Tawassul according to the Wahhabis
In this
chapter, tawassul {resorting to intermediation} according to Wahhabism
shall be examined. The 'ulama' of this sect believe that Tawassul
to other than God, paying homage {ziyarah} to a grave and praying in a
place where there is a grave in front of the person praying are not consistent
with Tawhid in Lordship. According to them, the requisite of Tawhid
is that one should not resort to the intermediation of other than God even if
he is the Prophet of Islam (s), because tawassul, shafa'ah
{intercession} and the like are outside the Sunnah of the Prophet and
the pious predecessors {as-Salaf as-salih}, and the Qur'an also
regards this belief as polytheism.[29]
It is thus
stated in the book, al-Tawhid bi'l-Lughati al-Farisiyyah:
Seeking
the help of other than God is polytheism and seeking refuge in other than God
is also within the sphere of polytheism… The Words {kalimat} of God
are identical with the uncreated {qadim} Essence of God. So, for this
reason, one may entreat {istighathah} these Words otherwise, such act
of entreating will be regarded as polytheism.[30]
In
refuting this proposition, it must be stated first of all that the pertinent
verse had been revealed with respect to the jinn. Concerning the
circumstances surrounding the revelation of this verse, it must be said that
the Arabs used to believe that the jinn live in the desert, and during
the pre-Islamic period of ignorance {al-Jahiliyyah}, they used to turn
to the “chief of the jinn” at the time of going out of the city for help,
addressing him thus: “O chief of the jinn! Save us from the evil of the jinn
and preserve us from their annoyance.”
Of course,
resorting to the jinn is absolutely unlawful because God has explicitly
prohibited this practice. In addition to this, seeking help from anyone who
denies God is obviously more so. Secondly, there are a lot of differences
between the prophets {anbiya'} and messengers {rusul} who
have direct connection with God, and the receivers of the divine revelation, on
one hand, and the jinn who do not recognize God on the other. Therefore, the
Islamic belief demands that we have to beseech and entreat God, the Exalted,
and seek the intercession of those who are closer to Him.
We have
mentioned earlier the viewpoint of the Wahhabi 'ulama' regarding the
status of tawassul to other than God. Now, we shall examine their
reasons:
First
reason: By citing as proof the noble verses,
﴿قُلْ
ادْعُوا
الَّذِينَ
زَعَمْتُمْ
مِنْ دُونِهِ
فَلاَ
يَمْلِكُونَ
كَشْفَ
الضُّرِّ
عَنكُمْ
وَلاَ
تَحْوِيلاً.
أُوْلَئِكَ
الَّذِينَ
يَدْعُونَ
يَبْتَغُونَ
إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ
الْوَسِيلَةَ
أَيُّهُمْ
أَقْرَبُ وَيَرْجُونَ
رَحْمَتَهُ
وَيَخَافُونَ
عَذَابَهُ.﴾
Say, 'Invoke those whom you claim {to be
gods} besides Him. They have no power to remove your distress nor to bring
about any change {in your state}. They {themselves} are the ones who
supplicate, seeking recourse to their Lord, whoever is nearer {to Him},
expecting His mercy and fearing His punishment.' Indeed your Lord's punishment
is a thing to beware of,[31]
they have
concluded that one should never seek help and resort to anyone other than God.
Analysis of the above verses
If one
contends oneself with the literal meaning and not take into consideration other
Qur'anic verses, these two verses will conform to the statements of the Wahhabi
'ulama' because based on these words of God, when man abandons the “nearer
means” (that is, God Himself) in order to get closer to God and resorts to a
“remote means” (that is, “other than God” {min duni allahi}) and one
who has no power to remove distress and the like, it will fall within the
spheres of polytheism in Lordship {shirk-e rububi}.
It must be
noted, however, that there are other verses indicating that with God's
permission, one may also resort to other than God, in which case, the issue of
polytheism would be irrelevant, and one could turn for help from the individuals
approved by God. If these 'ulama' had only paid attention to these
other verses, they would have never committed such a glaring mistake.
