Shaykh Muḥammad Taqī ad-Dīn al-Hilālī (d. 1407 AH/1987 CE) ؒ
After I settled in Tétouan, a city in northern Morocco, I established a monthly magazine entitled Lisān ad-Dīn (The Tongue of Religion). In it, I published articles clarifying the falsehood of the Ashʿarī creed, a belief that the people of Morocco have religiously accepted since the time of Muḥammad ibn Tūmart (d. 524 AH/1130 CE) and the Almohad dynasty (founded 515 AH / 1121 CE). What we witness today is the direct result of his propagation.
Before his time, the people of Morocco were upon the creed of the Salaf, to such an extent that when the book Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm ad-Dīn by Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH/1111 CE) reached Morocco, the Moroccans gathered to burn it. Scholars from both al-Andalus and Morocco unanimously agreed upon this course of action due to what the book contained of blameworthy speculative theology.
An example of such theology is the statement:
ليس في الإمكان أبدع مما كان
“There is no possibility of anything more perfect than what exists.” As cited by al-Hilālī.
This means that it is impossible for Allah to fashion a world more perfect than the one that currently exists. Al-Ghazālī further states, as paraphrased here:
إذ لو كان ذلك ممكنا و ادخره لكان ظلما ينافي العدل
“For if that were possible and He withheld it, this would be oppression contrary to justice.” Al-Hilālī’s paraphrase.
I have paraphrased his words so that the ordinary reader may understand their implication. Thus, al-Ghazālī moved from attributing oppression to Allah to attributing incapacity to His power, whereas Allah is far above that.
Accordingly, the last Moroccan dynasty to adhere to the methodology of the Salaf was the Almoravid dynasty (448–541 AH/1056–1147 CE), who were also known as the Mulaththamīn or the Lamtūnīn, an ascription to Lamtūna, a Berber tribe.
References
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm ad-Dīn, quoted and paraphrased through al-Hilālī; direct volume and page reference not supplied.
Muḥammad Taqī ad-Dīn al-Hilālī, Ad-Daʿwah ilā Allah fī Aqṭār Mukhtalifah, section on Ashʿarī doctrine, electronic text pp. 79–80. The supplied print reference is p. 96; its edition and publisher remain unverified.
