Al-Tisʿīniyya - Ibn Taimiya - (2/458)

Al-TisʿīniyyaIbn Taimiya

and His speech, is the Creator, the Fashioner (1), Himself uncreated; and whatever exists through His act, His command, His bringing-forth, and His forming is an effected, created, and fashioned thing).

There is no doubt that this doctrine upon which Ahl (2) al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah are united is the truth, for the very argument that one who is knowing, powerful, speaking, and willing can only be so if knowledge, power, speech, and will inhere in him applies verbatim (3) to the Creator and the Agent. It is evident to sound, intuitive reason (4) that a maker or doer cannot truly be a maker or doer unless that by which he acts resides in him; an agent [a maker] is not called an agent (5)—such as a striker, a killer, a benefactor, or one who feeds—unless the action warranting that name is present in him. The Jahmites rejected all of this, and their later offshoots agreed with them on some points while differing on others.

As for the affirmers, they have remained upon the innate disposition, in keeping with what the Sacred Law has conveyed and what the Book and the sunnah have set forth. Allah has described Himself in many places by His actions, just as He has described Himself by knowledge, power, and speech. Among those actions are His coming, His arrival, His descent, and His rising over the Throne (istiwāʾ), and the like. Yet (6) here He informs us of His actions, whereas elsewhere He mentions His names that entail those actions.

The early imams of the Salaf did not differentiate between the names of actions and the names of speech, as recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (7). Saʿīd ibn Jubayr related that a man once asked Ibn ʿAbbās, saying, “I find certain things in the Quran that appear inconsistent to me,” whereupon he presented his questions, among them

(1) In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: “He is the Creator and the Maker.” (2) The text enclosed in brackets is an addition found in both manuscripts S and T. (3) In manuscripts S and T: the word huwa (“he”). (4) In the original and in manuscript T: bibaʾdāya. The reading attested by manuscript S. (5) The text enclosed in brackets is an addition found in both manuscripts S and T. (6) In manuscript T: lakin (“but”). (7) Its citation was given above, p. 322.

هو الخالق المكون (١) غير مخلوق، وما كان بفعله وأمره وتخليقه وتكوينه فهو مفعول مخلوق مكون). ولا ريب أن هذا القول الذي عليه [أهل] (٢) السنة والجماعة هو الحق، فإن ما ذكر من الحجة أن العالم القادر المتكلم المريد لا يكون إلّا بأن يقوم به العلم والقدرة والكلام والإرادة، وهو (٣) بعينه يقال في الخالق والفاعل، فإنه من المعلوم ببدائه (٤) العقول وضرورتها أن الصانع الفاعل لا يكون صانعًا فاعلًا إلّا أن يقوم به ما يكون به فاعلًا [صانعًا، ولا يسمى الفاعل فاعلًا] (٥) كالضارب والقاتل والمحسن والمطعم، وغير ذلك إلّا إذا قام به الفعل الذي يستحق به الاسم، ولكن الجهمية نفت هذا كله، وفروخهم وافقتهم في البعض دون البعض. وأما أهل الإثبات فباقون على الفطرة، كما وردت به الشريعة، وكما جاء به الكتاب والسنة، فإن الله وصف نفسه في غير موضع بأفعاله، كما وصف نفسه بالعلم والقدرة والكلام، ومن ذلك المجيء والإتيان والنزول والاستواء، ونحو ذلك من أفعاله، لكن (٦) هنا أخبر بأفعاله، وهناك ذكر أسماءه المتضمنة للأفعال. ولم يفرق السلف الأئمة بين أسماء الأفعال وأسماء الكلام، كما في صحيح البخاري (٧) ، عن سعيد بن جبير أن رجلًا سأل ابن عباس قال: إني أجد في القرآن أشياء تختلف عليّ، فذكر مسائله، ومنها

(١) في صحيح البخاري: وهو الخالق وهو المكون. . (٢) ما بين المعقوفتين زيادة من: س، ط. (٣) في س، ط: هو. (٤) في الأصل، ط: ببداية. والمثبت من: س. (٥) ما بين المعقوفتين زيادة من: س، ط. (٦) في ط: ولكن. (٧) تقدم تخريجه ص: ٣٢٢.