Sayyid Qutb and the Aqidah of the Ash'ariyyah Jahmiyyah: Part 4 - Allaah's Uluww, al-Istiwaa and Sifaat Fi'liyyah
Thursday, December 24 2009 - by Admin
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From the greatest of distinctions between the true followers of the Messengers and Prophets (in beliefs and methodologies) and those besides them is their affirmation of whatever Allaah affirmed for Himself and which His Messenger (alayhis salaam) affirmed for him in the revealed texts, of Names, Attributes and Actions.

From the greatest of these is Allaah's Uluww (above the heaven, above the Throne, with His Essence). This is a matter that all revealed books and all sent messengers were agreed upon, until the appearance of the Jahmiyyah and the Mu'tazilah. On the basis of an intellectual proof they devised - based upon the language, terminology and classification of the atheist philosophers - to prove the universe is created, they denied much of what has come in the Book and the Sunnah pertaining to Allaah's Names, Attributes and Actions, in order to avoid invalidating their rational proof.

These people were opposed by the entirety of the Salaf, and in the third century, a faction of the Ahl al-Kalaam called the Kullaabiyyah, named after Abdullaah bin Sa'eed bin Kullaab (d. 240H), opposed the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah by being the first of the Mutakallimeen to affirm something of Allaah's Attributes. They refuted the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah on the issue of Allaah's Uluww and in the rejection of the Sifaat Dhaatiyyah. However, uable to counter the arguments of the Mu'tazilah, they denied the Sifaat Fi'liyyah (actions tied to Allaah's will) and through this rejection, concurred with the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah that the Qur'an present with us is created, whilst affirming something additional that the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah did not affirm, which is that there is another uncreated Qur'an, the meaning present with Allaah's Self form eternity which they called "kalaam nafsee". These doctrines of the Kullaabiyyah were taken on by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (d. 324H) after his split with the Mu'tazilah and they became popularized through the label of "Ash'ariyyah". The essence of the Kullaabi (then Ash'arite) creed was to negate "events (hawaadith)" from Allaah, since to them, everything in the universe is but an event. The early Ash'aris remained upon the creed of the Kullabiyyah in the bulk, affirming Allaah's Uluww and the sifaat dhaatiyyah (such as Face, Hands, Eyes) however, the later Ash'aris reverted back to the doctrines of the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah on these specific issues, and adopted the very ta'weels of the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah that the early Kullaabi Ash'aris refuted. Thus, unlike the early Kullaabi Ash'aris, they denied Allaah is above the Throne, with His Essence and instead adopted the saying of the Jahmiyyah, Mut'azilah and Kafirs like Ibn Sinah (d. 429H) - see here.

These very Ash'ari, Maturidi, Mu'tazili figureheads were the same people responsible for the birth and growth of the destructive political movements of the 20th century, and whereas in previous centuries, those assuming the label of "Ash'aris" had departed from his creed and corrupted the beliefs of the Muslims with their hybrid Jahmee, Mu'tazilee, Kullaabi, Ash'ari creed, in the twentieth century, this same line of Ash'aris Jahmiyyah also corrupted the deen of the Muslims in the field of rectification and reform, infusing non-Muslim ideologies, and innovating two strains of deviation: Firstly, Leninist-Marxism, a Revolutionary Ideology to snatch power from the authorities, which gave birth to the madhhab of the Khawaarij, and secondly, mass-populist political activation as a means to work through the existing secular political framework (by hook or crook) to arrive at power, inclusive of what these two strains may have required of secrecy, deception, pledges of allegiance, assassinations, intrigues, entry into democracy and so on. And whoever reads the biographies of these two particular Ash'aris will not see anything but that.

The aqidah of the Ash'ariyyah Jahmiyyah in Qutb's Commentary on the Qur'an

Sayyid Qutb said in commenting upon Surah al-Ma'aarij (70:4):

From the seventh line down:

And we do not know - and we are not tasked to know - the nature of these important matters [carried out by the Angels], and nor how the Angels ascend, and nor to where they ascend, for all of these are details regarding the matter of the unseen which do not add anything to the wisdom in the text, and we have no way of [knowledge] of it, and we have no evidence for it...

