ARAH | الروضة الحنبلية

The Thirteen Attributes of Allāh ﷻ The legally accountable person (mukallaf) is obligated to know thirteen attributes of Allāh ﷻ. Whoever denies or doubts any of them falls into disbelief (kufr). They are: • Existence (wujūd) • Eternality (qidam) • Everlastingness (baqāʾ) • Opposition to originated things (al-mukhālafat li-l-ḥawādith) • Self-subsistence (al-qiyām bi-l-nafs) • Oneness (waḥdāniyyah) • Power (qudrah) • Will (ʾirādah) • Knowledge (ʿilm) • Life (ḥayāh) • Hearing (samʿ) • Sight (baṣar) • Speech (kalām) ✦ ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── ✦ https://t.me/arahhanbali

ʾImām ʾAbū al-ʿAbbās Ibn Qudāmah al-Ḥanbalī (MS | d. 689 AH) stated in Mukhtaṣar Minhāj al-Qāṣidīn: “The Salaf would love those who pointed out their faults to them, whereas today, for the most part, we are most averse to those who make us aware of our faults.” ✦ ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── ✦ https://t.me/arahhanbali

Basics of Accountability (Taklīf) Accountability is defined as the imposition (ʾilzām) of the address (khiṭāb) of the Sharīʿah. Simply put, it means that a person becomes legally responsible for following the Sharīʿah: fulfilling what is commanded and avoiding what is prohibited. He is also held accountable for his actions through reward or sin, and praise or blame. It has three conditions according to us: • Pubescence (bulūgh): A child is not accountable for sin and reward, although he may be trained in worship. • Sanity (ʿaql): Someone who is insane, unconscious, etc. is not held accountable. • Reception of the invitation (daʿwah) of ʾIslām: The message of ʾIslām must have reached the person. When these three conditions are met, a person is deemed mukallaf (legally accountable), and the five rulings of accountability: obligatory, recommended, permissible, disliked, and prohibited, become applicable to his actions. ✦ ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── ✦ https://t.me/arahhanbali

Concerning Chain Takfīr (al-Tasalsul fī al-Takfīr) Before entering into the question of chain takfīr, it is necessary first to establish the underlying principle: namely, that the scholars of the Salaf did, in certain cases, affirm the kufr of one who refrained from declaring another to be a kāfir. Having established this principle, we may then consider the cause (ʿillah) for such a judgement and determine the circumstances in which it may properly extend to what is termed chain takfīr. ʾAbū Bakr b. ʿAyyāsh was asked concerning one who held that the Qurʾān was created. He replied: “He is a kāfir, and whoever does not declare him a kāfir is himself a kāfir.” Sufyān b. ʿUyaynah said: “The Qurʾān is the speech of Allāh, ʿazza wa-jall. Whoever says that it is created is a kāfir, and whoever doubts his kufr is himself a kāfir.” Yazīd b. Hārūn said: “Whoever says that the Qurʾān is created is a kāfir; whoever does not declare him a kāfir is himself a kāfir; and whoever doubts his kufr is himself a kāfir.” The statement of Yazīd b. Hārūn is particularly significant, for it admits of a successive application of the judgement: takfīr of the one who holds the doctrine, takfīr of the one who refuses to declare its adherent a kāfir, and, according to the apparent reading, takfīr of the one who doubts the kufr of the latter. Thus, the pronoun in his expression, “whoever doubts his kufr,” may refer not to the original offender, but to the ʿādhir (the one who excuses him). ʾAbū Khaythamah Zuhayr b. Ḥarb said: “Whoever claims that the Qurʾān, the speech of Allāh, is created is a kāfir, and whoever doubts his kufr is a kāfir.” These and similar statements demonstrate that the Salaf did, in certain circumstances, extend the judgement of kufr to one who failed to declare another to be a kāfir, and, in some formulations, even to one who doubted the kufr of the excuser himself. The intended conclusion, however, is not that every instance of chain takfīr is necessarily valid. Rather, the principle is that chain takfīr is not intrinsically incoherent; its validity depends upon the nature of the original act and the reason for declaring it kufr. ✦ ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── ✦ https://t.me/arahhanbali

