What Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab Intended by Denying Blind Adherence to the Imams
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Therefore, what is the meaning of the statement of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) in the introduction to the commentary on the words of al-Maluh ibn Qasim, "Most of what you hear, or the extreme opposition to Ahmad's report"? His text states: "A section on the right of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)."
The Shaykh:
And his text states:
The questioner:
My chair.
The Shaykh:
Meaning, you do not pray with Ahmad.
The questioner:
Or, does the one who confines the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) know that, or did he know it?
The Shaykh:
The intention of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) in this refutation was to address the extremists who adopt the opinions of their imams even if they contradict the evidence. That is, there are extremists who follow the views of the imams even if they contradict the evidence, and they say, "The imams know the evidence better than we do; the imams know the evidence better than we do, and it is impossible for their faith to contradict it."
And they do not act upon the hadiths, even if they contradict the opinion of their imam. This is the intention of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab: to denounce these extremists. However, if one adopts the opinions of jurists that do not contradict the evidence, or if one does not know that they contradict the evidence, then there is no harm in that. There is no harm in that which does not contradict the evidence, or which you did not know contradicted the evidence; in that case, you are excused and there is no harm. The Shaykh's intention was the one who deliberately, deliberately adopts the opinion of an imam when it contradicts the evidence. This is what the Shaykh denounced in some of the jurists of his time. When he called them to tawhid (the oneness of Allah), to abandoning tawassul (seeking nearness to Allah through a means), and to abandoning bid'ah (religious innovation) and shirk (associating partners with Allah), they said, "Our imams have this, these are our schools of thought, so we will not abandon them." He said to them, "This contradicts the evidence." They said, "Even if, even if it contradicts the evidence." This was his intention (may Allah have mercy on him). And his intention was to denounce jurisprudence, or to denounce the words of the jurists. Do you know this? Yes.
Therefore, what is the meaning of the statement of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) in the introduction to the commentary on the words of al-Maluh ibn Qasim, "Most of what you hear, or the extreme opposition to Ahmad's report"? His text states: "A section on the right of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)."
The Shaykh:
And his text states:
The questioner:
My chair.
The Shaykh:
Meaning, you do not pray with Ahmad.
The questioner:
Or, does the one who confines the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) know that, or did he know it?
The Shaykh:
The intention of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) in this refutation was to address the extremists who adopt the opinions of their imams even if they contradict the evidence. That is, there are extremists who follow the views of the imams even if they contradict the evidence, and they say, "The imams know the evidence better than we do; the imams know the evidence better than we do, and it is impossible for their faith to contradict it."
And they do not act upon the hadiths, even if they contradict the opinion of their imam. This is the intention of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab: to denounce these extremists. However, if one adopts the opinions of jurists that do not contradict the evidence, or if one does not know that they contradict the evidence, then there is no harm in that. There is no harm in that which does not contradict the evidence, or which you did not know contradicted the evidence; in that case, you are excused and there is no harm. The Shaykh's intention was the one who deliberately, deliberately adopts the opinion of an imam when it contradicts the evidence. This is what the Shaykh denounced in some of the jurists of his time. When he called them to tawhid (the oneness of Allah), to abandoning tawassul (seeking nearness to Allah through a means), and to abandoning bid'ah (religious innovation) and shirk (associating partners with Allah), they said, "Our imams have this, these are our schools of thought, so we will not abandon them." He said to them, "This contradicts the evidence." They said, "Even if, even if it contradicts the evidence." This was his intention (may Allah have mercy on him). And his intention was to denounce jurisprudence, or to denounce the words of the jurists. Do you know this? Yes.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، تابع باب نواقض الوضوء - 3 — islamhouse.com (50:06)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.