Ibn Taymiyyah on Blind-Following, Compelling and Forcing People to Follow the Opinion of an Imaam and to Show Loyalty and Enmity Based Upon It
February 18, 2014 § Leave a comment
The Shaikh of Islaam, the Remnant of the Salaf, Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allaah have mercy on him, said, “… and for this reason one of the distinguishing marks of the people of innovation is to make up a statement or action and then compel the people to take it up and force them to adopt it, and to show loyalty based upon it and enmity for leaving it.
Just as the Khawaarij innovated their opinion and compelled the people to follow it and showed loyalty and enmity based upon it.
And the Raafidah innovated their opinion and compelled the people to follow it and showed loyalty and enmity based upon it.
And the Jahmiyyah innovated their opinion and compelled the people to follow it and showed loyalty and enmity based upon it …
So whoever punishes [someone] for doing an act or leaving it without an order from Allaah or His Messenger and legislates that as part of religion then he has set up a peer to Allaah and has set up an equal to the Messenger just like the polytheists who set up partners with Allaah, or like the apostates who believed in Musailamah the Liar, and he is from those about whom it was said, “Or have they partners with Allaah, who have instituted for them a religion which Allaah has not allowed?” [Shuraa 42:21]
And for this reason the Imaams of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah would not compel the people with what they would say in issues of ijtihaad, and they would not force a single person.
And for this reason when Haaroon ar-Rasheed consulted [Imaam] Maalik ibn Anas about making the people follow his [book] Al-Muwatta, he said to him, ‘Don’t do that, O Chief of the Believers, for verily the Companions of Allaah’s Messenger ﷺ have spread out throughout the lands, and each nation [to which they went] has taken from those [Companions] who were among it, and I have only collected the knowledge of the people of my land,’ or words to that effect, and he also said, ‘I am only a man, I am correct and make mistakes, so refer my statements back to the Book and the Sunnah.’
And Imaam Ahmad said, ‘It does not befit a faqeeh that he forces the people to follow his madhhab or that he insists on them [complying],’ and he said, ‘Don’t blindly-follow any men concerning your religion, for indeed they will not be safe from making a mistake.’
So if these are their statements about the fundamentals [usool] of knowledge and subsidiary issues [furoo’] of the religion, [i.e.,] that they do not permit forcing the people to follow their madhhabs even though they deduced the [rulings of their] madhhabs with legislated proofs—then what is the case about compelling people and forcing statements upon them which are not found in the Book of Allaah, or a hadith from Allaah’s Messenger ﷺ, and nor have they been transmitted from the Companions or the Taabi’een, and nor from a single one of the Imaams of the Muslims?”
Al-Fataawaa al-Kubraa, vol. 6, p. 340, summarised.
Freedom From the Stranglehold of Sayings Without Proof, No Living Person is Safe from Fitnah—Ibn Mas’ood on Blind-Following
February 13, 2014 § Leave a comment
Ibn Mas’ood, may Allaah be pleased with him, said, “For a surety! Let not a single one of you blindly follow another man in his religion: [such that] if he believes, he [too] believes, and if he disbelieves, he disbelieves. If it is a must that you emulate someone, then the dead—for verily, the living are not safe from fitnah.”
Al-Laalikaa’i, no. 130.
You Are a Misguided Innovator If You Prop Up Someone To Be Followed Unconditionally Apart From the Prophet ﷺ
February 1, 2014 § Leave a comment
Shaikh Bakr Abu Zaid, may Allaah have mercy on him, said, “It is not allowed for a person to be propped up for the Ummah and his way called to, [and then have] loyalty and enmity based upon that way except for our Prophet and Messenger Muhammad ﷺ. So whoever sets up someone else instead of him ﷺ for that [role], then he is misguided, an innovator.”
Hukmul-Intimaa ilaa al-Firaq wal-Ahzaab wal-Jamaa’aat al-Islaamiyyah, p. 104.
Shaikh Bakr Abu Zaid on Extreme Blind Following: Obeying Everything that is Said Without Asking for Proof for Both What Is Said or the Fatwas Issued
January 31, 2014 § Leave a comment
The great scholar of Saudi Arabia, Shaikh Bakr Abu Zaid, may Allaah have mercy on him said, “The Shaikh of Islaam, Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allaah have mercy on him said, “Whoever props up a person—whoever that person may be—and then bases his loyalty and enmity upon what that person says or does, then he is from those, “who split up their religion and became sects.” [Room 30:32]
And this is the condition of many of the jamaa’ahs and Islamic sects today where they appoint people as their leaders and show loyalty to those leader’s allies and enmity to their enemies and obey them in every fatwa they give them without referring back to the Book and the Sunnah and without asking them for their proofs for what they say or the fatwas they give.”
