Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: What Is Meant by “the origination of the world”
Every Muslim says that the world was created. The dispute in this chapter is not over that. It is over what the mutakallimūn added to it: that the Lord was without any action for a time with no beginning, and then began. They made this the meaning of creation, they called whoever denies it a philosopher, and they built on it their denial of every action that subsists in Him. The first task is to separate what the prophets taught from what the mutakallimūn added.
Ibn Taymiyyah said in Darʾ Taʿāruḍ, setting out what “the world is originated” can mean:
What people understand from this statement is that everything besides Allah is created, originated, coming into being after it was not; and that Allah alone is the Eternal without beginning, with nothing eternal alongside Him preceding it; rather everything besides Him comes into being after it was not. So He alone has eternity, as He alone has creating, originating, divinity and lordship, and everything besides Him is originated, created, under His lordship, a servant to Him.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa-l-Naql 1/125
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ومسألة تناول العلم لما لا يتناهى مسألة مشكلة علي القولين، ليس الغرض هنا إنهاء القول فيها، بل المقصود أن مثل هذه الآية لم يرد الله بها إبطال دوام كونه لم يزل متكلماً
المعاني المختلفة لحدوث العالم عند النظار
ومما يشبه هذا إذا قيل: العالم حادث أم ليس بحادث؟ والمراد بالعالم في الاصطلاح هو كل ما سوى الله، فإن هذه العبارة لها معني في الظاهر المعروف عند عامة الناس أهل الملل وغيرهم، ولها معني في عرف المتكلمين، وقد أحدث الملاحدة لها معني ثالثاً.
المعني الأول
فالذي يفهمه الناس من هذا الكلام أن كل ما سوى الله مخلوق، حادث، كائن بعد أن لم يكن، وأن الله وحده هو القديم الأزلي، ليس معه شيء قديم تقدمه، بل كل ما سواه كائن بعد أن لم يكن، فهو المختص بالقدم، كما اختص بالخلق والإبداع والإلهية والربوبية، وكل ما سواه محدث مخلوق مربوب عبد له.
وهذا العني هو المعروف عن الأنبياء وأتباع من المسلمين واليهود والنصارى، وهو مذهب أكثر الناس غير أهل الملل من الفلاسفة وغيرهم.
المعنى الثاني
والمعني الثاني أن يقال: لم يزل الله لا يفعل شيئاً ولا يتكلم بمشيئته، ثم حدثت الحوادث من غير سبب يقتضي ذلك، مثل أن يقال: إن كونه لم يزل متكلماً بمشيئته أو فاعلاً بمشيئته، بل لم يزل قادراً، هو ممتنع، وإنه يمتنع وجود حوادث لا أول لها، فهذا المعني هو الذي يعنيه أهل الكلام من الجهمية
That is the creed of the Muslims, and he says that it is what is known from the prophets and their followers. Whoever says that any particular thing besides Allah has no beginning has left Islam, whether he calls it the heavens, the intellects or matter. Then he states the second meaning:
He said:
The second meaning is that it is said: Allah never ceased not doing anything and not speaking by His will, and then events occurred without any cause requiring that; for example, it is said that His never having ceased to speak by His will or to act by His will is impossible, rather He never ceased to be able; and that the existence of events with no beginning is impossible.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa-l-Naql 1/125
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ومسألة تناول العلم لما لا يتناهى مسألة مشكلة علي القولين، ليس الغرض هنا إنهاء القول فيها، بل المقصود أن مثل هذه الآية لم يرد الله بها إبطال دوام كونه لم يزل متكلماً
المعاني المختلفة لحدوث العالم عند النظار
ومما يشبه هذا إذا قيل: العالم حادث أم ليس بحادث؟ والمراد بالعالم في الاصطلاح هو كل ما سوى الله، فإن هذه العبارة لها معني في الظاهر المعروف عند عامة الناس أهل الملل وغيرهم، ولها معني في عرف المتكلمين، وقد أحدث الملاحدة لها معني ثالثاً.
