Al-Saqaf’s Attacks on the Sunnah.

The Shaykh : This wretched Saqaf—I fear that there are people behind him who cooperate with him to attack the Sunnah and its people in this book, *Daf' Shubhat al-Tashbih* (Refuting the Objection of Likeness). He exploited it, because, unfortunately, Ibn al-Jawzi, as you know, is a *ta'wil* (figurative interpretation) scholar, or so we say, meaning we might even call him a *ta'til* (denial of the divine attributes) scholar. Yes, is that right?

The questioner:..

The Shaykh : It is very regrettable. The point is, he exploited this book and wrote a preface and very extensive comments. He gave himself permission to add to Ibn al-Jawzi’s words, between parentheses, that whenever he mentioned some of the Hanbalis who exaggerated in affirming the attributes, he would label them from his own opinion as "the *tajsim* (ascribing a body to Allah) so-and-so" or "the *tajsim* so-and-so." Glory be to Allah. But when he mentions Al-Albani explicitly, he says, "The *tajsim* may Allah kill him, may Allah kill him," referring to his preface to *Mukhtasar al-'Uluw* (A Summary of the Oneness of Allah’s Exaltation), which contains both *tanzih* (transcendence) and *ithbat* (affirmation of attributes). He attributes to me that I am a *tajsim* (one who ascribes a body to Allah) like this, always and forever. The truth is, when I first read that report, the first thing that came to my mind was that this might be from those people, because