ARAFAT NDALIMAN

This malicious guy here is saying: "Izala scholar says Ibn Taymiyyah cannot make a mistake, but the Prophet (ﷺ) can make a mistake." I would like to address this because, over the last few days, one thing that has become increasingly apparent is how some people of Bid'ah pproach these discussions. Rather than engage with what a scholar actually says, they intentionally take short clips, remove the context and sometimes even the conclusion, and present them in a way that creates an entirely different impression. I previously addressed another video involving the same Sheikh, Sheikh Sani Rijiyar Lemu, where a clip about Ibn Taymiyyah appearing in the desert was cut before the Sheikh's actual conclusion. Two separate incidents have now been taken and presented together in a way that appears designed to create confusion and misrepresent what was said. But let me address the actual substance of this particular claim, and leave the matter of those who deliberately spread confusion to Allah. First, the claim that the Sheikh declared Ibn Taymiyyah infallible is simply a misrepresentation of what he said. What the Sheikh was arguing was that you could bring an issue in which Ibn Taymiyyah arrived at a conclusion that was not necessarily the most correct or optimal conclusion. However, it would be unreasonable to attribute that conclusion to a lack of understanding (fahm). In other words, the Sheikh was making a distinction between Ibn Taymiyyah's ability to understand complex matters and the correctness of the conclusions he reached. He was highlighting the extraordinary depth of Ibn Taymiyyah's understanding, not declaring him incapable of error. And interestingly, the statement itself acknowledges the possibility that Ibn Taymiyyah could arrive at a conclusion that was not correct. Otherwise, what would be the point of making the distinction between the correctness of his conclusion and his understanding of the issue? This brings me to three concepts that I think people should understand: 1. Dhakāʾ (ذكاء): Intelligence. This refers to one's intellectual sharpness, mental ability and capacity to reason. 2. Fahm (فهم): Understanding. This is the ability to comprehend an issue, grasp its complexities, understand arguments and appreciate their implications. 3. Ṣawāb (صواب): Correctness. This concerns whether the judgment or conclusion one eventually reaches is actually correct. These three things are related, but they are not interchangeable. A person can possess extraordinary intelligence, understand an issue deeply, examine its arguments and implications, and still arrive at an incorrect conclusion. An incorrect conclusion does not automatically establish that the person lacked understanding. There may be an error in the reasoning, the evidence relied upon, the interpretation, the weighting of competing evidence or the final judgment. This is not peculiar to Ibn Taymiyyah. It is a basic distinction in intellectual discourse. You can disagree with Ibn Taymiyyah. You can demonstrate that a particular position of his was incorrect. You can even argue that another scholar understood a particular issue better. None of that requires you to pretend that Ibn Taymiyyah lacked the intellectual capacity to understand the subject. And that is precisely what the Sheikh was communicating. Recognising Ibn Taymiyyah's extraordinary fahm is not declaring him infallible. Defending his intellectual depth is not defending every conclusion he ever reached. There is absolutely no contradiction between acknowledging a scholar's exceptional understanding and recognising that he was capable of error. In another post, I will address the other part of the statement "the Prophet (ﷺ) can make a mistake". In Sha Allah. For now, bye.