. Through the call of Ansar al Sunnah he repented from that and embraced the tawhid of Ahl al Sunnah and the way of the Salaf. (Masraʿ al Tasawwuf 1/6–7)
Repentance of Dr Muhammad Khalil Harras (d. 1390 AH)
Dr Muhammad Khalil Harras was an Azhar scholar, expert in philosophy and Aristotelian logic. At first he had strong enmity toward Ibn Taymiyyah because he believed, as he had been told, that Ibn Taymiyyah was an enemy of philosophy, logic, and ʿIlm al Kalam.
He even intended to write his doctoral thesis refuting Ibn Taymiyyah. For that purpose all the books of Ibn Taymiyyah that could be gathered in Cairo were collected for him so that he could study them and refute him. (Introduction of Muhammad Aman al Jami to Sharh al ʿAqidah al Wasitiyyah, tape two)
He devoted himself to studying these books for about three months. After that he confessed to his students that it had become clear to him that he had not understood Islam correctly before studying them, despite his long years of study from primary level through university and his reaching the level of writing a doctoral thesis.
Allah guided the man who had wanted to fight Ibn Taymiyyah, so instead his doctoral thesis was titled “Ibn Taymiyyah al Salafi”.
He then became one of the main explainers of al ʿAqidah al Wasitiyyah, standing as an Azhar scholar who had repented from kalam and philosophical opposition to Ibn Taymiyyah and returned to the creed of the Salaf. (Introduction of Muhammad Aman al Jami to Sharh al ʿAqidah al Wasitiyyah, tape 2, 3:40–6:38)
Repentance of Shaykh al Hilali (d. 1406 AH)
Taqi al Din al Hilali, the Moroccan Salafi scholar, explained that the cause of his repentance was a debate with Shaykh Muhammad ibn al ʿArabi al ʿAlawi. He admitted that he had been in a great flood and clear misguidance and that he regarded leaving the Tijani path as like leaving Islam itself. It never occurred to him that he would move away from it even the length of a hair.
After Allah guided him he wrote a poem in the form of a taiyyah describing his repentance. He said that Allah had made clear to him the light of His religion and saved him from the paths of the people of patched cloaks, people who sold the religion for ruin and turned away from its guidance in the worst way. He said that the people began to hate him when he left them and inclined to following the Book and Sunnah, that their hearts hardened against him, and that they prepared themselves to test him. This poem expressed his move from the Tijani tariqah to the aqidah of Ahl al Sunnah and the way of the Salaf. (al Hadiyyah al Hadiyyah p. 12)
Repentance of Al Adib ʿAli al Tantawi (d. 1420 AH)
ʿAli al Tantawi, the scholar and man of letters, described how he was guided at the hands of Shaykh Bahjat al Baytar. He said that what he heard from Bahjat shook everything on which he had been raised. In belief he had been upon what the Ashʿaris and Maturidis had set down, which depends, in affirming tawhid in one form or another, on Greek philosophy.
He had been convinced by their claim that the way of the Salaf in affirming attributes is safer while the way of the later scholars is wiser.
Then Shaykh Bahjat came saying that what the Salaf were upon was both safest and wisest. Al Tantawi had been raised upon dislike and even hatred of Ibn Taymiyyah, fleeing from him, but Bahjat began to honour Ibn Taymiyyah before him and make him love him.
He had also been a Hanafi strongly devoted to his madhhab, while Bahjat wanted him to move beyond madhhab fanaticism and rely on proof rather than mere reports. After many sittings and long nights of debates and discussions, in which al Tantawi brought his enthusiasm and force and Bahjat brought patience, vast knowledge, and strong proofs, al Tantawi was convinced.
He explained that he had described in his book on Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab how he grew up as a blind follower who interpreted away the texts and hated Ibn Taymiyyah, then how Shaykh Bahjat influenced him until he became Salafi in belief, holding fast to evidence. This was his repentance from Ashʿari and Maturidi kalam to the creed of Ahl al Sunnah. (Rijal min al Tarikh p. 171–172)
Repentance of Shaykh Muhammad Jamil Zinu (d. 1431 AH)
Muhammad Jamil Zinu recounted how he found guidance to tawhid. He used to sit with his Sufi shaykh reading the hadith of Ibn Abbas that the Prophet ﷺ said, “If you ask, ask Allah, and if you seek help, seek help from Allah.”
He liked the explanation of al Nawawi, who said that if the need is something that does not usually occur at the hands of creation, such as guidance, knowledge, healing from sickness, and the coming of wellbeing, then a person asks Allah for that, and that asking creation and relying on them is blameworthy.
Zinu said to his shaykh that this hadith and its explanation both show that it is not permissible to seek help from other than Allah in matters that only Allah can do. (Kayfa Ihtadaytu ila al Tawhid wal Sirat al Mustaqim p. 35–36)
His shaykh insisted that it was permissible and became angry, bringing as proof the practice of his aunt who called upon a so called dead saint, Shaykh Saʿd, believing he would intercede with Allah to heal her. Zinu replied that the shaykh was a learned man who had spent his life reading books yet was taking his creed from his ignorant aunt.
