Journal Of Islamic Denominations

Journal Of Islamic Denominations

An Examination and Critique of the Doctrinal Salafist Account of Narrated Attributes of God in the Quran According to Sunni Scholars

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
MORTEZA KIYANPOOR 1
Maryam Sharifi 2
1 Assistant professor, Department of Islamic Teachings, Safadasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran,
2 PhD student, Islamic Denominations, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran
10.22034/jid.2023.168105.1747
Abstract
An important issue regarding Quranic verses and hadiths revolves around the concepts of muḥkamāt (clear) and mutashābihāt (ambiguous). Exegetical controversies often arise when dealing with ambiguous Quranic verses, particularly those related to God's narrated (khabarī) attributes. Interestingly, the same Quranic verse can be considered clear by some groups and ambiguous by others. Doctrinal Salafists, such as Ibn al-Taymiyya and his followers, employ two different approaches when interpreting Quranic verses concerning attributes and those addressing other matters. Regarding divine names and attributes, these scholars strictly reject any form of interpretation. They argue that interpretive meanings are merely probabilistic and, in the context of religious doctrines, such probabilistic beliefs cannot be relied upon, as it would risk ascribing anthropomorphic qualities to God. In this article, we utilize the library method and reference the perspectives of Sunni scholars to analyze the Salafi perspective on narrated attributes. Through our examination, we present counterarguments to their view, highlighting inconsistencies between their theory and practice, distortions of words and meanings, and a failure to adhere to the teachings of early scholars (salaf). We conclude that by disregarding sound rational practices supported by religious textual evidence, Salafists have encountered numerous contradictions
Keywords
Muḥkamāt
mutashābihāt
narrated attributes
Salafists
theory of affirmation without qualities
The Quran.
Allahbedashti, Ali. 2010. “Barrasī wa naqd ārāyi Salafiyya dar maʿnāshināsī ṣifāt ilāhī.” Andīshi nuwīn dīnī 6, no. 22: 91-114.
Ālūsī, Maḥmūd b. ʿAbd Allāh, al-. 1415 AH. Rūḥ al-maʿānī fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm wa-l-sabʿ al-mathānī. Edited by Ali Abd al-Bari Atiyya. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya.
Amīn al-ʿĀmilī, Sayyid Muḥsin. 1387 Sh. Kashf al-irtiyāb. Translated into Persian by Ebrahim Seyyed Alavi. Tehran: Amir Kabir.
Ashʿarī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Ismāʿīl, al-. 1397 AH. Al-Ibāna ʿan uṣūl al-diyāna. Edited by Fawqiyya Husayn Mahmud. Cairo: Kulliyyat al-Banat Jamiʿa ʿAyn al-Shams.
Ashʿarī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Ismāʿīl, al-. 1422 AH. Risāla ilā ahl al-thaghr. Medina: Maktabat al-ʿUlum wa-l-Hikam.
Ashʿarī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Ismāʿīl, al-. 1427 AH. Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn wa-ikhtilāf al-muṣallīn. Beirut: Dar Sadir.
ʿAsqalānī, Ibn al-Ḥajar, al-. 1392 AH. Al-Durar al-kāmina fī aʿyān al-miʾat al-thāmina. India: Daʾirat al-Maʿarif al-ʿUthmaniyya.
Barāk, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Nāṣir. 1431 AH. Al-Taʿlīq ʿalā l-qawāʿid al-muthlā. N.p.: Dar al-Tadmariyya.
Bayḍāwī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Abī l-Qāsim, al-. 1416 AH. Anwār al-tanzīl wa-asrār al-taʾwīl. Edited by Abd al-Qadir Arafat al-ʿIshā Hasuna. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr.
Bayhaqī, Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn, al-. 1401 AH. Al-Iʿtiqād wa-l-hidāya ilā sabīl al-rashād ʿalā madhhab al-salaf wa-aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth. Edited by Ahmad ʿIsam al-Katib. Beirut: Dar al-Afaq al-Jadida.
