The New Murjiʾah

This is a response to the people who followed the footsteps of al-ʾAlbānī the Jahmī in his ʾIrjāʾ, likewise the Madākhilah and the Ẓāhiriyyah who followed Ibn Ḥazm the Mushrik in his Bidʿah.
All of these agree that actions are a part of ʾĪmān. However, actions aren't a pillar (rukn) of ʾĪmān, i.e someone can leave all obligatory actions and still be upon the religion of Muḥammad ﷺ, just with an ʾĪmān which isn't perfect; they hold actions to be sharṭ kamāl, a condition for perfection.

 

ʾIsḥāq said: Then the Murjiʾah became extreme until from one of their statements was that some people say: Whoever leaves the obligations, and fasting Ramaḍān, and Zakāt, and pilgrimage, and most of the other obligations without Juḥūd of it, we do not Takfīr him, his matter will be left to Allāh, after he has acknowledged them, so these are the Murjiʾah about whom there's no doubt.
Sunnah by al-Kirmānī, n° 189.

What their contemporaries said about this

When the belief spread, that actions are a condition for perfection in ʾĪmān, and one of its branches, and that a servant's ʾĪmān is valid without it, and this saying became the prevailing one in the books of the later commentators and interpreters and those who ascribe to the Sunnah and Salafism were influenced by it, they began teaching it to their students and stating it in their books, lessons, and websites, and they attributed this deferred doctrine of dropping work to the doctrine of the people of the Sunnah and they even began to fight those who said that it is the pillar of ʾĪmān to work and that the ʾĪmān of a servant is not valid. They even started accusing those who say this of being Khawārij... For this reason, the people of knowledge started responding to this group and warned the students of knowledge and the general masses from it, and wrote responses and refutations, from them we mention:

 

Ibn Bāz said while answering a question regarding the statement of Ibn Ḥajar that the Salaf believed action to be a condition for perfection in ʾĪmān. 

He said: No, it is a part, not a condition, it is a part of ʾĪmān; ʾĪmān is speech, action, and belief, i.e, ratification. 

Then he was asked: Some say it is included in ʾĪmān, but a condition for perfection?

He said: No, no, it isn't a condition for perfection- [it is] a part, a part of ʾĪmān - this is the speech of the Murjiʾah. The Murjiʾah see ʾĪmān as speech and belief only.

Majallat al-Mishkāt, 2/279-280.

 

Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān (and he's a Murjiʾ himself who denies ʾIstithnāʾ) said while enumerating the groups of Murjiʾah:

And there's a fifth group of Murjiʾah which emerged recently, and they are those who say: Verily actions are a condition for the perfection of the obligatory ʾĪmān, or recommended perfection. 

His commentary on Nūniyyat Ibn al-Qayyim, 2/647.

 

Bakr ʾAbū Zayd said:

And beware, then beware - O Muslim - of being deceived by what some people have uttered in belittling one of these five foundations of the reality of ʾĪmān, especially what they have learned from the Jahmiyyah and the extreme Murjiʾah, that action is supplementary to the reality of ʾĪmān, not a pillar of it.

Darʾ al-Fitnah, p. 34.

 

ʿAbdullāh al-Ghadyān was asked: The one who says that actions are a condition for perfection; is this the saying of the people of the Sunnah?

He answered: No, a condition for validity. 

Then he said: Yes, so now if people left all the orders and did all of the prohibited things, ʾĪmān would still be valid? Meaning they don't pray, they don't fast, they don't go for ʿUmrah, they don't do Ḥajj, they don't give Zakāt, they do Ribā, Zinā, theft, and everything, and they are still believers? This is their intent: those who say actions are a condition for perfection.

The questioner: Is this the statement of the Murjiʾah?

He said: The statement of the Murjiʾah. 

Al-ʾĪmān ʿinda as-Salaf, 2/72.

 

What is meant is that the later scholars followed the earlier scholars and did not bring anything new. Rather, the successful among them were those who supported the sayings of the Salaf on this issue; they said what they said, and they refrained from what they abstained from, and they did not follow other than their path in these issues.
So pay attention, and adhere to what the Salaf of the nation and the early scholars of ʾAthar were upon
in creed, and whoever followed their path and followed in their footsteps, and do not pay attention to those who disagreed with them and followed other than their path, whoever he may be. What matters is not the titles, the testimonies, the positions, the large number of books and authorships, but what matters is following the predecessors who used to say: We will not go astray as long as we adhere to the ʾAthar, and the people of the ʾAthar.
The scholars used to say: There is no ʾĪmān without action, and there is no action except with  ʾĪmān,
for they are two inseparable ties that will never separate, as will be mentioned in the next chapter.

