al-Bayan al-Mubdi li-Shanaat al-Qawl al-Mujdi
- Author died
- 1349 AH
- Editions
- Maṭba‘ al-Qur’ān wa-al-Sunnah
al-Bayan al-Mubdi li-Shanaat al-Qawl al-Mujdi (The Clarifying Exposition on the Heinousness of "al-Qawl al-Mujdi") is a theological treatise in Arabic by the Najdi scholar Sulayman bin Sahman (d. 1349 AH / 1930 CE), written to refute objections raised against Salafi doctrine on intercession, saint veneration, and grave visitation .
Background and Context
The book was written within a chain of theological polemics initiated by the Meccan Shafi'i mufti Ahmad Zayni Dahlan, who authored al-Durar al-Saniyya fi al-Radd 'ala al-Wahhabiyya (The Splendid Pearls in Refutation of the Wahhabis) . In response to Dahlan, the Indian hadith scholar Muhammad Bashir al-Sahsawani authored Siyanat al-Insan 'an Waswasat al-Shaykh Dahlan under the pseudonym 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sindi, alongside additional critical remarks by 'Abd al-Karim Fakhr al-Din . Subsequently, the Shafi'i scholar Muhammad Sa'id ibn Muhammad Babsil composed a defense of Dahlan titled al-Qawl al-Mujdi fi al-Radd 'ala Ibn al-Sindi . Ibn Sahman composed al-Bayan al-Mubdi as a counter-refutation to dismantling Babsil's treatise and upholding the arguments of al-Sindi and Fakhr al-Din .
Contents and Arguments
Ibn Sahman structures his work around refuting Babsil's textual defenses of practices associated with invoking the righteous (du'a al-salihin), seeking their aid (istighatha), and seeking intercession (shafa'a) from the deceased, which Ibn Sahman argues constitute forms of polytheism (shirk) . He also addresses the legal rulings surrounding the visitation of graves, distinguishing between legally prescribed visitations (ziyara mashru'a) and innovated, prohibited ones (ziyara bid'iyya) . Throughout the book, he analyzes the narrations cited by his opponents, rejecting several as fabricated (mawdu') or misapplied according to the rules of hadith criticism .
Reception and Publication
The work is listed among Ibn Sahman's key polemical contributions by later biographical sources and contemporaries, including the Iraqi scholar Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi . The book includes a written commendation (taqriz) by the scholar Salih ibn Salim Al Binyah .
al-Bayan al-Mubdi was printed in India by Matba'at al-Qur'an wa-l-Sunna in Amritsar in 1897 CE .
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