Turning for help {istimdad} of the weak to the
strong
In
principle, tawassul is one of the laws of creation and it means
resorting to a superior means in order to attain an objective. One
manifestation of tawassul is a child's tawassul to his mother
when something happens to him. This meaning is true in all spheres of human
life—social, political, ideological, material, and spiritual. Tawassul
to God is the same tawassul to that which is perfect in power and
force. Tawassul to the prophets and the saints of God is a case of the
tawassul of the weak to the strong, because the prophets are stronger
than other human beings. One may resort to the prophets and saints for help and
take their practical conduct, which we called sunnah, as models for
ourselves.
Tawassul in the Qur’an
Many
verses of the Qur'an and Prophetic traditions speak about the subject of tawassul
to the awliya'. As an example, one may refer to the verses related to
the sons of Ya'qub (Jacob) ('a):
﴿قَالُوا
يَا أَبَانَا
اسْتَغْفِرْ
لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا
إِنَّا كُنَّا
خَاطِئِينَ.
قَالَ سَوْفَ
أَسْتَغْفِرُ
لَكُمْ
رَبِّي
إِنَّهُ هُوَ
الْغَفُورُ
الرَّحِيمُ.﴾
They said, 'Father! Plead {with Allah} for
forgiveness of our sins! We have indeed been erring'. He said, 'I shall plead
with my Lord to forgive you; indeed He is the All-forgiving, the All-merciful'.[32]
In these
verses, the sons of Ya'qub ('a) resorted to the intermediation of
their father. They had committed mistakes so many times; they had annoyed and
disturbed two prophets of God (Ya'qub and Yusuf (Joseph) ('a)), and
transgressed the command of God by annoying their parents and telling lies.
Since those mistakes required the sons to seek forgiveness, they took their
father as their intercessor; so this action has not been denied or rejected in
the Qur'an.
Since God
does not reproach the sons of Ya'qub for resorting to two persons of those who
are near to Him {muqarrabun}, it can be concluded that there is
nothing wrong in entreating the Prophet (s) especially since the eminence of
his rank and the loftiness of his station are not hidden to anyone.
The other
verse which may be cited is the following:
﴿وَلَوْ
أَنَّهُمْ
إِذْ
ظَلَمُوا
أَنفُسَهُمْ
جَاءُوكَ
فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا
اللَّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ
لَهُمُ
الرَّسُولُ
لَوَجَدُوا
اللَّهَ
تَوَّابًا
رَحِيمًا.﴾
Had they, when they wronged themselves,
come to you and pleaded Allah for forgiveness, and the Apostle had pleaded for
forgiveness for them, they would have surely found Allah All-clement,
All-merciful.[33]
It can be
deduced from this verse that the intermediation of the Holy Prophet (s) can
also be resorted to in asking God for forgiveness of sins.
It is
possible to criticize the deduction based on the first verse with the answer
that the tawassul of the sons of Ya'qub ('a) to their father
had been confined to their own time; that is, one may seek the help of the
living and not the dead. We shall talk about this point later on in the section
concerning tabarruk.
What can
be inferred from the second verse is that tawassul to the Prophet (s)
is in a general sense. That is, it includes both the time when the Prophet (s)
was alive and the time afterward. And there is no reason to distinguish between
tawassul during and after his lifetime.
Since the
following verse reproaches tawassul to idols and regards it as a form
of polytheism, some individuals might cite it as proof that tawassul
to other than God leads to misguidance:
﴿وَقَالُوا
لاَ
تَذَرُنَّ
آلِهَتَكُمْ
وَلاَ
تَذَرُنَّ
وَدًّا وَلاَ
سُوَاعًا
وَلاَ يَغُوثَ
وَيَعُوقَ
وَنَسْرًا.