The shaykh then accused him of having Wahhabi beliefs. Up to that point Zinu knew nothing about the Wahhabis except the accusations of his teachers, that they opposed the people, denied saints and their so called miracles, and did not love the Messenger ﷺ.
He reflected that if the Wahhabis believed that help must be sought from Allah alone and that only Allah heals, then he needed to learn more about them. This search led him to accept the tawhid they called to and to repent from Sufi practices of seeking help from the dead, returning instead to the aqidah of Ahl al Sunnah and the clear tawhid of the Salaf. (Kayfa Ihtadaytu ila al Tawhid wal Sirat al Mustaqim p. 35–36)
Abu al Walid al Karabisi (d. 214 AH)
They said: No. He said: Do you accuse me.
He said: Then I give you advice. Will you accept it.
Al Karabisi, the mutakallim, one of the imams.
The hadith scholar Ahmad ibn Sinan al Qattan (d. 259 AH) said: He was my maternal uncle. When death came to him, he said to his sons: Do you know anyone more knowledgeable than me in kalam.
They said: No. He said: Do you accuse me. They said: No.
He said: Then I advise you to hold to what the Ashab al Hadith are upon, for I saw that the truth is with them. I do not mean the leaders among them, but rather these scattered ones. (Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala by al Dhahabi 10/548)
Nuʿaym ibn Hammad (d. 229 AH)
Salih ibn Mismar said: I heard Nuʿaym ibn Hammad (d. 229 AH) say: I used to be a Jahmi. Because of that, I knew their kalam. Then, when I sought hadith, I realised that their affair goes back to taʿtil (denying attributes).
(Tarikh Baghdad 13/307, and Tahdhib al Kamal, folio 1419)
Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala by al Dhahabi 10/597
Also See Tarikh al Islam p. 426
Abu al Hasan al Ashʿari (d. 324 AH)
He said in his book “al Ibanah”, which is the last of his writings: “Our saying which we say, and our religion which we hold as our religion, is to adhere to the Book of Allah, our Lord, the Almighty and Exalted, and to the Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and to what has been narrated from the noble Companions, the Followers, and the imams of hadith.
We hold fast to that. And we say what Abu Abd Allah Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal said, may Allah brighten his face, raise his rank, and grant him a great reward.
We oppose whoever opposes his saying, for he is the virtuous imam, the complete leader, by whom Allah made the truth clear, drove back misguidance, clarified the path, suppressed the innovations of the innovators, the deviation of the deviators, and the doubts of the doubters.
So may Allah’s mercy be upon him, an advanced imam, a greatly honoured one, a great and understanding figure.” (al Ibanah ʿan Usul al Diyanah p. 20–21)
Al Juwayni (d. 478 AH)
وكان أبو المعالي الجويني يقول:
يا أصحابنا، لا تشتغلوا بالكلام، فلو عرفتُ أن الكلام يبلغ بي ما بلغ، ما تشاغلتُ به.
Suyuti said that Ibn al Jawzi said in Talbis Iblis: Abu al Maʿali al Juwayni used to say: I abandoned the people of Islam and their sciences. I rode the vast ocean and plunged into all of that in search of the truth and to escape blind following.
Now I have returned from all of it to the word of truth: hold to the religion of the elderly women. If the truth does not reach me through gentleness, then I will die upon the religion of the elderly women, and my end will be sealed upon my mouth with the word of sincerity. So woe to Ibn al Juwayni.
And he used to say to his companions: Do not busy yourselves with kalam. If I had known that kalam would take me to what it took me to, I would not have occupied myself with it.
Sun al Mantiq wal Kalam ʿan Fann al Mantiq wal Kalam by al Suyuti p. 237
Ibn al Samʿani, Abu Saʿd, mentioned in al Dhayl that he read, in the handwriting of Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad ibn Abi ʿAli ibn Muhammad al Hamadhani, the hadith scholar, who said:
I heard Abu al Maʿali al Juwayni say: I studied 50,000 pages. Then I left the people of Islam with their Islam, and their apparent sciences. I rode the ocean of dispute and plunged into what the people of Islam had forbidden.
All of that was in search of the truth. In earlier times, I used to flee from following others. Now I have returned from confusion to the word of truth: hold to the religion of the elderly women. If the truth does not reach me through the gentleness of His kindness, then I will die upon the religion of the elderly women.
May the end of my affair at departure be sealed upon the path of the people of truth and the word of sincerity: There is no god but Allah. Woe to Ibn al Juwayni, meaning himself.
Tabaqat al Shafiʿiyyah by al Subki 5/185, Also See Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala by al Dhahabi 18/474
Abu Hamid al Ghazali (d. 505 AH)
Al Ghazali said: The sahabah needed to debate with the Jews and Christians to establish the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ, to establish belief in Allah with the worshippers of idols, and to establish the resurrection with those who denied it. Yet they did not add to these foundations, which are the core of beliefs, anything beyond the proofs of the Qur’an.
