Belief and Islam

to our time and which they are still writing today, they inform
that Ibn Taymiyya, ash-Shawkânî and the like have deviated
from the way of the Salaf as-sâlihîn and have been drifting
Muslims towards perdition and Hell.
People who read the books at-Tawassuli bi-n-Nabî wa bi-ssâlihîn,
Ulamâ’ al-muslimîn wa ’l-mukhâlifûn, Shifâ’ as-siqam
and its preface, Tathîr al-fu’âd min danasi-l-i’tiqâd, will realize
that the inventors of the corrupt beliefs called “New Salafiyya”
are leading Muslims towards perdition and demolishing Islam
from within.
Nowadays, some mouths frequently use the name of
‘Salafiyya.’ Every Muslim should know very well that in Islam
there is nothing in the name of the madhhab of Salafiyya but
there is only the Madhhab of the Salaf as-sâlihîn, who were the
Muslims of the first two Islamic centuries which were praised in
a hadîth sherîf. The Islamic scholars who lived in the third and
fourth centuries (of Islam) are called Khalaf as-sâdiqîn. The
i’tiqâd of these honourable people is called the Madhhab of Ahl
as-Sunnat wa-l-Jamâ’a. This is the Madhhab of îmân, tenets of
faith. The îmân held by the Sahâbat al-kirâm and by the Tâbi’în
was the same. There was no difference between their beliefs.
Today most Muslims on the earth are in the Madhhab of Ahl as-
Sunna. All the seventy-two heretical groups of bid’a appeared
after the second century of Islam. Founders of some of them
lived earlier, but it was after the Tâbi’în that their books were
written and they appeared in groups and defied the Ahl as-
Sunna.
Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ brought the beliefs
of Ahl as-Sunna. The Sahâbat al-kirâm derived these teachings
of îmân from the source. And the Tâbi’în Izâm, in their turn,
learned these teachings from the Sahâbat al-kirâm. And from
them learned their successors; thereby the teachings of Ahl as-
Sunna reached us by way of transmission and tawâtur. These
teachings cannot be explored by way of reasoning. Intellect
cannot change them and will only help to understand them. That
is, intellect is necessary for understanding them, for realizing that
they are right and for knowing their value. All the scholars of
Hadîth held the beliefs of Ahl as-Sunna. The imâms of the four
Madhhabs in deeds, too, were in this Madhhab. Also, al-
Mâturîdî and al-Ash’arî, the two imâms of our Madhhab in
beliefs, were in the Madhhab of Ahl as-Sunna. Both these imâms
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