وَقَدْ أَضَلُّوا
كَثِيرًا
وَلاَ تَزِدْ
الظَّالِمِينَ
إِلاَّ
ضَلاَلاً.﴾
They say, 'Do not abandon your gods. Do not
abandon Wadd, nor Suwa', nor Yaghuth, Ya'uq and Nasr,' and they have certainly
led many astray. Do not increase the wrongdoers in anything but error'.[34]
In reply,
it must be said that if what is meant by “other than God” are idols, then one
cannot find fault with this statement, but if “other than God” includes the
prophets and awliya', then it would be contrary to the truth because
these beloved ones are approved by God and are vicegerents of Allah {khulafa'
Allah}. Idols are in contrast and contradiction with God while the prophets
('a) and saints are concordant with Him and are means of His grace. In
the same manner, idols are a source of deviation from God while the prophets ('a)
are means of guidance and righteousness. In sum, the comparison between tawassul
to the prophets ('a) and tawassul to the idols is an
asymmetrical and false analogy.
The other
point is that an idol is basically an object of worship and not a means of
nearness to God {taqarrub}. There are two types of means of nearness
to God: One is legitimate, referring to the prophets ('a) and the
saints, and the other is illegitimate such as idols and the like which religion
has made forbidden to man.
Death according to the Wahhabis
There are
different viewpoints concerning death, and we shall deal with the viewpoint of
the Wahhabis on the subject. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah is reported to have said:
Tawassul
to the dead, even if he be the Prophet of Islam (s), is an act of polytheism
because based on the statement of the Qur'an, he is dead and extinct:
﴿إِنَّكَ
مَيِّتٌ
وَإِنَّهُمْ
مَيِّتُونَ.﴾
He then
continues:
Entreating
the dead and uttering words such as: “O my master, O the Messenger of Allah!
Help me,” “O my master 'Ali ibn Abi Talib! Assist me,” and the like are acts of
polytheism.[36]
It is
indeed amazing that Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah and the Wahhabis could have no
belief in the purgatorial life {hayat al-barzakh}, thinking that the
dead cannot establish spiritual relations with others, while the Qur'an affirms
that those who are in the barzakh are alive.[37]
How could the Wahhabis regard the martyrs {shuhada'} as dead while the
Qur'an says,
﴿وَلاَ
تَحْسَبَنَّ
الَّذِينَ
قُتِلُوا فِي
سَبِيلِ
اللَّهِ
أَمْوَاتًا
بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ
عِنْدَ
رَبِّهِمْ
يُرْزَقُونَ.﴾
Do not suppose those who are slain in the
way of Allah to be dead; rather they are living and provided for near their
Lord.[38]
Accordingly,
how could Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab also say that “Anyone who dies
would be annihilated,”36
while the Holy Qur'an says,
﴿فَكَشَفْنَا
عَنْكَ
غِطَاءَكَ
فَبَصَرُكَ
الْيَوْمَ
حَدِيدٌ.﴾
We
have removed your veil from you, and so your sight is acute today.[39]
In another
place, it states thus,
﴿وَلَهُمْ
رِزْقُهُمْ
فِيهَا
بُكْرَةً وَعَشِيًّا.﴾
And therein they will have their provision
morning and evening.[40]
Since
there is morning and evening in the world of barzakh according to the
verse quoted, and that the dead have provisions, those who are in the world of
sojourn (barzakh) cannot be regarded as nonexistent {ma'dum}.
Of course, morning and evening are special characteristics of barzakh because
there is no sun on the Day of Resurrection which could portray this case. So,
death is not equivalent to nonexistence, and the theory of the Wahhabis is
consequentially rendered false.
The permission to resort to the sacred personages
In the
following verse, the Holy Qur'an regards it permissible and acceptable to
resort to and seek the intermediation of the chosen ones of God in seeking
nearness to Him {taqarrub}:
﴿يَا
أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ
آمَنُوا
اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
وَابْتَغُوا
إِلَيْهِ
الْوَسِيلَةَ
وَجَاهِدُوا
فِي سَبِيلِهِ
لَعَلَّكُمْ
تُفْلِحُونَ.﴾
O you who have faith! Be wary of Allah, and
seek the means of recourse to Him, and wage jihad in His way, so that you may
be felicitous.[41]
Although
in this verse seeking the means of recourse is discussed in a general sense,
based on the other proofs and pieces of evidence mentioned in the Holy Qur'an
and the traditions, one of its vivid manifestations is the prophets and saints.
