Continuation of the discussion on the eternity of the world, the sequence of events, and the defense of the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.

The Shaykh : I want to repeat the question to you so that you answer me. Is it among the pillars of Islam that you know that those who declared the Shaykh al-Islam a disbeliever are with the truth, or that those who said the Shaykh al-Islam is with the truth are with the truth? Is this one of the conditions of Islam?

The questioner : It is not among the conditions of Islam, no, it is not among the conditions of Islam, but there is

The Shaykh : Look, your friend is better than you, because he has started to feel that this is a scientific approach. "The best speech is what is little and to the point." You want to give a lecture; the light is on, you turned it off there, and you didn't turn it off there, and so on.
The Shaykh: The point is, it is not among the conditions of Islam, we agree.

The questioner : Yes, we agree.

The Shaykh : A second question: Is it among the obligatory duties of Islam?

The questioner : And it is not among the obligatory duties of Islam.

The Shaykh : So what is the ruling in your view? Because he is going to list degrees for us. Stay with me, we agree. The eye is the ladle of speech, stay with me. Look at his ruling?

The questioner : What is the ruling of this in the Shari'ah?

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : The ruling is permissible.

The Shaykh : Are you not fulfilling the attempt to learn all the pillars of Islam, the obligatory duties of Islam, the obligations of Islam, the recommended practices of Islam, the recommended acts of Islam, and the recommended acts of Islam? And all that remains for you is to do this permissible thing? Say, do not deviate.

The questioner : I have an idea of my own.

The Shaykh : No, there is no idea. So, the religion is advice. This is not your nest, so get in.

The questioner : Okay, but there is a shadow of one issue. Do I trust his books to read them, or do I not trust them? This is the only issue I want.

The Shaykh : No, this question, every question has an answer.
The Shaykh: Now, what is your question? We are done with that one.

The questioner : We are done with that one. Here, a doubt has occurred to me that the man has erroneous statements that are apostasy, leading to disbelief. And as a scholar and his writings, it is not a small matter regarding the writings of Ibn Taymiyyah. So, do I read these writings or not?

The Shaykh : Read them.

The questioner : Do I read them while I am a Muslim who believes he is a great scholar, or a scholar who has errors? This is my question.

The Shaykh : You are asking me, and I tell you: If you do not read the books ofThe Shaykh : Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, you will be misguided. As long as you are asking me, this is the answer.
The Shaykh: But I ask you now, if you held a book from the fatwas of Ibn Taymiyyah called the Book of Inheritance and read it and did not understand it, what would you say about it?

The questioner : If I read it and did not understand it, I would blame myself now.

The Shaykh : You blame yourself, but we are not asking if you blame yourself. You do not blame the author who wrote the book. Listen, may Allah guide you. Listen, just as you teach your friend about the side, teach yourself. "The best speech is what is little and to the point." Do you blame the author who wrote the Book of Inheritance and you did not understand anything from it?

The questioner : No, I do not blame him.

The Shaykh : You do not blame him. If I advise you, I have two pieces of advice:
The Shaykh: The first piece of advice: If you do not read the books of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, you will be misguided, and you may even be a misguided person who misguides others.
The Shaykh: The second piece of advice: If you read a statement of his that you did not understand, leave it to its scholar. Because I mentioned earlier, on the occasion of two contradictory hadiths, when we quoted from Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, what did we say? The last thing he said was: Considering the people and the abrogated, if it is not clarified to us, he said: We leave the knowledge to its scholar. Who is the one saying this? The Shaykh al-Islam of his time, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. Do you see? You are not yet a Shaykh, you are still a chick now. So, if you read a statement of Ibn Taymiyyah and did not understand it, do not hold onto it and say: So-and-so said: Disbeliever, so-and-so said: Polytheist. No, leave it, my brother, there are those who understand it. But read his books and his fatwas—ma sha Allah—thirty volumes and more, and so on, and you will understand there a knowledge derived from the fatwas of the Sunnah.

The questioner : A small difficulty. I read "Al-Muwafaqat."

The Shaykh : Which Muwafaqat?
Al-Halabi : Did you read it all or parts of it?

The questioner : The first volume completely, and half of the second. I want to tell you about myself.

The Shaykh : No problem.

The questioner : Al-Muwafaqat is printed in eleven volumes. This is a copy of Al-Muwafaqat. Read the writing in the eleven volumes. These are the ones I am urging you to read. And no offense, look at the red line and read, and leave these things and read the book from beginning to end. I am asking your friend Iyad and our friend, if Allah wills. Now, when he said: In Bayan Talbis al-Jahmiyyah, we went down. The printed part of Bayan Talbis al-Jahmiyyah is two volumes, one thousand and three hundred pages. Did you read anything other than the pages that were taught to you, Iyad? Frankly, my brother.

The Shaykh : Abu al-Harith, no problem. Let us let him struggle a bit more. Go ahead, what did you read? What did you read?

The questioner : I read in Al-Muwafaqat approximately two-thirds, and more than two-thirds, from the first page to the last. So I found statements, and I was a reader of those who responded to Ibn Taymiyyah. One must be frank, because I read, I found for him statements that come to mind that he actually says that events have no beginning. So, here we want to clarify the matter.

The Shaykh : This is the whole issue.

The questioner : We obligated the book and we obligated the one who responded to the book.

