The Book of al-Ibanah al-Sughra by Ibn Batta: Is it to be relied upon in the chapter of Names and Attributes?
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The questioner : Regarding Ibn Batta and his book al-Ibanah al-Sughra... Is he to be relied upon in the matter of Names and Attributes, for example? You mentioned al-Ibanah, but is it al-Ibanah al-Kubra or al-Sughra?
The Shaykh : I do not have the answer at hand right now. We have a manuscript copy of al-Ibanah in the Zahiriyyah Library, but its arrangement is disordered, and water damaged it, erasing much of its writing. I benefited from it in many ways, and it became clear to me that Ibn Batta is one of the Hanbalis who have a degree of exaggeration in affirming the attributes. They may affirm an attribute based on narrations whose chains are not authentic, and even if the chains are authentic, the attribution to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is not authentic, because the narration is either—meaning—mawquf (stopping at a Companion) or munqati' (with a broken chain). It is similar to al-Darimi in his refutation of al-Murri... The truth is that this topic is very important, and weak narrations should be purified and kept away from the correct creed. This is what I tried to do when I abridged "Al-'Ulu li-Allah al-'Ali al-Ghaffar" or "Al-'Ulu li-Allah al-'Ali al-'Azim" by Imam al-Dhahabi... Given that Imam al-Dhahabi is, as you know, an authority in this regard, and yet he was lenient in mentioning some narrations, such as the narration of Mujahid that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) sits with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on His Throne. This narration was received by many of those whose... creed treats it as if it were a marfu' hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), whereas if Mujahid had said, "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said in a fiqh hadith," this hadith would be mursal and would not establish a fiqh ruling. How much more so when, first, he did not trace it to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and second, it is in the domain of creed, not fiqh? And yet they received it with a spirit of acceptance or as established facts. So the truth is that caution is necessary in such matters.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : This requires some context. The contradiction you have...
Oh Allah, we are with you at the appointed time, if Allah wills.
The questioner : May Allah bless you
The Shaykh : But the appointment with our brothers is still to come.
The questioner : Ten minutes.
The Shaykh : Approximately five minutes.
The questioner : Well, speaking of my book al-Sunnah and the book of al-Darimi.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : The question... the answer, did you not complete the takhrij of the book al-Sunnah?
The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.
The questioner : Does this mean you will continue in another edition, or why?
The Shaykh : No, the issue is that we will complete this research in the knowledge of the Unseen.
The questioner : Meaning, what is currently available?
The Shaykh : Yes, yes. Whether we will have the time to complete it or not is in the knowledge of the Unseen. As for why? It is because I was tasked by my brother Zuhayr with researching this book. When the time dragged on—because I have... preoccupation with other matters—when the time dragged on, it seems he was pressed by those who insisted on publishing a book by the people of the Sunnah. So he took al-Itihaf before the... takhrij was done and published it as you see. As for whether we will return to it? Allah knows best, this is... the future.
The questioner : The book of al-Darimi was published under your name with the text and the takhrij.
The Shaykh : These are commercial matters, unfortunately. And on this occasion, we have seen something even stranger... the book, I suppose you remember, I saw a book attributed to Ibn Qudamah al-Hanbali which is not his, and they did so intentionally to promote the book in the Saudi lands. Now, publishers have very strange methods of trading in books; they exploit the names of some famous people in order to publish a book, even if the book is attributed to someone other than its author. This is easy for them, unfortunately. Yes.
The questioner : The book "Dhamm al-Tasawwuf"...?
The Shaykh : Dhamm al-Tasawwuf? Dhamm al-Tasawwuf, who is it by?
The questioner : ... there is a booklet... Dhamm al-Tasawwuf.
The questioner : ... it is written as researched by al-Shawish...
The Shaykh : ...
The questioner : This is by Ibn Qudamah.
The Shaykh : By Ibn Qudamah? No, it is not Zuhayr's publication; it is al-Khalil's publication. Please.
The Shaykh : I do not have the answer at hand right now. We have a manuscript copy of al-Ibanah in the Zahiriyyah Library, but its arrangement is disordered, and water damaged it, erasing much of its writing. I benefited from it in many ways, and it became clear to me that Ibn Batta is one of the Hanbalis who have a degree of exaggeration in affirming the attributes. They may affirm an attribute based on narrations whose chains are not authentic, and even if the chains are authentic, the attribution to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is not authentic, because the narration is either—meaning—mawquf (stopping at a Companion) or munqati' (with a broken chain). It is similar to al-Darimi in his refutation of al-Murri... The truth is that this topic is very important, and weak narrations should be purified and kept away from the correct creed. This is what I tried to do when I abridged "Al-'Ulu li-Allah al-'Ali al-Ghaffar" or "Al-'Ulu li-Allah al-'Ali al-'Azim" by Imam al-Dhahabi... Given that Imam al-Dhahabi is, as you know, an authority in this regard, and yet he was lenient in mentioning some narrations, such as the narration of Mujahid that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) sits with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on His Throne. This narration was received by many of those whose... creed treats it as if it were a marfu' hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), whereas if Mujahid had said, "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said in a fiqh hadith," this hadith would be mursal and would not establish a fiqh ruling. How much more so when, first, he did not trace it to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and second, it is in the domain of creed, not fiqh? And yet they received it with a spirit of acceptance or as established facts. So the truth is that caution is necessary in such matters.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : This requires some context. The contradiction you have...
Oh Allah, we are with you at the appointed time, if Allah wills.
The questioner : May Allah bless you
The Shaykh : But the appointment with our brothers is still to come.
The questioner : Ten minutes.
The Shaykh : Approximately five minutes.
The questioner : Well, speaking of my book al-Sunnah and the book of al-Darimi.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : The question... the answer, did you not complete the takhrij of the book al-Sunnah?
The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.
The questioner : Does this mean you will continue in another edition, or why?
The Shaykh : No, the issue is that we will complete this research in the knowledge of the Unseen.
The questioner : Meaning, what is currently available?
The Shaykh : Yes, yes. Whether we will have the time to complete it or not is in the knowledge of the Unseen. As for why? It is because I was tasked by my brother Zuhayr with researching this book. When the time dragged on—because I have... preoccupation with other matters—when the time dragged on, it seems he was pressed by those who insisted on publishing a book by the people of the Sunnah. So he took al-Itihaf before the... takhrij was done and published it as you see. As for whether we will return to it? Allah knows best, this is... the future.
The questioner : The book of al-Darimi was published under your name with the text and the takhrij.
The Shaykh : These are commercial matters, unfortunately. And on this occasion, we have seen something even stranger... the book, I suppose you remember, I saw a book attributed to Ibn Qudamah al-Hanbali which is not his, and they did so intentionally to promote the book in the Saudi lands. Now, publishers have very strange methods of trading in books; they exploit the names of some famous people in order to publish a book, even if the book is attributed to someone other than its author. This is easy for them, unfortunately. Yes.
The questioner : The book "Dhamm al-Tasawwuf"...?
The Shaykh : Dhamm al-Tasawwuf? Dhamm al-Tasawwuf, who is it by?
The questioner : ... there is a booklet... Dhamm al-Tasawwuf.
The questioner : ... it is written as researched by al-Shawish...
The Shaykh : ...
The questioner : This is by Ibn Qudamah.
The Shaykh : By Ibn Qudamah? No, it is not Zuhayr's publication; it is al-Khalil's publication. Please.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.