Darʾ Taʿâroud al-ʿAql wa-n-Naql - Ibn Taimiya - (6/195)

Darʾ Taʿâroud al-ʿAql wa-n-NaqlIbn Taimiya

“Time is one, yet it cannot be dissociated from the world, nor can the world be dissociated from it; it is not separate from the world, nor is the world separate from it; it does not touch the world, nor does the world touch it; it does not enter into anything in the world, nor does anything in the world enter into it, because it is one and the world is inseparable from it?”’

If they say yes, they are told:

‘You have spoken truly. Why, then, have you affirmed an object of worship with the same meaning as time, while declaring those who say the same as you to be unbelievers? Can you find any difference between yourselves and them beyond giving it a different name?

‘You have said that He is inseparable from the world and the world inseparable from Him; that He is not within the world and the world is not within Him; and that He does not touch the world and the world does not touch Him.

‘Where, then, are you heading, people of understanding, if you truly understand? Who is more rightly accused of likening Allah to His creation: we or you? Why have you turned upon those who disagree with you, declaring them unbelievers and claiming that they have disbelieved because they say, “One, alone and separate”? Why should you not be more deserving than they of being charged with unbelief and likening Allah to His creation, when you make the same claims as the heretics, say what those misguided opponents say, and depart from affirming the oneness of the Lord of the worlds?’”

He said:

“And what of your sharing in the heresy of the dualists when they said, ‘Things come from two things and are inseparable from them, just as those two are inseparable from things; things were generated from and out of them; light and darkness are each without limit in themselves; and one mingled with the other, so that things were generated from them’?

“You said to them, ‘How can that which is without limit produce something that is not within itself? How can that which is without limit come to be within something else?’

“The same question is put to you: ‘How can that which is without limit produce something that is neither within itself nor separate from itself?’ And the same consequence follows for you if you claim that it is through the conjunction of light and darkness

إن الدهر هو واحد، إلا أنه لا ينفك عن العالم ولا ينفك العالم منه، ولا يباين العالم ولا يباينه، ولا يماس العالم ولا يماسه، ولا يداخل شيئاً من العالم ولا يداخله، لأنه واحد والعالم غير مفارق له؟ فإذا قالوا نعم: قيل لهم: صدقتم، فلم أثبتم المعبود بمعنى الدهر، وأكفرتم من قال بمثل مقالتكم؟ وهل تجدون بينكم وبينهم فرقاً أكثر من أن سميتموه بغير ما سموه به؟ وقد قلتم: إنه غير مفارق للعالم ولا العالم مفارق له، ولا هو داخل العالم ولا العالم داخل فيه، ولا مماس للعالم، ولا العالم مماس له. فأين تذهبون يا أولي الألباب إن كنتم تعقلون؟ من أولى أن يكون قد شبه الله بخلقه: نحن أو أنتم؟ ولم رجعتم على من خالفكم بالتكفير، وزعمتم أنهم قد كفروا لأنهم قالوا: واحد منفرد بائن؟ فلم لا كنتم أولى بالكفر والتشبيه منهم إذ زعمتم مثل زعم الملحدين، وقلتم مثل مقالة المخالفين الضالين، وخرجتم من توحيد رب العالمين) . قال: (وكذلك مشاركتكم الثنوية في إلحادهم لما قالوا: إن الأشياء من شيئين لا تنفك منهما ولا ينفكان منها، وإن الأشياء تولدت عنهما ومنهما، وأن النور والظلمة لا نهاية لهما في أنفسهما، وأن أحدهما مازج الآخر فتولدت الأشياء منهما؟ وقلتم لهم: كيف يكون ما لا نهاية له يفعل شيئاً لا في نفسه؟ وكيف يجيء ما لا نهاية له فيكون في غيره؟ فقيل لكم مثل ذلك: كيف يكون ما لا نهاية له يفعل شيئاً لا في نفسه ولا بائناً من نفسه؟ ويلزمكم إذا زعمتم أنه لاتفاق النور والظلمة