Ash'ariyyah: Answering Three Pivotal Questions about the Ash'arees

By Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Saalih al-'Uthaymeen
If someone says, “We are aware of the futility of the madhhab of the people who make ta‘weel of the Attributes, and it is well known that the Ash’arees are from those who make ta‘weel of most of the Attributes…

And the truth that no one doubts, not even the most unintelligent person, is that each and every description that Allaah has described Himself with, or that His Messenger (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) described Him with, must be free of any similarity to His Creation, and this is the apparent meaning that comes to mind for the one who has the slightest amount of faith in his heart…Could any intelligent person deny that the meaning that first comes to mind is based on the fact that the Creator is unlike the Creation, with regards to His actual Presence, and with regards to His Attributes as well?  No, by Allaah!  No one denies this other than an ignorant, arrogant liar, someone who claims that the apparent meanings of the Verses about the Attributes are not befitting to Allaah, since they are disbelief and tashbeeh!  The only thing that has led them to say this is the filth that has built up within their own hearts because of their assumptions that the Creator is similar to the Creation.  Then, their false assumption of tashbeeh led them to reject the Attributes of Allaah and abandon having faith in them.  All of this while Allaah the Exalted is the very One who described Himself with these things!  So this ignoramus was first a mushabbih, and then a mu’attil, thus he believed what was not befitting about Allaah from beginning to end.

If someone says, “We are aware of the futility of the madhhab of the people who make ta‘weel of the Attributes, and it is well known that the Ash’arees are from those who make ta‘weel of most of the Attributes…

[1]: But how could their madhhab be falsehood when it has been said that they make up about ninety-five percent of the Muslim population?

[2]: And how could their madhhab be falsehood when their founding role model was Abul-Hasan al-Ash’aree?

[3]: And how could their madhhab be falsehood while So-and-So and So-and-So are Ash’aree scholars, and they are well known for their sincerity to Allaah, His Book, His Messenger, the leaders of the Muslims and the common folk?