Simsim al-Manṭiqī

Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.

Was al-Shafi'i a "Proto-Ashari"? - A Defence of the Imam Defending our noble Imam Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i al-Hashimi (rahimahullah) from the contemptible claim that he was a "proto-Ashari." As the majority of later Asharis were Shafi'i in fiqh, it becomes easy for one to claim that the Imam must have had an influence on the formation of the Ashari sect. But a school of law is not a creed: on the attributes, on kalam, and on the created Qur'an, al-Shafi'i stood against the method and conclusions that Asharism is built on. 1. His creed in his own words Ibn al-Qayyim, in Ijtima al-Juyush al-Islamiyya, records al-Shafi'i's belief, narrated by Ibn Abi Hatim from Abu Shu'ayb and Abu Thawr: وأن الله تعالى على عرشه في سمائه، يقرب من خلقه كيف شاء، وأن الله تعالى ينزل إلى السماء الدنيا كيف شاء. "...and that Allah is above His Throne, in His heaven, drawing near to His creation however He wills, and that He descends to the lowest heaven however He wills." This affirms uluww, istiwa, and nuzul on their apparent meaning, without ta'wil or tafwid; the Ashari sect rejects this entirely. 2. His verdict on the mutakallimun Asharism is a sect based on kalam. Al-Shafi'i's verdict on it is recorded by al-Bayhaqi, al-Khatib, and Abu Nu'aym: حكمي في أهل الكلام أن يضربوا بالجريد والنعال، ويطاف بهم في العشائر والقبائل. "My ruling concerning the people of kalam is that they be beaten with palm stalks and sandals and paraded through the clans and tribes," as the reward of one who abandons the Book and the Sunnah for kalam. 3. His verdict on the Qur'an and the On the question that later defined the Ashari doctrine of divine speech, al-Shafi'i stood with the muhaddithin: whoever says the Qur'an is created is a disbeliever. Al-Lalika'i opens his chapter on the takfir of the Lafdhiyyah by naming al-Shafi'i first, through al-Rabi: من قال: لفظي بالقرآن، أو: القرآن بلفظي، مخلوق، فهو جهمي. "Whoever says, 'my utterance of the Qur'an,' or, 'the Qur'an by my utterance, is created,' he is a Jahmi." The Asharis fall under the Lafdhiyyah because they deem the recited Qur'an, its letters and sounds, to be created, differing only in that they identify Allah's Speech with an eternal Kalam Nafsi rather than the letters and sounds themselves. 4. The real forerunners and ancestors of the Asharis The ancestry of Ashari theology is a circle of mutakallimun who arose after al-Shafi'i and took up the method he condemned. Abdullah ibn Sa'id ibn Kullab (d. c. 240 AH): the source; his kalam nafsi is what al-Ashari adopted. al-Harith al-Muhasibi (d. 243 AH): took kalam from Ibn Kullab; Ahmad called him the root of the affliction. Abu al-Abbas al-Qalanisi: a theologian of the same Kullabi current. al-Husayn al-Karabisi (d. c. 248 AH): systematised the slogan that our utterance of the Qur'an is created, Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari (d. 324 AH), born half a century after al-Shafi'i, was a Mu'tazili under al-Jubba'i for forty years before settling mainly on Ibn Kullab's positions. The Ashari al-Shahrastani himself traces this line to Ibn Kullab, al-Qalanisi, and al-Muhasibi; Ibn Taymiyya adds in al-Tis'iniyya that they took the root of kalam from the Mu'tazila. 5. Early Shafi'is who rejected Asharism If Shafi'i creed were Ashari creed, the great early Shafi'i imams would have been Asharis. They were not, and several were rigid and stalwart opponents of the Ashari sect. Imam Ibn Khuzayma (d. 311 AH), Imam al-A'imma and a contemporary of al-Ashari, affirmed the attributes against ta'wil in his Kitab al-Tawhid; the Ashari Ibn Furak wrote against it. Imam Abu Bakr al-Isma'ili (d. 371 AH): set out the athari creed in I'tiqad A'immat al-Hadith, against the ta'wil of the mutakallimin. Imam Abu Hamid al-Isfarayini (d. 406 AH), head of the Shafi'is of Baghdad in his day, stated : مذهب الشافعي وسائر الأئمة خلاف قول الأشعري، وقولهم هو قول الإمام أحمد, "the madhhab of al-Shafi'i and the rest of the imams is contrary to the statement of al-Ashari, and their position is the position of Imam Ahmad." He was also severe against the Ashari al-Baqillani. Imam al-Lalika'i (d. 418 AH): the Shafi'i who compiled the takfir of the Lafdhiyyah cited above. Imam Abu Muhammad al-Juwayni (d. 438 AH), father of the Ashari Imam al-Haramayn, is reported to have said that al-Ashari opposed al-Shafi'i and the salaf. Imam Abu Nasr al-Sijzi (d. 444 AH): wrote a full refutation of the Asharis, al-Radd ala man ankara al-harf wa'l-sawt, naming them the innovators. Imam Abu Uthman al-Sabuni (d. 449 AH): declared the Lafdhiyyah as Jahmiyya in Aqidat al-Salaf Ashab al-Hadith. Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Karaji (d. 532 AH), a Shafi'i faqih, dropped the customary supplication for al-Ashari from the qunut and wrote a creedal poem on the way of the salaf disowning the Ashari sect. Conclusion The Asharis claim al-Shafi'i as an ancestor, but his creed condemns theirs. Their sect kept his fiqh while abandoning his ban on kalam, and because it stayed Shafi'i in law it now claims him to be their progenitor. Yet the same reasoning would make his own companions Asharis, which is absurd. Al-Buwayti, whom al-Shafi'i named to succeed him, died in a Baghdad prison rather than say the Qur'an is created. Al-Shafi'i affirmed the attributes as they came, while the Asharis make ta'wil of them, and he ordered the people of kalam beaten while Asharism is a sect of kalam. Sources Ibn al-Qayyim, Ijtima al-Juyush al-Islamiyya, "Dhikr qawl al-Imam al-Shafi'i" (from Ibn Abi Hatim) Abu Nu'aym, Hilyat al-Awliya 9/116; al-Khatib, Sharaf Ashab al-Hadith p. 78; al-Bayhaqi, Manaqib al-Shafi'i al-Lalika'i, Sharh Usul I'tiqad Ahl al-Sunna 2/390, no. 599 al-Shahrastani, al-Milal wa'l-Nihal p. 81 Ibn Taymiyya, al-Tis'iniyya: al-Hakim, Ma'rifat Ulum al-Hadith p. 161; al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala 14/380 (and 13/103 for Dawud al-Zahiri) al-Isma'ili, I'tiqad A'immat al-Hadith; al-Sabuni, Aqidat al-Salaf wa Ashab al-Hadith al-Sijzi, al-Radd ala man ankara al-harf wa'l-sawt: Ibn Taymiyya, Majmu al-Fatawa 12/160 (for al-Isfarayini and al-Juwayni); Abd al-Baqi al-Hanbali, al-Ayn wa'l-Athar al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala (entry on al-Karaji); Ibn Taymiyya, Dar' Ta'arud al-Aql wa'l-Naql

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