The consensus is that there is no faith without actions

The Maḏhab of ʾAhl as-Sunnah is that there is no ʾĪmān except with actions, and there are no actions except with ʾĪmān, and that they aren't separated from each other, and none of them is valid without the other.

This is what they have agreed upon and expressed clearly; whoever Allāh wills to guide, and wants good for him, would say what they have said.

 

Saʿīd b. Jubayr said: No speech is accepted except with action, and no action is accepted except with speech, and no speech and action are accepted except with intention, and no speech, action, and intention are accepted except with an intention which agrees with the Sunnah.

Al-Lālakāʾī, n° 20.

 

Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said: No speech is valid except with action, and no speech and action is valid except with an intention, and no speech, action, and intention are valid except with the Sunnah.

Sunnah by al-Kirmānī, n° 132.

Ash-Sharīʿah, n° 258.

And he said: ʾĪmān is speech, and its reality is action, so if the speech isn't realised with the action, the speech doesn't benefit him.

Sunnah by al-Kirmānī, n° 132.

Ash-Sharīʿah, n° 255.

 

ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUbayd b. ʿUmayr said: Faith in Allāh is with the action, and the action is with the faith, and this isn't valid except with that, until they both proceed towards goodness, ʾin shāʾ Allāh. 

Al-Lālakāʾī, n° 1579.

 

Qatādah said: Allāh doesn't accept speech except with action.

Tafsīr aṭ-Ṭabarī, 19/340.

 

Az-Zuhrī said: We used to say: ʾIslām is by acknowledgement, and ʾĪmān is by action, and ʾĪmān is speech and action, the two are joined, neither of them is beneficial without the other.

Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 7/295.

 

Zayd b. ʾAslam said: .. You must do an action that will confirm your faith.

Al-ʾĪmān by Ibn ʾAbī Shaybah, n° 136.

 

Al-ʾAwzāʿī said: I met whom I met from the first of this nation, and they don't differentiate between ʾĪmān and action.. And he said: ʾĪmān and action are like these two - and he pointed with his two fingers -, there is no faith except with action, and there's no action except with faith.

As-Sunnah by al-Kirmānī, n° 130.

 

Al-Walīd b. Muslim said: I heard al-ʾAwzāʿī and Mālik b. ʾAnas and Saʿīd b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz reject the statement of the one who says: Verily ʾĪmān is speech without action, and they say: There's no ʾĪmān except by action, and there's no action except by ʾĪmān. 

Al-Lālakāʾī, n° 1586.

 

Sufyān ath-Thawrī said: Speech isn't valid except by action. 

As-Sunnah by ʿAbdullāh, n° 681.

 

Sufyān b. ʿUyaynah said: We took it from those who preceded us: It is speech and action, and there can't be speech without action.

As-Sunnah by ʿAbdullāh, n° 716.

 

Ash-Shāfiʿī said: And the consensus of the companions and the Tābiʿīn after them and those who met them was that they say: Verily ʾĪmān is speech, action, and intention, none is sufficient from the three except by the other.

Al-ʾUmm, Bāb an-Niyyah fī-ṣ-Ṣalāt.

 

ʾAḥmad said: ʾĪmān can only be with action. 

As-Sunnah by al-Khallāl, n° 962.

 

Al-Ḥumaydī said: And ʾImān is both speech and action, increases and decreases, and speech alone is of no avail without action, and action is of no avail without intention, and neither speech nor action nor intention is of any avail without following the Sunnah.

ʾUṣūl as-Sunnah, p. 37-38.

 

Al-Muzanī said: And ʾĪmān is both speech and action, and they are two inseparable components, two systems, and two companions. We do not differentiate between them; there is no faith except by action, and there is no action except by faith.

Sharḥ as-Sunnah, p. 81.

The Shubuhāt of the Murjiʾah

It's hilarious how these people use the same arguments as the old Murjiʾah to argue that actions aren't a pillar, like the Ḥadīth of "Whoever says lā ʾilāha ʾillā Allāh will enter Jannah", the Ḥadīth of the man who burned himself, and the Ḥadīth of the Jahanamiyyūn, and similar ʾAḥādīth which the Salaf already clarified.

 

• ''Whoever says lā ʾilāha ʾillā Allāh will enter Jannah''

The scholars have responded to this doubt and refuted the interpretation of the Murjiʾah, from them who said these narrations were said at the start of ʾIslām, before the obligations were revealed, then the people were commanded to fulfill the obligations in affirmation of the word, so whoever says it but doesn't act upon it, it won't benefit him.

 

Az-Zuhrī said: Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik said: Has it reached you that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ ordered someone to call: Whoever says lā ʾilāha ʾillā Allāh, then Jannah is for him?
He said: I said: Yes, and that was before the revelation of the obligations, then the obligations were revealed, so it is incumbent upon the people to act upon what Allāh has obliged upon them.
Al-ʾĪmān by ʾAḥmad, n° 75.
Ash-Sharīʿah, n° 305.
Al-ʾIbānah al-Kubrā, n° 1339.

