Shaykh ʿUbayd al-Jābirī (رحمه الله) was asked:[1]
What should we do with the one who has received commendation (tazkiyah) from some of the scholars on account of holding a good opinion of him, or due to him having written against one of the people of innovation but whose actions contradict this commendation, such as lying upon or reviling the Salafīs and attacking them with vile words. Rather, [even] lying upon some of the scholars, and other than that. So what should we do with the one whose condition is like this?
The Shaykh (رحمه الله) replied:
I say: Revelation does not descend upon the scholars of the Sunnah and its leading imāms. Rather, they commend whom they commend on account of what he displays of the Sunnah, defence of it and its people, his spreading of books regarding [the Sunnah] and refutation of the opposers. Based upon this, they commend him in accordance with what is apparent [to them].
But when he deviates fom that, alienates himself from Ahl al-Sunnah, allies with the people of innovation and defends them, then they behave with him according to what he deserves in that respect.
And what you have mentioned of [such a person] having received a commendation [despite his reality] is not strange. Al-Shāfiʿī (رحمه الله) used to commend Ibrāhīm bin Muḥammad ibn Abī Yaḥyā and he would say: “A trustworthy one narrated to me.”[2]
But other scholars disparaged him, Imām Mālik (رحمه الله) was asked about this Ibrāhīm, it was said: “Is he trustworthy?” and he said: “No, [not in his reports] and nor in his religion.”[3]
Hence, the commendation of al-Shāfiʿī (رحمه الله) does not harm al-Shāfiʿī, he is an imām to us and to everyone who knows his status from the people of Islām and Sunnah.
However, [this commendation] does not benefit Ibrāhīm bin Abī Yaḥyā because the scholars disparaged him,[4] and the principle is that the one who knows is a proof over the one who does not know.
Notes
01 There are to be found those who ascribe to Salafiyyah and affiliate themselves with certain scholars such as Shaykh al-Albānī, Shaykh Ibn Bāz, Shaykh Ibn al-ʿUthaymīn (رحمهم الله) and likewise, Shaykh al-Fawzān and Shaykh ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-ʿAbbād and others, and alongside that they may have speech and writing in defence of the Sunnah and against factions of Ahl al-Bidʿah, and this is the face or appearance they display through the various channels, and on account of which they may have commendations.
However, at the same time, they have enmity and/or vile speech against certain other scholars, and likewise against people of the Sunnah, throwing labels and slurs against them.
The reason for these actions of theirs is that these scholars spoke the bitter truth about issues of creed and methodology, and about figures and personalities whom they remain attached to, who opposed the Sunnah and deviated, and these people did not like that and did not meet it with acceptance for whatever reasons and motives, despite the evidences been clear and established.
02 The principle: (من علم حجة على من لم يعلم) “The one who knows is a proof over the one who does not know”, ensures that truth is never lost and buried, and had this sound principle not been implemented, then we would not have the authentic Sunnah today and the religion would have long gone the way of the People of the Book of alteration and distortion (taḥrīf, tabdīl).
03 Thus it is obligatory to take the speech of the one who brings knowledge, who brings evidence. This applies both in matters of religion and also the world. In the worldly affairs also, the one who knows is a proof over the one who does not know and had this not been the case, then the beneficial interests of mankind would never be realised and would be wasted and lost due to the preponderance of ignorance and error.
This principle exists because it is not possible for one man, one scholar, to gather and comprehend all of knowledge due to obvious limitations, and thus, evidence is taken from the scholar who brings knowledge and whose judgements are based upon factual knowledge.
04 The people of innovation, misguidance and partisanship oppose these principles and work to undermine them because of what these principles entail of the exposure of falsehood and misguidance which they are upon and have reasons not to leave, disdaining thereby the truth.
05 Over the past few decades there have appeared people from the direction of al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn (the Muslim Brotherhood) and those affected by them attempting to undermine sound principles while innovating false ones, aiming thereby to abolish the methodology of criticism, refutation and disparagement by which the Sunnah, the sound creed, the sound methodology, the way of truth, the way of the Companions, the way of the Salaf, is kept pure and distinct from whatever opposes it.
06 From these individuals are ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbd al-Khāliq, Salmān al-ʿAwdah, ʿAdnān Arʿūr, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Maʾribī, ʿAlī Ḥasan al-Ḥalabī among others
07 Scholars such as Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hādī (حفظه الله), Shaykh Aḥmad al-Najmī (رحمه الله), Shaykh ʿUbayd al-Jābirī (رحمه الله), Shaykh Muqbil bin Hādī (رحمه الله) and Shaykh Zayd al-Madkhalī (رحمه الله) played a great role in clarifying the truth and defending the Sunnah from the lies and distortions of these individuals. They are resented for this by the biased partisans (ḥizbiyyūn), and in order to defend these figureheads, they rely upon commendations that are not based on complete knowledge, while also rejecting this principle mentioned by Shaykh ʿUbayd, alongside many others.
Footnotes
1. Refer to Majmūʿ al-Rasāʾil al-Jābiriyyah (Al-Mīrāth, 1433H) pp. 62-63.2. Al-Shāfiʿī used to say of him: “Trustworthy in his report, suspect in his religion” as mentioned by al-Khalīlī in al-Irshād (1/308).
3. Al-Jarḥ wal-Taʿdīl of Abū Ḥātim al-Raẓī (1/19).
4. Bishr bin al-Mufaḍḍal said: “I asked the jurists of Madīnah about Ibrāhīm bin Abī Yaḥyā and all of them say: ‘A liar’ or what is like that.” Al-Jarḥ wal-Taʿdīl of Abū Ḥātim al-Raẓī (2/127).