Whoever was convinced by that, they accepted him. Whoever was not convinced by it, they fought him, and they turned to the sword and the spear after spreading the proofs of the Qur’an. They did not ride the path of stubborn disputation by laying down rational measures, arranging premises, deriving conclusions from them, or refining the methods of debate and smoothing its paths and ways. All of that was because they knew that this gives rise to trials and is a source of confusion.
And whoever is not satisfied by the proofs of the Qur’an is not restrained except by the sword and the spear. After the clarification of Allah, exalted is He, there is no further clarification.
Iljam al ʿAwam ʿan ʿIlm al Kalam p. 95–96
Abu Hamid al Ghazali: Despite the sharpness of his intellect, his devotion, his knowledge of kalam and philosophy, and his following the path of asceticism, spiritual discipline, and tasawwuf, he reached, in these matters, a state of suspension and confusion.
At the end of his affair, he referred matters to the way of the people of unveiling, even though after that he returned to the way of the Ahl al Hadith, and he authored Iljam al ʿAwam ʿan ʿIlm al Kalam. (Majmuʿ al Fatawa 4/72)
Al Razi (d. 606 AH)
He died in Herat on the day of Eid al Fitr in the year six hundred and six, at the age of a little over sixty years. At the end of his life, he openly acknowledged this, saying:
I reflected deeply on the methods of kalam and the philosophical approaches, and I did not see them curing the sick or quenching thirst. I saw that the closest and most sound path is the path of the Qur’an. I read, in affirmation:
الرَّحْمَنُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ اسْتَوَى
“The Most Merciful rose over the Throne.” (Surah Ta Ha 5)
إِلَيْهِ يَصْعَدُ الْكَلِمُ الطَّيِّبُ
“To Him ascends good speech.” (Surah Fatir 10)
And I read, in negation:
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ
“There is nothing like Him.” (Surah al Shura 11)
Whoever experiences what I experienced will come to know what I came to know.
He, may Allah the Most High have mercy on him, said at the end of his life: “I have reflected on the paths of kalam and the ways of philosophy, and I did not see them heal a sick person, nor quench a thirsty one. I saw that the nearest path is the path of the Qur’an. I read, in affirmation:
Whoever has tried what I have tried knows what I know.”
Footnote: This is part of his will which he gave when death approached him, to his student Ibrahim ibn Abi Bakr al Isfahani. The author transmitted it in Tarikh al Islam, and it was also transmitted by Taj al Din al Subki in Tabaqat al Shafiʿiyyah, and by others.
Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala by al Dhahabi 21/501
Ibn Kathir said in “al Bidayah wal Nihayah”: It reached me that his birth was in the year 543AH. From his poetry are his words:
To You, God of all creation, I turn my face,
You are the One I call upon in secret and in public.
You are my refuge in every hardship,
You are my shelter in my life and in my grave.
Ibn al Saʿi mentioned this, from Yaqut al Hamawi, from Ibn al Fakhr al Din, from him. He also said:
A completion of the paths of happiness for creation,
By mentioning the majesty of the One, the Unique, the True.
The One who directs all possible things altogether,
Who brings them into existence with justice, balance, and truth.
Exalted is the majesty of Allah above any likeness to His creation,
Grant victory to this religion in the West and the East.
A God of immense favour, justice, and loftiness,
He guides the misguided and gives success to the distressed.
And from what he used to recite:
Our beings are estranged within our bodies,
And the result of our worldly life is harm and ruin.
We gained nothing from our study throughout our lives,
Except that we gathered within it he said and they said.
Then he said: I tested the methods of kalam and the philosophical approaches, and I did not find them quenching thirst or curing the sick. I saw that the closest path is the path of the Qur’an. I read, in affirmation: “The Most Merciful rose over the Throne” (Taha 20:5), and “To Him ascend the good words” (Fatir 35:10). And I read, in negation: “There is nothing like Him” (al Shura 42:11), and “Do you know of any equal to Him” (Maryam 19:65).
al Bidayah wal Nihayah 13/56
And he said at the end of his treatise Dham Ladhdhat al Dunya”:
At the end of the strides of intellects lies a restraint,
and most of the striving of all people is misguidance.
Our beings live in estrangement from our bodies,
and the outcome of our worldly life is harm and ruin.
We gained nothing from our study throughout our lives,
except that we gathered within it he said and they said.
How many men and states have we seen,
all of them perished swiftly and vanished.
And how many mountains whose peaks were once ascended by men,
the men vanished, while the mountains remain mountains.
Risālat Dham Ladhdhat al Dunya by Ar Razi p. 262
al Razi recited these verses:
The furthest reach of the steps of intellects is only a shackle,
and most of the striving of all scholars is misguidance.
