Salafi Research Institute SRI
Compiled, Translated and Annotated
Abū Ḥibbān & Abū Khuzaimah Anṣārī
Publishers Foreword
Alhamdullilahi Rabbil A’lamīn, Waṣalatu Wasalam Ala Rasūlillahil Karīm, Wa, Ba’d
This book is a long awaited translation of Allāmah Badīʿ ud-Dīn Shāh ar-Rashīdī as-Sindis [1416H] ‘Tawhīd Khāliṣ’, The Pure Tawhīd. In it the Shaikh answers two questions about where is Allāh and whether we can ask Allāh through intermediaries with his answer spanning over 625 pages!!!
The book was first published around 1398H/1977ce and then in 1415H /1994ce during Shaikh Badʿī ud Dīn’s lifetime and in recent times a new edition has also been published. The brothers Abū Ḥibbān and Abū Khuzaimah Anṣārī first began translating this book in late 1995ce.
Over the years the translation continued sporadically and most times portion or excerpts would be given to brothers who were confused on this issue in around the city of Birmingham, England, contrary to the common desperate lies of those who claimed issues of fiqh were always discussed.
We urge all those who are serious students of knowledge to study this book with great detail as in it are evidences, rebuttals, refutations and principles which the Shaikh has explained in magnificent detail. We promise those who advocate shirk and bidʿah and the so called evidences are fully answered in this book as the Shaikh leaves no stone unturned with the help and will of Allāh
To our limited knowledge there has never been a book written in the sub continent with such detail and exposure on these topics as the one before you. May Allah accept it from these two poor servants of Allāh whose aid is sought.]
Salafī Research Institute
2nd Muharram 1437H / Thursday 15th October 2015ce
Birmingham, England.
Salafi Research Institute 2015
Introduction
Praise be to Allāh, we seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allāh from the evil of our own souls and from our bad deeds. Whomsoever Allāh guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever Allāh leaves astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allāh, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger).
O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except in a state of Islam (as Muslims) with complete submission to Allāh.’[1]
O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person, and from him He created his wife, and from them both He created many men and women, and fear Allāh through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship) Surely, Allāh is Ever an All-Watcher over you.[2]’
“O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allāh and fear Him, and speak (always) the truth.”[3] [4]
To proceed,
You have asked concerning two questions of fundamental importance to a Muslims creed so beginning in the name of Allāh and we ask him for guidance and we will answer both questions in great detail and clarify both issues with textual and intellectual overwhelming evidences. We supplicate to Allāh that he guides all the Muslims to tread upon the straight path and preserve us from the evilness and effect of Shayṭān. Amīn Oh creator of everything that exists.
Question
Amongst the Muslims today there are five different beliefs concerning the Tawhīd of Allāh. [First Type] A group of scholars explains Tawhīd to mean that everything that exists is Allāhs creation and that he is separate from his creation and who is in his self and his Dhāt ie essence rises over his Throne.
[Second Type] Mawlāna Rūmī who was a scholar of the Qurān and a mufassir, whose statements of poetry are often uttered by the people for years, says in his Mathnawī that it is Allāh himself in the creation and everything prostrates to him.
[Third Type] Another Sūfī elder and an expert in poetry in the Multānī language, Khāwaja Ghulām Farīd represents another specific group in the following couplets that, He has all the right and might the one who is Ahmad, he also said, there is no difference between Aḥad (one and Aḥmad as they are one in Dhāt and Ṣifāt and he says, Aḥad is he and Aḥmad is he without any difference.
[Fourth Type] The fourth type of Tawḥīd was explained a famous elder and luminary Ḥājī Imdādullāh Muhājir Makkī, who is the Pīr and Murshid ie the spiritual guide and leader of the deobandīs. He is considered to have a lofty and high status among the Sūfīs. Likewise, and similarly he is revered and venerated to be a holy elder by the Barelvīs.
He says in his book, ‘Shamaim Imdādīyyah’,
“Man before his existence was a hidden god himself and God appears to be a human being.”[5]
The fifth type of understanding of Tawḥīd is that which most of the people of Waḥdatul Wajūd often explain in their speech which was vocalised by Khawāja Ghulām Farīd who is an established representative for them, he said, “Wherever there is an image then every image is in reality his” and his saying, “See every number as one as many are lost he is in every image as their no one other than him.” Etc
So all of the aforementioned types that have been mentioned can be summarised as follows,
1] Allāh is above the seven heavens, above his Throne, separate from his creation.
2] Allāh breathed into Adam and became part of him and in him,
3] Allāh came to earth in the form of Muhammad,
4] Allāh is incarnate in all humans and he is in their form
5] Allāh is incarnate as part of his entire creation and is thus everywhere.
At one hand it is said that all of the creation is separate and in need of his sustenance as his is the creator and provider. Whereas on the other hand it is said there is no existence except for Allāhs.
Would please clarify this issue because up until a Muslim does not have the correct and acceptable pure Tawḥīd based on the Qurān and Ḥadīth his Imān ie faith will not be accepted and nor will any of his actions, so would you clarify.
ANSWER
The Creed of the Salaf of this Ummah Concerning Tawḥīd.
Know may Allāh have mercy on you that the belief we should have about Tawḥīd is as you have said in one above and this was the creed of all of the Salaf of the ummah and they were all unanimously agreed upon it.