 

Salamah b. Nubayṭ said: We mentioned to Aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk "Whoever says lā ʾilāha ʾillā Allāh will enter Jannah".
Aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk said: This was before the Ḥudūd were applied, and the obligations were revealed.
Al-ʾĪmān by ʾAḥmad, n° 79.
Ash-Sharīʿah, n° 303.
Al-ʾIbānah al-Kubrā, n° 1258.

 

ʾAbū al-Ḥārith said: I asked ʾAbā ʿAbdillāh ʾAḥmad b. Ḥanbal, I said: If a man said lā ʾilāha ʾillā Allāh, is he a believer?
He said: This was at the start of ʾĪmān, then the obligations were revealed, prayer, Zakāt, fasting Ramaḍān and pilgrimage to the House.
Sunnah by al-Khallāl, n° 939

 

This is also what other scholars such as al-ʾĀjurrī and ʿAbd al-Ghanīyy al-Maqdisī have said.

 

• The ʾAḥādīth which mention "They/he didn't do any good deeds/lam yaʿmal/ū khayran qaṭṭ".

Most of the Murjiʾah in our era use these narrations to prove that actions aren't a pillar, and they use the statement: لم يعمل/وا خيرا قط, and they say: This expression is clear that whoever says the Shahādah and didn't do anything can enter Jannah!
And this proof, they got it from the early Murjiʾah, and they didn't bring anything new, and you will find the scholars of the Sunnah from those who authored regarding ʾĪmān using these narrations to refute them, and whoever mentioned it from them, uses it to prove that ʾĪmān differs and it increases and decreases, and some used it against the ones who removed actions from ʾĪmān!! Like Ibn Khuzaymah and al-Qāsim b. Sallām did.
And most of the scholars narrate it to refute the Khawārij and the Muʿtazilah in their denial of intercession and Muwaḥḥidīn leaving hell.

As for the Murjiʾah of today, out of a lack of knowledge, they use these narrations to respond to those who believe action is a pillar in ʾĪmān. 
And if they had some reason, they wouldn't have argued for that while saying ʾĪmān is action and speech, and this is why when they fell into contradictions they went back to tamwīh like Ibn Siwār the Murjiʾ who used to say: ʾĪmān is speech and action but then he would say if someone says then he has acted.
Likewise, these people agree with the people of the Sunnah at first sight, but when you ask them: What's the status of action in ʾĪmān?
They say: It is a perfection for it and a branch from its branches, the faith of a slave is valid without it, and he doesn't go to hell eternally by leaving it.
From this, it would be apparent that they agree with the other sects of the Murjiʾah in separating actions from ʾĪmān and that the disagreement is just semantics.
Then, when they are asked: What's your proof for this?
They said: The ʾAḥādīth of Shafāʿah and the man who burned himself.
If we were to follow the reality of this Maḏhab, we would have found that they got it from the ʾAshāʿirah, who are known for deception in their usage of words, but when you delve into the details, their Zandaqah gets clear.

ʾAbū ʿUbayd said:
So if someone said: How can it be said that someone is not a believer while the name of ʾĪmān isn't removed from him?
It is said: This is a common expression among the Arabs, which is not strange to us, they remove the action from its performer if the action isn't in its true form, don't you see that they say to a craftsman if he he hasn't perfected his work: You have not made anything, and you have not done any work. What is meant here is negation of proficiency, not the work itself. Thus, they consider him a worker in name but not in terms of precision, they have even used this in which it exceeds this, such when a man mistreats his father, and causes him harm, so it is saie: He is not a son, even though they know he is a son from his loins.

Al-ʾĪmān, n° 108.

 

Ibn Khuzaymah said:

This phrase, "they didn't do any good deeds", is of the type that the Arabs use when they negate a name from something due to its deficiency or imperfection. Therefore, the meaning of this phrase, according to this principle, is that they didn't do any good deeds to the fullest and most complete extent, not in the way that was required of them or commanded.

Kitāb at-Tawḥīd, 2/792.

This phrase has appeared in many narrations, and none of those who understand the Arabic language have interpreted it as a complete denial of good deeds. Among these narrations

• From ʾAbī Hurayrah, may Allāh be pleased with him, that Allāh's Messenger (ﷺ) entered the mosque and a person followed him. The man prayed and went to the Prophet and greeted him. The Prophet (ﷺ) returned the greeting and said to him, "Go back and pray, for you have not prayed." The man went back prayed in the same way as before, returned and greeted the Prophet who said, "Go back and pray, for you have not prayed." This happened thrice. The man said, "By Him Who sent you with the Truth, I cannot offer the prayer in a better way than this. Please, teach me how to pray." The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "When you stand for prayer, say Takbīr and then recite from the Holy Qurʾān and then bow till you feel at ease. Then raise your head and stand up straight, then prostrate till you feel at ease during your prostration, then sit with calmness till you feel at ease and do the same in all your prayers. Narrated by al-Bukhārī (757).