Our beings are estranged within our bodies,
and the outcome of our worldly life is harm and ruin.
We gained nothing from our investigation throughout our lives,
except that we gathered within it he said and they said.
Footnote: It was mentioned by al Subki in Tabaqat al Shafiʿiyyah al Kubra (8/96), and he attributed it to Fakhr al Din al Razi, without mentioning its chain of narration, or in which book he mentioned it.
Sahih Sharh al-‘Aqeedah al-Tahawiyyah by Hasan al-Saqqaaf p. 67
Imam Ibn al Qayyim (d. 751 AH)
These lines are from the repentance of Ibn al Qayyim after he became connected to Ibn Taymiyyah, taken from his Nuniyyah “al Shafiyah al Kafiyah li al Intisar li al Firqah al Najiyah”.
He said them after he had refuted the Ashʿaris, the deniers, the Jahmis, and the Muʿattilah in the Nuniyyah and clarified their harm upon the religion.
He then showed that he had been affected by what they had fallen into, until Allah granted someone who removed those illusions from him and took his hand to the path of truth and safety, and that was Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah the Most High have mercy on him.
Ibn al Qayyim, may Allah the Most High have mercy on him, said:
يا قوم والله العظيم نصيحة … من مشفق وأخ لكم معوان
جربت هذا كله ووقعت في … تلك الشباك وكن ذا طيران
حتى أتاح لي الإله بفضله … من ليس تجزيه يدي ولساني
حبر أتى من أرض حران فيا … أهلا بمن جاء من حران
فالله يجزيه الذي هو أهله … من جنة المأوى مع الرضوان
أخذت يداه يدي وسار فلم يرم … حتى أراني مطلع الإيمان
ورأيت أعلام المدينة حولها … نزل الهدى وعساكر القرآن
ورأيت آثارا عظيما شأنها … محجوبة عن زمرة العميان
“O my people, by Allah the Most Great, it is sincere advice
From one who cares for you, a brother who helps you.
I have tried all of this and I fell into those nets,
And I used to have wings to fly.
Until the Lord, by His favour, granted to me
One whom my hand and my tongue cannot repay.
A scholar came from the land of Harran,
So welcome to the one who came from Harran.
May Allah recompense him with that which He is worthy of,
With the Garden of refuge together with His good pleasure.
His two hands took my hand, and he walked and did not stop
Until he showed me the rising place of iman.”
Kitab Nuniyyat p. 143
Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1354 AH)
He said: “ We were, at the beginning of our engagement with ʿIlm al Kalam, accustomed to seeing in the books opposition to the Hanbalis. We therefore assumed that they were a people who had frozen upon the apparent wordings of the transmitted texts, that they had not understood them with a true understanding, nor recognised the realities of the sciences, nor brought the transmitted text into harmony with them. We also believed that the books of the Ashʿaris alone were the source of the religion and the path of certainty.
Then we came to examine the books of those people. We found them to be the very books that make clear to Muslims the finest way of the Salaf, and that lead people to their sweetest source. The reader of them feels the brightness of iman and senses the flowing coolness of certainty. The difference between them and the books of the Ashʿaris is like the difference between one who walks upon the straight path and one who swims in a deep, dark sea, battered by the waves of philosophical doubts and pulled back and forth by the currents of speculative discussions.
It became clear to me, once I had understood that the madhhab of the righteous Salaf is safer, more knowledgeable, and more wise, that this itself is from the signs of the truthfulness of the Prophet ﷺ. That is because Muslims, after examining the philosophy of the so called wise men and delving into all the sciences of the earlier peoples, did not bring anything that truly secures the bond of iman, nor that leads to the truth through proof, except what came with the Qur’an. Had this Qur’an been from the making of human beings, they would have risen above it after leaving illiteracy behind and plunging into the rational sciences such as mathematics, natural sciences, and philosophy.
Among the merits of the books of the Hanbalis over other books is that they are needed in every age. As for the books of the Ashʿaris, people have now dispensed with most of their theoretical discussions, because much of them is drawn from Greek philosophy, which has been abandoned, and from debates with the Muʿtazilah, who have disappeared. Yes, I do not say that everything written by the Hanbalis in issues and discussions is correct, or that it is protected from error so that it becomes the sole reference and final return. Infallibility belongs only to the Book of Allah.
وَلَوْ كَانَ مِنْ عِنْدِ غَيْرِ اللَّهِ لَوَجَدُوا فِيهِ اخْتِلَافًا كَثِيرًا
“And if it had been from other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction.” (Surah al Nisa 82)
Majallat al Manar 8/620
ʿAbd al Qadir ibn Badran al Dimashqi (d. 1346 AH)
He is the imam, the scholar, the precise one, the exegete, the hadith scholar, the usuli, Shaykh ʿAbd al Qadir ibn Ahmad ibn Mustafa ibn Badran al Dimashqi.
He was born in the year 1280 AH in the town of Douma. Ibn Badran lived in an environment in which Sufism was widespread and ignorance was spreading.
