Islams Reformers

deplorable state in his Tabaqât al-kubrâ, in the preface of which he
wrote: “Only Walîs can recognise a Walî. If a person who is not a
Walî or does not know anything about wilâya does not believe in
wilâya, this indicates his obstinacy and ignorance. Anexample of
this is Ibn Taimiyya’s denial of tasawwuf and his belittling ’ârifs.
One should not read such people’s books, keeping away from
them as if running away from wild beasts. Abu ’l-Hasan ash-
Shâdhilî, one of the superiors in tasawwuf, reported in detail the
state of those who denied Awliyâ’.” Therefore, Ibn Taimiyya’s
followers bear hostility against Hadrat ’Abd al-Wahhâb ash-
Sha’rânî and have aimed their arrows of slander at this great
scholar of Islam.
Ibn Taimiyya said that the early Muslims had adapted
themselves to the Qur’ân and Hadîth, ant that the madhhab
leaders who had appeared later had inserted their own opinions,
and he censured the Ahl as-Sunna. On the contrary, as written in
the seventeenth article above, the Ahl as-Sunna scholars, in
regard to religious knowledge, never departed from the way of
narration (naql). They did not follow their own points of view. It
is accepted unanimously by Muslim scholars that especially al-
Imâm al-a’zam Abû Hanîfa (rahmatullâhi ’alaih) followed the
narration in every respect and held his own point of view inferior
to it. [1] While slandering the Ahl as-Sunna scholars in this respect,
Ibn Taimiyya himself interpreted the Qur’ân according to his own
point of view. Thus, he himself differed from the early Muslims.
This shows that he was not sincere in his word. He said that the
Ahl as-Sunna scholars had misunderstood the Qur’ân and Hadîth
and that even the Sahâbat al-kirâm had gone wrong on many
points, that he himself corrected Allâhu ta’âlâ’s religion and that
only he understood the true meaning of the Qur’ân. He disliked
the great mujtahids of the first and second centuries of the
Hegira, who had been praised in the Hadîth, and the Muslim
scholars who have spread the mujtahids’ madhhabs all over the
world. For this reason, he began to fall into disesteem in the view
of men of knowledge. The authorities of religion co-operated and
began to observe minutely the way he had taken, and it was
concluded that he was heretical and harmful. The chair of
professorship that he had inherited from his father was taken
back from him. However, he did not keep quiet. He reproduced
the words of the heretical group called “Mushabbiha” and said
[1] For documented explanation, see the 27th chapter of Endless Bliss, I.
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