Therefore, the purport of this verse may be expressed in the following words:
Though
approaching God is the outcome of grace, you have to observe God-wariness {taqwa}
perfectly and since it is possible that the persons resorted to have no
independence of their own and have obtained such station through sincerity {ikhlas}
and God-wariness {taqwa}, you also have to maintain God-wariness in
resorting to them.
Istimdad and tawassul to the living ones
Seeking
help and assistance from the living is permissible and it cannot be treated as
a form of polytheism. This is a point which has been endorsed and affirmed by
stories in the Qur'an. For example, when Hadrat Yusuf (Joseph) ('a)
was in prison he requested his cellmate, that if the latter was released, he
should mention his case to the king:
﴿اذْكُرْنِي
عِنْدَ
رَبِّكَ.﴾
Mention
me to your master.[42]
Or, when Hadrat
Musa and Khidr ('a) arrived at a certain village, they made a request
to the inhabitants of the village, hence:
﴿فَانطَلَقَا
حَتَّى إِذَا
أَتَيَا
أَهْلَ قَرْيَةٍ
اسْتَطْعَمَا
أَهْلَهَا.﴾
So they went on. When they came to the
people of a town, they asked its people for food.[43]
It can be
said that the acts of these three great personalities, apart from not being
acts of polytheism, they are rational and customary behaviors, having no
inconsistency with their infallibility {ismah}. Also, in confirming
this statement, the following verse, which is addressed to the Prophet (s), can
be cited as proof:
﴿وَلَوْ
أَنَّهُمْ
إِذْ
ظَلَمُوا
أَنفُسَهُمْ
جَاءُوكَ
فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا
اللَّهَ
وَاسْتَغْفَرَ
لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ
لَوَجَدُوا
اللَّهَ
تَوَّابًا
رَحِيمًا.﴾
Had they, when they wronged themselves,
come to you and pleaded Allah for forgiveness, and the Apostle had pleaded for
forgiveness for them, they would have surely found Allah all-clement,
all-merciful.[44]
Based on
this verse, the Prophet (s) has been granted the permission to be the
intercessor of sinners. According to the Shi`ah, this intercession is still
valid and is not confined to the lifetime of the Prophet (s).
The preeminence of tawassul to the Divine Essence
Before
ending the discussion, it is necessary to pose this question: Which is
superior, tawassul to God, or tawassul to the saints of God?
It can be concluded from the verse,
﴿أَيُّهُمْ
أَقْرَبُ.﴾
“whoever is nearer {to Him}”[45]
that tawassul
to God is superior. That is, as much as possible, one must seek help from God
and this is a principle to which Muslim mystics are steadfast. But just as he
makes use of his intellect, natural instinct and other means in managing his
life, man also seeks the assistance of intermediaries in the domain of
spirituality and seeking nearness to Allah.
Tawassul as identical with servitude {‘ubudiyyah}
Since tawassul
to the prophets and the awliya' of God is like the angels' act of
prostration (to Adam) with the permission and command of God, resorting to
these beloved ones is identical with servitude {'ubudiyyah} and
worship {'ibadah}. Among the Muslim sects, only the Wahhabis do not
believe in tawassul and its devotional dimension. It must be noted
that this sect is trying to make its incorrect and false ideas dominant.
