Some of the scholars, amongst them Ahmad ibn Hanbal, declared the Jahmee to be a disbeliever and not from the people of the Qiblah. His blood is lawful. He does not inherit, neither is inheritance received from him, since he says that there is no Jumu’ah or congregational prayer, no ‘Eid prayer, no charity (Sadaqah) and because they say, “One who does not say the Qur’an is created is a disbeliever.” They allow fighting and killing within the nation of Muhammad (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam). They contradict those who preceded them. They put the people to trial regarding something that neither the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam) nor any of his Companions spoke about.
They desire to empty the Mosques and for the congregations to be neglected. They weakened Islam, caused Jihaad to be left and busied themselves with sectarianism. They went against the narrations and spoke up with that which had been abrogated [1]. They used verses of uncertain meaning as clear proof and so caused the people to have doubts about their religion. They disputed about their Lord and said, “There is no punishment in the grave, nor any Pond (Hawd), nor any Intercession and Paradise and the Fire have not been created.” They rejected much of what the Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam) said. Those who permit the declaration of their being unbelievers declare them to be so and declare the spilling of their blood to be lawful because of these matters, since whoever rejects a verse from the Book of Allah has rejected the whole Book and whoever rejects a hadeeth from the Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam) has rejected all of his sayings and is a disbeliever in Allah, the Sublime.
They continued in time and found rulers who were to assist them in this and who subjected those who refused it to the sword or the whip. Knowledge of the Sunnah and the Jamaa’ah was wiped away and weakened by them so that they became suppressed due to the manifesting of innovation and speech about it and their great number. They established sittings, manifested their opinions, wrote books about them, enticed the people and they sought leadership for them.
It was a very great trial [2]. Only those whom Allah protected were saved from it. The slightest that a person would be affected by sitting with them was that he would be caused to doubt about his religion, or to follow them, or to hold their saying to be true, not knowing whether it was the truth of falsehood, so he became one who doubted. So the people were ruined until the time of Ja’far, who was known as al-Mutawakkil [3], through whom Allah extinguished innovation and manifested the truth and the people of the Sunnah. They spoke out, despite their small number and the great number of innovators, right up to this day [4]. As for their principles and misguidance, some of them have remained acting upon it and calling to it, with none to prevent them from their sayings and actions!
