in the singular. If we were to adopt the apparent meaning, we would have to affirm a person with a face, eyes upon that face, a single side with many hands upon it, and a single shin. Nowhere in this world do we see anyone uglier than this imagined figure.
The Sunni who honors what Allah Most High has made sacred said: ‘O Jahmī, you have made this claim about the apparent meaning of the Quran—Allah’s proof against His servants, the best, truest, finest and most eloquent speech. Through it Allah has guided His servants, and He has made it a healing for what is in the hearts, and guidance and mercy for the believers. He has sent down no book from heaven that offers better guidance, or is finer or more perfect than it. You have thus violated its sanctity, dishonored its greatness, and attributed to it the most hideous defects and flaws …’”
He—may Allah have mercy on him—then presented eleven powerful arguments refuting this vile Jahmī. This writer picked out one of those arguments, took part of it, and used it to vilify Ibn al-Qayyim, siding with the Jahmīs and defending them.
I say to him: Why not complete your defense of them by presenting the remaining arguments that Ibn al-Qayyim put forward and addressing them one by one—if you are able?
- The writer says on p. 17:
“Ibn al-Qayyim is fanatical about this and follows the principle that his shaykh, al-Harrānī, established for him in his book al-Ta’sīs (1/109), where he says: ‘That being the case, the designation “those who liken Allah to His creation” is not mentioned with censure in the Book or the Sunnah, nor in the words of any of the Companions or the Successors.’ End quote.”
I say: Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya’s words did not end there, as you claim, you deceiver. Rather, he said immediately afterward:
“… However, a number of the early scholars, such as Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh, Nu‘aym ibn Hammād and others, condemned those who liken Allah to His creation. They explained that those whom they condemned were those who equate Allah’s attributes with the attributes of His creatures.”