المعني الأول
فالذي يفهمه الناس من هذا الكلام أن كل ما سوى الله مخلوق، حادث، كائن بعد أن لم يكن، وأن الله وحده هو القديم الأزلي، ليس معه شيء قديم تقدمه، بل كل ما سواه كائن بعد أن لم يكن، فهو المختص بالقدم، كما اختص بالخلق والإبداع والإلهية والربوبية، وكل ما سواه محدث مخلوق مربوب عبد له.
وهذا العني هو المعروف عن الأنبياء وأتباع من المسلمين واليهود والنصارى، وهو مذهب أكثر الناس غير أهل الملل من الفلاسفة وغيرهم.
المعنى الثاني
والمعني الثاني أن يقال: لم يزل الله لا يفعل شيئاً ولا يتكلم بمشيئته، ثم حدثت الحوادث من غير سبب يقتضي ذلك، مثل أن يقال: إن كونه لم يزل متكلماً بمشيئته أو فاعلاً بمشيئته، بل لم يزل قادراً، هو ممتنع، وإنه يمتنع وجود حوادث لا أول لها، فهذا المعني هو الذي يعنيه أهل الكلام من الجهمية
He continues that this second meaning is what the people of kalām from among the Jahmiyyah intend. So the phrase has two meanings. In the first it is the religion of the prophets, and in the second it is a thesis of the Jahmiyyah that no prophet taught.
Part Two
The texts of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah
Second Issue: The Creator Who Does What He Wills
The Qurʾān praises Him for acting, and it does so in terms that do not admit of a time when this was lacking.
Allah, the Exalted, said in Sūrat al-Burūj:
Doer of whatever He wills.
Sūrat al-Burūj, 85:16 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The word is faʿʿāl (فَعَّال), the intensive form, and “whatever” (مَا) is general. He mentions it in the course of praising Himself, between His being the Owner of the Throne and the destruction of the armies. What is praise of Him is a perfection, and a perfection is not something that He was without and then acquired.
And He said in Sūrat al-Naḥl:
Is the One who creates like the one who does not create? Will you not remember?
Sūrat al-Naḥl, 16:17 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
So the difference between the Lord and the idols is that He creates. On the doctrine of the mutakallimūn there was an endless time in which the Lord did not create, and in that respect He was as the idols are, except that they say He was able. That answer is considered below.
And He said in Sūrat al-Zumar:
Allah is the Creator of everything, and He is Guardian over everything.
Sūrat al-Zumar, 39:62 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Here is the other half. Everything is created, and nothing besides Him escapes that word. Whoever makes any particular thing eternal alongside Him has contradicted this verse. The people of the Sunnah hold both verses together: He never ceased to act, and every single thing that He has made came to be after it was not.
Al-Bukhārī reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ, in the chapter on the beginning of creation, from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, that the people of Yemen said they had come to ask about this matter, and the Prophet ﷺ said:
Allah was, and there was nothing other than Him, and His Throne was upon the water, and He wrote everything in the Reminder, and He created the heavens and the earth.
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ no. 3191 (al-Sulṭāniyyah 4/105–106)
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic. It is in the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, and the ummah received the two Ṣaḥīḥs with acceptance; its full chain is given in the Arabic above.