Bin Baz, Abd al-Aziz bin Abdullah. n.d. Majmūʿa fatāwā. Collected by Muhammad bin Saʿd al-Shuwayʿir. N.p.
Farāhīdī, Khalīl b. Aḥmad, al-. 1409 AH. Kitāb al-ʿayn. Edited by Mahdi Makhzumi and Ibrahim Samarraʾi. Qom: Dar al-Hijra.
Farmanian, Mahdi. 1391 Sh. “Barrasī taṭbīqī muḥkam wa mutashabih (ṣifāt khabarī) az dīdgāh Māturīdiyya, Wahhābiyyūn, wa Imāmiyya.” Ṭulūʿ nūr 10, no. 39 (spring): 145-76.
Group of researchers. n.d. Āthār al-Shaykh al-ʿAllāma ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Yaḥyā al-Muʿallimī al-Yamānī. N.p.: Dar ʿAlam al-Fawaʾid li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawziʿ.
Ḥanbalī, Marʿī b. Yūsuf, al-. 1406 AH. Aqāwīl al-thiqāt fī taʾwīl al-asmāʾ wa-ṣifāt wa-āyāt al-muḥkamāt wa-l-mutashābihāt. Edited by Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾut. Beirut: Muʾassasa al-Risala.
Ḥimyarī, ʿĪsā b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Māniʿ, al-. 1419 AH. Taṣḥīḥ al-mafāhīm al-ʿaqdiyya fī l-ṣifāt al-ilāhiyya. Egypt: Dar al-Salam.
Ibn al-ʿĀshūr, Muḥammad Ẓāhir. n.d. Al-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīr. Cairo: Maktabat al-Shamila.
Ibn al-Jawzī, Abū l-Faraj. n.d. Zād al-masīr. Cairo: Maktabat al-Shamila.
Ibn al-Manẓūr, Muḥammad b. al-Mukarram. 1419 AH. Lisān al-ʿArab. Beirut: Dar Ihyaʾ al-Turath al-ʿArabi.
Ibn al-Taymiyya, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm. 1416 AH. Majmūʿ fatāwā. Edited by ʿAbd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. Qasim. Medina: Majmaʿ al-Malik Fahd li-Tibaʿat al-Mushaf al-Sharif.
Ibn al-Taymiyya, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm. 1421 AH. Al-Tadmariyya. Edited by Muhammad bin Awda al-Saudi. Riyadh: Maktabat al-ʿAbikan.
Ibn al-Taymiyya, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm. n.d.(a). Al-Iklīl fī l-mutashābih wa-l-taʾwīl. Annotated by Muhammad al-Shaymi Shahata. Egypt: Dar al-Iman li-l-Tabʿ wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawziʿ.
Ibn al-Taymiyya, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm. n.d.(b). Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql. Edited by Muhammad Rashad Salim. N.p.
ʿItr, Nūr al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī, al-. 1401 AH. Manhaj al-naqd fī ʿulūm al-ḥadīth. Damascus: Dar al-Fikr.
Jāmī, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, al-. 1408 AH. Al-Ṣifāt al-ilāhiyya fī l-kitāb wa-l-sunnat al-nabawiyya fī ḍawʾ al-ithbāt wa-l-tanzīh. Medina: al-Majlis al-ʿIlmi bi-l-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya.
Jawzī, Ibn al-Qayyim, al-. 1385 Sh. Buzurgtarīn niʿmat bihisht, from Ḥādī l-arwāḥ ilā bilād al-afrāḥ by Muḥammad Khalid al-ʿAṭṭār. Translated by Abu ʿUmar Tihrani. N.p.
Juwaynī, ʿAbd al-Malik b. ʿAbd Allāh, al-. 1416 AH. Al-Irshād ilā qawāṭiʿ al-adilla fī awwal al-iʿtiqād. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya.
