Bismi’llâhi ’r-rahmâni ’r-rahîm
Allâhu ta’âlâ has compassion on all the people on the earth. He sends useful things to everybody. In the next world, He will do the favour of forgiving whomever He likes of the guilty Muslims who are to go to Hell, and He will put them into Paradise. He alone is the One who creates every living creature, keeps every being in existence every moment and protects all against fear and horror. Trusting ourselves to the honourable name of Allâhu ta’âlâ, we begin to write this book.
Hamd be to Allâhu ta’âlâ! Peace and blessings be on His most beloved Prophet, Muhammad (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam)! Auspicious prayers be on the pure Ahl al-Bait (immediate relatives) and for each of the just and faithful Companions of that exalted Prophet!
The measurement of intelligence, using the testing methods, was done first by the Ottomans. As is written in American literature, the European statesmen were very much bewildered when the Ottoman Armies came to Vienna. They were terrified with the fear that Islam was spreading over Europe and Christianity was perishing. They endeavoured much in search of a solution for stopping the Ottoman attack. One midnight, the British ambassador in Istanbul cabled a message in cipher. He could not wait till morning to give the good news to Europe: “I found, I did!” he said. “I found the reason why the Ottomans won victory after victory and the solution for stopping them.” And he explained as follows: “The Ottomans never torture the prisoners of war but treat them like
brothers. They test the intelligence of little children no matter of which nationality or religion they are. Keen-witted children are selected and educated by qualified teachers in the school called ‘Enderûn’ in the Palace and, being taught Islamic knowledge, Islamic morals, science and culture, they are brought up as strong, enterprising Muslims. The distinguished commanders who caused the Ottoman armies to gain victory after victory and the outstanding men of politics and administration like [the two great Ottoman viziers] Sokullu and Köprülü all had grown up from among those keen-witted children brought up in this manner. For stopping the Ottoman attacks, it is necessary to extirpate these Enderûn schools and their branches, the madrasas, and to cause Muslims to decline in knowledge and science.”
The dismal, heartrending events in the Ottoman history show that this suggestion of the British ambassador met with acceptance and the Scotch and Paris freemasonic lodges began to work assiduously. Many schemes were prepared to deceive Muslims and to prevent the
madrasas and schools from educating learned and scientific men of religion and administration. Younger generations were deprived of knowledge, were made irreligious and were accustomed to diversion and dissipation in Europe. They were given false licenses and diplomas to guise them as scientists and were sent back to the mother country to act as insidious enemies. Such ignorant persons of diplomas, the bigots of science, through very shrewd schemes costing millions and set by frreemasons, were made to take the lead in the Ottoman State. For example, Mustafa Reshid Pasha, Fuad Pasha and the like removed scientific courses from madrasas, while Mithat Pasha and Talât Pasha pared down the religious courses. In the time of Fâtih Sultan Muhammed Khân (Mehmed the
Conqueror) the religious and scientific knowledge taught in madrasas had been in very advanced levels. But after Tanzimât (the political reforms of Abdülmejid in 1839), especially in the time of the Union Party, those levels fell down. The enemies of Islam became succesful by acting very insidiously and hypocritically. Especially Mithat Pasha had been prepared to attack mercilessly against Islam and the Qur’ân through perfidious plans. If the strong îmân and the keen intellect of Sultan Abdülhamid Khân II had not stood stiff like a steel shield against this poisonous dagger intended to be thrust through Islam, the enemy plans of destruction would have crushed Muslims. There are many evidences of this in the twelfth volume of Türkiye Tarihi (History of Turkey, Istanbul, 1967).
The enemies of Islam have always been trying to annihilate Islam and Muslims. Communists have been attacking through every kind of propaganda, loathome lies, slanders and very wild, barbaric tortures. Muslims see these base attacks and do not get deceived. Freemasons, however, have been attacking Islam through insidious, sweet words, smiling face, financial help and flattery. They say that all people, religious or irreligious, are brothers and that religion is unnecessary. They try to annihilate Islamic brotherhood to replace it with masonic brotherhood. The most terrible enemies of Islam are those who, pretending to be Muslims and disguising themselves as men of religious authority, try to demolish it insidiously from the inside. Such bigots of religion have
come forth in Arabia and India. They deceive Muslims in their speech and articles with such misleading words as, “We will reform the religion. We will purify Islam from superstitions and heresies. We will expose the commands of the Qur’ân to view.” They cause disunion and make brothers enemies to one another. Islam, however, commands union, mutual love and help. It is a duty for every Muslim to do favour and to disembarrass other Muslims and even non-Muslim fellow-countrymen, foreign businessmen and tourists. Rasûlullah (’alaihi ’s-salâm) said, “The best of men is the one who is helpful to mankind”; “The person who owes a debt of human rights will not enter Paradise unless he pays it”; “Do not rebel
even if those who govern you are Abyssinian unbelievers!” Both in his own country and in unbelievers’ country, every Muslim should observe everybody’s rights, should not do harm or offend anybody and should obey the laws and the administration. For this purpose, we should teach Islamic knowledge and its beautiful morals to the youth. If the pure youth are left ignorant of Islam, their belief in Islam and their morals will be corrupted by being deceived by false heroes and hypocritical friends, thus they will run toward endless disaster and ruination.