Of course,
if we ever regard the Wahhabis' opposition to tawassul as incorrect,
it is because there are authoritative traditions and hadiths that
prove the incorrectness of this sect's belief. For example, after the demise of
the Prophet (s) a certain Arab came to the grave of the Prophet (s) and threw
himself on the holy shrine. While pouring the soil of the grave over his head,
he said: “O Messenger of Allah! I heard from you the verse, “Had they, when
they wronged themselves, come to you…” And now I have wronged myself and I
have come here to ask you to plead for forgiveness for me.” At the end of the hadith,
it is thus stated regarding this episode: “Then a voice from the grave was
heard: 'You are forgiven!'”[46]
In another
tradition, it has been narrated that there was once a famine in Medina. Bilal
ibn °arith, one of the Companions, went to the grave of the Prophet (s) and
said: “O Messenger of Allah! There has been no rain for quite sometime. Pray to
God to shower the rain of His mercy upon us. During the night, Bilal saw the
Prophet (s) in a dream, saying: “You shall soon benefit from the rain of the
Lord.”
It is not
useless to note the fact that Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i, one of the
leading figures of the Ahl as-Sunnah, regards tawassul to the Ahl
al-Bayt ('a) as permissible, thus saying:
آلُ
النَّبِيِّ
ذَرِيعَتِي
وَهُمُ
إلَيْهِ
وَسِيلَتِي
The
family of the Prophet is my shelter
and
they are means of my nearness to Him (God).
Regarding
°adrat Fatimah az-Zahra ('a), the following tradition has been
narrated:
“أنَّ
فَاطِمَةَ جَاءَتْ
فَوَقَفَتْ
عَلَى قَبْرِ
رَسُولِ
اللهِ فَأخَذَتْ
قَبْضَةً
مِنْ تُرَابِ
القَبْرِ
فَوَضَعَتْهَا
عَلَى
عَيْنَيْهَا
فَبَكَتْ.”
“Fatimah ('a)
went to the grave of the Messenger of Allah (s); picked up some soil from the
grave, put it on her eyes and cried.”
It can be
inferred from the above hadith that to seek the help of the Prophet,
the infallible Imams and the pioneers of religion is not against the religion
because a personage such as Fatimah az-Zahra ('a) used to go to the
grave of her great father and seek this beloved's assistance. There is another hadith
which is as follows:
Because of
the effect of famine and the lack of rain, a number of people went to the house
of 'a'ishah (wife of the Prophet (s)), asking for her guidance. She said to
them: “Make holes on the holy shrines of the Prophet (s) in such a way that the
sky would become the watcher of the holy grave of the Prophet (s) so that it
would shower rain in respect for the Prophet (s). When the people followed
'A'ishah's instruction, the rain came.
Many
traditions have been recorded in the book, At-Tabarruk,[47]
all of which show the tawassul of the Companions to the soil of grave
of the Messenger of Allah (s) for cure and blessings {tabarruk}.
Shafa‘ah according to Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab
and Ibn Taymiyyah
Based on
some verses of the Qur'an, Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, Ibn Taymiyyah
and the contemporary Wahhabis regard seeking help from other than God or asking
for their intercession {shafa'ah} as an act of polytheism. Their main
proof is the phrase, “other than God” in verse 18 of Surah Yunus.[48]
The Wahhabis regard the prophets, saints, idols, the jinn, and the
dead as the most vivid manifestations of this verse.
In reality,
they have not made any distinction between the idols during the pre-Islamic
period of ignorance {jahiliyyah}, which were taken by the people as
their intercessors and were held in high esteem by their forefathers, and the
person of the Prophet (s) because they believe that the Prophet (s) has passed
away, and as such, he could not do anything and nothing could not be expected
from him anymore. Therefore, they imagine the intercession of God on the Day of
Resurrection as positive, and that of the Prophet (s) or other awliya'
as negative.
It can
perhaps be inferred from the apparent purport of their contention that this
sect rejects intercession in general. They have divided intercession into
positive and negative in the following manner:
1.
Positive intercession is that which comes from God. There are many verses that
substantiate it, and there is no debate and dispute concerning this type of
intercession.
2.
Negative intercession is that which comes from other than God such as the
Prophet (s), other prophets ('a) and the awliya'—of course,
when they are not alive.
