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Shaykh Abd Allaah Bin Muhammad Bin Abd Al-Wahhaab on Ibn Hajar Al-Haytami and His Works
Posted by Abu.Iyaad on Thursday, September, 15 2011 and filed under General
Key topics: Ibn Hajar Al-Haythami Ibn Hajar Al-Haytami

That which is spread by the dishonest contemporary Sufis is that Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhaab (rahimahullaah) and those with him dismissed all previous scholarly heritage, reviled the forerunners, and scrapped their books, said it is prohibited to look at them, and made themselves the only scholarly authority. That is animal fodder purchased and consumed only by the dumbwitted, and is simply another piece in the propaganda jigsaw used to malign the monotheistic call of Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhaab and those with him. We present here a short paragraph from Shaykh Abd Allah bin Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhaab about the Shafi'i jurist Ahmad bin Hajar al-Haytami (d. 974H) [sometimes referred to as al-Haythami]. Before we come to the quote some very brief information about Ibn Hajar al-Haytami ought to be mentioned that will help to put it into context:

With this established, it is now interesting to see how al-Haytami is viewed by Shaykh Abd Allaah bin Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhaab, and so we present here the statement which occurs in al-Durar al-Saniyyah (1/236):

ونحن كذلك : لا نقول بكفر من صحت ديانته، وشهر صلاحه، وعلم ورعه وزهده، وحسنت سيرته، وبلغ من نصحه الأمة ، ببذل نفسه لتدريس العلوم النافعة والتأليف فيها، وإن كان مخطئاً في هذه المسألة أو غيرها، كابن حجر الهيتمي، فإنا نعرف كلامه في الدر المنظم، ولا ننكر سمة علمه، ولهذا نعتني بكتبه، كشرح الأربعين، والزواجر وغيرها ؛ ونعتمد على نقله إذا نقل لأنه من جملة علماء المسلمين .

And we likewise, we do not not speak of the kufr of one whose religiosity is sound, whose rectitude, knowledge, piety, and abstinence has become well-known, whose conduct was good and [who] from his [intent of giving] advice reached the Ummah with self-sacrifice, to teach beneficial sciences, and authoring of (works) regarding them, even if he erred in this particular matter or others, such as Ibn Hajar Al-Haythami. For we acknowledge his words in al-Dur al-Munadhdham, and we do not reject the sign of his knowledge, and for that reason we tend to his books, such as Sharh al-Arba'een, al-Zawaajir and others, and we also depend upon his citation (transmission from others) when he cites because he is from the generality of the Scholars of the Muslims.

Comment

You can see here the respect that is given for Ibn Hajar al-Haytami's knowledge and understanding in certain areas (of Islamic sciences) alongside the fact that he was upon whatever he was upon, and contrary to the reprehensible lies of the Sufis, Ash'aris and others of today from whom you will be hard pressed to find even an ounce of academic honesty, the scholars of the da'wah to Tawhid did not make takfir of those scholars, but they made an excuse for them, and whilst considering them upon error, they said it was because (in the case of al-Haytami) he erred in the proper conception and understanding of this matter, meaning here, the Tawhid of the Messengers, in an era where there was already much confusion and departure from it. At the same time, when such scholars also have genuine knowledge and have works which are useful, then benefit can be gained from them. You can see the complete fairness and justice with which these Shaykhs of the da'wah of Tawhid treated past Scholars who might have had errors and opposition to the truth and its people, in fact even revilement of the people of the Sunnah, and how they treated their works. This is in stark contrast to the claims found in the propaganda of the Sufis. And the reason is fairly obvious, if the average person starts looking into the books of these Scholars first hand, they will see a picture entirely different to the fake one that has been created for this very purpose - to keep people away from learning the reality of the Tawhid that the Messengers came with.

Important Note: The position of the scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah on the books of Ahl al-Bid'ah is that those works which are authored in Islamic sciences and which are not full of innovations and which were not authored in order to promote particular innovation, then benefit can be gained from them, even if errors and something of innovation might be found in them - such as what is written in the fields of hadeeth, their explanation, and the narrators, and in fiqh (jurisprudence) and tafseer and so on. However, the study of these books is for the well-grounded Scholars only, and at the same time those who are students of knowledge are encouraged to stick to the books of those who are free from errors and innovated sayings, and are encouraged in general to keep away from the books of those upon innovation, and especially those who were callers to it (whether any particular book of theirs in question contained innovation or not) and stick to whatever is found amongst Ahl al-Sunnah in the various fields of knowledge. This is the position of Ahl al-Sunnah on benefiting from the sum whole of Islamic scholarly heritage, so you can see it is a moderate balanced position.