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

[Abu.Iyaad]

I just went through all 405 pages of the Dar al-Thurayyaa print (1424H) of Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen's sharh of al-Arba'een al-Nawawiyyah in order to find a quote that the faajir kadhdhaab attributed to the Shaykh on page 7 of his 8 page clarification. Because the mention of 'eemaan' occurs frequently within the forty ahaadeeth I thought I would check everything in the explanation. As already pointed out, the accuser is pretending to be the compiler of some quotes that were in fact compiled by a forum user called al-Muwahhid al-Salafi 6 years ago on a forum (http://www.muslm.net). However, he added one quote from himself right at the very end and the translation made me suspicious. This was what the accuser wrote: Ash-Shaykh al-Uthaymeen, may Allah have mercy upon him, said: "...(Saying) 'Eemaan means in the language a tasdeeq' is totally incorrect because eemaan necessitates acceptance and submission..." There is no such sentence with this wording in Sharh al-Arba'een al-Nawawiyyah, and the phrase "totally incorrect" is not something whose equivalent you would find in the speech of the Scholars in this manner and context. I never found any such sentence but I did find two places there where the issue of the meaning of eemaan is discussed. And whoever made the translation into the above sentence is extremely stroppy and should not be translating at all. The issue here is accurately presenting the words of the Scholars in both wording and meaning. Now this might seem like a small issue but it is not, since - as other brothers have pointed out - it is a firmly established trait with this faajir kadhdhaab that he misconstrues, misattributes, and mistranslates (if he is not actually plagiarizing the translation from somewhere else, that is). Having said this, I received an email from a brother only yesterday who had experienced the same thing with this faajir kadhdhaab, this is what he wrote: When I read what what you wrote: 'The accuser simply translated some of the statements compiled by the original author and pretended he was the compiler. I am certain that he never even looked at the original printed text for a single one of those quotes, because the original referencing for some of the citations is poor and the accuser has translated everything without checking or verification. ' and: 'This proves that the accuser is ignorant and a pretender to knowledge who does not understand what he is saying or writing, is unable to grasp the reality and import of what he is quoting, and is unable to do justice to what he is pretending to be the compiler of!' it reminded me of something which I also discovered about him just by accident when I was searching for the source of something sent to me by a brother in my locality. Whilst doing that, it turned out that Abu Fajr was also passing on things without checking their accuracy, evidently because it suited his purpose of bashing some of the salafees here in the UK!! It seems as if he is someone (as described in the email you put up on ST) ‘...who doesn’t check or verify what he narrates and nor does he have concern for it.’ The thing I was searching for was the translation of a saying of Ibn Taymeeyah. It turned out that he had also used it by copying it directly from another website without checking its translation or its context and then used it in his refutation of SPUBS. I have no beef with this guy and he has no beef with me, so I think I’m pretty impartial in this affair. Yet to me, when I saw a small example of his lack of knowledge and amaanah over something as easy to check as a quote of Ibn Taymeeyah from Minhaaj-us-Sunnah, it was obvious that you can’t take this fella too seriously! He just seems like an immature kid trying to score brownie points, may Allah guide him. Yet this doesn’t detract from the fact that he is untrustworthy in his relaying of things. He clearly is, as a number of people have now seen. I’ve sent you a copy of my email which I sent out to some of the brothers a little while ago regarding this affair. And then this is the copy of the emai that the brother included in his email to me: As sallamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu I got this quote today from one of our brothers in an email and seeing as there were some issues connected with it, I thought I’d send it to a few more of you in order for the benefit to be greater (and not just for the brother who sent it). Here’s what the brother sent: Shaykhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah said: You should not look at what the person used to do, rather you should look at what kind of person they are today. The one who is too concerned about people's pasts, is just like Iblees who said to Allaah, "You created me from fire and you created him from clay" [al-Minhaaj volume 2 page 430] Here are my points concerning this: 1. The source for this quote is mentioned as being ‘al-Minhaaj’. Sometimes, people who quote this work of Ibn Taymeeyah’s do so likewise. However, the full title of this work is Minhaaj-us-Sunnat-un-Nabaweeyah Fee Naqd Kalaamish-Shee’ah Al-Qadareeyah, a truly amazing book, perhaps the likes of which has not been authored since with respect to the refutation of the Raafidah Shee’ah, mashallah. 