Question:
salam `alaykum,
Please elaborate on the takfir the “Ahbash” movement in Lebanon has made. Thank you.
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
I would be glad to elaborate. From what I know, it is mass-transmitted in the hadith that insulting one of the sahaba makes one cursed by Allah Most High, i.e. it is one of the Kaba’ir, and dislike of a single sahabi brings one out of the pale of Ahl as-Sunnah according to Imam Malik. Imam at-Tahawi deemed it part of our `Aqida to mention them only with goodness, while Imam Ahmad said it makes one a Rafidi Mubtadi` to dislike a single sahabi. He said, “Someone who does this, you may doubt his Islam.” Abu Zur`a called someone who does this a zindiq [munafiq calling to atheism]. There are countless other creeds making the same point. So this alone takes the Ahbash out of Ahl as-Sunnah wa ‘l-Jama`a, which in the first place is literally defined as the Jama`a of the Sahaba regardless of what took place between them historically.
I believe takfirism, i.e. the tendency to unjustly attack other Muslims and make ikfar of them (imputing them with kufr), also takes one out of Ahl as-Sunnah wa ‘l-Jama`a and makes the mukfir guilty of kufr according to the well-known hadith to that effect, although not a kafir in the eyes of the Law. It was the characteristic of the Khawarij who are “the dogs of hellfire” according to another famous hadith.
Most probably very, very few `ulema have been making takfir of awliya or `ulema — the cases that come to mind can be counted on the fingers of one hand and are themselves questionable — either outlandish or disagreed upon. There is the case of Shaykh `Ala’ ad-Din al-Bukhari who made takfir of Ibn `Arabi and of whoever calls Ahmad b. Taymiyya “Shaykh al-Islam,” and both fatwas were rejected outright and out loud. Then there is the case of al-Hallaj’s condemnation and execution. Then there is Ibn Taymiyya’s disgusting words about Imam al-Razi. As for the 19th and 20th centuries it is a different matter. W’Allahu a`lam.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
