Islam's Reformers .pdf

ecome hostile towards or torture or denounce a Muslimbecause of a few words. They misrepresent him as a victim ofoppression and the scholars as cruel. On the contrary, IbnTaimiyya rose in rebellion against the Ahl as-Sunna. He spreadthe fire of fitna over the Muslim world. For example, when AbûHayyân, a scholar of Arabic, came to Cairo in 700 A.H., IbnTaimiyya said to him, “Who is Sibawaih that you call him ascholar of Arabic! There are exactly eighty errors, which youcannot distinguish, in his book.” Hearing these words whichwould not become a man of knowledge, Abû Hayyân preferredto keep away from him and censured him in his Qur’âncommentary Al-bahr and also in its abridgement titled Nahr.Ibn Hajar al-Askalânî quotes az-Zahabî in his book Durar alkâmina,“When talking on knowledge, Ibn Taimiyya used tobecome angry, try to defeat the person whom he talked to andoffend everybody.” Imâm as-Suyûtî wrote in his book Kam’ almu’ârid,“Ibn Taimiyya was arrogant. He was self-conceited. Itwas his habit to represent himself as superior to everybody, toslight the person whom he talked to and to make fun of greatMuslims.” Muhammad ’Alî Beg, a Damascene scholar, wrote inhis book Hittat ash-Shâm, “Ibn Taimiyya’s and Priest Luther’saims were identical. Whereas the Christian reformer wassuccessful, the reformer of Islam was unsuccessful.” MawlânâMuhammad Ziyâullah, one of the prominent ’ulamâ’ of Pakistanand the imâm and khatîb of the city of Siyalkut, wrote in the93rd page of his work The Truth of Wahhâbism (Published inUrdu in 1969): “Mawlawî ’Abd al-Hayy Luknawî (d. 1304 A.H.),the great ’âlim of India and the author of hundreds of invaluablebooks known by the world, said in his book Ghais al-ghamâm,‘Like the predecessor Ibn Taimiyyat al-Hurrâmî, the successorash-Shawqânî was very learned but less intelligent. The latterwas exactly like, even more inferior than the former.’ ”Goldziher writes that Ibn Taimiyya deemed the rightmadhhabs to be bida’ and, saying that they had changed theoriginal purity of Islam, attacked them and also opposed theAsh’arî madhhab and tasawwuf and announced visiting thegraves of prophets and Awliyâ’ to be a sinful act.Mustafâ ’Abd ar-Razzâq Pasha, former Rector of the Jâmi’al-Azhar and student-follower of Muhammad ’Abduh, wrote:“When issuing a fatwâ, Ibn Taimiyya did not follow anymadhhab, but he acted in accordance with the proof he himself- 138 -