Question:
As-salamu ‘alaykum,
If the Deobandis are disseminating “ugly, innovated expressions and concepts that are rightly deemed as tantamount to disparaging the Holy Prophet Muhammad, upon him blessings and peace” – as stated here: https://eshaykh.com/doctrine/deobandis-tabighis-wahhabis – then why is Shaykh Haddad calling for unity with them? Isn’t disparaging our Nabi the worst type of kufr?
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Both native and non-native speakers of English should be able to understand the difference between something that “is X” and something that is “deemed as tantamount to X” and, for a student of religion, not to know the difference is inexcusable. To clarify, while disparaging our Nabi (upon him blessings and peace) is apostasy (ridda) and unbelief (kufr) without need for further proof, something deemed as kufr is in need of proof, even more so something deemed as tantamount to kufr.
Furthermore, the principal clause in which is found the phrase of mine you are quoting begins with the words “certain grave errors have crept in” so already there is an excuse that we can and must add to the two remotes I already mentioned above, namely, that the offenses were slips. ( I hope the language used here is clear and that it will not give rise to more inflammatory over-simplifications!) Our righteous predecessors said there is a big difference between those that aimed to do good and missed their target on the one hand and, on the other, those that aimed to do evil and succeeded.
Our belief is that here the culprits in those grave errors belong to the first category, i.e. those that aimed to do good and missed their target; even if their successors and followers now appear to defend them more out of partisan fanaticism (hamiyya) than purely religious motives, and Allah knows best. For example, when I asked one of our hadith teachers Dr. Abu al-Layth al-Khayrabadi of Deoband at his university in Kuala Lumpur whether he agreed that the infamous statements in Taqwiyatul Iman and Hifzul Iman were deserving of blame and condemnation he said yes; when I asked him why such statements were still supported, defended, translated and taught he said: “They [Deobandis] hate to speak against their Elders (Akabir).”
Finally, we focus on the errors themselves, contrary to those who over-simplify the offenses – whether innocently or by design, Allah knows best – in order to generalize them because they lust to apply the sword to an entire school, also out of hamiyya. And that is the endemic disease plaguing us today without doubt, straight out of Jahiliyya. Allah is our refuge from perdition.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