He studied under some shaykhs whose way was Sufi, and he openly acknowledged the favour of Allah upon him, that he had followed the way of the Salaf.
ʿAbd al Qadir ibn Ahmad ibn Mustafa ibn ʿAbd al Rahim ibn Muhammad, known like his forefathers as Ibn Badran, said:
When Allah bestowed His favour upon me by granting me the pursuit of knowledge, I left for its sake my homeland and sleep. I would set out early for it like the early setting out of the crow. I went around institutions seeking it, and I followed every path for it, taking every way, even if it was difficult. I climbed every height and examined every depth. At times I cast myself into the path taken by Ibn Sina in al Shifa and al Isharat.
At other times I grasped what Abu Nasr al Farabi had fashioned in the discipline of logic and its expressions.
At times I roamed through al Mawqif and al Maqasid and al Mawqif. At other times I sought guidance, thinking it would lead to right direction, so I added to that what Ibn Rushd had taken. I kept returning to the natural sciences and the matters related to belief with examination, and in the study of the structure of the celestial spheres I searched for knowledge or mentions.
I then wandered in the fields of the sciences for a period like the number of the seven lean cows, and my sight returned to me humbled and weary. I gained nothing from knowing Allah, majestic and exalted, except imaginings, passing thoughts, whisperings, and confusion that arose from investigation and close examination. I tried to push it away by persuading myself with myself.
When I became lost in that wilderness, which is as Abu al Tayyib said:
“The clever one twists about from fear of going astray in it, just as the chameleon twists.”
Then the caller of true guidance called out to me: Come to honour and perfection, and leave the imagined salvation of Ibn Sina for true salvation.
That is only by being upon what the noble Salaf were upon, from the Companions and the Tabiʿin and those who followed them with excellence. The matter is not as you imagine. The reality of the Lord cannot be grasped by creation. Safety lies only in submission. The Book of Allah is truth, and there is nothing after truth except misguidance.
At that point my heart became calm. I made my belief the Book of Allah, consigning knowledge of His attributes to Him, without bodily description, without interpretation, without resemblance, and without negation.
What had covered my heart from rust, inherited from the principles of Aristotle, was removed. I said: This only came from looking into those whisperings, innovations, and hidden corruptions. How could the worshippers of the stars guide us to the straight path when they themselves were not guided.
How could the people of doctrines know the reality of the Ever Sustaining of the earth and the heavens. If the reality of the attributes of Allah Most High could be reached by minds, then the authors of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity would have reached purity, and the author of al Najat and al Shifa would have reached salvation and healing and quenched the thirst of his heart.
But “they do not encompass anything of His knowledge except what He wills” (al Baqarah 255),
and “you have not been given of knowledge except a little” (al Isra 85).
And where are they in relation to his saying ﷺ: “Adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs after me. Bite onto it with the molar teeth.
Beware of newly introduced matters, for every newly introduced matter is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance.” But whoever follows his desire wanders in every valley, not caring which path he takes, nor by which road he is destroyed.
al Madkhal ila Madhhab al Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal by Ibn Badran p. 42–43
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Nasir al ʿAjmi, speaking about the creed of Ibn Badran, says: “The great writer ʿAli al Tantawi told me, when I asked him about al ʿAllamah Ibn Badran, that ‘Wahhabism used to be counted as a serious frightening accusation. They used to warn us against meeting them. Once I stood in the circle of Ibn Badran, the well known Hanbali scholar. There were students passing through the markets. They saw me in the circle of Ibn Badran and submitted a report about me to the shaykhs, so I was beaten with the stick on my feet.’”
ʿAllamat al Sham ʿAbd al Qadir ibn Badran p. 22
Shaykh Muhammad Hamid al Faqi (d. 1387 AH)
He is the founder of the group Ansar al Sunnah al Muhammadiyyah. Al ʿAllamah Hamad al Ansari, one of his students, says:
I confess that I am among the students of the ulama of al Azhar.
The shaykh continued speaking without interruption, saying:
To begin with, I openly acknowledge that I am one of your students. Indeed, I am not exaggerating if I say that everyone who has studied knowledge in recent times, ever since the establishment of the al Azhar masjid, is among its students. Shaykh Hamid al Fiqi, for example, was one of the ulama who graduated from al Azhar.
Tawhid, O virtuous shaykh, may Allah have mercy on you, could you speak to us, from your close companionship with Shaykh Hamid al Fiqi, about something from his life that influenced you and that you still remember?
He replied: As for the life of Shaykh Hamid al Fiqi, when I met him in the year 1367 AH, I saw him sitting while teaching the Tafsir of Ibn Kathir by Bab ʿAli in al Masjid al Haram. When I heard him, I said to myself, this is what I have been searching for. He would take the verses of Tawhid and shed light upon them.
