[Q]: ‘What is your statement concerning the student of knowledge requesting the beginners to read Fī Ẓilāl al-Qurʾān, and to place it in their houses?  So when the student excuses himself as being a beginner who is incapable of distinguishing between the fat and the thin from whatever the writer possesses of waḥdah al-wujūd (oneness of existence between Allāh and His creation), they seek as evidence the fact that the book Fat`ḥ al-Bārī, Sharḥ al-Muslim and Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn contain errors as well.  So how can you read those books, yet you do not read this particular book?  So he answers their statement by stating that Sayyid Quṭb had waḥdah al-wujūd.  So he answers, ‘What else is there?’  It is as if he does not even see that as a point of censure.  So is it correct to perform the following actions: [i] requesting the students to read that book; [ii] placing Sayyid Quṭb amongst the ranks of the Imāms such as al-Nawawī (d.676 AH) and Ibn Ḥajar in terms of his errors in creed and his rank in knowledge?’

[A]: “As for the book al-Ẓilāl and the writings of Sayyid Quṭb – raḥimahullāh – then we advise that they not be read at all, because some people from Jamā’ah al-Takfīr and some of the youth who were conceived by Jamā’ah al-Takfīr were a direct result of the writings of Sayyid Quṭb (raḥimahullāh).^[1] And Sayyid Quṭb was merely called a writer, he was not called a mufassir (explainer of the Qurʾān).  So his tafsīr is the tafsīr of someone who lived in apostasy for eleven years, as he himself admitted.  So how can that be a tafsīr?!  However, these issues were there before the Ikhwān al-Muflisīn (the Bankrupt Brotherhood) came along.  So they were the ones who raised the individual, even though he was not at the level where he could be referred to as ‘Dr.’ He was an activist, not a Dr.  So when we were in the Islamic University, if you were prominent in knowledge and it was said to you, ‘Have you read the books: Allāh, al-Rasūl and al-Islām by Saʿīd Hawwà?’  So if you said that you had not read them, they would say, ‘You do not possess anything of knowledge.’  So I praise Allāh that I accepted the search for knowledge upon beneficial knowledge.  I ask Allāh the Magnificent to preserve our brother, Rabīʿ ibn Hādī, since he has clarified the beliefs of Sayyid Quṭb and what he possesses of deviations.  Likewise, may Allāh bestow mercy upon our brother, ʿAbdullāh ibn Muḥammad al-Duwaysh – the muḥaddith (Scholar of ḥadīth) and ḥāfiẓ (ḥadīth memorizer).  I have not seen anyone with these two eyes of mine one who was similar to him in memorization.  So he has recorded many of the errors of Sayyid Quṭb in his book al-Mawrid al-ʿAdhab al-Zalāl fī Bayān Akhṭāʾ al-Ẓilāl.  So Sayyid Quṭb is not to be referred to as one of the mufassirīn, nor is he from amongst the elite.  Rather, he is a person who has zeal for Islām, without any insight.

So we advise the brothers to return back to Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr, about whom al-Shawkānī (d.1250 AH) said that his tafsīr is from amongst the most beautiful tafaaseer, having no equal.  And al-Suyūṭī (d.911 AH) stated in Tabaqāt al-Ḥuffāẓ that Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr is from amongst the most beautiful of tafāsīr.  So Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr is a tafsīr of the Qurʾān by the Qurʾān and by the Prophetic aḥādīth and by separating the authentic Sunnah from its weak, and its defective narrations from its sound ones, and by falsifying the Isrāʾīliyyah stories.  And likewise, I advise that the tafāsīr of our Salaf be read, such as Tafsīr Ibn Jarīr, Tafsīr al-Baghawī and whatever is present from Tafsīr Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Tafsīr Ibn Mardawayh, since there is abundant goodness in them.  So we are not in need of al-Ẓilāl, since we fear that we will fall into al-Ḍalāl.  So if it is absolutely necessary that you read al-Ẓilāl, then I advise him to read what the brother, ʿAbdullāh ibn Muḥammad al-Duwaysh and what Shaykh Rabīʿ ibn Hādī – ḥāfiẓahullāh – wrote.”

[Q]: ‘So is it correct to place Imām al-Nawawī and Ibn Ḥajar upon the same level as the author of this book that contains erroneous creed, whilst knowing that there those who distribute the books of Ḥasan al-Bannà, ʿAbdullāh ʿAzzām, Fat`ḥī Yakan and the fatāwá of al-Ghazzālī?  So if we accept this book, then we must also accept these books, because even Imām al-Nawawī and al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar have errors, as has been widespread amongst us in Bahrain and in the Emirates in the cassette of Shaykh al-Albānī: Justice Concerning Sayyid Quṭb?’

[A]: “The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said, “If you feel no shame, then do as you wish.”^[2] So I did not used to think that it was insolence for a person to place Sayyid Quṭb upon the same level as al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar who served the Sunnah with a service that was never seen before him.  And his book Fat`ḥ al-Bārī is referred to a treasure of knowledge and a small library by itself.  So the people had been deceived, then these deceptions were unveiled.  So we say to them: Look after yourselves, since you were deceived by the Qādiyāniyyah, the Tījāniyyah, the Shīʿah, the Ṣūfiyyah, the Bāṭiniyyah, the Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah.  Then their deceptions were unveiled for you whilst you were alive.  So comparison between Sayyid Quṭb and al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar and al-Nawawī is as it was said,

‘So where is the ground and where is the plateau,

And where is Muʿāwiyah from ʿAlī?’

Translated by Maaz Qureshi