Al-Tisʿīniyya - Ibn Taimiya - (2/494)

Al-TisʿīniyyaIbn Taimiya

and place no rancor in our hearts toward those who believe. Our Lord, You are Most Kind, Most Merciful.

Yet we recognize that this very line of reasoning lays bare the futility of the claim made by the Jahmiyyah among the Muʿtazilah (1) who maintain that Allah created His speech in some external locus. Everything they have put forward only confirms the unsoundness of this view—a view whose proponent was unanimously deemed misguided by the earliest generations and the leading scholars of the ummah (2). Indeed, anyone familiar with what the Messenger brought knows instinctively that such a doctrine is patently false in the religion of Islam.

The argument, however, holds true and proceeds consistently for those who affirm that actions subsist in Him and that the attribute of bringing-into-being (takwīn) subsists in Him. For that reason the refutation applies to the Ashʿarīs rather than to the Jahmiyyah (3), and it demonstrates that the speech of Allah subsists in His very Self—and that is the truth.

As for the assertion that He does not speak when He wills and is unable to speak with whatever He wills, this can only be defended by the novel claim of the Jahmiyyah that He does not move and that contingent events cannot occur in Him. On that basis they denied that He rose over the Throne after previously not having done so, that He will come on the Day of Resurrection, and other descriptions He has given of Himself in the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

With regard to these people’s statement (4): “If He created it within Himself, His essence would become a locus for temporal events,”—those who affirm that He speaks whenever He wills do not say that He creates something within Himself, for creating is itself an act that, according to them, subsists in Him by His will (5). Thus creation does not entail yet another act of creating, for that would lead to circularity and an infinite regress; hence no one has ever said

(1) In manuscripts s and t: al-Mu’tazila and others. (2) In all extant copies: ittifaqat (“they agreed”). The reading adopted here likely suits the context. (3) In manuscripts sh and t: al-jumhur (the majority). The Ashʿarites maintain that al-mutakallim (the speaker) is the one who utters the speech, whereas the Jahmiyya and Mu’tazila maintain that al-mutakallim is the one who produces the speech. (4) al-Qadi Abu Ali, Ibn al-Zaghuni, and others. (5) In manuscript s: idha (“when”).

ولا تجعل في قلوبنا غِلًا للذين آمنوا، ربنا إنك رؤوف رحيم، ولكن نعرف أن هذه الحجة تبين فساد قول الجهمية من المعتزلة (١) الذين يقولون: خلق الله كلامه في محل، فما ذكروه يبين فساد هذا القول، الذي اتفق (٢) سلف الأمة وأئمتها على ضلالة قائله، بل ذلك عند من يعرف ما جاء به الرسول معلوم الفساد بالاضطرار من دين الإسلام، ولكن هذا يسلم ويطرد لمن جعل الأفعال قائمة به، وجعل صفة التكوين قائمة به، ولهذا انتقضت على الأشعرية دون الجهمية (٣) ، ويبين أن كلام الله قائم به، وهذا حق. وأما كونه لا يتكلم إذا شاء، ولا يقدر أن يتكلم بما شاء، فهذا لا يصح إلّا بما ابتدعته الجهمية من قولهم: لا يتحرك، ولا تحل به الحوادث، وبذلك نفوا أن يكون استوى على العرش بعد أن لم يكن مستويًا، وأن يجيء يوم القيامة، وغير ذلك مما وصف به نفسه في الكتاب والسنة. وأما قول هؤلاء (٤) : لو خلقه في نفسه لكانت ذاته محلًا للحوادث، فالذين يقولون: إنه يتكلم إذا شاء لا يقولون: إنه يخلق في نفسه شيئًا، إذ (٥) الخلق هو فعل -أيضًا- قائم به عندهم بمشيئته، فلا يكون للخلق خلق آخر، وإلّا لزم الدور والتسلسل، ولهذا لم يقل أحد

(١) في س، ط: المعتزلة وغيرهم. (٢) في جميع النسخ: اتفقت. ولعل ما أثبت يناسب السياق. (٣) في ش، ط: الجمهور. لأن الأشعرية تقول: المتكلم من قام به الكلام، والجهمية والمعتزلة يقولون: المتكلم من فعل الكلام. (٤) القاضي أبو علي وابن الزاغوني وغيرهم. (٥) في س: إذا.