Rational Judgements: Necessity, Impossibility, and Possibility A rational judgement (ḥukm ʿaqlī) is of three kinds: necessity, impossibility, and possibility. • Necessary (wājib): that whose non-existence is inconceivable to the intellect. • Impossible (mustaḥīl): that whose existence is inconceivable to the intellect. • Possible (jāʾiz): that whose existence and non-existence are both conceivable to the intellect. Simply speaking, the necessary is what must exist and cannot not exist. The impossible is what cannot exist. The possible is what can exist or not exist. For example, Allāh’s existence is necessary, hence we call Him wājib al-wujūd (the necessary existent), because His non-existence is inconceivable. The existence of two true gods is impossible. The universe is possible, because it could have not existed, yet Allāh ﷻ chose to make it exist. ✦ ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── ✦ https://t.me/arahhanbali

Basics of Epistemology Knowledge (ʿilm) is defined as the apprehension (maʿrifah) of what is known upon what it truly is. Simply put, it is understanding something upon its true reality. There are three causes (ʾasbāb) of knowledge: • The senses (ḥawāss): The outward ones are five: hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch. The inward ones include hunger, thirst, love, pain, etc. • Truthful news (al-khabar al-ṣādiq): The news of a messenger (rasūl) aided by Allāh ﷻ with a miracle (muʿjizah), as well as the successively mass-transmitted (mutawātir) news. Mutawātir news = information reported by so many people across generations that it is normally impossible for them all to have agreed upon a lie. A simple example is knowing that China exists, since so many independent people have reported its existence across generations that it is inconceivable that they could all have agreed upon a lie. • The intellect (ʿaql): It is that by which the mind apprehends what is necessary (wājib), what is impossible (mustaḥīl), and what is possible (jāʾiz). The intellect (al-ʿaql) allows us to understand what must be, what cannot be, and what could be. For example, Allāh’s existence is necessary, two gods cannot exist, and the universe is possible. ✦ ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── ✦ https://t.me/arahhanbali

Muḥammad b. ʾAḥmad al-Saffārīnī al-Ḥanbalī (d. 1188 AH) advised: “Adhere to what is found in al-ʾIqnāʿ and al-Muntahá. If the two differ, then follow the position given preponderance by the author of Ghāyat al-Muntahá.” Notes: • Although we have not found this statement in any of his own works, it is nevertheless widely circulated among the scholars of the madhhab from the mutaʾakhkhirīn. • However, relying on this statement to determine the muʿtamad (authoritative position) is a weak view. ✦ ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── ✦ https://t.me/arahhanbali

Celebration of al-Mawlid al-Nabawī al-Sharīf ʿAllāmah ʾAbū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʾIsmāʿīl b. ʾIbrāhīm al-Shāfiʿī, known by the laqab ʾAbū Shāmah, stated: “It (i.e., the celebration of the Prophetic Mawlid) is among the best innovations introduced in our time of this kind (i.e., good innovations).” Ibn Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Dimashqī al-Shāfiʿī explained: “Meaning, it is of the type of good innovations (al-bidaʿ al-ḥasanah) upon which there is agreement concerning the permissibility and recommendation of practicing it, as well as the hope of reward for whoever has a good intention in doing so.” 【ℛ】 Jāmiʿ al-ʾĀthār fī al-Siyar wa-Mawlid al-Mukhtār (State of Qaṭar edition), 1/67-68. Indeed, celebrating the Prophetic Mawlid was among the established practices and traditions of the Shaṭṭī family, who were from the Ḥanbalī scholars. ✦ ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── ✦ https://t.me/arahhanbali

