I usually keep away from the aqeedah wars among various Sunni groups because I don’t find much benefit in them. I’m not that interested in converting other Sunnis to my way of thinking. However, I do care about consistency and fair representation of others’ opinions. Recently, a debate has risen over whether Ibn Qudama, the famous …
Ibn Qudama Did Tafwid in Meaning and Not Just Modality Read More »
Various books can be consulted and studied in order to obtain the authentic creed (aqeedah) of the Hanbalis (or Athari creed). From the classical books of the early phase of the Hanbali scholars, the most important is: Usool al-Sunnah authored by Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal himself. In addition, Sharh al-Sunnah by al-Barbahari (d. 329 AH) and al-Ha’iyah …
Many progressive Muslims argue that there is no such thing as ‘normative Islam’ and that it is all open to re-interpretation according to changing times even when it comes to fundamental issues of creed. In order to defend this position, their line of argument goes something like this: What exactly is normative Islam? There is …
The Fine Line Between Belief (Emaan) and Disbelief (Kufr) in Islam Read More »
I recently wrote a detailed piece on the Hanbali perspective on Istighatha and Tawassul. In that piece, I interviewed Sh. Kareem Helmy, a Hanbali scholar and researcher based in Egypt, to provide details on what Hanbali scholars say about these two matters. We briefly discussed Ibn Taymiyyah in it as well but the main focus …
There are many aspects of the Mighty Book of Allah which cannot be imitated. In order to deal with them properly, they have been put into four categories. This section deals with the first of these which is the excellence of its composition, the cohesion of its word-structure and the purity of its Arabic. This …
Know that the reason we call what the Prophets have brought a “miracle” (mu‘jiza) is that creatures are incapable (‘ijaz) of doing the like of it. There are two sorts of miracle. One sort is something that human beings are potentially able to do, but which they are prevented from doing by an act of …
A week or two ago, I was asked by someone reaching out to me through this blog about the Hanbali position on istighatha (استغاثة), directly requesting aid from the dead, and tawassul (التوسل), to make a request to Allah through some sort of means. This is a controversial issue in the Muslim world and often …
Istighatha and Tawassul in the Hanbali School: A Discussion With Sh. Kareem Helmy Read More »