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⦗١٠٦⦘
عَنْ هَذَا الْأَمْرِ قَالَ: كَانَ اللهُ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ شَيْءٌ غَيْرُهُ وَكَانَ عَرْشُهُ عَلَى الْمَاءِ وَكَتَبَ فِي الذِّكْرِ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ وَخَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فَنَادَى مُنَادٍ: ذَهَبَتْ نَاقَتُكَ يَا ابْنَ الْحُصَيْنِ فَانْطَلَقْتُ فَإِذَا هِيَ يَقْطَعُ دُونَهَا السَّرَابُ فَوَاللهِ لَوَدِدْتُ أَنِّي كُنْتُ تَرَكْتُهَا.» ٣١٩٢ - وَرَوَى عِيسَى عَنْ رَقَبَةَ عَنْ قَيْسِ بْنِ مُسْلِمٍ عَنْ طَارِقِ بْنِ شِهَابٍ قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ عُمَرَ ﵁ يَقُولُ: قَامَ فِينَا النَّبِيُّ ﷺ مَقَامًا فَأَخْبَرَنَا عَنْ بَدْءِ الْخَلْقِ حَتَّى دَخَلَ أَهْلُ الْجَنَّةِ مَنَازِلَهُمْ وَأَهْلُ النَّارِ مَنَازِلَهُمْ حَفِظَ ذَلِكَ مَنْ حَفِظَهُ وَنَسِيَهُ مَنْ نَسِيَهُ.
He reported it in the chapter on the beginning of creation, and he repeated it where the subject is tawḥīd.
And he reported it in the Book of Tawḥīd, where the question is put as “about the first of this matter, what it was”, in this wording:
Allah was, and there was nothing before Him, and His Throne was upon the water; then He created the heavens and the earth, and He wrote everything in the Reminder.
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ no. 7418 (al-Sulṭāniyyah 9/124)
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic. It is in the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, and the ummah received the two Ṣaḥīḥs with acceptance; its full chain is given in the Arabic above.
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One story, told by one Companion, in two wordings. In the second, the wording agrees with what the Prophet ﷺ said in his supplication, “You are the First, so there is nothing before You.” The questioners asked about the first of “this matter”, and the answer speaks of the Throne, the water, the writing, and the heavens and the earth. Those are the things that the Muslims learn about. What the ḥadīth does not say is that He was without action and then began to act, which is the one thing it would have to say for the claim to stand.
Part Three
The imams after them
Third Issue: The First of the Created Things, and Time Before the Sun
Ibn Taymiyyah said in Minhāj al-Sunnah, after citing the ḥadīth of ʿImrān:
الْقَلَمُ» " (١) ، مَعْنَاهَا مِنْ هَذَا الْعَالَمِ. وَقَدْ أَخْبَرَ اللَّهُ أَنَّهُ خَلَقَهُ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ، فَكَانَ حِينَ خَلَقَهُ زَمَنٌ يُقَدَّرُ بِهِ (٢) خَلَقَهُ يَنْفَصِلُ إِلَى أَيَّامٍ، فَعُلِمَ أَنَّ الزَّمَانَ كَانَ مَوْجُودًا قَبْلَ أَنْ يَخْلُقَ اللَّهُ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ، وَيَخْلُقَ فِي هَذَا الْعَالَمِ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ.
The scholars of the Muslims, among the Companions, the Successors and those after them, have spoken about the first of these created things, in two sayings that al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Hamadānī and others have reported. One is that it is the Throne, and the other is that it is the Pen. They gave preference to the first, because of what the Book and the Sunnah indicate, that when Allah decreed the measures of creatures with the Pen that He commanded to write in the Tablet, His Throne was upon the water; so the Throne was created before the Pen. They said: and the narrations reported, “The first thing that Allah created was the Pen”, mean: of this world. And Allah has informed us that He created it in six days, so when He created it there was a time by which His creating it was measured, divided into days. So it is known that time existed before Allah created the sun and the moon, and created in this world the night and the day.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Minhāj al-Sunnah 1/361–362