The most
fundamental basis for this belief of the Wahhabis is the following blessed
verse:
﴿وَيَعْبُدُونَ
مِنْ دُونِ
اللَّهِ مَا
لاَ يَضُرُّهُمْ
وَلاَ
يَنْفَعُهُمْ
وَيَقُولُونَ
هَؤُلاَءِ شُفَعَاؤُنَا
عِنْدَ
اللَّهِ.﴾
They worship besides Allah that which
neither causes them any harm, nor brings them any benefit, and they say, 'These
are our intercessors with Allah'.[49]
An analysis of the quoted noble verse:
What the
apparent purport and text of the verse substantiates is that God rejects the
intercession of idols, not the intercession of human beings. In other words,
“besides Allah” refers to idols and it is these idols whose intercession is not
acceptable to God. The following verse also confirms this contention:
﴿وَلاَ
يُقْبَلُ
مِنْهَا
شَفَاعَةٌ
وَلاَ يُؤْخَذُ
مِنْهَا
عَدْلٌ وَلاَ
هُمْ يُنصَرُونَ.﴾
Neither intercession shall be accepted from
it, nor any ransom shall be received from it, nor will they be helped.[50]
The
absolute negation of intercession of other than God can be deduced from the
phrase, “besides Allah” which is mentioned many times in the Holy Qur'an. The
absoluteness and generality of “besides Allah”, however, is mitigated by other
verses, and the intercession by individuals who possess the conditions for
intercession is permissible and acceptable. Some of the verses that can
substantiate this claim are the following:
﴿وَلاَ
تَنفَعُ
الشَّفَاعَةُ
عِنْدَهُ إِلاَّ
لِمَنْ
أَذِنَ لَهُ.﴾
Intercession is of no avail with Him except
for those whom He permits.[51]
﴿مَنْ
ذَا الَّذِي
يَشْفَعُ
عِنْدَهُ
إِلاَّ
بِإِذْنِهِ.﴾
Who is it that may intercede with Him
except with His permission?[52]
﴿يَوْمَئِذٍ
لاَ تَنفَعُ
الشَّفَاعَةُ
إِلاَّ مَنْ
أَذِنَ لَهُ
الرَّحْمَانُ
وَرَضِيَ
لَهُ قَوْلاً.﴾
Intercession will not avail that day except
from him whom the All-beneficent allows and approves of his word.[53]
﴿وَلاَ
يَشْفَعُونَ
إِلاَّ
لِمَنْ ارْتَضَى.﴾
And they do not intercede except for
someone He approves of.[54]
Based on
these verses, the intercession of those who have the permission of Allah is
acceptable. Now, a question that lingers in the mind is this: Have not those
who negate the intercession of the prophets and saints come across these
verses, or do they have other reasons?
In reply,
it must be said that the intensity of their enmity to the Shi`ah have prompted
the Wahhabis to focus on the verses that negate, and not affirm, intercession.
Through this method and policy, they are determined to accuse the Shi`ah of
disbelief {kufr} so as to incite the entire Muslim world against the
Shi`ah as much as possible. At this juncture, the hidden hand of imperialism
can be witnessed in some of the religious beliefs of Wahhabism.
In
opposing and besmirching Shi`ah beliefs, the Wahhabis oppose the Qur'an and the
Sunnah of the Prophet (s) upon which this belief is based. The Qur'an
and Sunnah acknowledge the intercession of the prophets and the saints on the
Day of Resurrection. They respect the soil of their graves, encouraging the
Muslims to honor and respect them, especially the Holy Prophet (s); and are the
foundations of many material and non-material activities and achievements. The
Wahhabis not only regard tawassul and visitation to the graves {ziyarah}
as unlawful and acts of kufr and shirk, but also deny the
principle and basis of intercession.[55]
The consequence of this practice will be drifting away from the Prophet (s) and
the infallible Imams ('a), which is itself a kind of secret attack
against Islam.
