Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (19/344)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

In the closing pages of al-Mankhūl (1) al-Ghazālī voices some coarse remarks about an Imām; I do not deem it proper to reproduce them here.

Among the opening statements of Abū Ḥāmid’s creed—may Allah Most High have mercy upon him—are the following:

“Praise be to Allah who made Himself known to His servants through His Book, sent down upon the tongue of His commissioned Prophet: that He, in His Essence, is One with no partner; unique with no equal; Self-Sufficient with no opposite. He has ever been and will ever remain described by the attributes of majesty; directions do not encompass Him, and the heavens do not contain Him. He is established over the Throne in the manner He Himself affirmed and with the meaning He intended, transcendent above contact, settlement, location, indwelling, or movement. He is above everything down to the furthest limits, yet He is nearer to us than the jugular vein—His nearness bearing no resemblance to the nearness of bodies. He existed before the creation of place and time, and He is now as He has always been. He is separate from His creation by His attributes—within His Essence there is none besides Him, and within anything besides Him there is nothing of His Essence—sanctified from change and movement; contingent events do not befall Him. He will be seen, in His very Essence, by the eyes in the Abode of Permanence, completing His favor through the vision of His Noble Face.

He continues: He perceives the movement of a speck in the air; no glance of an onlooker nor a sudden passing thought escapes His will. The Quran is recited on tongues, safeguarded in hearts, written in the maṣāḥif (codices), yet with all of that it subsists in the Essence of Allah and admits no separation.”

(1) pp. 495–504. The “Imam” meant here is Abu Hanifa. Al-Dhahabi was right to label the author’s remarks about him as coarse, for they rest on no sound scholarship and were written while the author was still engrossed in dialectical disputation and the usual ambitions of students; he composed Al-Mankhul at the very beginning of his academic career. Most of the sentences in this section are taken verbatim from his teacher Imam al-Haramayn’s book Mughith al-Khalaq fi Tarjih al-Qawl al-Ahaqq, written to champion the Shafi‘i school over the others. That work is filled with extreme partisanship and scathing attacks on Imam Abu Hanifa, so shrill that refined ears recoil from it; impartial scholars therefore give it no weight. Imam al-Kawthari authored a refutation entitled Ihqaq al-Haqq—interested readers may consult it.

وَفِي أَوَاخرِ (المَنْخُوْل (١)) لِلْغزَالِي كَلاَم فَجٌّ فِي إِمَام لاَ أَرَى نَقله هُنَا. وَمِنْ عقيدَة أَبِي حَامِد - رَحِمَهُ اللهُ تَعَالَى - أَوَّلهَا: الحَمْدُ للهِ الَّذِي تَعرَّف إِلَى عبَاده بِكِتَابِه المُنْزَل عَلَى لِسَانِ نَبِيِّه الْمُرْسل، بِأَنَّهُ فِي ذَاته وَاحِد لاَ شَرِيْكَ لَهُ، فَردٌ لاَ مِثْل لَهُ، صَمَدٌ لاَ ضِدَّ لَهُ، لَمْ يَزَلْ وَلاَ يَزَالُ منعوتاً بِنعوت الجلاَل، وَلاَ تُحيطُ بِهِ الجِهَاتُ، وَلاَ تَكنُفه السَّمَاوَاتُ، وَأَنَّهُ مُسْتوٍ عَلَى الْعَرْش عَلَى الوَجْه الَّذِي قَالَهُ، وَبِالمَعْنَى الَّذِي أَرَادَه، منزَّهاً عَنِ الممَاسَة وَالاستقرَار وَالتمكن وَالحُلُوْل وَالانتقَالِ، وَهُوَ فَوْقَ كُلِّ شَيْء إِلَى التّخوم، وَهُوَ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْنَا مِنْ حَبل الورِيْد، لاَ يُمَاثِلُ قُرْبُهُ قربَ الأَجسَام، كَانَ قَبْلَ خلقِ المَكَان وَالزَّمَان، وَهُوَ الآنَ عَلَى مَا كَانَ عَلَيْهِ، وَأَنَّهُ بَائِنٌ بصفَاته مِنْ خلقه، مَا فِي ذَاته سِوَاهُ، وَلاَ فِي سِوَاهُ ذَاتُه، مُقدَّس عَنِ التَّغَيُّر وَالانتقَالِ، لاَ تَحُلُّه الحوَادِثُ، وَأَنَّهُ مَرْئِي الذَّاتِ بِالأَبْصَار فِي دَارِ القرَار، إِتمَاماً لِلنعم بِالنَّظَر إِلَى وَجهه الكَرِيْم. إِلَى أَنْ قَالَ: وَيُدْرِكُ حركَة الذَّرِّ فِي الهوَاء، لاَ يَخْرُج عَنْ مَشِيئَته لفتَةُ نَاظر، وَلاَ فَلتَةُ خَاطر، وَأَنَّ القُرْآن مَقْرُوء بِالأَلسِنَة، مَحْفُوْظٌ فِي الْقُلُوب، مكتوبٌ فِي المَصَاحِف، وَأَنَّهُ مَعَ ذَلِكَ قَائِمٌ بِذَات الله، لاَ يَقْبَلُ الانفصَالَ

(١) ص: ٤٩٥ - ٥٠٤، والمراد بالامام: أبو حنيفة ﵀، وحق للذهبي أن ينعت كلامه فيه بأنه فج، فإنه ليس عليه أثارة من علم، وقد صدر عنه حين كان متلبسا بعلوم الجدل، وحظوظ طلبة العلم، فإنه صنف المنخول في أول حياته العلمية، ومعظم ما في هذا الفصل من فقر مأخوذة من كتاب شيخه إمام الحرمين " مغيث الخلق في ترجيح القول الاحق " الذي ألفه في ترجيح مذهب الشافعي على غيره من المذاهب، وفيه من التعصب الفظيع، والحط الشنيع على الامام أبي حنيفة ﵀ ما تصم عنه الاسماع، وتنبو عنه الاذواق، وهو مما لا يلتفت إليه عند المحققين من العلماء ذوي النصفة، وقد صنف الامام الكوثري في الرد عليه كتاب " إحقاق الحق " فليرجع إليه من شاء.