The Prophet ﷺ affirmed by saying, "You did not pray," but he did not mean that the person did not pray at all. Rather, he meant that the prayer was not complete and perfect.

• From ʾAbī Hurayrah, may Allāh be pleased with him, who reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: "A man who never did any good deeds at all was someone who used to lend money to people. He would instruct his servant, 'Take what is easy, leave what is difficult, and forgive, perhaps Allāh will forgive us.' When he died, Allāh said to him: 'Did you do any good deeds?' He said: 'No, except that I had a servant, and I used to lend money to people. When I sent him to collect the debts, I would tell him to take what was easy, leave what was difficult, and forgive, perhaps Allāh would forgive us.' Allāh ﷺ said: 'I have forgiven you.'" Narrated by ʾAḥmad (8730). 

• And from the narration of ʾAbū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, regarding the man who killed one hundred people, then left his homeland repenting, but died on the way. The angels of mercy and punishment disputed over him… In the narration, the angels of mercy said: "He came repentant, his heart turning to Allāh," while the angels of punishment said: "He never did any good deeds at all." Narrated by Muslim (2766).

These narrations and those similar to them indicate the negation of the perfection and completion of deeds, not their complete absence. Therefore, the people of Sunnah have interpreted the narrations about the intercession of those who are taken out of the Fire, understanding them to mean the negation of the perfection, completion, and excellence of deeds, not a complete negation of deeds altogether.

Thus, there is harmony between the texts of the Sharīʿah and the consensus of the early scholars that actions are an essential component of ʾĪmān, and ʾĪmān is not valid without them.

Consensus on the disbelief of the one who leaves the prayer

And know, may Allāh have mercy on you, that abandoning the prayer is disbelief by consensus, no one disagreed from the first 3 centuries except the Murjiʾah and the Ḥanafīs (because they were Murjiʾah), and whoever follows the narrations of the Salaf regarding the one who leaves prayer, he will undoubtedly know that there is no Tafṣīl like the Murjiʾah claim, that if he leaves it out of Juḥūd then he's a Kāfir. Still, if he leaves it out of laziness, then he's a Muslim; rather, the Salaf only mentioned the one who leaves it on purpose.

 

And a lot of scholars transmitted this consensus, from whom we quote:

 

At-Tirmiḏī narrated from ʿAbdullāh b. Shaqīq al-ʿUqaylī, he said: The companions of Muḥammad ﷺ didn't see leaving anything from the [obligatory] actions as disbelief other than prayer.

As-Sunan, 4/366.

 

ʾAbū ʾAḥmad al-Ḥākim said: I heard Muḥammad b. ʾIsḥāq ath-Thaqafī, he said: I heard ʾAbū Rajāʾ Qutaybah b. Saʿīd, he said: This is the relied upon speech of the scholars in ʾIslām and the Sunnah [...] And we do not excommunicate anyone with a sin except leaving prayer, even if he did major sins.

Shiʿār ʾAsḥāb al-Ḥadīth, p. 30.

 

Muḥammad b. Naṣr al-Marwazī said:

We have mentioned the reports which were narrated from the Prophet ﷺ regarding excommunicating the one who abandons it and removing him from the fold of the religion, and the permissibility of killing the one who stops from establishing it, likewise it has been narrated from the companions may Allāh be pleased with them, and we have not received any opposing view from any of them.

Taʿẓīm Qadr aṣ-Ṣalāt, 2/925.

 

And he said: Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā narrated to us, he said: ʾAbū an-Nuʿmān narrated to us, he said: Ḥammād b. Zayd narrated to us from ʾAyyūb [as-Sikhtiyānī], he said: Abandoning prayer is disbelief, there is no disagreement about it.

Taʿẓīm Qadr aṣ-Ṣalāt, 2/925.

 

ʾAbū ʿAbdillāh said: I heard ʾIsḥāq saying: It has been authentically narrated from the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ that the one who abandons the prayer is a disbeliever, and likewise it was the opinion of the people of knowledge from the time of the Prophet ﷺ to this day, that the one who leaves prayer on purpose without an excuse until its time is gone is a disbeliever. 

Taʿẓīm Qadr aṣ-Ṣalāt, 2/929.

 

Ibn Baṭṭah said:

These reports and narrations and Sunan from the Prophet, the companions and the Tābiʿīn, all indicate to those of understanding, and to anyone with the least sense of ḥayāʾ, the disbelief of the one who leaves prayer. 

Al-ʾIbānah al-Kubrā, 2/683.