Islam's Reformers .pdf

under the harmful influence of rational thoughts. Ibn Taimiyyawas more effective and chose the way of reason, which wascloser to the spirit of the Qur’ân and Sunna. Thus, he won awonderful success. Men of knowledge did not know theinterpretation of the Qur’ân. Those who were educatedscholastically were not able to establish the connexion betweenthemselves and the Qur’ân and Hadîth. It has been only IbnTaimiyya’s lot to accomplish the real explanation of Islam. Hemade ijtihâds by deriving his inspiration directly from the HolyBook, from the Sunna, and from the way of living of theProphet’s companions. Ibn al-Qayyim, his disciple, studied overthe divine causes, whose meanings had not been solved, andestablished Islamic principles. By clearing out the evil effectsthat had leaked into the Islamic system, he purified andrefreshed it. He attacked the bad customs that had beenaccepted as parts of Islam and had been support for religiouspunishments and tolerated by scholars for centuries. Thishonest act turned the whole world against him. Those whocame later raced with one another to calumniate him.”Religion reformers can be classified in three groups:The first group is that of the profound Ahl as-Sunnascholars. They corrected heresies, wrong deeds andsuperstitions that had been introduced among Muslims byignorant people and by the enemies of Islam. They revealed thetrue knowledge transmitted by the Ahl as-Sunna mujtahids asthey had heard it from as-Sahâbat al-kirâm. They did not sayanything from themselves. They are called “mujaddidîn”(revivers). The Prophet (’alaihi ’s-salâm) praised them andforetold that they would come and render service to Islam:“After me, a scholar will appear every hundred years. Hewill strengthen my religion.” Mujaddidîn were praised in thishadîth: “The scholars of my umma are like the prophetsamong the Children of Isrâ’îl.” The absolute mujtahids suchas al-Imâm al-a’zâm (the Gratest Leader) Abû Hanîfa, al-Imâmash-Shâfi’î and the like, who were madhhab leaders, al-Imâmar-Rabbânî Ahmad al-Fârûqî as-Sirhindî, the ’ulamâ’ who wereattached to the madhhabs in each century and Hadrat al-Mahdî,who will come in the future, are among these mujaddidîn. Somehypocrites, who use the religion as a means for politicalpurposes and worldly advantages, have been representingthemselves as religious men and murshids. Every one of them- 128 -