A Muslim Convert Once Before

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. ) i...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Regarding Shaykh Taqi’ ad-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyyah ( r.a. ), the Hanbali scholar, Imam Najm ad-Din Abu ar-Rabi’ Sulayman ibn ‘Abd al-Qawi’ ath-Thufi ( r.a. ) said, “He could bring up in one hour from the Book, the sunnah , the Arabic language, and philosophical speculation, material which no one could bring up even in many sessions, as if these sciences were before his very eyes, and he was picking and choosing from them at will.  A time came when his companions took to over-praising him, and this drove him to be satisfied with himself, until he became conceited before his fellow human beings.  He became convinced that he was a scholar capable of independent reasoning.  Henceforth, he began to answer each and every scholar great and small, past and recent, until he went all the way back to ‘Umar ( r.a. ) and faulted him in some matter.   This reached the ears of the Shaykh Ibrahim ar-Raqi’, who reprimanded him...