Māmaqānī, ʿAbd Allāh, al-. 1411 AH. Miqyās al-hidāya fī ʿilm al-dirāya. Edited by Muhammad Rida Mamaqani. Beirut: Muʾassasa Al al-Bayt li-Ihyaʾ al-Turath.
Marefat, Mohammad Hadi. 1428 AH. Al-Tamhīd fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān. Qom: Al-Tamhid Cultural and Publication Institute.
Mighrāwī, Abū Sahl Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, al-. n.d. Mawsūʿa mawāqif al-salaf fī l-ʿaqīda wa-l-manhaj wa-l-tarbiya. Cairo: al-Maktabat al-Islamiyya li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawziʿ.
Qarāfī, Aḥmad b. Idrīs. 1994. Al-Dhakhīra. Edited by Muhammad Hujaji. N.p.: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami.
Rezvani, Ali Asghar. 1390 Sh. Khudāyi mujassam Wahhābiyān. Tehran: Mashʿar.
Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, al-. 1379 Sh. Maʿānī l-akhbār. Qom: Islamic Publishing Office affiliated with the Seminary of Qom.
Salāma al-Quḍāʿī al-ʿIzāmī al-Shāfiʿī. n.d. Furqān al-Qurʿān bayn ṣifāt al-khāliq wa-ṣifāt al-akwān. Beirut: Dar Ihyaʾ al-Turath al-ʿArabi.
Shahristānī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm, al-. n.d. Al-Milal wa-l-niḥal. N.p.: Muʾassasat al-Halabi.
Shawkānī, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, al-. 1414a AH. Al-Rasāʾil al-Salafiyya. Edited by Khalid ʿAbd al-Latif. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-ʿArabi.
Shawkānī, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, al-. 1414b AH. Fatḥ al-qadīr. Damascus and Beirut: Dar Ibn Kathīr and Dar al-Kilam al-Ṭayyib.
Subkī, Maḥmūd Muḥammad al-Khaṭṭāb, al-. 1974. Itḥāf al-kāʾināt bi-bayān madhhab al-salaf wa-l-khalaf fī l-mutashābihāt. N.p.
Ṭabarī, Muḥammad b. al-Jarīr, al-. 2001. Jāmiʿal-bayān ʿan taʾwīl al-Qurʾān. Cairo: Dar Hajar.
Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn. 1394 AH. Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Aʿlamī.
Taymī al-Iṣbahānī, Ismāʿīl b. Muḥammad, al-. 1419 AH. Al-Ḥujja fī bayān al-maḥajja wa-sharḥ ʿaqīda ahl al-Sunna. Edited by Muhammad b. Rabiʿ. Riyadh: Dar al-Rayat al-Saudiayya.
ʿUthaymīn, Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ, al-. 1413 AH. Majmūʿ fatāwā wa-rasāʾil. Edited by Fahd b. Nasir b. Ibrahim al-Sulayman. N.p.: Dar al-Watan and Dar al-Thurayya.
ʿUthaymīn, Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ, al-. 1424 AH. Fatāwā al-ʿaqīda wa-arkān al-Islām. Edited by Fahd b. Nasir b. Ibrahim al-Sulayman. Riyadh: Dar al-Thurayyā li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzi.
ʿUthaymīn, Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ, al-. n.d. Fatḥ rabb al-bariyya bi-takhlīṣ al-Ḥamawiyya. In Majmūʿ fatāwāh wa-kutubih wa-rasāʾilih fī l-ʿaqīda. N.p.
Zarkashī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh, al-. 1376 AH. Al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān. Edited by Muhammad Abu l-Fadl Ibrahim. Beirut: Dar Ihyaʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya, ʿIsa al-Babi al-Halabi wa-Shurakaʾuh.
Zubaydī, Muḥammad Murtaḍā al-Ḥusaynī, al-. 2011. Tāj al-ʿarūs min jawāhir al-qāmūs. Edited by Nawwaf al-Jarrah. Beirut: Dar Sadir.