Al-Ṣawāʿiq al-Murṣala - Ibn al-Qayyim - (1/201)

Al-Ṣawāʿiq al-MurṣalaIbn al-Qayyim

and regarded it as undoing what the prophets had sought to establish. The two factions are therefore agreed that the concrete realities which the wording of those passages suggests have no actual existence.

The third category consists of the proponents of tajhīl (declared ignorance). They say: “The texts that speak of the divine attributes are merely words whose meanings cannot be grasped, and no one knows what Allah and His Messenger intended by them. We simply recite them (1) as words with no meanings, while believing that they do have an interpretation known only to Allah. To us they are on a par with ‘Kāf Hā Yā ʿAyn Ṣād’ (Maryam 19:1), ‘Ḥā Mīm ʿAyn Sīn Qāf’ (Ash-Shūrā 42:1–2), and ‘Alif Lām Mīm Ṣād’ (Al-Aʿrāf 7:1). Were similar statements to reach us, we would neither take them to imply anthropomorphism nor likening, yet we would not know their meaning; we would censure anyone who interpreted them and would consign their knowledge to Allah.

These people imagine that this was the method of the Salaf, assuming that the earliest generations did not know the true import of the divine names and attributes, nor did they understand His words, limā khalaqtu bi-yadayya (“for what I created with My own Hands,” Ṣād 38:74), wal-arḍu jamīʿan qabḍatuhu yawma al-qiyāmah (“The whole earth will be in His Grip on the Day of Resurrection,” Az-Zumar 39:64), ar-Raḥmān ʿalā al-ʿarsh istawā (“The All-Merciful rose above the Throne,” Ṭāhā 20:4), and other passages of this kind.

They have built their doctrine on two premises:

that these texts belong to the category of the mutashābih (ambiguous); and
that the mutashābih has an interpretation known only to Allah.

From these two premises it follows that the foremost pioneers among the Muhājirūn and the Anṣār, along with the rest of the Companions and those who followed them in excellence, must have been ignorant, for they used to recite: ar-Raḥmān ʿalā al-ʿarsh istawā (“The All-Merciful rose above the Throne,” Ṭāhā 20:4) and bal yadāhu mabsūṭatān (“Rather, both His Hands are outstretched,” Al-Māʾidah 5:66),

ورأوه عائدًا على ما قصدته الأنبياءُ بالإبطال. والطائفتان متفقتان على انتفاء حقائقها المفهومة منها في نفس الأمر. والصنف الثالث: أصحاب التجهيل، الذين قالوا: نصوص الصِّفات ألفاظٌ لا يُعقَل معانيها، ولا يُدرى ما أراد اللهُ ورسوله منها، ولكن نقرؤُها (١) ألفاظًا لا معانِيَ لها، ونعلم أن لها تأويلًا لا يعلمه إلَّا الله، وهي عندنا بمنزلة: ﴿كهيعص﴾ [مريم: ١] و ﴿حم عسق﴾ [الشورى: ١] و ﴿المص﴾ [الأعراف: ١]. فلو ورد علينا منها ما ورد لم نعتقد فيه تمثيلًا ولا تشبيهًا، ولم نعرف معناه، ونُنكِر على مَن تأوَّله، ونَكِل علمه إلى الله. وظن هؤلاء أن هذه طريقةُ السلف، وأنهم لم يكونوا يعرفون حقائق الأسماء والصفات، ولا يفهمون معنى قوله: ﴿لِمَا خَلَقْتُ بِيَدَيَّ﴾ [ص: ٧٤] وقوله: ﴿وَاَلْأَرْضُ جَمِيعًا قَبْضَتُهُ يَوْمَ اَلْقِيَامَةِ﴾ [الزمر: ٦٤]، وقوله: ﴿اَلرَّحْمَنُ عَلَى اَلْعَرْشِ اِسْتَوى﴾ [طه: ٤]، وأمثال ذلك من نصوص الصفات. وبنَوْا هذا المذهب على أصلين: أحدهما: أن هذه النصوص من المتشابِه. والثاني: أن للمتشابه تأويلًا لا يعلمه إلَّا الله. فنتج مِن هذين الأصلين استجهالُ السابقين الأولين من المهاجرين والأنصار وسائر الصحابة والتابعين لهم بإحسان، وأنهم كانوا يقرؤون: ﴿اَلرَّحْمَنُ عَلَى اَلْعَرْشِ اِسْتَوى﴾ [طه: ٤] و ﴿بَلْ يَدَاهُ مَبْسُوطَتَانِ﴾ [المائدة: ٦٦]،

(١) «ح»: «يقروها».