[Q:] What is your opinion about al-Barbahārī’s book Sharḥ al-Sunnah and the one who defames it?

[A:]¹ Al-Barbahārī — who died 329 years after the Hijrah — is Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn ‘Alī ibn Khalaf, and he was the shaykh of the Ḥanbalī scholars in Iraq in his time. He was a muḥaddith [i.e. a scholar of Ḥadīth], a ḥāfiẓ [i.e. a great memoriser], and a faqīh [i.e. a scholar of fiqh], and Sharḥ al-Sunnah — in which he established the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-al-Jamāʿah in issues such as Allāh’s Names and Attributes and the [various] issues of īmān — is from his books.

Only a person of desires and innovation who is prejudiced towards Ahl al-Sunnah wa-al-Jamāʿah will defame their creed and methodology as “criticising the people who cling to the narrations is from the signs of the people of innovation.”² This only originates from an ignorant or stubborn person who is vindictive.

Consequently, manifesting the Sunnah, acquainting the Muslims with it, and suppressing innovations utilising the principles the Sharīʿah mandated is obligatory.

A Muslim should [always] avoid becoming preoccupied with trivial matters and those who engage in them so as to avoid stooping to their level. He should [always] attempt to recognise the things that are of greater importance—which will enable him to attain religious honour—and to avoid the things that will cause him humiliation and dishonour,

وَلِلَّـهِ الْعِزَّةُ وَلِرَ‌سُولِهِ وَلِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

“And honour belongs to Allāh, His Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم), and to the believers.”
[Sūrah al-Munāfiqūn, 63:8].

Endnotes:

[1] Majālis Tadkīriyyah, pg. 111-112.
[2] This statement is ascribed to Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (رحمه الله) in Sharḥ Usūl ʿItiqād Ahl-Sunnah, vol. 1, pg. 197.

Translated by: Abū Wāʾil Musa Shaleem