the early generations and the imams. For example, Abū Yūsuf said: ‘Whoever seeks knowledge through speculative theology becomes a heretic.’ Al-Shāfiʿī said: ‘My judgment concerning practitioners of speculative theology is that they should be beaten with palm stalks and sandals and paraded among the clans and tribes, while it is proclaimed: “This is the recompense of one who abandons the Book and Sunnah and turns to speculative theology.”’ Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: ‘Scholars of speculative theology are heretics.’ He also said: ‘No one has ever embraced speculative theology and prospered.’ There are other statements to this effect.
In reality, the view that bodies are composed of indivisible atoms is not known to have been held by any of the imams of the Muslims—whether the Companions, those who followed them in righteousness, or the recognized imams who came after them.”
I say: Reflect, then, on Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah’s words in full, and consider what this writer understood from them. You will find that he combined misunderstanding with ill intent. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah did not praise the Karrāmiyyah in this passage. Rather, he placed their view alongside that of the philosophers, cited reports condemning speculative theology and its practitioners, and explained that the view they held is not known to have been held by any of the imams of the Muslims—whether the Companions, those who followed them in righteousness, or the recognized imams who came after them.
In any case, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah’s position on the Karrāmiyyah is well known; he explained it in several places in his works. He notes that they agreed with the adherents of hadith on some matters and differed with them on others. They are therefore praised where they agreed with the truth and censured where they departed from it.
- The writer said in the footnote on p. 51: “Rather, his imam, Ibn Taymiyyah, explicitly affirmed this—that is, the attribute of silence.” See al-Muwāfaqah, printed in the margins of his Minhāj (2/38).
Earlier, the writer had stated in the main text that Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz’s words imply