Islams Reformers

seventy-three groups. Seventy-two of them will go to Hell, and one
will not go to Hell owing to their îmân.” [1]
In the third group of religion reformers are the insidious
disbelievers. These enemies of Islam, by disguising themselves as
Muslims and uttering gentle words such as, “We renovate the
religion, reproduce its main sources and restore it to its former
position,” try to demolish Islamic faith, to change and defile the
true meanings of âyats and hadîths. They strive to destroy Islam
form the inside. Because they pretend to be Muslims and say, “We
renovate the religion and purify it from superstitions,” ignorant
people suppose such disbelievers to be real mujaddids. They
believe them. So these reformers are very successful. In order to
deceive Muslims, they praise a few Ahl as-Sunna scholars and
write that they admire them, yet they dislike most of the teachings
written in their books and call them superstitions. Of the hadîths
written in these great scholars’ invaluable books, they say
“mawdû’, made-up” about the ones which do not suit their
purposes and which hinder their advantages. They impose their
own heretical, harmful concoctions in the name of truth. Thus,
they try to blemish these great scholars. Another group of them
constantly speak ill of, and even attribute disbelief to, one or two
of the Ahl as-Sunna scholars.
From the term ‘religion reformers’, we Muslims understand the
lâ-madhhabî (non-madhhabite, non-Sunnî) people, that is,
members of the second and third groups. The group which is
declared in the above-quoted hadîth to possess the true faith and
will not go to Hell for this reason is called the “Ahl as-Sunnat wa
’l-Jamâ’a”. This hadîth shows that a person is either a Muslim or a
disbeliever. And a Muslim is either a Sunnî or a heretic. Then a
person who does not belong to the Ahl as-Sunna is either a heretic
or a disbeliever.
Today, Muslims should be quite adequately learned lest they
should be deceived by these subversive religion reformers who
[1] This hadîth is reported in many valuable books. For example, it is
written on the first page of the translation of Al-milal wa ’n-nihal that
it exists in the four books of Sunan and that it is explained more
detailedly in at-Tirmidhî’s book. It is also written in the Sahîhain of al-
Bukhârî and Muslim. Furthermore, it is written on the 609th page of
Sharh al-Mawâqif, which is one of the greatest kalâm books taught in
high grades of madrasas, and in the 67th letter of the second volume
of Maktûbât by al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî. The ahl al-bid’a and disbelievers
deny this hadîth.
– 122 –