Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and al-Eemaan - Response to a Faajir Kadhdhaab

[Abu.Iyaad]

Al-Haafidh al-Hakamee on Eeemaan In the book Ma'aarij al-Qubool (Dar Ibn al-Qayyim, 1415H, 2/597) al-Haafidh al-Hakamee (rahimahullaah) says: And al-Eemaan, this is the second level in the aforementioned hadeeth (of Jibreel), and eemaan in the language (linguistically) is "al-tasdeeq". The brothers of Yusuf said to their father, "And you would not believe us" (12/17), (meaning), he is saying, "not make tasdeeq of us (bi-musaddiqin [lannaa]). And as for in the Sharee'ah, it is applied in two situtations. Sidenote: It would be useful for the reader to refer to POINT 10 in the very first post in this thread which explains how the faajir kadhdhaab's tongue started wagging and how he got prematurely excited just because al-Shibal said that to define eemaan as tasdeeq is "the saying of the Ash'aris" not realizing that al-Shibal is speaking here of an error in the language, whereas the issue of the legislative (shar'iyy) definition of eemaan is a separate matter which he dealt with separately (and in which the Ash'aris also claim that eemaan is tasdeeq alone in contrast to Ahl al-Sunnah). Then al-Hakamee goes on to explain that eemaan is applied in two situations in the Qur'an. The first is when eemaan is used on its own, and the second is when it is mentioned alongside islaam. And he explains in each of the two situations the word eemaan will take on a different meaning. When mentioned alone, it refers to the whole deen, when mentioned along with Islaam, it refers to what is inward. Then he explains eemaan with the Salaf (2/600): And this is the meaning that the Salaf intended with their saying (may Allaah have mercy upon them): Eemaan is i'tiqaad (belief), speech (qawl) and action (amal) and that all the actions enter into the meaning (musammaa) of eemaan. And regarding that, al-Shaafi'ee quoted the consensus of the Sahaabaah, Taabi'een and those who came after them from those who reached them. Then later (2/602) he says: And the rest amongst them (the Mu'tazilah) said: [Eemaan] is action, utterance and belief. And the difference between this - [meaning the saying of the Mu'tazilah] - and between the saying of the Righteous Salaf is that the Salaf did not make all of the actions to be a condition for validity (shartan fil-sihhah). Rather, they made many of them a condition for perfection (shartan fil-kammaal), just as Umar bin Abd al-Aziz said regarding them, "Whoever perfects them has perfected eemaan, and whoever does not perfect them has not perfected eemaan." But the Mu'tazilah made all of them a condition for the validity (of eemaan), and Allaah knows best. If the chapter in Foundations of the Sunnah had contained just this much (instead of the quotes from Ibn Hajar and al-Baghawi), I wonder if the faajir kadhdhaab (and likewise Musa Millington) would have taken the same course of action as they have. We see that al-Haafidh al-Hakamee gave a linguistic definition of eemaan and stated it is tasdeeq. Then he gave a shar'iyy definition of eemaan with the Salaf (actions are from eemaan and eemaan is belief, speech and action). Then he explained the position of the Mu'tazilah (that eemaan is belief, utterance and action), and then he contrasted between the position of the Salaf and that of the Mu'tazilah by using the terms "shart kamaal" and "shart sihhah". The only difference between his statements and that of Ibn Hajar is that Ibn Hajar made the erroneous generalization for both the Salaf (all actions are shart kamaal) and the Mu'tazilah (all actions are shart sihhah). If we were to take his speech upon a mahmal hasan (good interpretation) we could say that since he does not consider the abandonment of prayer to be major disbelief (as appears from him in al-Fath), when he says that actions (a'maal) are a condition for the perfection of eemaan, he means, in contrast to the Mu'tazilah, the abandonment of the individual actions (amounting to kabaa'ir) do not expel from Islaam, which is a correct meaning (and this is how we treat the position of Shaykh al-Albaani as well). However, al-Haafidh al-Hakamee states that the Mu'tazilah consider all actions to be shart sihhah, and as we have noted from some of the other scholars, this is not strictly correct either, the Muta'zilah do not treat all actions like this, only those whose abandonment amounts to major sin. Al-Haafidh Ibn Hajar on Eeemaan Compare the above to what was quoted from Ibn Hajar (and what can be found between 1/46-51 of al-Fath): والإيمان لغة: التصديق Eemaan, in the language, is tasdeeq. This is also said by the Ash'aris just as it is also said by Scholars from Ahl al-Sunnah, such as al-Hafidh al-Hakamee - but the intent being to explain the asl of the meaning linguistically, even if other affairs also enter into the overall meaning. وفي الإيمان لأحمد من طريق عبد الله بن عكيم عن ابن مسعود أنه كان يقول: "اللهم زدنا إيمانا ويقينا وفقها " وإسناده صحيح، وهذا أصرح في المقصود، ولم يذكره المصنف لما أشرت إليه."تنبيه": تعلق بهذا الأثر من يقول: إن الإيمان هو مجرد التصديق.وأجيب بأن مراد ابن مسعود أن اليقين هو أصل الإيمان، فإذا أيقن القلب انبعثت الجوارح كلها للقاء الله بالأعمال الصالحة، حتى قال سفيان الثوري: لو أن اليقين وقع في القلب كما ينبغي، لطار اشتياقا إلى الجنة وهربا من النار.