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : This is the whole issue.

The Shaykh : And we are done with it, may Allah guide you. If his statement is understandable, bring what you understood?

The questioner : What do I say I understood from it? I understood from it that he says: The world is ancient in type, meaning: this world, there was a world before it, and so on, except that there is no beginning. And this contradicts...

The Shaykh : I am the one who said this statement.

The questioner : I am not telling you: What did you understand.

The Shaykh : This is done with. We said: This statement, he says: Events have no beginning. This means: No created thing exists except that there was a created thing before it.
The Shaykh: We said about this statement: When Ibn Taymiyyah says: Events have no beginning. He rules that every created thing is preceded by a created thing before it.
The Shaykh: So, he does not say that it is ancient, meaning: with Allah. He does not say that with Allah there is another creator. Be patient, so he says with a statement we mentioned earlier...

The questioner : The statement you said is correct. This is what I understood from it like this.

The Shaykh : There is no power nor strength except by Allah. Yes, he is a boxer
Al-Halabi : A boxer

The Shaykh : A boxer, my brother, but we are not in a boxing match. The issue is knowledge here—bismillah—
The Shaykh: Ibn Taymiyyah says: Events have no beginning. We said: This is an opinion of his that we do not wish for and we reject it because it contradicts

The questioner : You mentioned this.

The Shaykh : I know that you are well-versed in the book of Ibn Taymiyyah and well-versed in the statements of his pious student, but with whom is the distinction? Which one is the correct one, this or that?

The questioner : I came to distinguish.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good. The point is, this is not reasonable, nor is it transmitted. But what is behind that? Behind that is that he said an opinion in which he contradicted what we believe. So, we ask you now: Did the Mu'tazilah contradict you in your statement: That Allah is seen on the Day of Resurrection, or did they agree with you?

The questioner : No, they contradicted us.

The Shaykh : So, are they disbelievers?

The questioner : In this issue, they are not declared disbelievers. Because they have

The Shaykh : If this approach is wrong, I hope you will clarify it. If this approach is wrong, I hope you will clarify my error.

The questioner : No, it is not wrong.

The Shaykh : This is the statement of Ibn Taymiyyah: Events have no beginning. If you understand it as an error that contradicts our creed, the worst that can be said about it is: It is like the Mu'tazilah, whom you do not declare disbelievers, even though you understand the error of the Mu'tazilah as ascribing a body to Allah. They contradicted verses, they contradicted hadiths, they contradicted the righteous Salaf. Ibn Taymiyyah, until now, you have not understood what he intends by this statement? So, there is a great difference between this one whom your Shaykh declares a disbeliever and those whom we all agree to declare wrong, and yet we do not declare them disbelievers. So, we leave a little light so that we save the Muslims from the scholars from declaring them disbelievers. So, I have given you the answer, and you sayThe Shaykh : I am still humming.

The questioner : The issue is simple,The Shaykh : Good, I read about him, and I do not deny that, but it is not necessary that he errs or misguides. I approve of that. It is permissible. When they asked Ibn Taymiyyah, is he a disbeliever? He rules based on its likeness. I did not open that for me.

The Shaykh : We have a phrase in the Levant: It is more accurate than the sieve...

The questioner : So, this issue is not for us.

The Shaykh : In any case, what matters to us is you. Do you declare Ibn Taymiyyah a disbeliever?

The questioner : No, now...

The Shaykh : Now, he is not declared a disbeliever.

The questioner : Now, no, it is permissible for one... correct or not?

The Shaykh : What else do you have?

The questioner : We have some issues, we are asking you questions.

The Shaykh : Do you have anything else?

The questioner : By Allah, in this session, no. But there is a saying attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah regarding the scholar's foot not being placed in the place of the ignorant, or something about transferring reports. We will see.

The Shaykh : What is it?

The questioner : ... If Allah wills, if you would be kind enough to visit us, we will visit you...

The Shaykh : First, on this occasion, I want to draw your attention to the fact that knowledge has its own methodology. When Ibn Taymiyyah is researching a topic and answering, we find many things: some are transmitted, some are not transmitted; some are rational, some are not rational, and so on. It is not permissible to attribute all these transmissions and all these rational arguments to Ibn Taymiyyah. Rather, you should look at his creed, for he has books in which he explicitly states his creed. If there is something in the creed that you did not understand, or that you understood as misguidance or disbelief, or whatever you call it, then you have the right to stand up and ask. But as for the story of the mosquito, and I do not know what else, and sitting on the Throne, and so on, these are narrations that have no saddle and no bridle, mentioned in some books that record the hadiths and athar (reports) from the Salaf with their chains of narration. When a person studies these athar and hadiths with their chains, a process of filtering takes place in his mind: here is a sound hadith, a sound athar, and so on; here is a weak hadith, a weak athar, and so on. We do not dwell on this second category. They mentioned Ibn Taymiyyah or Ibn al-Qayyim; no one is infallible. None of us is free from having something rejected or being refuted, except the owner of this grave (peace and blessings be upon him). However, if he adopts a certain creed, then by Allah, it is obligatory for you to investigate this creed. It is not just about what is permissible, nor is it about the pillars of Islam or the obligations of Islam, and so on. Rather, in this specific case, he must know whether this statement is true or not.