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Those who either agree with both truth and falsehood or conceal the truth

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Whilst discussing the affair of those who exceed the limits in Takfeer, Shaikhul Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimahullaah) said:

”And on the other side of those who make Takfeer based on falsehood are a people who do not know the creed of Ahlus Sunnah Wal-Jamaa’ah as it is obligated; or they know some of it and are ignorant of some of it.  They conceal what they know of it and do not clarify it for the people. They neither forbid innovations (which is) what is in opposition to the Book and the Sunnah nor do they censure Ahlul Bidah and punish them; rather perhaps they would censure a statement in the Sunnah and a fundamental of the religion completely and would not differentiate between what Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaa’ah say and what Ahlul Bidah Wal Furqah (The people of innovation and splitting) say; or they would affirm all their differing ways, just as the scholars would affirm the different opinions in places where Ijtihaad is permitted (i.e. due to ignorance or deliberately hiding the truth, they would affirm the correct path of Ahlus Sunnah and the corrupt path of ahlul bidah, in seeking to falsely imitate the scholars of Ahlus Sunnah when they affirm the different opinions in issues of permissible Ijtihaad).

This path has overwhelmed many of the Murji’ah, some of the jurists, those pursuing the path of asceticism and the philosophers, just as it has overwhelmed first and foremost many amongst the people of desires and rhetoric.  And both these paths (i.e. the path traversed by those who do not clarify the haqq and those who seek to condone all the divergent paths of deviation) are deviated paths outside the Book and the Sunnah. Rather what is obligatory is to clarify that which Allaah sent His Messengers with and (revealed) in His Books–propagating that which the Messengers brought from Allaah and fulfil the covenant which Allaah took from the scholars.

Therefore, it is obligatory to know that which the Messengers brought–having belief in it, propagating it, calling to it and striving with it; and to weigh up all that which the people embark upon [statements, actions, religious fundamentals and subsidiary issues pertaining to the apparent actions of the Limbs and affairs related to actions of the heart]- under the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of His Messenger; neither following desires (through) customs, a school of law, a religious order, a leader or a predecessor; nor following conjecture through a weak hadeeth or corrupt Qiyaas–regardless whether it a qiyaas that offers some degree of certainty or not–; or blindly following someone about whom it is not obligated to follow his statement and action; for indeed Allaah—in His Book—(i.e. the Qur’aan) has censured those who follow conjecture and that which their souls desire, whilst they abandon following that which came to them from their Lord of Guidance. [Majmoo Al-Fataawaa 12/467-468]

 

callers to misguidance