قوله: "وقال ابن عمر الخ" المراد بالتقوى: وقاية النفس الشرك والأعمال السيئة والمواظبة على الأعمال الصالحة.وبهذا التقرير يصح استدلال المصنف And in [Kitab] al-Eemaan of Ahmad through the route of Abdullah bin Ukaym from Ibn Mas'ood that he used to say, "O Allaah increase us in eemaan, yaqeen (certainty) and fiqh (understanding)" and its isnaad is authentic. And this is more explicit in (explaining) what is intended (here). The author (al-Bukhari) did not mention it because of what I have pointed to. "Notification". The one who says "Emaan is purely tasdeeq alone" has clung to this narration (as evidence). And it has been responded to in that the intent of Ibn Mas'ud is that yaqeen (certainty) is the asl (foundation) of eemaan, so when the heart has certainty, the limbs set into motion, all of them, in order to meet Allaah with righteous actions, until Sufyaan al-Thawree said, "If yaqeen settled in the heart as is desirable, it would have flew, in ardent desire of paradise and fleeing from the Fire." And [the saying of the author, al-Bukhari], "... and Ibn Umar said..." (to the end), the intent behind "al-taqwaa" is to protect oneself from shirk and the evil actions and to be constant in the righteous actions. And through this corroboration (i.e. by Ibn Hajar in what he has brought of supporting narrations), the istidlaal (extraction of evidence) of the author (i.e. al-Bukhari) is validated. Here Ibn Hajar is corroborating that actions enter into eemaan, validating and supporting the istidlaal of al-Bukhari and is addressing the claim of those who claim eemaan is purely tasdeeq alone. فالسلف قالوا: هو اعتقاد بالقلب، ونطق باللسان، وعمل بالأركان.وأرادوا بذلك أن الأعمال شرط في كماله.ومن هنا نشأ ثم القول بالزيادة والنقص كما سيأتي So the Salaf say: Eemaan is ‘aqeedah in the heart, statement of the tongue and action of the limbs. They mean by this that actions are a condition for its completeness. So from here comes their saying that it increases and decreases — as will follow. The intent of Ibn Hajar here has already been explained in what has preceded, and conceptually speaking, upon what Ibn Hajar intends, there is nothing really wrong with this statement when the intent behind it is to refute the Mu'tazilah - except that the wording is ambiguous and contains a generalization (and thus it is criticized by the Scholars from this angle). He intends that all the afraad (individual actions) are shart kamaal (keeping in mind the view of some that abandonment of prayer does not invalidate eemaan) and upon this basis do the Salaf say (in Ibn Hajar's explanation) that eemaan is subject to increase and decrease (in opposition to the groups of kalaam who expel actions from eemaan from the Murji'ah, or who say that if something of eemaan goes, all of it goes from the Wa'eediyyah). This is what Shaykh al-Albaanee intends too. وقد استدل الشافعي وأحمد وغيرهما على أن الأعمال تدخل في الإيمان بهذه الآية: {وَمَا أُمِرُوا إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ} إلى قوله: {دِينُ الْقَيِّمَةِ} قال الشافعي: ليس عليهم أحج من هذه الآية.أخرجه الخلال في كتاب السنة And al-Shaafi'ee and Ahmad and others besides them used as evidence that actions enter into eemaan the following verse, "And they were not commanded except to worship Allaah alone" up to His saying, "the upright religion" (98:5). and al-Shafi'ee said, "There is nothing more decisive in argument against them [the opposers] than this verse" reported by al-Khallaal in Kitab al-Sunnah. (al-Fath 1/48). والجامع بين الآية والحديث: أن الأعمال مع انضمامها إلى التصديق داخلة في مسمى البر، كما هي داخلة في مسمى الإيمان And the combining of the verse (2:177) and the hadeeth ("eemaan is seventy-odd branches") together affords that actions (a'maal) being augmented (added) to tasdeeq enter into the meaning (musammaa) of al-birr, just as they enter into the meaning (musammaa) of eemaan. (al-Fath 1/50-51) Here Ibn Hajar clearly supports the position of Ahl al-Sunnah that all the actions (a'maal) enter into the musammaa (meaning) of eemaan, along with tasdeeq. والمعتزلة قالوا: هو العمل والنطق والاعتقاد.والفارق بينهم وبين السلف أنهم جعلوا الأعمال شرطا في صحته.والسلف جعلوها شرطا في كماله And the Mu’tazilah say: ‘It is action, statement and ‘aqeedah.’ But the difference between the Mu’tazilah and the Salaf is that the Mu’tazilah make actions a condition for the correctness of eemaan, whereas the Salaf make it a condition for its completeness." As indicated this is simply an incorrect generalization for both the views of the Salaf and the Mu'tazilah by Ibn Hajar (whereas al-Hakamee made a generalization only for the view of the Mu'tazilah, stating that they hold all actions to be shart sihhah, whereas this is not the case in reality). We are now in a position to illustrate very clearly the differencebetween the Irjaa' of today's Maturidiyyah, the followers of the Murji'at ul-Fuquhaa and the position and statements of Ibn Hajar and Shaykh al-Albani, and this will be covered briefly in the next post inshaa'Allaah. After, that we will finish off with some important lessons, benefits and summary points from all of what has preceded inshaa'Allaah.