Are the Asha'irah among the people of the Sunnah and the community?
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The student : Regarding the Asha'irah, are they among the people of the Sunnah and the community, or is there a division?
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you. First, who are the people of the Sunnah and the community? They are those who agreed upon the Sunnah and followed it. A person may be among the people of the Sunnah and the community in one matter but not in another, just as a person may possess traits of disbelief and traits of faith; likewise, he may possess Sunnah and religious innovation. The Asha'irah—and by this I mean the school of thought, not the individual—are not upon the methodology of the people of the Sunnah and the community, because they contradict them in many important fundamental matters, such as the issue of the attributes, the issue of faith in the Last Day (which contains many contradictions), the issue of faith and the deeds of the servant, and others. However, if we know a man to be truthful and sincere in the religion of Allah and to defend it, and he adopts one of the views of the Asha'irah, we do not say he is an Ash'ari; rather, we say he is among the people of the Sunnah and the community, but we say he adopted the Ash'ari view on such-and-such. Also, we say that Muslims are now divided into Sunnis and Shi'ah. By this division, everyone other than the Rafidah is a Sunni. So the matter has various considerations.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you. First, who are the people of the Sunnah and the community? They are those who agreed upon the Sunnah and followed it. A person may be among the people of the Sunnah and the community in one matter but not in another, just as a person may possess traits of disbelief and traits of faith; likewise, he may possess Sunnah and religious innovation. The Asha'irah—and by this I mean the school of thought, not the individual—are not upon the methodology of the people of the Sunnah and the community, because they contradict them in many important fundamental matters, such as the issue of the attributes, the issue of faith in the Last Day (which contains many contradictions), the issue of faith and the deeds of the servant, and others. However, if we know a man to be truthful and sincere in the religion of Allah and to defend it, and he adopts one of the views of the Asha'irah, we do not say he is an Ash'ari; rather, we say he is among the people of the Sunnah and the community, but we say he adopted the Ash'ari view on such-and-such. Also, we say that Muslims are now divided into Sunnis and Shi'ah. By this division, everyone other than the Rafidah is a Sunni. So the matter has various considerations.