I heard him from a distance, so I sat in his study circle. It was the first circle I ever sat in at the Haram, while I was still a young man. My age did not exceed twenty two years. I listened to the lesson, and it was on the Tafsir of the verses of Tawhid.
After the lesson ended and we prayed ʿIsha, a Syrian man whose name I no longer remember came to us and said to the shaykh, I think you should drink coffee at my place.
The shaykh, and those with me, accepted. The man said, bring whoever you wish. That was the first time I saw the shaykh in person, even though I had heard much about him, because my own shaykh was a student of Shaykh Hamid al Fiqi.
Shaykh Hamid al Fiqi and his story with the farmer
We went to the Syrian brother’s house. When we arrived and sat down, he said to us, I want to give you wooden swords. He handed each of us a wooden sword and said, come, let us fence first, and then we will drink coffee, so that we apply the two nuns upon which Islam places emphasis. Each of us took his sword and sparred with his companion. When we finished, we sat and drank coffee.
I then said to Shaykh Hamid al Fiqi, may Allah have mercy on him, O shaykh, I have a question. He said, what is your question, my son? I said to him, how did you become a person of Tawhid when you studied at al Azhar? I want to benefit, and I want the people to hear.
The shaykh said, by Allah, your question is sound. He said, I studied at al Azhar University, and I studied the creed of the philosophers that they teach. I obtained a bachelor’s degree and returned to my country so that my people would rejoice in my success.
On the way, I passed by a farmer cultivating the land. When I reached him, he said, my son, sit on the bench. He had a small bench that he would sit on when he finished working.
I sat while he continued his work. Beside me, at the edge of the bench, I found a book. I took it and looked at it, and it turned out to be the book Ijtimaʿ al Juyush al Islamiyyah ʿala Ghazw al Muʿattilah al Jahmiyyah by Ibn al Qayyim. I began reading it simply to pass the time.
When the farmer saw me take the book and begin reading, he delayed approaching me, giving me enough time to gain an impression of the book. After a while, while he was working in his field and I was reading, the farmer came and said, peace be upon you, my son. How are you, and where are you from? I answered him.
He then said, by Allah, you are clever, because you have progressed in seeking knowledge until you reached this stage. But my son, I have an advice for you. I said, what is it?
He said, you have a certificate that can provide for you anywhere in the universe, in Europe, in America, in any place, but it did not teach you the one thing that should have been taught first.
I asked, what is that? He said, it did not teach you Tawhid. I said to him, what is Tawhid? He said, the Tawhid of the Salaf. I asked, and what is the Tawhid of the Salaf?
He said, look at how the farmer in front of you knows the Tawhid of the Salaf. He then said, it is these books: the book al Sunnah by Imam Ahmad the elder, the book al Sunnah by Imam Ahmad the younger, the Book of Tawhid by Ibn Khuzaymah, the book Khalq Afʿal al ʿIbad by al Bukhari, and the book Iʿtiqad Ahl al Sunnah by al Hafiz al Lalikai. He mentioned many books of Tawhid. He also mentioned books of Tawhid by later scholars. After that, he mentioned the books of Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al Qayyim.
He then said to him, I will guide you to these books. When you reach your village and they see you and rejoice in your success, do not delay. Return immediately to Cairo. When you reach Cairo, enter Dar al Kutub al Misriyyah. You will find all of these books that I mentioned there, but they are covered in dust. I want you to wipe the dust off them and spread them.
Those words from the simple, understanding farmer found their way into the heart of Shaykh Hamid al Fiqi, because they came from a sincere person.
The shaykh continued his account of Shaykh Hamid al Fiqi, saying:
I stopped the shaykh and asked him, how did the farmer know all of this?
Shaykh Hamid said, he learned it from his teacher, al Rimal. Have you heard of al Rimal? I said, I do not know this al Rimal. What is his story? He said, al Rimal used to search for the books of the Salaf. When he found what he found of them, he began gathering labourers and street sweepers and teaching them. He was not permitted to teach this openly. Among those people was this farmer. This farmer could have been an imam from among the imams, but he was there working the land. So who would be suitable for learning? Yet goodness remains in every land until the Hour is established.
When I returned to my village in Egypt, and then went to Cairo, I found all of the books that the knowledgeable farmer mentioned, except for one book, which I did not come across until a long time later.
Al Majmuʿ by Shaykh Hamad al Ansari 1/294–297
Burhan al Din al Biqa‘i said: Time passes, and the young man becomes a student in the department of Tawhid and philosophy. There he studies tasawwuf, and he reads a book authored by one of his own teachers, in which Ibn Taymiyyah is viewed through Ibn ʿArabi.
As a result, the young man’s heart finds a measure of calm toward Ibn Taymiyyah, whereas previously he used to see him as misguided and one who misguides others.
It was through this sinful slander that al Dardir described him.
The young man possessed books by Ibn Taymiyyah, yet he was afraid to read them, fearing that he might begin to doubt the awliya, as some of his shaykhs had previously told him, and fearing that he might go astray with the misguidance of Ibn Taymiyyah.