And he also said in commenting upon Surah Yunus (10:3):

And "al-istiwaa 'ala al-arsh" is a [figurative] allusion to the station of firmly established and rooted authority, dominion (saytarah) in the language that men can understand and through which they can imagine the meanings upon the way of the Qur'an in its portrayal (of those meanings), just as we have explained this [matter] in the chapter on perceptual imagination and embodiment in the book "Tasweer al-Fannee Fil-Quran" (the Portrayal of Art in the Qur'an)].

And [the particle] "thummah" (then), is not for succession in time, but it is to [indicate] a conceptual dimension. For there is no semblance of time at this location (i.e. in this verse). And there is no "condition" or "situation" that Allaah, the Sublime, did not have which then occurred, for He, the Sublime, is purified of "hudooth" (recency, occurrence) and whatever is connected to it of time and place.

For this reason we are resolute that "thummah" (then) is to denote a conceptual dimension [not one of succession]. And we believe that we have not trangressed the safety zone within which it is acceptable for the human intellect to judge and be resolute. Because we depend upon a comprehensive principle in purifying (tanzeeh) Allaah the Sublime from succession (ta'aaqub) of conditions (haalaat) and situations (hay'aat), and from the necesities of time and place.

From the above quotes, a number of points follow:

Point 1: Rejection of the Uluww of Allaah the Most High

In the words of Qutb:

And we do not know - and we are not tasked to know - the nature of these important matters [carried out by the Angels], and nor how the Angels ascend, and nor to where they ascend, for all of these are details regarding the matter of the unseen which do not add anything to the wisdom in the text, and we have no way of [knowledge] of it, and we have no evidence for it.

There are numerous lies (oppositions to the truth) and they are all based upon jahl and upon the deen of the Jahmiyyah of negating that Allaah is above the Heaven, above the Throne, and what is firmly established in the Sunnah of the angels ascending to Him, and there are numerous ahaadeeth in this regard, from them, the ahaadeeth of the Angels taking turns in witnessing the fajr and asr prayers and ascending up to Allaah, with Allaah asking them - whilst knowing full well in what state His servants are - as to the state of His servants. The Jahmiyyah deny and reject these narrations and deny the clear unambiguous meanings of the texts in the Qur'an. And Qutb has traversed their path and his commentary is built upon the deen of the Jahmiyyah of negating Allaah's attributes through the ta'weelaat of the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah.

Point 2: Allegories in the Qur'an

Qutb's saying:

And "al-istiwaa 'ala al-arsh" is a [figurative] allusion to the station of firmly established and rooted authority, dominion (saytarah) in the language that men can understand and through which they can imagine the meanings upon the way of the Qur'an in its portrayal (of those meanings)...

Qutb has used a similar line of explanation as his predecessors in the Ash'ari Jahmite doctrine of claiming that what Allaah has revealed in His Book are just allegories through which the servants can conceive of the meanings, even if the realities, in the view of these Mutakallimeen, are otherwise. Read the words of al-Ghazali (see here) and also those of ar-Raazee (see here) that relate to this topic, and the essence of what they explain is that Allaah deliberately used language which the "dumb common people" are able to understand, so as not to lead them to disbelief and that the true realities behind the use of such "anthropomorphic" language are other than the apparent meanings of these words known and established in the Arabic language. That the real truth and real reality is what is found in the speech regarding Allaah that is based upon the language, classifications and terminologies of the atheist philosophers and in which Allaah is described through negations of jism (body), jawhar (jawhar), arad (incidental attribute), makan (place), wad' (location), Jihah (direction), tahayyuz (space occupation) and so on. And Qutb has written his commentary upon this baatil as will be clear in other articles.

Point 3: The Deen of the Jahmiyyah in Negating What They Consider "Hawaadith", Meaning the "Sifaat Fi'liyyah"

In the second statement quoted above, in the second path, Qutb continues upon the path of the Jahmiyyah and propounds an explanation through which he rejects and denies that Allaah has Sifaat Fi'liyyah (actions tied to His will and power). He speaks regarding the word "thummah" in the speech of Allaah, "then (thumma) He made istiwaa...", and negates "hudooth" from Allaah, which is the language of the Jahmiyyah, the language upon which they based their religion and they mean by this to negate what they consider to be events, occurrences (hawaadith) from Allaah, such as Allaah becoming angry, or becoming pleased, or loving His servants, or making istiwaa and the likes. This is in addition to explaining away al-Istiwaa with the ta'weels of the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah.


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