III. The Third Article

Ibn Taymiyah’s Saying of the Hadd to the Self of Allah

In the book written by Imam at-Tahawiyy [Ahmad Ibn Salamah at-Tahawiyy is a great Imam of the Salaf (229 – 321 A.H.).] which he called: “Mentioning the belief of Ahl-us-Sunnah wal-Jama^ah, according to the Mathhab of the fuqaha’ (scholars) of al-‘Islam, Abu Hanifah an-Nu^man Ibn Thabit al-Kufiyy, Abu Yusuf Ya^qub Ibn Ibrahim al-‘Ansariyy, and Abu ^Abdillah Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan ash-Shaybaniyy” his two companions and others, Imam at-Tahawiyy negated the hadd about Allah by saying what means: He (Allah) is majestically above (He does not have) the hudud (plural of hadd) and ghayat (extensions in area, for example).

Ibn Taymiyah confirmed attributing the hadd to Allah in his book “al-Muwafaqah”, Volume 2, page 33.  He said: The Muslims and non-Muslims agreed that Allah is in the sky and they limited Him to this. On page 29, he said: He (Allah) does not have a hadd we know, but He has a hadd that He knows. What he claimed that both Muslims and non-Muslims agreed and had consensus that Allah has a hadd is strange.

The negation of the hadd about Allah have been confirmed in reports by Abu Hanifah, others, and even those before him, namely Imam Zayn-ul-^Abidin ^Aliyy Ibn al-Husayn, radiyallahu ^anhuma [Radiyallahu ^anhuma means: May Allah be pleased with both of them (here, Zayn-ul-^Abidin ^Aliyy and his father al-Husayn).] in his treatise famously known as “As-Sahifat-us-Sajjadiyyah”. In “Sharh Ihya’i ^Ulum-id-Din”, Muhaddith, Hafiz Muhammad Murtada az-Zabidiyy, the explainer of “al-Qamus”, mentioned with a muttasil isnad (continuous chain of qualified relators) [A muttasil Hadith is the Hadith heard by the relator from his shaykh and so on back to the Prophet or a Companion without any interruption in the chain of relators.] from him back to Zayn-ul-^Abidin the saying of Zayn-ul-^Abidin in his treatise: He (Allah) is not limited to have a hadd (limit). He also mentioned his saying: No place surrounds Him.  The saying of ^Aliyy, radiyallahu ^anh: “not limited” is explicit that it is not consonent with Allah to be limited; He does not have a hadd, neither according to His knowledge nor to the knowledge of the creation.

Where is what Ibn Taymiyah claimed of the agreement of the Muslims upon attributing the hadd to Allah? The rest of the Salaf were negating the hadd about Allah, evidenced by the aforementioned saying of at-Tahawiyy. He mentioned this as the mathhab of the Salaf; those four [The four great Salaf scholars mentioned above are: Abu Hanifah an-Nu^man Ibn Thabit al-Kufiyy, Abu Yusuf Ya^qub Ibn Ibrahim al-‘Ansariyy,  Abu ^Abdillah Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan ash-Shaybaniyy, Zayn-ul-^Abidin ^Aliyy Ibn al-Husayn.] are among the famous scholars of the Salaf. This is the mathhab of all the Salaf as indicated by his sayings: “Mentioning the belief of Ahl-us-Sunnah wal-Jama^ah”.

The deceipt of Ibn Taymiyah has shown up and is exposed. This is his habit. He attributes the belief that he likes to the scholars of the Salaf to delude the weak-minded people that his mathhab is that of the Salaf. This is far from what he thinks.