At-Tahaawee wrote in his famous ‘Aqeedah at-Tahaaweeyah (no.93): "We love the Companions of the Messenger of Allaah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam and do not go to extremes in love for any particular one, nor do we declare ourselves free from any of them. We hate those who hate them or who mention them with other than good. We do not make mention of them except with good. Love of them is Deen, Imaan and Ihsaan and hatred of them is Kufr, hypocrisy and tyranny."

The reader should not be surprised at this attitude of the Naqshabandi’s towards the Companions of the Prophet. The Naqshabandi shaykhs teach their followers that they are personally responsible for the completion of the development of the Companions after their deaths. One of the teachers of Kabbani said: "... we have been given a miraculous favour from the Lord that if we notice an incompleteness on the part of anyone, and point it out, it will become complete. When I was pointing out that some of the Sahaba were sometimes using their own wills and not putting their desires in line with the Prophet’s thus causing their incompleteness, at that moment Allah Almighty completed for them their development there in the grave, and so, they are very happy indeed." (Nazim, Mercy Oceans’ Hidden Treasures, pp. 66-67).

Kabbani then has the boldness to say that pseudo-Salafi authors (as he calls them): "... are prone to correct everyone great and small including the companions." (p.215)

If this is the attitude of Kabbani and his followers towards the Companions, what then of other Muslims, such as the scholars and Imaams of the Sunnah who are certainly less in stature than the Companions - do the Naqshabandis also complete their development for them in their graves?

It comes as no surprise, therefore, to find Kabbani aligning himself with those who have declared both ibn Taymiyyah and ibn al-Qayyim to be either disbelievers or, at the very least, deviants. Despite the fact that their excellence has been affirmed by a host of trustworthy scholars.

For example, Kabbani says: "Shaykh al-Islam al-Taqi al-Subki said of him (ibn Taymiyyah): ‘His learning exceeded his intelligence.’" (p.218)

Whereas al-Subki is also recorded as having said:

"As for what you (i.e. adh-Dhahabee) say with regard to ash-Shaykh Taqi ad-Deen (ibn Taymiyyah), then I am convinced of the great scope, the ocean-like fullness and vastness of his knowledge of the transmitted and intellectual sciences, his extreme intelligence, his ijtihaad and his attainments in that which surpass description. I have always held to this opinion. Personally, his status in my eyes is greater and more esteemed, for the asceticism, piety, religiosity, his helping the truth and standing firm on it for the sake of Allaah alone, his adherence to the path of the Salaf and his abundant taking from it, and his strangeness in this time, nay any time."

(ad-Durar al-Kaamina of ibn Hajar under the biography of ibn Taymiyyah (1/159) and Dhail Tabaqaat al-Hanaabilah (2/392) of ibn Rajab al-Hanbalee)

As for al-Subki’s son, Taaj ad-Deen al-Subki, he went to extremes in criticising ibn Taymiyyah. Such that as-Sakhaawee endorsed the following words about him, following his statement: "Did any of the Hanbalees raise their heads (i.e. become prominent)?"

"This is from the strangest of things, and the most sectarian/partisan of attitudes, and this is why the Qaadee of our time, and Shaykh of the madhhab al-Izz al-Kanaanee wrote under this statement: 'And likewise Allaah did not raise the heads of the Mu'attila' and then he said about Taaj ad-Deen Subki: 'He is a man having little manners, lack of scholarly integrity, ignorant of Ahl as-Sunnah and their ranks.'"