Hukmul-Intimaa ilaa al-Firaq wal-Ahzaab wal-Jamaa’aat al-Islaamiyyah, pp. 104-105.
Al-’Abbaad Asked if, when a Shaikh Calls Someone an Innovator, the Student is Obliged to Adopt that Stance
December 14, 2013 § 1 Comment
Questioner: If one of the Shaikhs said about someone, ‘He is an innovator,’ is the student obliged to adopt this stance of calling that person an innovator? Or must he know why the person was called an innovator? Because this declaration of a person to be an innovator may have been applied to someone who is on the Sunnah?
Al-’Abbaad: Not everyone’s statements in this issue are accepted, if it comes from someone like Shaikh Ibn Baaz or like Shaikh Ibn ’Uthaimeen then it is possible that his statement is relied on, as for anyone and everyone, then such statements are not taken from them.
Baab maa Jaa’a fi Miqdaar Diyyatidh-Dhimmi min Sharh Sunan Abi Dawud.
The Dhahabi of His Time on Extremism Towards Personalities and Fanatical Blind-Followers
November 1, 2013 § Leave a comment
The Dhahabi of his time, the ’Allaamah, the Muhaddith, ’Abdur-Rahmaan ibn Yahyaa al-Mu’allimi, The Yemeni, [d. 1966], may Allaah have mercy on him said, “One of the most extensive valleys of misguidance is extremism towards distinguished personalities.
And one of the sharpest weapons used by the extremist is that he will accuse everyone who tries to bring him back to the truth of having hatred of those distinguished personalities [which he is fanatical towards] and of having enmity towards them.
Some of the people of knowledge hold that the first time the Christians went to extremes regarding Jesus عليه السلام, the extremists would accuse everyone who criticised them of hating Jesus and humiliating him and so on. And so this was one of the greatest things that aided the spread of extremism, because the people of truth who remained saw that when they renounced the extremists they would then [as a result] become ascribed to that [very] thing which they were the most severe of people in [actually] loathing, i.e., [they would become accused of] hating Jesus and insulting him; and the people detested them [i.e., the common folk began to hate the people of truth], and they were harmed and so they held back from renouncing [the extremists], and so the path was left clear for the Devil—and close to this is the condition of the extremists of the Raafidah [Shee’ah] and the grave-worshippers and the extremist blind-followers.”
At-Tankeel bimaa fee Ta’neeb al-Kawthari minal-Abaateel, p. 184.
Shaikh Muqbil on Blindly-Following Al-Albaani, Ibn Baaz and ‘Uthaimeen, may Allaah have mercy on them all
October 15, 2013 § 1 Comment
The Shaikh of Yemen, Muqbil ibn Haadi al-Waadi’i, may Allaah have mercy on him said, “And we say: we hold blind-following to be forbidden. So it is not allowed for us to blindly follow Shaikh al-Albaani, nor Shaikh Ibn Baaz nor Shaikh Ibn ’Uthaimeen, for indeed Allaah تعالى says in His Noble Book, “Follow, [O mankind], what has been revealed to you from your Lord and do not follow other than Him any allies. Little do you remember,” [Al-A’raaf 7:3] and He سبحانه وتعالى said, “And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge.” [Al-Israa 17:36] So Ahlus-Sunnah do not blindly follow.”
Tuhfatul-Mujeeb ’alaa As’ilatil-Haadiri wal-Ghareeb, p. 222.
Uthaimeen Quoting Ibn al-Qayyim on Following Someone Who Sets Up His Own Principles
June 11, 2013 § Leave a comment
Shaikh Uthaimeen, may Allaah have mercy on him, said, “Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allaah have mercy on him, said, ‘So whoever generates statements and establishes principles according to his own understanding and interpretation – it is not obligatory on the Ummah to follow them until they are examined against what the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم came with. If they agree with it, they are accepted, and if they oppose it, they are rejected.’”
Mukhtaaraat min Zaadil-Ma’aad, p. 11.
Gifts of Knowledge 