To attack Islam means to assassinate all the people on the earth, to tread on the human rights and human liberty and to attempt to change the prosperity of men into disaster. This evil offence has been committed for the pleasure, entertainment and fun of a handful of passion-blinded, stone-hearted group. May Allâhu ta’âlâ rescue people from this very ominous, grievous disaster; Âmin! Mere prayers with tongue or pen will not be accepted; it is also necessary to hold on to the means and make every effort possible. Muslims should know their frank and insidious enemies who attack their faith and happiness. They should not believe the lies of these enemies and should not disunite, nor should they forget that they are brothers. In the subject on “Bâghî”, Ibn ’Âbidîn
wrote: “The Khârijîs explained away (ta’wîl) the inexplicit documents (dalâ’il), that is, they attributed unclear, unusual meanings to some âyats and mutawâtir hadîths. Those who departed from Hadrat ’Alî’s (radiy-Allâhu ’anh) soldiers and fought against him acted this way. They said, ‘The judge is Allah only. Following the decision of two arbitrators, Hadrat ’Alî left the caliphate to Mu’âwiya (radiy-Allâhu ’anhumâ) and committed a grave sin.’ This wrong explanation caused them to fight against him. They said ‘disbelievers’ about those who did not believe as they did. And now, those who follow Muhammad ibn ’Abd al-Wahhâb, who appeared in Najd, claim that solely they themselves are Muslims. They say ‘polytheists’ about those who do not believe as they do, and they regard killing them and taking away their property
and women as halâl. The ‘ulamâ’ of fiqh, the mujtahids, did not say ‘kâfir’ about those who, like the Khârijîs and Wahhâbîs, departed on account of inexplicit documents, but said ‘bâghî’, ‘âsî’ or ‘ahl al-bid’a’, that is ‘non-madhhabite’ or ‘heretic’. One becomes a kâfir if he explains away wrongly and does not believe a dalîl with a single meaning which is openly understood. An example of this is to deny that the universe will be annihilated and that the dead will come to life again. However, one does not become a kâfir by slandering or denying the caliphate of Hadrat Abû Bakr and Hadrat ’Umar (radiy-Allâhu ’anhumâ) if he concludes this as a result of attributing an uncommon meaning to a document. He who says, ‘’Alî is God. Jabrâ’il went wrong in bringing the wahî,’ becomes a kâfir, because, such words cannot be deduced from ta’wîl or ijtihâd but stem from
following the nafs. One becomes a kâfir, too, if he attributes adultery to Hadrat ’Â’îsha (radiy-Allâhu ’anhâ) or denies that her father was a Sahâbî, for both claims show the denial of the open dalîl declared in the Qur’ân al-kerîm. One also becomes a kâfir by saying, without a ta’wîl, that it is halâl to attack Muslims’ property and lives; he would not become a kâfir, if he, supposing himself to be following Islam, said it upon the ta’wîl of an inexplicit dalîl from the Qur’ân or Hadîth.” As it is seen, if a person who carries out his ’ibâdât and calls himself a Muslim or ahl al-qibla holds a belief unconformable to Ahl as-Sunna, and if his belief is the denial of an explicit dalîl, this belief is a kufr whether it
was based on a ta’wîl or not. If it is the denial of an inexplicit dalîl and if he has a ta’wîl, it is not a kufr. If it comes out of following the nafs and is intended for worldly advantages without a ta’wîl, it is also a kufr. One also becomes a kâfir if he, following his nafs and for worldly advantages, tries to prove a thought or belief of his to be a religious fact by explaining dalâ’il away. He is called a ‘zindîq’. Belief held by following (taqlîd) a man of bid’a but without knowing about the ta’wîl is also kufr, for his taqlîd of someone in the things to be believed is invalid if the dalâ’il are not known. One who says that the ijmâ’ is not a dalîl does not become a kâfir. He becomes a man of bid’a. His words unconformable to the ijmâ’ are not kufr.
Seeing this grievous danger that has descended upon Muslims, our hearts break. In order to awaken and protect the youth against this destructive attack, we deemed it a great duty and the only means of our attaining the everlasting felicity to render a small service of writing down the deceptive attacks of some foreign, religiously ignorant people, who advocate reform in the religion, and exposing the truth by answering them one by one. Thus we want to show to the youth the group of heretics who claim to pursue the cause of Islam. In this book, we do not write anything out of our short sights; the answers are collected from the Ahl as-Sunna scholars’ books, and a letter from the book
Maktûbât by al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî Ahmad al-Fârûqî as-Sirhindî, the great scholar and exalted guide of Muslims, is appended after the conclusion of the book. Also a glossary to look up for the words froeign to the English reader is appended at the end. Now the eleventh English edition is presented to the youth.
May Allâhu ta’âlâ make us all attain the wordly and heavenly felicity! May He protect us against harming ourselves and others! Âmin.
Mîlâdî Hijrî Shamsî Hijrî Qamarî
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