Courtesy of alalal ---Mustaqeem Publications THE DOCTRINE OF AHLU -SUNNAH VS THE ASH’ARI /SUFI MOVEMENT Radd Alal Mukhalifeen wa Tadheerul Minal Bida al-Ashaa'ira wal Mutassawifa A Refutation against the Successive generations and the Warning from the Innovations of the Ash’aris and the Sufis Undoing the Satanic plots of the Neo-Aristolians Al-Muqaddimmah Praise belongs to God Who has made truth clearly distinct from error, who puts down innovation and innovators and raises high the Sunna of the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wa sallam, and the people who follow it. Praise belongs to God Who in every century inspires a group of scholarly people to defend the Way of the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wa sallam, from the distortions of the ignorant and the fabrications of the liars, those who accuse the way of the people who strictly restrict themselves upon the consolidated beliefs of the first three generations of Muslims as we were commanded, and who adhere to their methodology in all matters of the religion from adaab, akhlaaq, fiqh, hadeeth, tafseer, aqeedah, and others matters, accuse such a people of being mubtadi, mujassimah, mutashabiha, mutashadidoon, hashawiyyah, mukafireen (those who make takfeer), falsely claiming that their way in aqeedah and the stances that they have taken that had no authentic route to the salafu-saalih, is the saved way, and they are ahlu-sunnah wa taifatul- mansoorah, al firqatu-naajiya. Wa sallallahu alaihi wa mubaraka an Muhammadan wa ala ahlili wa sahbihi ajma’een ama b’ad The reason for this risalah: This article is a direct reply to the rather humorous and radical statements made against ahlu- sunnah under the risalaa entitled “ahlu-sunnah versus the salafi movement” which the name itself is a contradiction against historical precedent and reality itself. Included in this risala will have bi ithnillah, the statements of reliable Imaams of sunnah, who’s aqeedah is attested to be saleem upon which the relying of their way has more right than those who adopted stances contrary to the stances of the salafu-saalih and the true fuqaha who followed the madhaahibul arb’aa al-islamiyyah. Islam in the understanding of Muslims from every generations from the prophet on down is that the only Islam is the Islam of ahlu-sunnah wal jama’ah, the jam’ah being the jama’ah of the salafu-saalih. Their Islam is Islam and the opposite of their Islam is the representation of no Islam, only the religion of the opinions of the one who formulated it. Their Islam was Islam and other than their Islam is not the correct Islam and Islam is only looked at from the route of how they viewed the Islamic etiquettes from manners all the way to fiqh and aqeedah to be. So the reality of salafiyyah is that anyone who follows the way laid down by the salafu-saalih is in reality sunni. The reason why is because our Imaam Ahmad Bin Hanbal said “the Sunnah with us is what the companions were upon” This immense statement entails some fundamental realities. Some of them are the fact that Ahmad • did not begin with the Quraan • did not begin with the Sunnah of the prophet. Why, because • He started off with saying that this sunnah is the sunnah of what the companions were upon. So to us there is no quraan except upon the way the companions understood it, there is no sunnah of the prophet except the way the companions understood that sunnah. So without being upon the way of the companions i.e. tariqa asalafiyyah, one will not, EVER, attain the quran nor the sunnah in any aspect. That reality is realized by Ahmad who was reported to have said something to the effect of “the one who traverses upon kalaam and arrives at what is right is in error and the one who is upon sunnah and lands on something wrong is still correct” while the obvious application of it was to the ahlul-kalaam, it is understood to be generally anything other than the way of the companions, and since sunnah equals, at least to Ahmad, the way of the companions and anything other than their way cannot ever be as sunnah EVER. This reality would mean by default that the sunnah is limited and only found in the way our companions were found to have done. That means a sunni is what they, the salaf, were. Sunnah does not lie in other than their way, and on that premise anyone who is sunni is by default salafi. Since the athari creed is nothing but the enumeration or the corpus of creedal aspects laid down and implemented by our salaf, then it follows that anyone who follows the athari aqeedah is by default salafi. And the world of Islam is based upon the understanding of the sunnah