The precedence of the negation of tawassul and
shafa‘ah
Ibn
Taymiyyah, one of the Sunni 'ulama' of the Hanbali madhhab
during the 8th century AH, says regarding tawassul and shafa'ah:
Seeking
help from the dead without paying attention to God, even if that person is a
prophet, or requesting the dead to pray to God to grant our request, or for us
to implore God, “O God! By the station and position of so-and-so, grant our
request”, etc. are forbidden and impermissible, which will finally lead to
polytheism in worship.[56]
As we can
observe, the intellectual cornerstone of Wahhabism is traceable to Ibn
Taymiyyah, however, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab discusses these doctrines with
more fanaticism and extremisms, especially the negation of tawassul
and shafa'ah. As it is always looking for every opportunity to catch
fish in troubled waters imperialism has been trying to take advantage of the
record and opposition of the Wahhabi thought to the other schools {madhahib}.
They have
been attempting to do this when the precedence of the Wahhhabi creed is not a
proof for the madhhabi nature of the Wahhabi movement. It cannot be
considered one of the Islamic schools of thought because from the very
beginning, the Muslim nation, the Ahl as-Sunnah in particular, has declared the
ideas of Ibn Taymiyyah and his followers as an innovation in religion {bid'ah}
and to be against the religion.
The ideas of Ibn Taymiyyah and the reaction of Ahl
as-Sunnah
Taqi
ad-Din Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah was born in 661 AH in a
Kurdish-populated village called Urfah in Turkey. When the Tatars invaded the
Muslim lands, he along with his family went to Damascus (Syria) and studied in
the religious school {madrasah} of the Hanbalis where he engaged in
the memorization of the Qur'an. He read Musnad Ibn Hanbal and the
book, Mu'jam at-Tabari, and engaged in learning other sciences. It has
been said that he had good memory and talent.[57]
Profound
talent and enthusiasm prompted Ibn Taymiyyah to encounter many intellectual
problems and issues during the different stages of his studies. Since he would
not be convinced of the views and opinions of the professors, he gradually
reached a point in his beliefs that he elicited the reaction of the 'ulama'
and fuqaha {jurists} at the time which led to his imprisonment and
banishment.
Before Ibn
Taymiyyah had the opportunity to repent, Sultan Nasir, the ruler of the time,
allowed him to return to Damascus in 709 AH and Ibn Taymiyyah also made peace
with the 'ulama' and fuqaha.[58]
In 720 AH, he was again put behind bars for having a clash with the fuqaha
on the issue of divorce but in 721 AH, he was released from prison through the
letter of the Sultan.
After his
release, he once again languished in the prison cell of Damascus on the order
of the government for the contradictions his religious edicts had with that of the
Sunni and Shi`ah fuqaha in his region.
This time,
the government prohibited him from issuing religious edicts, and as per
judicial decree of a Shafi'i judge, all his students including Ibn Qayyim
al-Jawziyyah were imprisoned. Meanwhile, the people had been so angry with him
that they decided to kill him.
The ‘ulama'’s opposition to Ibn Taymiyyah
Ibn
Taymiyyah used to regard traveling to visit the graves of the prophets ('a)
and the pious as impermissible, deeming it as a sinful travel, and would rule
for the completion (instead of shortening) of prayer during this travel, which
led the Shafi'is to rise up in opposition to him.
In a bid
to portray a veneer of moderation to his creed, Ibn Taymiyyah used to say that
since the Prophet (s) and the Companions had neither visited their graves nor
sought their intermediation, and that the Followers {tabi'un}[59]
have also not done so, none of the Muslims should deem it recommended {mustahabb}.
Anyone who observed this practice had gone against the consensus of Muslims.
After issuing this religious edict, Ibn Taymiyyah considered the following hadiths
from the Prophet (s) as fabricated {maj'ul}:
مَنْ
حَجَّ وَلَمْ
يَزُرْنِي
فَقَدْ جَفَانِي.
He who
performs the Hajj (pilgrimage) without paying a visit {ziyarah}
to me has indeed deserted.
