Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid wa al-Radd ala al-Kashmiri Abd al-Mahmud (Matbu ضمن al-Rasail wa al-Masail al-Najdiyya, al-Juz al-Rabi, al-Qism al-Awwal)

Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid wa al-Radd ala al-Kashmiri Abd al-Mahmud (Clarification of the Word of Monotheism and Refutation of al-Kashmiri Abd al-Mahmud) is a theological treatise and polemical work written by the Najdi Hanbali scholar Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan Al al-Shaykh (d. 1285 AH / 1869 CE) Majmuat al-Rasail wal-Mas…+1. The text is devoted to defining the theological and linguistic meaning of the Islamic testimony of faith ( لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ , "There is no deity worthy of worship except God") and refuting the grammatical, logical, and theological propositions put forward by a foreign visitor to Najd named Abd al-Mahmud al-Kashmiri Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.

Background and Context

The composition of the treatise arose after a visiting ascetic or scholar identified as a Kashmiri dervish, Abd al-Mahmud (also referred to in some biographical chronicles as Abd al-Hamid al-Kashmiri), wrote a short paper (waraqa) discussing the linguistic derivation, logical structure, and grammatical parsing (i'rab) of the formula of monotheism (kalimat al-tawhid) Mashahir Ulama Najd wa Gh…+1. Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan Al al-Shaykh deemed the paper's propositions to be erroneous and dangerous innovations that misrepresented monotheism, drew upon philosophical concepts, and obscured the foundational distinction between true and false deities, prompting him to compose a detailed point-by-point rebuttal al-Matlab al-Hamid fi Bay…+1.

Key Arguments and Structure

Critique of Divine Attributes and Direction

The author begins by criticizing the opening line of al-Kashmiri's paper, which stated: "Praise be to God who is uniquely united in all directions" (al-mutawahhid bi-jami' al-jihat) Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…. Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan Al al-Shaykh argues that such phrasing reflects the terminology of proponents of pantheistic indwelling (hulul) and the Jahmiyya, who claim that God is present in every place and direction, contradicting the Sunni creed of God's transcendence ('uluww) and His being settled over the Throne (istiwa') distinct from creation Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w….

Linguistic and Theological Definition of Ilah

The treatise addresses al-Kashmiri's assertion that ilah (deity) denotes merely "the worshipped object" without being inherently qualified by truth or falsehood (ghayr muqayyad bi-qayd al-haqiqa wa al-butlan) and that false gods are only termed deities in reference to the subjective belief of their worshippers rather than objective reality Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1. Abd al-Rahman rejects this, arguing that:

• In Arabic usage and Quranic terminology, an ilah is whatever is taken as an object of worship, love, and submission (ma'luh), whether rightly or wrongly Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.
• The Quran explicitly names false objects of worship "gods" (aliha) while affirming that their worship is falsehood ( ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلْحَقُّ وَأَنَّ مَا يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِۦ هُوَ ٱلْبَـٰطِلُ , "That is because God is the Truth, and what they invoke besides Him is falsehood") Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.
• True monotheism requires negating the divinity and worship of all external entities worshipped besides God, including idols, statues, angels, prophets, and tyrants (taghut) Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.

Logical and Grammatical Parsing of the Shahada

The core of the refutation focuses on al-Kashmiri's logical framing of لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…. Al-Kashmiri had claimed that the particle la negates only a mental universal concept (kulli manwi) of which only a single individual exists in external reality, and that this same individual is what is affirmed after the exception particle (illa), comparing the sentence to the expression "There is no sun except the sun" (la shamsa illa al-shams) Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.

Abd al-Rahman presents several points against this view:

• The negation in the shahada is a categorical negation of a genus (nafy al-jins), negating the right of worship from all concrete, externally existing false deities (a'yan mawjuda fi al-kharij) that polytheists actually invoked Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.
• Treating the negated element as a purely mental universal concept that has only one external member renders the negation meaningless, as it would fail to negate actual idols or false worship in the real world Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.
• Comparing the testimony of faith to "no sun except the sun" is an invalid tautology and amounts to an exception of a thing from itself, whereas the prophets called their people to renounce real, multiple idols and affirm worship exclusively for God Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.
• The author likens al-Kashmiri's theory of abstract universals and absolute existence to the philosophical views of Plato and Monist (ittihadiyya) doctrines associated with Ibn Arabi and Ibn Sab'in Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.

Sources and Authorities Cited

To substantiate his grammatical and theological points, Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan Al al-Shaykh cites extensively from the narratives of the Quran regarding the prophets Noah, Hud, Salih, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Muhammad Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1. He also draws on classical grammarians and theologians, including al-Kisa'i, al-Farra', Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, al-Zamakhshari, Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati, and Jalal al-Din al-Dawani Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1. Furthermore, he quotes the works of Ibrahim ibn Hasan al-Kurani, Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, al-Biqa'i, and al-Tibi Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.

Appendix by Abu Butayn

Printed at the conclusion of the treatise is an appendix (dhayl) written by the contemporary Najdi scholar Abdullah ibn Abd al-Rahman Abu Butayn (d. 1282 AH / 1865 CE), who composed it after Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan asked him to examine al-Kashmiri's writings Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…. Abu Butayn notes that while Abd al-Rahman's refutation was comprehensive, additional stylistic and conceptual errors in al-Kashmiri's text warranted notice Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…. These included:

• The ambiguity of the phrase "united in all directions", which could lean toward Monism or indwelling Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w….
• Faulty expressions such as "He has no partner in essence" (la sharika lahu fi al-dhat), where the correct Sunni phrasing is "no resemblance in essence" (la shabiha lahu fi dhatihi) Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w….
• Grammatical confusion in treating the Divine Name as a particular excepted from a universal, and misconstruing the nature of universal and particular nouns Bayan Kalimat al-Tawhid w…+1.

Publication

The work was printed in the compilation Majmu'at al-Rasail wa al-Masail al-Najdiyya (Vol. 4, Part 1, pp. 318–364), edited and arranged with contributions from Muhammad Rashid Rida and sponsored under the patronage of King Abd al-Aziz Al Saud Majmuat al-Rasail wal-Mas…+1.