al-Hamadhānī (1), may God be pleased with them.
And every single one of them: has many compilations, and is an imam among the imams of Islam, and a hadith master among the hadith masters, and a scholar among the scholars, and a jurist among the jurists, and a sheikh among the sheikhs. All of them are from the people of hadith, they know the exegesis of the Great Qur'an, and the hadiths from the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, and their interpretation (2).
And they used as evidence for the affirmation of Al-Ḥadd for God, Mighty and Majestic, the textual evidence of the Book and the Sunna.
And they did not say that based on analogies and opinions, nor by the desires of their own souls; rather, they spoke with evidences and proofs from the Book and the Sunna.
And there is no one on [3/a] the face of the earth more knowledgeable of the Book and the Sunna than the people of hadith (3).
Notes
- (1) He is al-Ḥasan b. Aḥmad b. al-Ḥasan b. Aḥmad al-ʿAṭṭār, Abū al-ʿAlāʾ (d. 569 AH), may Allah have mercy on him. Ibn Kathīr said in al-Bidāya wa-al-Nihāya (12/286): "He was upon a good path, generous, a devout worshipper, an ascetic, and of sound creed." End quote. Al-Dhahabī said in al-Siyar (21/44): "The Sunna was his inner and outer garment in creed and action... Abū al-ʿAlāʾ was a greater Hadith master in the variant readings of the Qurʾān than he was in hadith, despite being among the prominent imams of hadith." End quote. I say: He has a published tract titled: Futyā wa-Jawābuhā fī Dhikr al-Iʿtiqād wa-Dhamma al-Ikhtilāf. In it, he followed the path of the Predecessors (Salaf) in inference: using the Book, the Sunna, and the transmitted reports. See his biography in: al-Siyar (21/40) and Shadharāt al-Dhahab (4/131).
- (2) There is an issue with this statement of his, for some of those he mentioned have been criticized for contraventions in creed, as previously mentioned.
- (3) Al-Lālakāʾī, may Allah have mercy on him, said in the introduction to his book Iʿtiqād Ahl al-Sunna (1/23) while speaking