Yet the young man reads, and becomes absorbed in reading. Then destiny bestows upon him a radiant morning that tears away from him the veils of that night. He finds rest for his exhausted journey among the people of Ansar al Sunnah al Muhammadiyyah, as though he had reached a cool, flowing oasis after a blazing, scorching desert.
The group called him, through the voice of its founder, our spiritual father, the virtuous shaykh Muhammad Hamid al Fiqi, to reflect upon truth and guidance from the Book and the Sunnah. The young man reads and reflects upon what he reads, and little by little the covering is lifted from his eyes.
The heavenly light overwhelms him, and by its guiding rays he sees realities and perceives values. He sees light as light, iman as iman, truth as truth, and misguidance as misguidance.
Previously, through the spell of tasawwuf, he used to see things as their very opposites. He would believe shirk to be Tawhid, kufr to be iman, and barren materialism born of idolatry to be lofty spirituality. The young man realises, almost unable to believe it, that tasawwuf is the religion of idolatry and Magianism, a religion that attributes lordship and godhood to every heretic, every criminal, and every crime.
It is a religion that sees in Iblis, Pharaoh, the calf of al Samiri, and the idols of the pre Islamic era, in all those whom the Books of Allah have cursed, and whom even sound minds have cursed, it sees in them lords and gods who dominate destiny from its beginning and its continuation.
It is a religion that sees in everything a god to be worshipped, and a lord who creates whatever he wills and chooses. It is a religion that declares that the highest reality of Tawhid lies in believing that Allah is the essence of everything.
Masraʿ al Tasawwuf 1/6–7
The Azhar Scholar Dr Muhammad Khalil Harras (d. 1390 AH)
He was one of the most prominent scholars of al Azhar. Al ʿAllamah Muhammad Aman ibn ʿAli al Jami, the student of Harras ( Muhammad Aman al Jami), may Allah the Most High have mercy on him, said in his introduction to his explanation of the book “Sharh al ʿAqidah al Wasitiyyah” by al ʿAllamah Muhammad Khalil Harras, may Allah have mercy on him, in the second tape from 3:40 – 6:38
“Then this treatise which we are dealing with was explained by an Azhar scholar who was Salafi, a scholar who graduated from al Azhar and specialised in philosophy and Aristotelian logic. He used to show enmity to Shaykh al Islam with strong enmity, just as ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, used to show enmity to Islam at the beginning.
Shaykh Muhammad Khalil Harras, who explained this treatise, used to show enmity to Ibn Taymiyyah because he heard that he was an enemy of philosophy and Aristotelian logic, and Muhammad Khalil Harras was a specialist in philosophy and Aristotelian logic. For that reason, as some people have mentioned, he wanted to write his doctoral thesis in refutation of Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, who opposed philosophy and Aristotelian logic and ʿIlm al Kalam.
He says: Shaykh Muhammad Khalil Harras was a teacher of ours. He narrated this story to us directly by word of mouth. He said that all the books of Shaykh al Islam that he could get his hands on in Cairo were gathered for him so that he could study them and then refute Shaykh al Islam. He then devoted himself to studying these books for about three months.
Shaykh Muhammad Khalil Harras, who explained al Wasitiyyah, said that after he studied what he could from the books of Shaykh al Islam in this period, it became clear to him that he had not understood Islam until after he had studied these books, despite that long lifetime and much study, from the primary level, then the middle, then the secondary, then the university level, until he reached the level of writing a doctoral thesis.
It became clear to him that he had not understood Islam with the correct understanding before studying these books. Thus Allah guided a man who had wanted to fight Shaykh al Islam, and he wrote his doctoral thesis under the title ‘Ibn Taymiyyah al Salafi’.
This was the title of his thesis after Allah blessed him with guidance.
This is Muhammad Khalil Harras, who explained ‘al ʿAqidah al Wasitiyyah’.”
The Salafi Scholar of Morocco Taqi al Din al Hilali (d. 1406 AH)
“I had been in a great flood and clear misguidance.
The author, al Hilali, says here is a poem in the form of a taiyyah which I said after my repentance from the Tijani path. The one whom Allah has granted success and guidance rejoices in reciting it, and the one who is forsaken and attacking is choked by it. This is part of it:
ولما أبان الله لي نور دينه
وأنقذني من سبل أهل المرقعات
أناس باعوا الدين بالردى
وأعرضوا عن هديه شر إعراض
وأبغضني الناس لما فارقتهم
وملت إلى اتباع الكتاب والسنة
“When Allah made clear to me the light of His religion
And rescued me from the paths of the people of the patched cloaks,
Those are people who traded the religion for ruin,
And have left his guidance with the worst departure.
The people began to hate me when I left them
And I inclined to following the Book and the Sunnah.
They turned the back of the shield and their chests became rough towards me,
And they prepared themselves to test me.”
