A Very Popular, Widespread Commentary

There is a very popular, widespread commentary on this book that needs to be spoken about. It is the commentary published, unfortunately, by one of the Ḥanafī publishing houses of Karachi, on seeing the Ḥanafī name of the author, who was supposedly Ḥanafī in his furūʿ. Furūʿ means in the branches: in jurisprudence, in fiqh, he was Ḥanafī. But in ʿaqīdah he was under the ʿaqīdah of Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), and unfortunately problematic in that regard. It was published because of the Ḥanafī name, and it simply became very widespread.

There are a lot of problems in it, which are alluded to as well in the translation of al-Fiqh al-Akbar. There will be some issues that may be brought up in the course of this study as well. The problem in it is that it leans towards crypto-anthropomorphism on some issues. And a lot of the time there are quotes in it from Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), without naming him. And al-Albānī is actually the editor of the book. Al-Albānī, may Allah have mercy on him now, edited this work.

And in one place he actually had to criticise Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz, who stated this particular opinion about Hell coming to an end, which is Ibn Taymiyyah's opinion. Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him): an opinion that is ascribed to him is that of Hell finally coming to an end one day. That is against Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah. Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah say that it is forever: khālidīna fīhā abadā. So Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz tries to support this opinion by saying that many of the Salaf held this opinion as well, or that more than one of the Salaf held it. Al-Albānī actually really comes down on this. He says: this is a misquote; this is not from anybody.