_ living islam : Islamic tradition _ 
  https://www.livingislam.org/



Tampering of Najdi text critiquing Ibn `Abd al-Wahhab


[In the text:
https://www.livingislam.org/ir/ez/in/it1/Sulayman.b.Abdal-Wahhab.txt
or same text:
https://www.livingislam.org/fiqhi/sm1-gfh_e.html#5]
I had mentioned the classic Hanbali biographical encyclopedia of Ibn 
Humayd al-Najdi (1236-1295), _al-Suhub al-Wabila `ala Dara'ih al-
Hanabila_ (The rain-shedding clouds over the remains of the Hanbalis) 
in which he took serious issue with Shaykh Muhammad ibn `Abd al-
Wahhab and called his movement "evil" in the chapter devoted to the 
latter's father. In the same chapter Ibn Humayd also mentions Shaykh 
Sulayman ibn `Abd al-Wahhab's refutation of his brother.

Ibn Humayd also has a chapter on another prominent Najdi Faqih and 
pious author of the first rank, `Uthman ibn `Abd Allah ibn Jami`, 
whose teacher Muhammad ibn Fayruz sent him to al-Bahrayn to teach and 
who authored a large compendium of Hanbali fiqh entitled _al-Fawa'id 
al-Muntakhabaat_, a commentary on Ibn Bilban's _Akhsar al-
Mukhtasaraat_, the abridgment of the latter's own _Kafi al-Mubtadi' 
min al-Tullab_.

The manuscript of Ibn Jami`'s book was recently rediscovered in 
Kuwait and it received two editions in 2003, one at Riyadh's Maktabat 
al-Rushd in two volumes and one at Beirut's Mu'assasat al-Risala in 
four.

Both Ibn Jami` and his teacher Ibn Fayruz opposed Muhammad ibn `Abd 
al-Wahhab and his views. A passage of Ibn Jami`'s book reveals the 
author's contempt of Ibn `Abd al-Wahhab, whom he calls "Taaghiyat
al-`Aarid," translatable as "The Jowl of Wanton Oppression" - a 
visionary reference to Wahhabi dialectic bringing fitna to the Umma 
and the world.

The indefatigable Shaykh al-Azhari has now brought news of the 
tampering of that passage in the Risala edition of the book, 
suppressing the author's reference to Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Wahhab as 
"Taaghiyat al-`Aarid" and replacing it with ". . . . . . . . ." i.e. 
elliptical dots.

See: http://www.azahera.net/showthread.php?t=1170

Al-Azhari notes that although the derogatory expression was censored 
in Ibn Jami`s text, the editor, a certain Dr. `Abd al-Salam ibn 
Barjas Aal `Abd al-Karim, still mentions it verbatim in his 
introduction and elucidates its lexical meaning in a later footnote 
in the course of his defense of Ibn `Abd al-Wahhab against the author.

Al-Azhari then muses whether this tampering was the act of the 
publisher or someone else, giving the editor the benefit of good 
opinion since the latter still "reveals" it in the introduction. 
However, I believe it is secondary whether this tampering is the 
genteel self-censorship of Ibn Barjas himself, with or without the 
collusion and advisement of Mu'assasat al-Risala - big purveyors of 
Wahhabi literature - as they are all underlings.

What is more important is the message being sent in the fact that the 
corruption is overt and unapologetic, as if screaming to be noticed - 
why? because it wants acceptance, to become a norm. It is not enough 
to insert footnotes attacking authors as deficient in their doctrine 
as they did with Ibn Humayd's _Suhub_, Ibn Sufan's _al-Manhaj al-
Ahmad_ (see recent message), Ibn Balban's Mukhtasar al-Ifadat (see 
'pseudo-Hanbali `Aqida' in my _Four Imams_), Ibn Hajar's _Fath al-
Bari_, the _Khatm al-Shifa_ by al-Sakhawi and Ibn Nasir al-Din and 
countless others: they want the books themselves to come out 
rephrased. More: they want us to know it and emulate it, or else!

So then, the ellipsis ". . . . . . . ." silencing an expression we're
nevertheless trained to identify (since it is excoriated in the
introductory and footnote areas) is meant as a lesson for us in 
authority and self-censorship: gagging a highly respected author and 
blindfolding million of readers in plain sight on the one hand says: 
(i) WE control the religious heritage of the Umma, not the 
Inheritors of the Prophet; and (ii) YOU need to fall in line and 
learn once and for all what can or cannot be said of our "Shaykh al-
Islam" and "al-Imam al-Muslih al-Mujaddid." WAllahu a`lam.

GF Haddad
2009-01-21