The Knowledge of the Dead Concerning the Condition of Their Families and Relatives in the Dunyā Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (d. 795 AH) said: “As for the knowledge possessed by the dead, while in their graves, of the condition of their families and relatives in this world, Ibn ʾAbī al-Dunyā relates, at the beginning of his Kitāb al-Manāmāt, through the following chain of transmission... From ʾAbū Hurayraħ, who said: The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: “Do not disgrace your relatives by reason of the evil of your deeds, for indeed, they are presented before your beloved ones among the inhabitants of the graves.” ʾImām ʾAḥmad said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us; Sufyān related to us, from one who heard ʾAnas say: The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: “Indeed, your deeds are presented before your relatives and kinsmen. If they are good, they rejoice on account of them; but if they are otherwise, they say: ‘O Allāh, do not cause them to die until You guide them as You have guided us.’” ʾAbū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī said: al-Ṣalt b. Dīnār related to us, from al-Ḥasan, from Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh, who said: The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: “Indeed, your deeds are presented before your relatives while they are in their graves. If they are good, they rejoice on account of them; but if they are otherwise, they say: ‘O Allāh, inspire them to act in obedience to You.’” Ibn ʾAbī al-Dunyā transmitted, through the route of Yaḥyá b. Ṣāliḥ al-Wuḥāẓī, who said: ʾIsmāʿīl al-Sukkarī related to us; I heard Mālik b. ʾAnas say: I heard al-Nuʿmān b. Bashīr, while he was upon the pulpit, say: I heard the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ say: “Indeed, nothing remains of this world except the likeness of a fly, circling restlessly within its dung. So, fear Allāh concerning your brothers among the inhabitants of the graves, for indeed, your deeds are presented before them.” And through the route of al-Mubārak, from Thawr b. Yazīd, from ʾAbū Ruhm, from ʾAbū ʾAyyūb, who said: “Your deeds are presented before the dead. If they see an evil deed, they say: ‘O Allāh, bring him back from it.’” And through the route of al-Mubārak, likewise, from Ṣafwān b. ʿUmayr, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Jubayr b. Nufayr, who said that ʾAbū al-Dardāʾ would say: “Indeed, your deeds are presented before your dead, and they rejoice over them or are grieved by them.” And on this account, ʾAbū al-Dardāʾ would say: “O Allāh, indeed, I seek refuge with You from performing a deed by which I would be disgraced before ʿAbd Allāh b. Rawāḥaħ.” And through the route of Bilāl b. ʾAbī al-Dardāʾ, who said: “I would hear ʾAbū al-Dardāʾ, while he was prostrating, say: ‘O Allāh, indeed, I seek refuge in You from my maternal uncle, Ibn Rawāḥaħ, despising me when I meet him.’” And it is said in Kitāb al-Qubūr: It has reached me from ʾAḥmad b. ʾAbī al-Ḥawārī, who said: Muḥammad, son of my brother, related to me, saying: ʿAbbād b. ʿAbbād entered upon ʾIbrāhīm b. Ṣāliḥ, who was then the governor of Palestine, and said to him: “How can I admonish you, may Allāh rectify you? It has reached me that the deeds of the living are presented before their relatives among the dead. So consider what shall be presented before the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, your cousin.” He said: ʾIbrāhīm then wept until his tears flowed down his beard. 【ℛ】 ʾAhwāl al-Qubūr wa-ʾAḥwāl ʾAhlihā ʾilá al-Nushūr (Dār al-Ghad al-Jadīd print), p. 90-91. ✦ ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── ✦ https://t.me/arahhanbali

Doing Something Only a Kāfir Would Do is Kufr Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ al-Mālikī al-ʾAshʿarī (d. 544 AH) said: وَكَذَلِك نُكَفّر بكل فعْل أجْمَع الْمُسْلِمُون أنَّه لَا يَصْدُر إلَّا من كافر وإن كَان صاحِبُه مُصَرّحًا بالْإِسْلَام مَع فِعْلِه ذَلِك الفعل كالسُّجُود لِلصّنْم وللشّمْس والقَمَر والصّلِيب والنار. “We declare one to be a blasphemer (kāfir) on account of any act concerning which the Muslims have reached consensus that it can proceed only from a blasphemer, even if the one who performs it professes ʾIslām. This includes, for example, prostration before an idol, the sun, the moon, a cross, or fire.” 【ℛ】 Al-Shifā bi-Taʿrīf Ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafá ﷺ (DKI print), 2/287. ✦ ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── ✦ https://t.me/arahhanbali