In the Name of Allaah, the Most Gracious, the Ever Merciful…
Shaykh ‘Abdul-‘Azeez ar-Raajihee (may Allaah preserve him) was asked:
Question: With respect to the proper understanding of the issue of people who do not hold the polytheists to be disbelievers, such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), if a person comes along and says, “I do not hold Ibn Sina to be a disbeliever. He is a Muslim to me.” Has this person committed disbelief?
Answer: If he is confused about him and is not aware of his condition, he does not commit disbelief until his (Ibn Sina’s) affair is first made clear to him. However, someone who knows he was a disbeliever and a heretic, yet does not declare him to be a disbeliever, falls under this nullifier of Islaam (i.e. he is no longer a Muslim). This may not be clear to some people, however, so the one who is not aware of his condition should be made aware of it.
Question: [Continuing…] But if he rejects this and says, “I am not required to do this”?
Answer: He IS required to do this. This means that he has fallen into one of these nullifiers of Islaam: “Whoever does not consider the polytheists to be disbelievers, or has doubts about their disbelief or considers their ways and beliefs to be correct, then he has committed disbelief.”
You are required to hold the polytheists as disbelievers and have enmity and hatred for them for the sake of Allaah. Allaah has required this from you. Allaah has made towheed a requirement upon you. And there is no towheed unless one holds the polytheists to be disbelievers. Whoever does not hold the polytheists to be disbelievers, has doubts about their disbelief, or considers their ways and beliefs to be correct is a disbeliever just like them, because he does not reject the taaghoot (false deities). Whoever does not disbelieve in and reject the taaghoot does not believe in Allaah. His faith in Allaah and towheed is not valid without two things:
[1] Rejecting all false deities,
[2] And having faith in Allaah.
Rejecting the false deities (taaghoot) is what Allaah began with first in (the statement) Laa ilaaha ill-Allaah [There is no deity worthy of worship except Allaah]. Laa ilaaha [There is no deity worthy of worship] is a rejection of all false deities.
[End of the shaykh’s answer]
Source: One of the shaykh’s answers given during a Q&A session after a lecture about “Nawaaqidh al-Islaam” (the things that nullify one’s Islaam), p.23-24 of this PDF.
Translated by: Isma’eel Alarcon (may Allaah reward him well)
Edited by: Moosaa Richardson
Assalamualayk brother. Baarakallahu feek.
I had a doubt, so i decided to ask so that you might be able to help insha Allah.
The books which are translated by our brothers in U.K and U.S.A from original arabic text to english by many publishers, especially those on tawheed, aqeedah, usul ul imaan, usul ul deen, aqeedah of salaf etc are countless, and very beneficial for the ones who are weak or totally illeterate in arabic. The benefits and goodness in them can not be counted, may Allah reward all the translators and publishers with the best.
But, there is some doubt raised by a few brothers, who say, that translations cannot be relied upon, for they are not verbatim, and much of meaning is or might be lost while translating, and there can be mistakes as well one may never know.
So this is a great doubt, as my noble brother might be aware that ilm is to realise a matter in its correct sense, with certainity. With this doubt, person enters into Shakk as to anything can be wrong from whatever he understood from the beneficial books regarding even the basics of the deen, and that he didnt read the actual words of the ulemaa.
I ask my brother to help in clarifying this doubt.
Jazakallahu khairan.
Wa alaykas-salaam wa rahmatullaah. There may be mistakes in the Arabic manuscript of the printed books, or in the modern printing. So it is not just translations. However, these are rare and they can be asked about and verified. Researchers who produce books from manuscripts, similar to translators, must be people of personal integrity and knowledge of what they are doing. I can not vouch for everyone who has translated a book, but translators who are known for their integrity and precision are to be trusted as narrators, while no one would be expected to be 100% precise (especially in translation, which is not an exact science).
In narration (which is an exact science), that is humanly impossible. Great imaams, the most precise narrators in history, the likes of Imaam Maalik ibn Anas, had a few (rare) mistakes in their narrations.
So when we talk about transcribing a manuscript, there are some minor errors expected. Then, when the printing company publishes the work, some additional errors can be expected. Then, when the book is translated into another language, there can be some minor weaknesses or errors in translation as well. So long as all people involved in these steps are trustworthy and precise. The errors will be kept to a minimum, and the resulting work will be reliable in general. Perfection is for Allaah alone, the One who perfects all things He does.
However, if you are referring to careless publishing companies that pop up in the West here and there, and they publish books of ‘aqeedah translated by unknown or unreliable translators, then I would advise that you stay away from such books and the companies that publish them. And Allaah knows best.
Just out of interest who is Shaykh ‘Abdul-’Azeez ar-Raajihee and where does he teach.
Barik allah fik
what if someone says they acknowledge what he said and propagated was kufr, but they don’t hold him a kaafir become they don’t see evidence that the hujjah was actually established upon him while he was alive.
Does this person also disbelief because he doesn’t hold ibn sina as kaafir ?
People would be upon goodness if they just left issues they don’t understand for those who do actually understand them, and simply thought well of the greatest and most cautious and meticulous scholars of Islam. What has led people to argue the case of someone as deviant as Ibn Sina, thinking the upright scholars of Ahlus-Sunnah have recklessly cast him outside of Islam unjustly? Are we applying good thoughts and suspicion in their legislated places? Or the opposite?