The Shaykh’s warning to many of today’s preachers who claim affiliation with knowledge regarding their avoidance of aligning with the methodology of the Salaf and their falling into the doctrine of tafwid.

The Shaykh : ... And here you must be aware that many of today’s Islamic preachers, who have not been granted a share of knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah, avoid delving into following the Salaf in what we are discussing in this second example, which is following them in their faith in the verses of attributes and the hadiths of attributes according to the Arabic understanding, along with the transcendence of Allah. They do not want to be Salafis, nor do they want to be from the Mu'tazilah, so they say, “We delegate (tafwid) these meanings that came in the verses of attributes and the hadiths of attributes.” Thus, they are called the Mu'awwidah (those who delegate). The meaning of tafwid here is ignorance of the dozens of verses and hadiths that came from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which, as we said earlier, are how Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) introduced Himself to His servants, informing them of some of His attributes, the unseen of the unseen, if that expression is correct. So they were ignorant of all these meanings and said, “Allah knows best what He intends.” If only those who interpreted istawa' (rising above) by saying istawla (dominated) had remained silent! If only they had kept quiet and delegated it, because what did they flee from? What did they flee from? If Imam Malik said, “Istawa' is known, and it is being above,” they said, “Being above means that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is in a direction, i.e., in the direction of height.” So they said, “Then we do not affirm a direction, so we do not affirm height for Allah (Mighty and Majestic).” So what is the meaning of ? They said, “Istawla (dominated)?? Glory be to Allah, istawla in the Arabic language implies ... .