Al Adib ʿAli al Tantawi (d. 1420 AH)
العلامة الأديب علي الطنطاوي (ت١٤٢٠هـ): الشيخ الأديب علي الطنطاوي الذي اهتدى على يد الشيخ بهجت البيطار، قال الطنطاوي: لقد وجدت أن الذي أسمعه منه يصدم كل ما نشأت عليه، فقد كنت في العقائد على ما قرره الأشاعرة والماتريدية، وهو شيء يعتمد في تثبيت التوحيد من قريب أو بعيد على الفلسفة اليونانية، وكنت موقنًا بما ألقوه علينا، وهو أن طريقة السلف في توحيد الصفات أسلم، وطريقة الخلف أحكم، فجاء الشيخ بهجة يقول: “إن ما عليه السلف هو الأسلم، وهو الأحكم”، وكنت نشأت على النفرة من ابن تيمية والهرب منه بل بغضه، فجاء يُعظمه لي، ويُحببه إليَّ، وكنت حنفيا متعصبا للمذهب الحنفي، وهو يريد أن أجاوز حدود التعصب المذهبي، وأن أعتمد على الدليل، لا على ما قيل وتأثرت به، وذهبت مع الأيام مذهبه مقتنعًا به، بعد عشرات من الجلسات والسهرات في المجادلات والمناظرات، أنا باندفاعي وحماستي وعنفي، والشيخ بهجت بسعة صدره وطول أناته، وغزير علمه وقوة حُجته، ولقد عرضت في الجزء الأول من كتابي عن الشيخ محمد بن عبد الوهاب، إلى ما مر علي من أدوار كيف نشأت مُقلّدًا مؤولًا كارها لابن تيمية، ثم أثر في الشيخ بهجت، فغدوت سلفي العقيدة مُتمسكًا بالدليل
The scholar and man of letters ʿAli al Tantawi, who was guided at the hands of Shaykh Bahjat al Baytar, said: “I found that what I heard from him shook everything upon which I had been raised. In creed I had been upon what the Ashʿaris and the Maturidis had laid down, which is something that depends, in affirming tawhid in one way or another, on Greek philosophy. I was sure about what they had poured into us, that the way of the Salaf in the tawhid of the attributes is safer and the way of the later people is wiser.
Shaykh Bahjat came and said: ‘What the Salaf are upon is the safest and the wisest.’ I had been raised upon dislike of Ibn Taymiyyah and running away from him, even hating him. He began to magnify him in my eyes and to make me love him.
I was a Hanafi, strongly attached to the Hanafi madhhab, and he wanted me to go beyond the limits of madhhab fanaticism and to rely on the proof, not on what is said. I was affected by him and, as the days went by, I went along his way, convinced by it, after tens of sessions and late nights of debates and discussions, with me in my rush, enthusiasm, and force, and Shaykh Bahjat with his wide chest, long patience, abundant knowledge, and strong proof.
I have mentioned, in the first volume of my book about Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, the stages that I went through, how I was raised as a blind follower who interprets away, hating Ibn Taymiyyah, then how Shaykh Bahjat affected me, until I became Salafi in creed, holding fast to the proof.” (Rijal min al Tarikh p. 171–172)
Muhammad Jamil Zinu (d. 1431 AH)
He, may Allah the Most High have mercy on him, says: “How did I find guidance to tawhid? I used to read with my Sufi shaykh the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, which is the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: ‘If you ask, then ask Allah, and if you seek help, then seek help from Allah.’ (Jami’ At Tirmidhi 2516)
I liked the explanation of al Nawawi when he said: ‘If the need that he asks for is something that does not usually run at the hands of the creation, such as seeking guidance and knowledge and the healing of sickness and the coming of wellbeing, then he asks his Lord for that.
As for asking the creation and relying on them, that is blameworthy.’ I said to the shaykh: ‘This hadith and its explanation both show that it is not permissible to seek help from other than Allah in that which none but Allah is able to do.’ He said to me: ‘Rather, it is permissible.’ I said: ‘What is the proof?’
The shaykh became angry and shouted, saying: ‘My aunt says, “O Shaykh Saʿd,” and he is from the so called dead saints, so I say to her, O my aunt, does Shaykh Saʿd benefit you? She says, I call upon him and he intercedes with Allah so He heals me.’
I said to him: ‘You are a scholarly man. You have spent your life reading books, yet you take your creed from your ignorant aunt.’ He said to me: ‘You have Wahhabi beliefs,’ meaning a link to the reformer Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, may Allah have mercy on him. I used to know nothing about the Wahhabis except what I heard from the shaykhs.
They would say about them that they oppose the people, that they do not believe in the saints and their so called miracles, that they do not love the Messenger ﷺ, and other many false accusations which have no truth to them. I said to myself: if the Wahhabis believe in seeking help from Allah alone, and that the one who heals is Allah alone, then it is necessary for me to learn about them.” (Kayfa Ihtadaytu ila al Tawhid wal Sirat al Mustaqim p. 35–36)