being, what the companions were upon. That is why when, contrary to the neo ashari/jahmi rhetoric of today, that when Ibn Taymiyyah went through the mihaan events, and the end result of the two inquisitions made against him by ash’aris about his alledged “tashbeeh” and “tajseem” was that when all the scholars were unanimous that he was not what his detractors fabricated of him, they said “you have relayed the aqeedah of none other than Imaam Ahmad [ note : this statement alone is an exoneration of Ibn Taymiyyah even by those who put him in the trial] , and his reply was “No, this is rather the aqeedah of all of the salafu-saalih, not just Imaam Ahmad”. To further slice more of the reality of his aqeedah being flawlessly saleem like his predecessor Ahmad, He gave his opponents THREE YEARS, 3 years, to come up with anything found in the works of the salaf by which they could find a hint of deviation between what he wrote in his wasitiyyah and what they have found. And of that time, Allah failed their efforts in providing even 1 issue where he left the aqeedah of the salaf upon. Hence, as I said, the athari aqeedah is nothing but the enumeration or the corpus of the creedal aspects laid down and implemented by our salaf. Ahmad is, will always be, and was always held as the criterion and a hujjah in and of himself in measuring a person’s adherence to sunnah or bida. It is based upon this reality that it is most applicable to narrate what Imaam al-Barbaharee stated first when he said “Know that Islam is the Sunnah and the Sunnah is Islam, one cannot be established without the other” There can be no sunnah devoid of salafiyyah. The analogy of making distinction between the two is saying that there is a difference between Islam and Islam. It does not logically make any sense to anyone who understands what the reality of the sunnah is. It is unfortunate how the talbees of Iblees reigns in some of the false claiments of adhering to this methodologically established way. And from the tablees of the shayateen is in their making fair seeming the excesses and strange oddities in religion that never had anything to do with the religion in the first place and sanctioning it through the fabrications of the previous liars in the history of Islam. One of the make believe concepts invented by those who adopted some of this talbees is Such an appellation is baseless since the true Salaf knew no such school as the "Salafi" school nor even called themselves by that name; It would be enough from those among them who go to extremes by calling him Imaamul-Atham that Imaam Abu Haneefa said • "Adhere to the athar (narration) and the tareeqah (way/following) of the Salaf (Pious Predecessors) and beware of newly invented matters for all of it is innovation" [Reported by As-Suyootee in Sawn al Mantaq wal-Kalaam p.32] Apparently Abu Haneefah who passed away over a century and a half before their innovated beliefs even came to formulation understood the necessity of this tariqa asalafi, a way to be followed. It is also quite strange as this claiment of the above said this over 1280 years after what Abu Haneefah said. Again This reference would spark a burning rage inside of some of their hearts, however to prove a point in the strange claim they bring up here is a statement of probably the most knowledgeable and greatest of Imaams of the seventh century when he said • There is no blame on the one who manifests/proclaims the way (madhdhab) of the Salaf , who attaches himself to it and refers to it. Rather, it is obligatory to accept that from him by unanimous agreement (Ittifaaq), because the way (madhdhab) of the Salaf is nothing but the Truth (Haqq)." [From Majmoo al-Fataawaa li Ibni- Taymiyyah, 4:149] His saying is seven centuries before this strange claim that came about in our times. It is recorded in al-Insaab by Imaam as-Samani (d.562H) "As-Salafi: this is an ascription to the Salaf and following their ways, in that which is related from them." lbn al-Atheer (d.630H) said in al-Lubaab fee Tahdheebul-lnsaab (2/162), commenting upon the previous saying of as-Sam'aanee: "And a group was known by this ascription." So the meaning is: that the term Salafi, and its ascription to them, was a matter known in the time of Imaam as-Sam'aanee, and before him . There are only two possibilities on this matter. Either we accept the claim of these newly arisen people in modern times (in the past 2 centuries) and disregard what history testifies against them, or we submit to even the logical and rational proofs on this matter in that they have no idea what it is they are speaking of and are doing so without any knowledge.