The Offences of a Scholar

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The Hanbali scholar, Imam Najm ad-Din Abu ar-Rabi’ Sulayman ibn ‘Abd al-Qawi’ ath-Thufi (r.a.) said, regarding Shaykh Taqi’ ad-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyyah (r.a.), “People were divided into parties because of him.  Some considered him an anthropomorphist because of what he mentioned in al-‘Aqidah al-Hamawiyyah and al-‘Aqidah al-Wasithiyyah and other books of his, to the effect that the Hand, Foot, Shin, and Face are literal Attributes of Allah and that He is Established upon the Throne with His Essence.  It was said to him that were this the case, He would necessarily be subject to spatial confinement and divisibility.  He replied, ‘I do not concede that spatial confinement and divisibility are necessarily properties of bodies,’ so it was recorded against him that he held the Divine Essence to be subject to spatial confinement. 

Others considered him a heretic due to his saying that the Prophet (s.a.w.) is not to be sought for help and the fact that this amounted to diminishing and impeding the establishing of the greatness of the Prophet (s.a.w.).” 

Imam Najm ad-Din ath-Thufi (r.a.) said that such as the rancour towards him, others considered him a munafiq because of what he said about Sayyidina ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib (k.w.), namely, that he had been forsaken everywhere he went, had repeatedly tried to acquire the caliphate and never attained it, fought out of lust for power rather than religion, and said that “he loved leadership while ‘Utsman loved money.” 

Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah (r.a.) also said that Sayyidina Abu Bakr ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Utsman asw-Swiddiq (r.a.) had declared Islam in his old age, fully aware of what he said, while Sayyidina ‘Ali (k.w.) had declared Islam as a boy, and the boy’s Islam is not considered sound upon his mere word.  In sum, he said ugly things such as these, and it was said against him that he was a hypocrite, in view of the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) saying to Sayyidina ‘Ali (k.w.), “Only a hypocrite has hatred for you.”  It all this and more that Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah (r.a.) had to repent, in writing, prior to his death.