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وَقَدْ تَكَلَّمَ عُلَمَاءُ الْمُسْلِمِينَ مِنَ الصَّحَابَةِ وَالتَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ بَعْدَهُمْ فِي أَوَّلِ هَذِهِ الْمَخْلُوقَاتِ عَلَى قَوْلَيْنِ حَكَاهُمَا الْحَافِظُ أَبُو الْعَلَاءِ الْهَمْدَانِيِّ (٤) وَغَيْرُهُ. أَحَدُهُمَا: أَنَّهُ هُوَ الْعَرْشُ، وَالثَّانِي: أَنَّهُ هُوَ الْقَلَمُ. وَرَجَّحُوا الْقَوْلَ الْأَوَّلَ لِمَا دَلَّ عَلَيْهِ الْكِتَابُ وَالسُّنَّةُ أَنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى لَمَّا قَدَّرَ مَقَادِيرَ الْخَلَائِقِ بِالْقَلَمِ الَّذِي أَمَرَهُ أَنْ يَكْتُبَ فِي اللَّوْحِ كَانَ عَرْشُهُ عَلَى الْمَاءِ، فَكَانَ الْعَرْشُ مَخْلُوقًا قَبْلَ الْقَلَمِ. قَالُوا وَالْآثَارُ الْمَرْوِيَّةُ أَنَّ: " «أَوَّلَ مَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ
الْقَلَمُ» " (١) ، مَعْنَاهَا مِنْ هَذَا الْعَالَمِ. وَقَدْ أَخْبَرَ اللَّهُ أَنَّهُ خَلَقَهُ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ، فَكَانَ حِينَ خَلَقَهُ زَمَنٌ يُقَدَّرُ بِهِ (٢) خَلَقَهُ يَنْفَصِلُ إِلَى أَيَّامٍ، فَعُلِمَ أَنَّ الزَّمَانَ كَانَ مَوْجُودًا قَبْلَ أَنْ يَخْلُقَ اللَّهُ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ، وَيَخْلُقَ فِي هَذَا الْعَالَمِ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ.
وَفِي الصَّحِيحَيْنِ عَنِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ أَنَّهُ قَالَ فِي خُطْبَتِهِ عَامَ حِجَّةِ الْوَدَاعِ: " «إِنَّ الزَّمَانَ قَدِ اسْتَدَارَ كَهَيْئَتِهِ يَوْمَ خَلَقَ اللَّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ، السَّنَةُ اثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًا، مِنْهَا أَرْبَعَةٌ حُرُمٌ: ذُو الْقِعْدَةِ وَذُو الْحِجَّةِ وَالْمُحَرَّمِ وَرَجَبُ مُضَرَ الَّذِي بَيْنَ جُمَادَى وَشَعْبَانَ» (٣) ". وَفِي
The six days cannot have been measured by the sun, since the sun was made within them. So there was time before this world, and it follows that “before the world there was no time” is a saying of the theologians, against the plain sense of the verse. They rest their argument on it, for they ask “What was He doing before the world?” and they answer that there was no “before”.
Ibn Taymiyyah explained in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā where both parties went wrong:
Everything that the philosophers argue from for the eternity of agency only indicates that He never ceased to do what He wills. It does not indicate the eternity of a particular act or a particular thing made, neither the sphere nor anything else. The error only arose between the two parties from confusing the everlasting kind with the particular individual. Then the former said: the eternity of the kind of movement and action is impossible, because of the impossibility of events with no beginning. So they invalidated the Lord's never having ceased to speak by His will and never having ceased to act by His will. Rather, it binds them that He was not able to act and then became able, and that He likewise was not able to speak by His will. Then among them are those who say that He became able to speak by His will after He was not, such as the Karrāmiyyah; and among them are those who say that He never became able to speak by His will, and that speaking by His will is not possible for Him at all, and they are the Kullābiyyah and those who agreed with them among the Ashʿarīs and the Sālimiyyah. As for the philosophers, they say what their leader Aristotle said: everyone who says that the genus of movement occurred after it was not is being obstinate against his intellect. They said that this is impossible in the genus of events, after it was not, without an originating cause, and that the knowledge of that is necessary. So it is said to them: this indicates that this kind never ceased to exist; it does not indicate the eternity of the very movement of the sphere. And likewise the saying on time and body: their proofs require that there never ceased to be movement and its measure, which is time, and its doer, whom they call the body; but they do not require the eternity of anything in particular. So if it is said that the Lord of the worlds never ceased to speak by His will and to do what He wills, the kind of action has always been in existence, and its measure, which is time; but Aristotle and his followers erred in that they supposed there is no time except the measure of the movement of the sphere, and no movement above the sphere or before it, so that it must be that its movement is eternal.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā 6/301
