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Takfeer And The Scholars In The Past
Assalamualaikum!
Have there been any scholars in the past, especially from the earlier centuries of Islam, who have held similar views regarding Takfeer with Ghamidi saheb?
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3 Replies
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Takfeer And The Scholars In The Past
updated 1 year, 1 month ago
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The concept of Takfir is an innovation in religion which is against the clear directives of both Quran and Hadith. The word “Takfir” and the underlying concept are both alien to the sources of Islam and early scholarship was well aware of this fact. The concept emerged from “Kahwarij” when they separated from the group of Ali (rta) and declared all other groups as disbelievers. We find statements of early Islamic scholars like Ahmed bin Hanbal (d:241H), Ibn-e-Hazm (d:456H) and Imam Ghazali (d:505H) which talk against this concept the way it is being used now a days. It is Ibn-e-Taimiyya (d:728H) who then redefined this terminology and applied it on ruling Mongols of that time because of their customary law (i.e. Yasa Code) which was developed by Genghis Khan. In recent times, we have names like Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab (d:1206H), Syed Qutab (d:1399H), Molana Modudi (d:1979) where this concept has evolved and redefined in one way or another. Its extreme form in recent times can be seen as done by Daesh (ISIS). The attached paper expounds on the evolution of the concept of Takfir among Muslims and it becomes evident that earlier scholars have never used this concept the way it is being used now a days.
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This is very interesting. I will definitely read the given paper in detail.
I have heard that the initial scholars (even Imam Abu Hanifa and those of his era etc) did not directly declare anyone literally as ‘Kaafir’, even those whom people today consider as kaafir (like Khawarij and Muatazillah etc). They only used to declare their certain beliefs or practices as ‘Kuffr’ and that too, in extreme cases.
How true is this?
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Yes, infact Abu Hanifa fought against the ideology of Takfir as done by Khawarij and related ideology of Mutazilites as well.
It is narrated that on the issue of a Muslim who commits a major sin, the khawarij placed the law of kufr above them, however, others refrained from doing so and entrusted everything to Allah (So they were called Murjia since they delayed judgement).
The Mutazilites also used to call every such person a Murjia who did not believe that one who commits a major sin will remain forever in Hell. It is for this reason, they considered Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam Muhammad to be Murjias.
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