RARE BOOK EXPOSES #kalam Speculative Theology #unboxing

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:07][singing] >> As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Alhamdulillahi, alhamdulillahi, we're back with one of my favorite things to do, which is another book unboxing. I love this content. It's my favorite favorite thing to do to introduce to the ummah beneficial works from the great scholars of Islam to grow your library with the best prints, the best muhaddithin, the best editors to make sure that the accuracy of the manuscripts and the print, the best checking of the ahadith.

[00:00:49]How can we get the best of the best to grow our iman, to grow our knowledge, to grow ourselves as Muslims? Today, we are joined by my son, Yusuf. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

[00:01:01]>> Alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullahi. All right, what do we have today?

[00:01:05]Check it out. Dhamm al-Kalam wa Ahli.

[00:01:07]This is an amazing amazing work a work that I mean, I I I already had a print of this, but I still bought this because it is such an amazing new print. We're going to open it up. We're going to check it out. But before we do, I just want to tell you about it. This is the condemnation of the use of kalam, the use of speculative theology and understanding the Quran and the sifat of Allah wa ahli and those that do such a thing. Ilm al-kalam has been a hot topic online, debates between Ash'aris and Atharis and so on and so on. I'm not getting into all of that. What I'm going to do is introduce you to this book that was written by one of the great scholars of Islam. He is called Shaykh ul-Islam.

[00:01:49]He's been given this title like Ibn Taymiyyah, like many other scholars later for his time. He was called Shaykh ul-Islam Abi Ismail, the father of Ismail Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Ansari al-Harawi. Al-Harawi is an amazing amazing scholar. He is born in 396 Hijri. So, imagine how early on he's from. People think as if the Salafi or the Athari aqeedah aqeedah developed later, but you can look at this is way before Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, way before Taqiyuddin ibn Taymiyyah, way before Ibn al-Qayyim or any of those scholars. He is from 396 Hijri and yani he died in 481 Hijri, a very early scholar. And what did he do? He compiled this amazing work of actual evidences from the Quran, from ahadith, from statements of Sahaba, and the statements of the great earlier aimmah like Abu Hanifah and Malik and Shafi and Ahmad and others al-Awza'i and others about their condemning the use of kalam.

[00:02:52]From the earliest scholars and he didn't just put it together like like his opinions, rather he brought their statements with the sanad for each one with the actual chain of narrators. Now, I had this book already in a two-volume print. Why did I buy this one? Because you look at it, it is in five thick volumes and that means a lot more research has gone into it. I already have a PDF, but I had to buy the book.

[00:03:18]Before we go on, let's open it up. You got a knife?

[00:03:22]Say no more.

[00:03:23]>> [laughter] >> Let's do this. Go ahead. Let's rip it up. Careful on the book, though. Oh, don't worry. We're very careful around here.

[00:03:34]Ooh, the new book feel.

[00:03:36]Hear that plastic cracking.

[00:03:42]Ooh, rip it up. There we go.

[00:03:45]Allahu Akbar.

[00:03:47]Let's do this. Allahu Akbar.

[00:03:50]I love books. Now, one thing I want to point out is obviously you can see it's got a really strong binding.

[00:03:59]The work that has been done on the tahqiq and checking of the ahadith it is amazing by our Shaykh and our brother Abu Malik.

[00:04:08]Now, as soon as you open it, you can see it is an amazing print. I love the cream color paper. I know people like whatever, who cares. When you read a lot, it makes a big difference. It is much easier on the eyes. You can see it's mulawwan, it has the different colors. You see the burgundy kind of dark burgundy for the titles and for words like akhbarana and sami'tu. And then it's got the nice black print here.

[00:04:35]Now, one thing that you just off the bat you can see, look at the amount of takhrij that's there, the amount of checking for each athar. And that's why this amazing new print that's in five volumes is so beneficial because it's it's amazing for the honesty as well because it's not just trying to promote one madhhab or one idea. If there's an athar that's weak, right here you can see how the athar dha'if jiddan.

[00:05:01]It is a weak narration. He'll point it out. It's not like he just starts to justify it and he will give the actual chain as in the matn, but then he'll give the checking of it, the statements of the likes of al-Dhahabi, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ibn Hajar and others. Their statements, for example, this narrator is majhul, so he will put that. Now, if it's authentic, then you see here hadha athar sahih. This is the authentic narration.

[00:05:29]So, that is amazing. Look, on almost every page just that much of the original book, this is all the checking on it. That's all the checking. Almost the entire page. And that is amazing because see, the earlier scholars would give you the chain and because the scholar was so well-versed in ilm al-rijal, by looking at just the names you would know if it's authentic or not. But we're not today.

[00:05:52]So, we need this checking. We need this ability to know whether it's an authentic statement from a Sahabi, from a tabi'i, from the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, from a great scholar or not. Now, this is the first volume.

[00:06:07]As you can see, two, three, four, and five. Now, um you know, this is the second volume here.

[00:06:16]You look at every volume has that kind of checking, that kind of amazing work done on it. Alhamdulillahi, you can see all of it very well done. Um Let's take checking right here. Yeah, let's take a a random statement just to benefit from, right?

[00:06:35]And this here he says akhbarana, we were informed by al-Qasim ibn Sa'id.

[00:06:41]And then he gives the rest of the chain from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abbas from Yaqub ibn Ishaq from Ahmad ibn Ramish from Ali ibn Hashram yaqul he said kataba ila Bishr, it was written to Bishr ibn Harith. Bishr ibn Harith, the famous scholar from the early generations. La yukhalif aimmah, that there is no disagreement amongst the great scholars of Islam on this issue that fa innahu ma aflaha sahib al-kalam qatt. He says the person who indulges in kalam, ilm al-kalam or the speculative theology, will never be successful. And this is a beautiful statement. As you can see the the hadith here, it says hadha athar sahih, this is the authentic. The same statement is also here from Imam al-Shafi'i that whoever indulges in kalam will never be successful, they will never find any success and so on. Statements from Imam Malik, Imam other aimmah and ulama are all here all the way from the ahadith of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to the statements of Sahaba to later scholars, all with the actual chain.

[00:07:48]Now, whether you choose to indulge in ilm al-kalam or not, this is not the point of the podcast here. The point is either which way, you really need to get this book. It is a very early book. Yani we're talking about somebody who was born yani 396 Hijri, so that is much much earlier than any of the later scholars that discuss it. It is a book that was praised by Imam al-Dhahabi, it was praised by Imam al-Suyuti and other aimmah and ulama as one of the best books written on the subject. Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Qudamah and others praised it. Now, to be fair, it does have many weak narrations. Um but that is the wonderful thing about this print that when there is a narration that's weak, he will say hadha athar dha'if and he'll give you why is it weak, who is the weak narrator, what the ulama said about it. See, all that is just checking on that. And when it is authentic, he will say this is sahih and he'll give you references to where else it may be quoted. So, either which way, a must-have yani a book for you to get.

[00:08:50]I'm going to put a scan of the first two pages under the video so you can get the print house, you can get where you can buy it. But get this book. Dhamm al-Kalam wa Ahli by al-Shaykh ul-Islam Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Ansari al-Harawi. Al-Harawi famously known as Shaykh ul-Islam from the earlier times and with the tahqiq of Abu Malik. Amazing work done. Check it out.

[00:09:15]Very nice seeing textual criticism applied to not only the ahadith of Rasulullah Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, but the statements of the scholars as well. Amazing.

[00:09:26]As-salamu alaykum wa >> [singing]