Source, chain and authenticity
The next passage settles the question. He sets the three positions side by side. The philosophers say that a particular thing is eternal, and that is disbelief. The mutakallimūn say that He was unable to act and then became able, and they cannot avoid the consequence. The prophets taught that He never ceased to act and that each thing He made is new. The first group proved something true and wrongly attached the sphere to it, and the second group, in fleeing from the sphere, denied the Lord His actions. He also writes elsewhere in Minhāj al-Sunnah:
He said:
… only indicates that He never ceased to be active. And if it is supposed that He is active with actions that subsist in Himself, or with things made, originated one after another, that fulfils what this argument requires, together with the saying that everything besides Allah is originated, created, after it was not, as the messengers informed that Allah is the Creator of everything; even if the kind never ceased to be renewed, as in future events: each one of them is originated and created, and they do not cease to occur one after another.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Minhāj al-Sunnah 1/149
Source, chain and authenticity
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قَالَ هَؤُلَاءِ: وَاللَّهُ قَدْ (٥) أَخْبَرَ أَنَّهُ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ، ثُمَّ اسْتَوَى عَلَى الْعَرْشِ، وَأَخْبَرَ أَنَّهُ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ، وَلَا يَكُونُ الْمَخْلُوقُ إِلَّا مَسْبُوقًا [بِالْعَدَمِ] (٦) ، فَالْقُرْآنُ يَدُلُّ عَلَى أَنَّ كُلَّ (٧) مَا سِوَى اللَّهِ مَخْلُوقٌ مَفْعُولٌ مُحْدَثٌ.
فَلَيْسَ شَيْءٌ مِنَ الْمَوْجُودَاتِ مُقَارِنًا لِلَّهِ تَعَالَى، كَمَا يَقُولُهُ [دَهْرِيَّةُ] (٨) الْفَلَاسِفَةِ: إِنَّ الْعَالَمَ مَعْلُولٌ لَهُ، وَهُوَ مُوجِبٌ لَهُ مُفِيضٌ لَهُ، وَهُوَ مُتَقَدِّمٌ (٩) عَلَيْهِ بِالشَّرَفِ، وَالْعَلِيَّةِ (١٠) ، وَالطَّبْعِ، وَلَيْسَ مُتَقَدِّمًا عَلَيْهِ بِالزَّمَانِ، فَإِنَّهُ لَوْ كَانَ
Part Four
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
“Events with no beginning are impossible, and Ibn Taymiyyah said the world is eternal”
The claim
Said by Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī and Ibn Ḥajar against Ibn Taymiyyah; the premise is from the Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah
A series of events with no first event is impossible. Whoever affirms it has followed the philosophers, and has made something eternal alongside Allah. The ḥadīth “Allah was, and there was nothing other than Him” refutes him.
Its origin The premise that events cannot have no beginning is the foundation of the proof from accidents, which Jahm and Abū al-Hudhayl used, and from which they concluded that Paradise and the Fire must also end.
The response
Ibn Ḥajar said in Fatḥ al-Bārī, on the ḥadīth of ʿImrān, as it is quoted in Īḍāḥ al-Dalīl:
He said in explaining the ḥadīth of the people of Yemen, “Allah was, and there was nothing before Him”: it was given in the beginning of creation as “and there was nothing other than Him”, and in the report of Abū Muʿāwiyah as “Allah was before everything”, which means “Allah was, and there was nothing with Him”. And this is explicit in refuting whoever affirms events with no beginning, from the report of this chapter; and it is among the most repugnant of the questions attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah.
Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī, on al-Bukhārī no. 7418, as quoted in Īḍāḥ al-Dalīl p. 75
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وَقَالَ فِي شرح حَدِيث أهل الْيمن كَانَ الله وَلم يكن شَيْء قبله تقدم فِي بَدْء الْخلق وَلم يكن شَيْء غَيره وَفِي رِوَايَة ابي مُعَاوِيَة كَانَ الله قبل كل شَيْء وَهُوَ بِمَعْنى كَانَ الله وَلَا شَيْء مَعَه وَهَذَا صَرِيح فِي الرَّد على من أثبت حوادث لَا أول لَهَا من رِوَايَة الْبَاب وَهُوَ من مستشنع الْمسَائِل المنسوبة لِابْنِ تَيْمِية وَقد وقفت فِي كَلَام لَهُ على هَذَا الحَدِيث رجح الرِّوَايَة الَّتِي فِي الْبَاب على غَيرهَا مَعَ أَن قَضِيَّة الْجمع بَين الرِّوَايَتَيْنِ تَقْتَضِي حمل هَذِه على الَّتِي فِي بَدْء الْخلق لَا الْعَكْس وَالْجمع يقدم على التَّرْجِيح بالِاتِّفَاقِ ثمَّ قَالَ الطَّيِّبِيّ كَانَ فِي الْمَوْضِعَيْنِ بِحَسب حَال مدخولها فَالْمُرَاد بِالْأولِ كَانَ الله الأزلية والقدم وَبِالثَّانِي وَكَانَ عَرْشه على المَاء الْحُدُوث بعد الْعَدَم
وَقَالَ أَبُو الْحسن تَقِيّ الدّين عَليّ بن عبد الْكَافِي فِي السَّيْف الصَّقِيل ثمَّ جَاءَ رجل فِي آخر الْمِائَة السَّابِعَة رجل لَهُ فضل ذكاء واطلاع وَلم يجد شَيخا يهديه وَهُوَ على مَذْهَبهم وَهُوَ جسور متجرد لتقرير مذْهبه ويجد أمورا بعيدَة فبجسارته يلتزمها فَقَالَ بِقِيَام الْحَوَادِث بِذَات الرب ﷾ وَإِن سُبْحَانَهُ الله مَا زَالَ فَاعِلا وَإِن التسلسل لَيْسَ بمحال فِيمَا مضى
قَالَ الشَّيْخ مُحَمَّد زاهد الكوثري فِي تَعْلِيقه على كَلَام السُّبْكِيّ اتّفقت فرق الْمُسلمين سوى الكرامية وصنوف المجسمة على أَن الله سُبْحَانَهُ منزه من أَن تقوم بِهِ الْحَوَادِث وَأَن تحل بِهِ الْحَوَادِث وَأَن يحل فِي شَيْء من الْحَوَادِث بل ذَلِك مِمَّا علم من الدّين بِالضَّرُورَةِ وَدَعوى أَن الله تَعَالَى لم يزل فَاعِلا مُتَابعَة مِنْهُ للفلاسفة الْقَائِلين بسلب الِاخْتِيَار عَن الله سُبْحَانَهُ وبصدور الْعَالم مِنْهُ بِالْإِيجَابِ وَنسبَة ذَلِك إِلَى أَحْمد وَالْبُخَارِيّ وَغَيرهمَا من السّلف كذب صَرِيح وَتقول قَبِيح وَدَعوى أَن تسلسل الْحَوَادِث فِي جَانب الْحَاضِر غير محَال لَا تصدر إِلَّا مِمَّن لَا يعي مَا يَقُول فَمن تصور حوادث لَا أول لَهَا تصور
Ibn Ḥajar has called it among the most repugnant of what is attributed to him. Al-Subkī goes further and attacks him personally.
And Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī said in al-Sayf al-Ṣaqīl, as it is quoted there:
Then there came, at the end of the seventh century, a man of some intelligence and learning who found no shaykh to guide him. He is on their doctrine, and he is bold and devoted to establishing his doctrine, and he finds remote consequences, and by his boldness he accepts them. So he said that events subsist in the Essence of the Lord, glorified is He, that He has never ceased to act, and that succession is not impossible in the past.
Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī, al-Sayf al-Ṣaqīl, as quoted in Īḍāḥ al-Dalīl p. 75
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وَقَالَ فِي شرح حَدِيث أهل الْيمن كَانَ الله وَلم يكن شَيْء قبله تقدم فِي بَدْء الْخلق وَلم يكن شَيْء غَيره وَفِي رِوَايَة ابي مُعَاوِيَة كَانَ الله قبل كل شَيْء وَهُوَ بِمَعْنى كَانَ الله وَلَا شَيْء مَعَه وَهَذَا صَرِيح فِي الرَّد على من أثبت حوادث لَا أول لَهَا من رِوَايَة الْبَاب وَهُوَ من مستشنع الْمسَائِل المنسوبة لِابْنِ تَيْمِية وَقد وقفت فِي كَلَام لَهُ على هَذَا الحَدِيث رجح الرِّوَايَة الَّتِي فِي الْبَاب على غَيرهَا مَعَ أَن قَضِيَّة الْجمع بَين الرِّوَايَتَيْنِ تَقْتَضِي حمل هَذِه على الَّتِي فِي بَدْء الْخلق لَا الْعَكْس وَالْجمع يقدم على التَّرْجِيح بالِاتِّفَاقِ ثمَّ قَالَ الطَّيِّبِيّ كَانَ فِي الْمَوْضِعَيْنِ بِحَسب حَال مدخولها فَالْمُرَاد بِالْأولِ كَانَ الله الأزلية والقدم وَبِالثَّانِي وَكَانَ عَرْشه على المَاء الْحُدُوث بعد الْعَدَم
وَقَالَ أَبُو الْحسن تَقِيّ الدّين عَليّ بن عبد الْكَافِي فِي السَّيْف الصَّقِيل ثمَّ جَاءَ رجل فِي آخر الْمِائَة السَّابِعَة رجل لَهُ فضل ذكاء واطلاع وَلم يجد شَيخا يهديه وَهُوَ على مَذْهَبهم وَهُوَ جسور متجرد لتقرير مذْهبه ويجد أمورا بعيدَة فبجسارته يلتزمها فَقَالَ بِقِيَام الْحَوَادِث بِذَات الرب ﷾ وَإِن سُبْحَانَهُ الله مَا زَالَ فَاعِلا وَإِن التسلسل لَيْسَ بمحال فِيمَا مضى
قَالَ الشَّيْخ مُحَمَّد زاهد الكوثري فِي تَعْلِيقه على كَلَام السُّبْكِيّ اتّفقت فرق الْمُسلمين سوى الكرامية وصنوف المجسمة على أَن الله سُبْحَانَهُ منزه من أَن تقوم بِهِ الْحَوَادِث وَأَن تحل بِهِ الْحَوَادِث وَأَن يحل فِي شَيْء من الْحَوَادِث بل ذَلِك مِمَّا علم من الدّين بِالضَّرُورَةِ وَدَعوى أَن الله تَعَالَى لم يزل فَاعِلا مُتَابعَة مِنْهُ للفلاسفة الْقَائِلين بسلب الِاخْتِيَار عَن الله سُبْحَانَهُ وبصدور الْعَالم مِنْهُ بِالْإِيجَابِ وَنسبَة ذَلِك إِلَى أَحْمد وَالْبُخَارِيّ وَغَيرهمَا من السّلف كذب صَرِيح وَتقول قَبِيح وَدَعوى أَن تسلسل الْحَوَادِث فِي جَانب الْحَاضِر غير محَال لَا تصدر إِلَّا مِمَّن لَا يعي مَا يَقُول فَمن تصور حوادث لَا أول لَهَا تصور
The accusation has two parts: that he made the world eternal, and that the ḥadīth refutes him. On the first, his own words have been quoted above and they can be compared. He says that everything besides Allah is created, after it was not, and that this is the saying of the messengers. Anyone who attributes eternal matter to him is either ignorant of his books or lying about them, for he repeated this in Darʾ Taʿāruḍ, in Minhāj al-Sunnah and in his answers to the philosophers, whose doctrine he spent his life refuting.
