Al-Qawl al-Sadid fi al-Radd ala Man Ankara Taqsim al-Tawhid - Abd al-Razzaq ibn Abd al-Muhsin al-Badr - (112)

Al-Qawl al-Sadid fi al-Radd ala Man Ankara Taqsim al-TawhidAbd al-Razzaq ibn Abd al-Muhsin al-Badr

This statement attributed to Imam Ahmad was transmitted from him by Hanbal in Kitāb al-Mihnah (The Book of the Inquisition). Responding to this, Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah says:

“This is what the judge and others mentioned: Hanbal transmitted from Ahmad in Kitāb al-Mihnah that he said this while debating them on the day of the Inquisition. They had argued against him by citing the words, ‘Al-Baqarah and Āl ʿImrān will come.’ They said, ‘Coming can only be attributed to something created.’ Ahmad countered them with His words, ‘And your Lord comes,’ and ‘or your Lord should come.’ He said that ‘Al-Baqarah and Āl ʿImrān will come’ means their reward, just as ‘And your Lord comes’ means His command and power.

“Ahmad’s followers differed over what Hanbal transmitted, for it undoubtedly contradicts the abundantly transmitted statements from Ahmad prohibiting the reinterpretation of this, of the divine descent and rising over the Throne, and of similar divine actions.

“They held three views. One view was that this was an error on Hanbal’s part: he alone transmitted it, unlike those who related Ahmad’s debate, such as Sālih, ʿAbd Allāh, al-Marwadhī, and others, none of whom mentioned this. Hanbal is alone in transmitting certain reports in which a number of scholars, such as al-Khallāl and his companion, consider him to have erred. Abū Ishāq ibn Shāqilā said, ‘This is an error on Hanbal’s part, without any doubt.’

“Likewise, a report has been transmitted from Mālik that he interpreted ‘He descends to the lowest heaven’ to mean that His command descends. However, this was transmitted by his scribe Habīb, whom they unanimously regarded as a liar. It has also been transmitted through another route, but its chain of transmission is unknown.

“The second view: A group of Ahmad’s followers said that he made this statement to hold his opponent to the implications of the latter’s own position. For when, on the day of the Inquisition, they argued against him by citing the words, ‘Al-Baqarah and Āl ʿImrān will come,’ he replied that this meant that the reward of al-Baqarah and Āl ʿImrān would come, as in His words, ‘that Allah should come to them’ 1,

(1) Surah al-Baqarah, verse 210.

وهذا القول المنقول عن الإمام أحمد رواه عنه حنبل في كتاب المحنة، وفي الإجابة عن هذا يقول شيخ الإسلام ابن تيمية: "هذا الذي ذكره القاضي وغيره أنَّ حنبلاً نقله عن أحمد في كتاب المحنة أنَّه قال ذلك في المناظرة لهم يوم المحنة لما احتجوا عليه بقوله "تجيء البقرة وآل عمران" قالوا: والمجيء لا يكون إلا لمخلوق، فعارضهم أحمد بقوله: ﴿وَجَآءَ رَبُّكَ﴾ ، ﴿أَوْ يَأْتِيَ رَبُّكَ﴾ ، وقال: المراد بقوله "تجيء البقرة وآل عمران" ثوابهما، كما في قوله: ﴿وَجَآءَ رَبُّكَ﴾ أمره وقدرته. وقد اختلف أصحاب أحمد فيما نقله حنبل، فإنَّه لا ريب خلاف النصوص المتواترة عن أحمد في منعه من تأويل هذا، وتأويل النزول، والاستواء ونحو ذلك من الأفعال. ولهم ثلاثة أقوال: قيل: إنَّ هذا غلط من حنبل، انفرد به دون الذين ذكروا عنه المناظرة مثل صالح وعبد الله والمروذي وغيرهم، فإنَّهم لم يذكروا هذا، وحنبل ينفرد بروايات يغلطه فيها طائفة كالخلال وصاحبه، قال أبو إسحاق بن شاقلا: هذا غلط من حنبل ولا شك فيه. وكذلك نقل عن مالك رواية أنَّه تأول "ينزل إلى السماء الدنيا" أنه ينزل أمره، لكن هذا من رواية حبيب كاتبه وهو كذَّاب باتفاقهم، وقد رويت من وجه آخر لكن الإسناد مجهول. والقول الثاني: قال طائفة من أصحاب أحمد: هذا قاله إلزاماً للخصم على مذهبه لأنَّهم في يوم المحنة لما احتجوا عليه بقوله "تأتي البقرة وآل عمران" أجابهم بأن معناه: يأتي ثواب البقرة وآل عمران كقوله: ﴿أَن يَّأْتِيَهُمُ اللهُ﴾ ١،

١ سورة البقرة، الآية ٢١٠.