لاَ
تُشَدُّ
الرِّحَالُ
إلاَّ إلَى
ثَلاَثَةِ
مَسَاجِدَ:
الْمَسْجِدُ
الْحَرَامُ،
وَمَسْجِدِي
هَذَا،
وَالْمَسْجِدُ
الأقْصَى.
You are
not supposed to travel except for the visitation {ziyarah} of three
mosques: al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), this mosque of mine (Masjid an-Nabi in
Medina), and al-Masjid al-Aqsa (in Jerusalem).
These
kinds of views incited the opposition of the Sunni 'ulama'. So, it
becomes clear that there had been no difference of opinion regarding it until
that time and the first person to initiate this difference was Ibn Taymiyyah
who, while in prison, wrote books in support of his creed.
After more
than two years of imprisonment in the prison cell of Damascus, Ibn Taymiyyah
passed away in 728 AH and was buried in Bab as-Saghir beside his brother. In
the book, Al-Kunya wal-Alqab, Shaykh 'Abbas al-Qummi opines
that he was buried in Jordan. Ibn Taymiyyah was later known as Taqi ad-Din
Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Halim al-Harrani ad-Damishqi.
Nowadays,
there is no trace of his grave and the books attributed to him, as per reported
in the book, Ibn Taymiyyah batal al-Islah ad-Dini, are estimated to be
as many as seventeen books.
What we
quoted regarding the issue of shafa'ah was from the book entitled, Ibn
Taymiyyah batal al-Islah ad-Dini. Similar subjects are also recorded in
the book, Fath al-Majid, which is a commentary on the book, At-Tawhid,
by Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. In a recently written book entitled, At-Tawhid
bi'l-Lughati al-Farisiyyah, there has been some modification of issues
about which the Shi`ah have opposing views.
This book
in which some of those issues were presented was distributed freely among the
Iranian pilgrims at the Jeddah Airport in 1374 AH (1995 CE). Concerning shafa'ah,
it states that shafa'ah is exclusive for God. The inclusion of the
divine grace and compassion has conferred this merit upon some of the servants
of God. This book narrated a certain subject from Ibn Taymiyyah, at the end of
which it says:
لاَ
تَكُونُ
إلاَّ لأهْلِ
التَّوْحِيدِ
وَالإخْلاَصِ.
Intercession
includes individuals who are monotheists and sincere, and by the decree of God,
intercession extends to these individuals.
In this
book, the author writes that according to the Shi`ah, those individuals who
best embody these qualities of Tawhid and ikhlas {sincerity}
are the prophets, awliya' and infallible Imams ('a) who,
according to the above quotation, are supposed to possess the privilege to
intercede on the Day of Resurrection.[60]
Notes:
[48] Surat
Yunus 10:18: “They worship besides Allah that which neither causes them any harm, not
brings them any benefit, and they say, ‘These are our intercessors with Allah.’
Say, ‘Will you inform Allah about something He does not know in the heavens and
on the earth? Immaculate is He and exalted above [having] any partners that
they ascribe [to Him].”
[55] For more
information, see Sayyid Ibrahim ‘Alawi, Tarikhcheh-ye Naqd wa Barrasi-ye
Wahhabiyyah, pp. 257-353 and other books included in the bibliography of this
book.
[56] Mahmud
Mahdi al-Istambuli, Ibn Taymiyyah batal al-Islah ad-Dini (Beirut: Nashr
Maktaba’l-Islami, n.d.), pp. 136, 139.
[57] Mahmud Mahdi
al-Istambuli, Ibn Taymiyyah batal al-Islah ad-Dini (Beirut: Nashr
Maktaba’l-Islami, n.d.), pp. 136, 139.
[58] Mahmud
Mahdi al-Istambuli, Ibn Taymiyyah batal al-Islah ad-Dini (Beirut: Nashr
Maktaba’l-Islami, n.d.), pp. 30.
[59] Tabi‘un
[‘Followers’ or ‘Successors’] refers to the second generation of Muslims who
came after the Companions, who did not know the Prophet (s) but who knew his
Companions. [Trans.]
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