On the ḥadīth, Ibn Ḥajar says that it is explicit, but it is not. What it states is that He was and nothing was with Him, and all the Muslims agree that nothing is eternal alongside Him. The statement “nothing was other than Him” does not contain the words “then He began to act after not acting”. Those words come from the theologian. In order to make them come from the ḥadīth, he would have to show that the time spoken of is a time before all action, and he reads this out of a ḥadīth about the Throne, the water and the writing.
Now turn the argument on them. They affirm a future that has no end: Paradise and its fruits, “its fruit is everlasting”, “this is Our provision, it will never run out”. Each thing in Paradise is new, and there is no last one. If an endless series is impossible as such, Paradise must end. The two founders of this method saw where the premise led, and they accepted it:
Ibn Taymiyyah said in Darʾ Taʿāruḍ:
The two imams of this method followed it through: al-Jahm ibn Ṣafwān, the imam of the Jahmiyyah, the Jabriyyah, and Abū al-Hudhayl al-ʿAllāf, the imam of the Muʿtazilah, the Qadariyyah. They denied that anything without end can exist in the future. So al-Jahm said that Paradise and the Fire will pass away, and Abū al-Hudhayl confined himself to saying that the movements of the people of Paradise and the Fire will pass away.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa-l-Naql 1/305
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وعن ذلك قال أبو المعالي بمسألة الاسترسال: وهو أن علم الرب تعالى يتناول الأجسام بأعيانها، ويتناول أنواع الأعراض بأعيانها، وأما آحاد الأعراض فيسترسل العلم عليها، لامتناع ما لا يتناهى علما وعينا.
وأنكر الناس ذلك عليه، وقالوا فيه أقوالا غليظة، حتى يقال: إن أبا القاسم القشيري هجره لأجل ذلك.
وصار طوائف المسلمين في جواز حوادث لا تتناهى على ثلاثة أقوال:
قيل: لا يجوز في الماضي ولا في المستقبل.
وقيل: يجوز فيهما.
وقيل: يجوز في المستقبل دون الماضي.
ثم إن المعتزلة والجهمية نفت أن يقوم بالله تعالى صفات وأفعال، بناء على هذه الحجة.
قولوا: لأن الصفات والأفعال لا تقوم إلا بجسم، وبذلك استدلوا على حدوث الجسم.
The later Ashʿarīs accept the Book on Paradise and deny the premise there, and they keep the same premise for the past, by a distinction that they have never proved.
And ask them about the Lord before the world. Was He able to create? They say yes. Then what prevented Him? If nothing prevented Him, then He could have acted and did not, for a time with no beginning, and then acted for no cause. If something prevented Him, then He was unable. There is no third. The philosophers asked them that question, and they have no answer. The people of the Sunnah alone can answer the philosopher: He never ceased to act, and your sphere is created like everything else. Al-Subkī says that Ibn Taymiyyah accepted remote consequences by boldness. In fact the consequence belongs to those who say that the Lord of the worlds was idle for an eternity. Ibn Taymiyyah reports the agreement of Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Isḥāq and the rest of the people of the Sunnah that He has never ceased to speak when He wills, as the chapter on the volitional attributes quotes, and al-Bukhārī has the chapter on His originating of what He wills, given in the chapter on the Speech. So Ibn Taymiyyah found his shaykhs.
Sources
- Ibn Taymiyyah, Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa-l-Naql
- Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā
- Ibn Taymiyyah, Minhāj al-Sunnah
- Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī, on al-Bukhārī
- Qurʾān
- Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī, al-Sayf al-Ṣaqīl, as quoted in Īḍāḥ al-Dalīl
- al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