Muḥammad Ibn Kathīr al-Maṣiṣi narrates that he heard Imam Awzāʿī say:
‘It is my creed and that of the Tabiʿūn that Allāh is above his Throne and we believe in all his attributes as has been stated in the Sunnah’.[6]
Abū Ismāīl Al-Anṣārī mentions in his ‘Dham ul-Kalām Wa Ahlihi’ that ʿAbdur Rahmān Ibn Abī Hātim narrated that, I asked my father and Abū Zurʿah about the creed of Ahl us-Sunnah and all the scholars at the time. They replied,
‘We have met the scholars from afar and all places. The scholars of the Ḥijāz, ʿIrāq, Egypt, Shām and Yemen all explained that there creed was that Allah was above his throne separate from his creation as he has explained himself without any similitude and his knowledge is all encompassing.[7]’
Imām Abū ʿAbdullāh Ibn Baṭṭah states in his book ‘Al-Ibānah’ that,
‘The Sahabah and their successors, the Tabiʿūn along with all the people of knowledge from amongst the Muslims all had the creed that Allāh is above his throne, above the heavens separate from his creation’.[8]
Imam Abū Naṣr As-Sizjī mentions in his book ‘Al-Ibānah’ that,
‘Our Imāms like (Sufyān) ath-Thawrī, Mālik, (Sufyān bin) Uyainah, Ḥammād bin Zayd, al-Fudayl (bin ʿIyād), Ibn al-Mubārak, Aḥmad, and Ishāq are agreed that Allāh is above the Throne bi Dhātihi (with His essence) and His knowledge is in every place’.[9]
Similarly Imam Abūl Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī has reported a ijmāʿ consensus on this creed as in Al-Ibānah.
Also, Abū Umar Talmankī states in his book ‘Al-Wasūl Ila Mʿarifah al-Ūsūl that,
‘The Ahl us-Sunnah are agreed upon the creed that Allah is above the Throne haqiqatan [in reality] and not majazan [metophorically]’.[10]
Hāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym, the author of Ḥilyah ul-Āwlīya says in his ‘Kitāb ul-Eʿtiqād’ that,
‘Our creed and that of the Salaf who followed the Quran, Sunnah and Ijmaʿ consensus is that those narrations which mention the rising of Allāh above his throne be accepted, without enquiring how, without making any similitude and to say that he is separate from his creation and they from him. He is not within his creation. He has not made halūl [within] them and nor is he mixed within them. He is above the heavens above his throne and not on the earth [creation]’.[11]
He further states from Hāfiẓ Abū Bakr Ismaʿīl who said,
‘It is the creed of the Ahl ul-Ḥadīth Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿh is to believe in Allāh, his angels and books and Messengers. To accept that which has come in the book of Allāh and the authentic Sunnah established from the messenger without any distortion. They also believed that Allāh is to be called upon with his beautiful names and he is as he has described himself and as described by his messenger. He created Adam with his hands and his hands are open without asking how and he is above his Throne without delving into how’.[12]
Imām Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Ḥākim says in his ‘Mʿarifah Ulūm ul-Ḥadīth’ that Imām Abū Bakr Muḥammad Ibn Ishāq Ibn Khuzaimah said that,
“One who does not affirm that Allāh is above the Throne above the seven heavens is a disbeliever before his lord. He must be made to repent and if not so then punished and left to rot at some sewer so that the Muslims and those under there dhimmah do not even smell his stench. He will have no inheritor from amongst the Muslims as they cannot inherit from one upon disbelief’.[13]
Imām ʿAbdullāh bin Aḥmad narrates from Imām ʿAbdur Rahman bin Mahdī who said,
“From the people of desires none is worse than the people of Jaḥm who say there is nothing in the heavens, I swear by Allāh I see that they should not be married nor inherited from. Ibn Abī Ḥātim said in refutation of the jaḥmīyyah whilst narrating from him that the people of jaḥm intend and mean Allāh did not speak to Mūsa, they intend and mean there is nothing in the heavens and that Allāh is not upon his Arsh (Throne). I hold that they should be asked to repent, if they do it is good but if they abstain, they should be executed”[14]
[1] Aal ʿ‘Imrān 3:102
[2] al-Nisaa’ 4:1
[3] al-Ahzāb 33:70
[4] The Reference for the Khutbah tul-Khajah is Sunan al-Nisāʿi: Kitāb al-Jumuʿah, Bāb Kayfīyyah al-Khutbah.
[5] Shamaim Imdādīyyah [pg.38]
[6] Baihāqī, Al-Asmā Wa-Ṣifāt [pg.291 no.834]
[7] al-ʿUlūw LilʿAlī al-Ghafār of Dhahabī [pg.137] Imām Dhahabī also mentions a similar saying with a different chain of narration. [See also Mukhtaṣir al-ʿUlūw [1/75]
[8] Ibn Baṭṭah, Al-Ibānah Tul Kubrā [6/141], Chapter: Belief that Allah is above his Throne separate from his creation]
[9] Al-Ibānah An Ūsūl ad-Diyānah [1/42]
[10] Ibn Qayyīm, As-Ṣawāʿiq al-Mursalah Fi Rad al-Jaḥmīyyah Wal-Muʿaṭṭillah [2/324, 375-376]
[11] Dhahabī, al-Ulūw, [pg.148]
[12] Dhahabī, al-Ulūw, [pg.145]
[13] Abū ʿAbdullāh Al-Hākim, Mʿarifah Ulūm ul-Ḥadīth, [pg.84 no.161]
[14] Ibn Taymīyyah, al-Ḥamawīyyah [pg.400]
