What is your opinion, Your Eminence, regarding al-Ghazali’s book *The Prophetic Sunnah Between the People of Jurisprudence and the People of Hadith*, and what is your opinion regarding the responses to it?
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The questioner : The book *The Prophetic Sunnah Between the People of Jurisprudence and the People of Hadith*.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : Responses have been written to it. Of course, he has objections to many of the hadiths. Many scholars have responded to him. What is your opinion of the book and what is your opinion of the responses?
The Shaykh : It is a very dangerous book for the Sunnah, for the scholars of the Sunnah, and for the followers of the Sunnah. And those who responded to it—may Allah have mercy on you—undoubtedly agreed upon the truth in their response to him, even though their methods differed. Some were strict, some were lenient, and some were moderate. The man was not merely a critic; rather, he added to his criticism, and he was not standing upon knowledge of hadith or upon the principles of jurisprudence. Despite that, he added his mockery of the opinions of others, a mockery that one whose goal is to advise people would not do. Therefore, he exposed himself to many and very many criticisms, which he deserves. It is sufficient for him that he attacked hadiths found in the authentic collections without following the path of the critical scholars, as they did in the past, such as al-Daraqutni, and such as Ibn Taymiyyah, and such as Ibn al-Qayyim, when they criticized some of the hadiths found in some of the authentic collections. But they criticized with knowledge, deliberation, and thought. As for this man, he does not criticize except by desire on one hand, and by ignorance of the hadiths and their texts on the other hand. Therefore, the scope for responding to him is very wide. Perhaps those who responded to him, despite their differing methods, did what was obligatory upon them: first, to defend the hadith, and second, to defend the scholars of hadith and their followers. This is a brief word, as you requested.
The questioner : Do you not see, Your Eminence, in this field, that it would be better for contemporary Islamic scholars to hold a council and a debate on this topic? This is from one aspect. Also, do you not see that it is incumbent upon eminent Islamic scholars like yourselves to write in response to him, given the impact these great responses have on people? And then, do you not see that increasing the responses to him in more than one lecture and council is necessary, because it has affected the ideas of many Muslims?
The Shaykh : This is the truth.
The questioner : And it is the issue of the age.
The Shaykh : This is the truth, without doubt or ambiguity, but the issue, as was said in the past:
"Not everything a man wishes can he attain *** The winds blow with what the ships do not desire",
I have, unfortunately, so many tasks that they do not leave me room to perform some of the other religious obligations, due to the many projects I am pursued by. But perhaps a committee can be formed to study these responses and to select the best of them, then they can be printed and distributed to the people to bring this response closer to all people, and especially to those who may have been influenced by the man’s philosophy and his language.
As for me personally, by Allah, I am incapable and unable. I have seen, for example, that I should go to Afghanistan, at least, to call to the Book and the Sunnah, and at least among the various Arab groups of people. So I excused myself, as you see, due to my old age. Otherwise, it is necessary to respond to this man. And those who did respond, among them, for example, our brother Dr. al-Rabi' ibn Hadi—and perhaps you, the professor who teaches the subject of hadith at the university—perhaps you have come across his response. If so, this is with more knowledge of hadith than others. In any case, your suggestion to form a group of scholars to debate the man, I do not think this would benefit anything, because you have been afflicted by some of the Sufis before who defended some Sufi innovations and superstitions, and you were asked to refute them or debate them, and that did not benefit anything. So perhaps the most advisable, best, and most beneficial thing is to form a small committee of some distinguished scholars to select the strongest and most clearly understood of these responses, or to select from this collection of responses the issues that were addressed and compose them anew in words that are clear and understandable to the general public. This is what I have, and Allah knows best.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : Responses have been written to it. Of course, he has objections to many of the hadiths. Many scholars have responded to him. What is your opinion of the book and what is your opinion of the responses?
The Shaykh : It is a very dangerous book for the Sunnah, for the scholars of the Sunnah, and for the followers of the Sunnah. And those who responded to it—may Allah have mercy on you—undoubtedly agreed upon the truth in their response to him, even though their methods differed. Some were strict, some were lenient, and some were moderate. The man was not merely a critic; rather, he added to his criticism, and he was not standing upon knowledge of hadith or upon the principles of jurisprudence. Despite that, he added his mockery of the opinions of others, a mockery that one whose goal is to advise people would not do. Therefore, he exposed himself to many and very many criticisms, which he deserves. It is sufficient for him that he attacked hadiths found in the authentic collections without following the path of the critical scholars, as they did in the past, such as al-Daraqutni, and such as Ibn Taymiyyah, and such as Ibn al-Qayyim, when they criticized some of the hadiths found in some of the authentic collections. But they criticized with knowledge, deliberation, and thought. As for this man, he does not criticize except by desire on one hand, and by ignorance of the hadiths and their texts on the other hand. Therefore, the scope for responding to him is very wide. Perhaps those who responded to him, despite their differing methods, did what was obligatory upon them: first, to defend the hadith, and second, to defend the scholars of hadith and their followers. This is a brief word, as you requested.
The questioner : Do you not see, Your Eminence, in this field, that it would be better for contemporary Islamic scholars to hold a council and a debate on this topic? This is from one aspect. Also, do you not see that it is incumbent upon eminent Islamic scholars like yourselves to write in response to him, given the impact these great responses have on people? And then, do you not see that increasing the responses to him in more than one lecture and council is necessary, because it has affected the ideas of many Muslims?
The Shaykh : This is the truth.
The questioner : And it is the issue of the age.
The Shaykh : This is the truth, without doubt or ambiguity, but the issue, as was said in the past:
"Not everything a man wishes can he attain *** The winds blow with what the ships do not desire",
I have, unfortunately, so many tasks that they do not leave me room to perform some of the other religious obligations, due to the many projects I am pursued by. But perhaps a committee can be formed to study these responses and to select the best of them, then they can be printed and distributed to the people to bring this response closer to all people, and especially to those who may have been influenced by the man’s philosophy and his language.
As for me personally, by Allah, I am incapable and unable. I have seen, for example, that I should go to Afghanistan, at least, to call to the Book and the Sunnah, and at least among the various Arab groups of people. So I excused myself, as you see, due to my old age. Otherwise, it is necessary to respond to this man. And those who did respond, among them, for example, our brother Dr. al-Rabi' ibn Hadi—and perhaps you, the professor who teaches the subject of hadith at the university—perhaps you have come across his response. If so, this is with more knowledge of hadith than others. In any case, your suggestion to form a group of scholars to debate the man, I do not think this would benefit anything, because you have been afflicted by some of the Sufis before who defended some Sufi innovations and superstitions, and you were asked to refute them or debate them, and that did not benefit anything. So perhaps the most advisable, best, and most beneficial thing is to form a small committee of some distinguished scholars to select the strongest and most clearly understood of these responses, or to select from this collection of responses the issues that were addressed and compose them anew in words that are clear and understandable to the general public. This is what I have, and Allah knows best.