SHAYKH MUḤAMMAD AMĀN AL-JĀMĪ (d. 1416/1996) (رحمه الله) is one of the Salafī scholars who stood against the Surūrī movement which sought to sow the seeds of rebellion and chaos in the land of the Ḥaramayn. At the same time, the Ḥaddādī movement appeared which sought to weaken the Salafī daʿwah by sowing the seeds of discord through weaponised tabdīʿ and taḍlīl.
He said:
Imām Abū Ḥanīfah explained Īmān to be assent (taṣdīq) and qawl speech (qawl) and he expelled actions from entering into definition of Īmān. None of scholars of the Muslims in the past and the present said to him that he is an innovator, that [Allah’s] mercy is not invoked for him, and [Allāh’s] forgiveness is not sought for him.
Al-Dhahabī erred, al-Bayḥaqī erred, al-Ḥāfiḍh Ibn Ḥajar erred, al-Nawawī erred, al-Shawkānī erred, [they are] Imāms. They served Islām, they served the Book of Allāh and the Sunnah of Allāh’s Messenger (عليه الصلاة والسلام), the people of knowledge say: We hope that their errors are drowned in the ocean of their knowledge and their service to the Book and the Sunnah.
Prior to this recent wave which has resurfaced these days, no one said about them that they were innovators, that [Allah’s] mercy is not invoked for them, and [Allāh’s] forgiveness is not sought for them.
This is dangerous speech. The one for whom forgiveness is not sought is a disbeliever or a polytheist with the major shirk. Beware O youth, the one for whom it is not permissible to seek forgiveness and invoke [Allāh’s] mercy for him, you have judged him to be a mushrik with the major shirk, or a disbeliever with the clear, major disbelief.
The one who falls into innovation and their innovation is not an innovation entailing disbelief, they are considered the sinful among the Muwaḥḥidīn. By consensus, forgiveness is sought for the sinful of the Muwaḥḥidīn, and [Allāh’s] mercy is invoked for them, and they are most needy of people for forgiveness being sought [for them].
They are from the sinful Muwaḥḥidīn, how can forgiveness not be sought for them. Who will you seek forgivenes for then?
I wish to say that errors occurred from some of the Tābiʿīn, and the followers of the Tābiʿīn, and after them, from the Imāms in the [subject] of the Names and the Attributes, [through] taʿwīl, and before us, the Imāms who bequeathed this scholarly legacy to us, were fully aware of them, their position and their errors, but they never said what some of the youth today say about them, and everything I mention.
Imām Aḥmad used to warn his students from sitting with al-Ḥārith al-Muḥasibī, because sitting with someone who has a type of innovation whether in the field of the Names and the Attributes or in Taṣawwuf (the way of the Ṣūfīs) will affect the one who sits with him, especially when he seeks knowledge from him. However, this does not necessitate that it is not permissible to invoke [Allāh’s] mercy for him and not permissible to seek forgiveness for him.
Al-Ḥārith al-Muḥāsibī was an esteemed scholar. Alongside that, we see Imām Ibn Taymiyyah making numerous citations from his works in his book, al-Fatwā al-Ḥamawiyyah.
We can conclude from this (the following): that if you fear (harm) from sitting with a scholar who has innovation, then do not sit with him, but if he has beneficial books, then benefit from his books just as Shaykh al-Islām benefited from the books of al-Muḥāsibī, by quoting from them, and before him, the Imām of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah warned his students from sitting with him so that they are not influened by the innovation which he had fallen into.
01 Shaykh Muḥammad Amān (رحمه الله) died in 1416/1996 around which time the Ḥaddādī movement appeared and sought to weaken the Salafī daʿwah by sowing the seeds of discord through weaponised tabdīʿ and taḍlīl which they infused under the guise of protective jealousy for the creed.
02 Starting with prominent scholars of the past whom Allāh bestowed with copious knowledge and who served the Qurʾān, the Sunnah and their sciences, but who fell into errors due to their particular circumstances, and which are nothing compared to their goodness, they accused them of misguidance and prohibited the invoking of [Allāh’s] mercy for them.
03 The Shaykh (رحمه الله) explained that this is tantamount to takfīr—and the original, core Ḥaddādīs were concealed Takfīrīs—since forgiveness and mercy are not invoked for those who die upon disbelief, and to prohibit this for a Muslim means a judgement of takfīr.
For more on the Ḥaddādis refer to Shaykh Rabīʿs refutations of ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Bāshmīl and Fāliḥ al-Ḥarbī.
04 Errors occurred from the Tābiʿīn and their students, but the later scholars who were also Imāms in religion, such as Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim and others never spoke about them in that manner alongside their knowledge of these errors.
05 The Shaykh gave the example of al-Ḥārith al-Muḥāsibī whom Imām Aḥmad warned against severely in his time because he entered into the speech of the Kullābīyyah and something of Taṣawwuf. That warning was appropriate and necessary for the time, because sitting with him and taking knowledge from him poses a danger as his errors and innovations could spread to others.
06 However, after his death, when his errors and the warnings of the scholars are made known, and the danger of errors communicated through personal relationship and attachment no longer exists, then in the view of scholars like Shaykh Muḥammad Amān, their beneficial works can be benefited from. As other scholars explain, these books may be books which are related to the field in which they made errors or unrelated, and hence, treated accordingly. In other words, they may be benefited from by students, shaykhs and learned scholars, or just the scholars alone who recognise the errors.
07 Ahl al-Sunnah oppose two groups: a) the Ashʿarīs who are put to trial by such scholars, thinking that the errors of these scholars in particular fields such as taʾwīl of the Attributes is a validation of their doctrine, and that their copious knowledge and service of the Qurʾān and ḥadīth sciences is in itself a proof of their correctness in these particular fields of creed (an incorrect argument) and b) the Ḥaddādīs who revile and belittle these scholars and make tabdīʿ and taḍlīl of them, and dismissing their oceans of knowledge and their great service to Islam. the Qurʾān and the Sunnah Hence, Ahl al-Sunnah invoke Allāh for their forgiveness and mercy and ask Him to reward them for their great efforts.
08 When you see a person belittling or denying the status of these scholars, or prohibiting the invoking of mercy for them (and making accusations of Irjāʾ against Salafī scholars who are outspoken against the aḥzāb and jamāʿāt), then know that these are the people that Shaykh Muḥammad Amān spoke of when they first appeared, and they have never ceased to exist within the ranks of the Salafīs, or ascribing to Salafiyyah, the daʿwah of Shaykh Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (رحمه الله) and some or many of the Salafī scholars.
They come in two flavours.
The first are those who are open and clear, representing core Ḥaddādīs or an extension of them (and they accuse Imāms such as al-Albānī of Irjāʾ, and prohibit the invoking of mercy upon senior scholars).
The second are those who fall into their ways of making unwarranted tabdīʿ and taḍlīl of Ahl al-Sunnah and thereby cause division, discord and enmity among them.
09 May Allāh reward scholars such as Shaykh Muḥammad Amān (رحمه الله) and Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hādī (رحمه الله) who stood firmly against these groups (Surūriyyah, Ḥaddādiyyah) and left us upon clarity with respect to them and their violations and deviations from the foundations of the Sunnah and their enmity towards Ahl al-Sunnah.