2. When I received the email from the brother and read it, I decided to check the reference myself as I do have this amazing work and also because I know that the brother didn’t translate it himself (he doesn’t speak Arabic). Seeing that he didn’t give the source of where he got it from, I thus decided to check its authenticity (i.e. was it really there in the book) and also its accuracy. Alhamdollilah, the reference was fairly accurate, as there was something there on page 430 of volume 2 of this book. The edition which I have is in 8 volumes and is the 1st edition which was printed by Imaam Muhammad Bin Sa’ood university in Saudi Arabia in 1986. Although a few other editions have been printed in the last few years (summarised version and editions with smaller print and less volumes), this edition is probably still the most oft-quoted one. 3. When I read page 430 of volume 2, I found it different to what the brother had sent. Here’s what I found from the beginning of page 430 up until the verse quoted by Ibn Taymeeyah (my own translation): ‘And the human being moves from imperfection to perfection, so, the imperfection of the beginning should not be looked at. Rather, the perfection of the ending should be looked at. And the human being should not be censured for the fact that he was a drop of sperm, then became a leech like clot, then became a chewed-like morsel of flesh, when Allah had after that created him in the best of stature. And whosever looks at what was (before), then he is from the category of Iblees who said: “I am better than him, You created me from fire and you created him from clay.” ‘. So, as you can see, whosoever translated this quote, was not entirely competent or faithful to the words of Ibn Taymeeyah!! Rather, it seems as if whoever embarked upon this translation tried to grasp at a general meaning of what they thought Ibn Taymeeyah was saying. Alas, I don’t have Arabic windows on this computer, for if I did, I would have put up the actual Arabic for you to compare for yourselves as to what I have translated and what I was sent. 4. As I mentioned above, the book of Ibn Taymeeyah is about the Raafidah Shee’ah. Because I knew this, this made me then read around this quote, as I suspected (rightly) that this speech of his was Ibn Taymeeyah in the midst of one of his amazing intellectual demoilitions of the people of desire. Thus, this quote that was sent to me is not only poorly translated, but it is also out of context. By reading what was sent, we are made to see it in a general light. However, if you read the page before this quote and the pages after it, you will see that Ibn Taymeeyah is actually using it in reference to the Raafidah Shee’ah who argue that because ‘Alee became Muslim as a child, he did not commit sins (in a state of Jaahileeyah) unlike Abu Bakr and ‘Umar who became Muslims as adults after being disbelievers!!! The quote is in the context of the arguments of the Raafidah, as is the whole 8 volume work, and not general. Here’s what ibn Taymeeyah says on page 429, a few paragraphs before the quote: ‘And as for what the Raafidah say that the Prophet before Prophethood and after it, that a mistake or a small sin did not occur from him, and likewise the Imaams, then this is something in which they isolated away from from the rest of the sects of all the Ummah, and it opposes the Book and the Sunnah and the ijmaa’ of the Salaf. And from their intent with this, is to vilify the leadership of Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with both of them, because they became Muslims after disbelief. And they claim that ‘Alee, may Allah be pleased with him, had not ceased to be a believer and that he did not make a mistake ever and nor did he commit a sin ever, and likewise was the perfection of the twelve (Imaams). And this is from that which makes clear their lying and their misguidance to every possessor of intelligence who knows their condition. And because of this, they were the most exaggerated of groups in this and the furthest of them from intelligence and hearing.’ Ibn Taymeeyah then goes on to elaborate on this argument of theirs until he reaches the above quote and then still carries on thereafter with further discussions around the topic. 5. So, where did this quote come from then??? Like I said, there was nothing mentioned in the email about where it came from. However, I do believe it probably came from the internet, as when I googled the quote, there were about four places that came up. Interestingly, all of them had ‘...gets bogged down...’ instead of ‘...is too concerned about people’s past’. Perhaps, even the inaccurate quote was quoted inaccurately!! Two of the websites were takfeeree, and I’ll give the brother the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t get it from them. From the other two, one of them was Yemen based and directly took the quote from the other, a North-American website. It’s interesting that the Yemen based site had this quote in a refutation of some of the Salafis of the West saying how lame they are, yet the individual who wrote the refutation (Abu Fajr Al-Kanadee) clearly doesn’t have the academic/knowledge-based initiative to check the validity of what he quoted. Anyhow, it doesn’t seem to be clear who actually translated it and originated the spreading of words that were part of a specific argument but were then made into a general advice! 6. You may find some of this tiresome, but it leads to the next point, which is perhaps the crux of the matter. I’m sending this email because this is not the first time this has happened. I have actually advised the brother to check what he sends out before (the last time was even more dangerous with ahaadeeth being copied and pasted from the internet and being sent out and not actually realising that they were NOT from the Prophet [sallalahu alaihi wa sallam] because the people who had posted them on their own websites had simply made mistakes)... No more comment is needed here.