Criticism of our position regarding of Ashairah
Fatwa No: 84218

Question

You say we are moderate but when I look at your presentation of creed of 'al-Ashairah' you are talking bad about them. We don't know of any scholars except Ibn Taymiyah and his followers who criticize them. Ahl al-Kalam are from Ahl al-Sunnah whether they are Maturidiya or al-Ashiraha. You should careful what you says, maybe tomorrow Allah ask you what you are talking today.

Answer

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

The method of al-Asha'irah and al-Mathuridiyah in dealing the matters of faith is not similar to the method of Ahl al-Sunnah (adherent of Sunnah) though Imam al-Ash'ari recanted from his many ideas that are adopted by many of those who claim to be his followers. His actual creed is recorded in his later books such as "al-Maqalaat al-Islamiyyeen", "al-Ibanah" and in the "letter to the inhabitants of the borderlines".
Sheik al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah is not the only one who rejected the creed of al-Ash'irah and pointed out their mistakes. To verify the authenticity of our statement one should read the books of good ancestors. For example, one may refer to the following books:
- "Usool al-I'etiqad" (the principles of creed) written by al-Lalkai ,
- "al-Hujjah" (the substantiation) written by al-Asfahani ,
- "al-'Uluw" (the highness) written by Imam al-Zahabi .
There are other scholars who compiled books before the above scholars such as Abdullah bin Ahmad bin Hanbal in his book "al-Sunnah", Ibn Khuzaimah in his book "al-Tawheed" and Ibn Manda in the book "al-Tawheed". There are many other reliable Islamic references where one can find the same material.
Claiming that all the people of al-Kalam are from Ahl al-Sunnah is nothing more than a lie.
The evidence for this claim (that al-'Ashairah and al-Mathuridiyah are not from Ahl al-Sunnah) is that they themselves believe that Ahl-I'etizal who are also the people of al-Kalam are deviants. In fact, most of al-Ashairah and al-Mathuridiyah are from the people of al-Kalam; a few of them are from Ahl al-Sunnah.
Every just person who looks attentively in the Qur'an, Hadith, sayings of Sahabah, their followers, those who came after them from among the people of best generations and consider the sayings of great scholars in Islam such as the four Imams, and the like and then compare their opinions with the stand of al-'Ashairah and al-Mathuridiyah and then the stand of Ahl al-Sunnah, Ibn Taymiyah being one of them, will find that the truth is with Ibn Taymiyah and those who agree with him. They are those who are actually following the Qur'an, Sunnah and the good ancestors, not al-'Ashairah and al-Mathuridiyah.
Allah knows best.

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