Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. May the highest rank be bestowed upon Muhammad, the Master of the Messengers, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, and his kind and pure Al and Companions; and may Allah protect his nation from that which he fears for it. Thereafter:
A group of people called Hizb at-Tahrir{1} emerged to spread falsehood and incite meaningless controversies. The founder of this party was a man named Taqiyyud-Din an-Nabahaniyy. He unrightfully claimed for himself the status of ijtihad and ignorantly dealt with the issues of the Religion. Consequently, he perverted and belied the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, and contravened the scholarly consensus (ijma^) in cases pertaining to both the fundamentals and the ramifications of the Religion.
We embarked upon writing this concise treatise to fulfill the obligation that Allah ordained upon us which is to command the lawful (ma^ruf) and forbid the unlawful (munkar), and to advise and warn the Muslims against this party and their sayings. We substantiated this treatise by proofs from the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of the Prophet, the ijma^ of the nation, and the statements of the scholars to expose the wrong sayings and negate the false opinions of Hizb at-Tahrir.
Warning against the deviant and straying people is an obligatory matter. In fact, if warning against the person who cheats the Muslims in articles of trade is obligatory, then it is more so to warn against the person who intrigues and perverts the Religion and belies Allah and the Messenger. Allah, ta^ala, said in Surat Al-^Imran, Ayah 104: which means: [Let there be among you a nation that invite to the good, command the lawful, and forbid the unlawful.]
Abu ^Aliyy ad-Daqqaq said: “The one who withholds the truth is a mute devil.”
The First Straying
The leader of Hizb at-Tahrir, Taqiyyud-Din an-Nabahaniyy, said in his book, Ash-Shakhsiyyah al-Islamiyyah (Volume 1, pages 71-72): “These actions (i.e., the actions of man) are not related to Allah’s creating and Allah’s creating is not related to them, because man is the one who performs them by his will and choice, thereupon, the voluntary actions do not fall under Allah’s creating.”
He also said in the same book (Volume 2, page 74): “Rendering the reward or punishment contingent upon guidance and misguidance denotes guidance and misguidance are doings of the slave and not from Allah.” He stated a similar thing on page 72 in another one of his books called Nidham-ul-Islam.
THE REFUTATION OF THE FIRST STRAYING
These words of Taqiyyud-Din an-Nabahaniyy are contrary to the Qur’an, the hadith, the explicit sound intellect, and the sayings of the scholars.
Nabahaniyy’s Negation of the Qur’an
Allah ta^ala said in Surat-ul-Furqan, Ayah 2:
which means: [He created everything and made terms for them.] Allah said in Surat As-Saffat, Ayah 96: which means: [Allah created you and your doings.] Also, Allah said in Surat al-Qamar, Ayah 49: which means: [Verily, I have created everything according to My Destiny.]
The term shay’ (thing) in these verses includes everything which enters into existence. Bodies, the voluntary and involuntary motions and rests of the slaves, and what pertains to them are not excluded. Moreover, voluntary actions far exceed the involuntary ones. So, if Hizb at-Tahrir’s claim was correct i.e., every voluntary action of the slave is a creation of the slave himself, then what the slaves would create among their actions would be more than what Allah creates–a thought the sound intellect totally rejects. Linguistically, the term shay’ (thing) refers to what is existing–which includes these voluntary actions.
Hence, this affirms an-Nabahaniyy’s claim is a rejection of the texts of the Qur’an and hadith. Allah, ta^ala, said in Surat ar-Rum, Ayah 30: which means: [Who guides the one whom Allah has misguided?] Also, Allah said in Surat al-A^raf, Ayah 156, predicating about Musa: which means: [This is only Your (i.e. O Allah) test; with it You stray whomever You willed and You guide whomever You willed.] Also, Allah said in Surat al Qasas, Ayah 57: This means: [You (O Muhammad) do not guide whomever you would like to guide, but Allah guides whomever He wills.] This is to say that no one creates guidance in the hearts of the slaves except Allah. Allah said in Surat al-’A^raf, Ayah 155: which means: [You misguide with it whomever You will, and guide whomever You will.] This Ayah stands as explicit evidence that Allah is the One Who creates the guidance in the hearts of those whom He willed to guide, and the misguidance in the hearts of those whom He willed to misguide.
There is no other meaning in the Arabic language for the saying of Allah: except that Allah creates the misguidance in the hearts of those whom He willed, and He creates the guidance in the hearts of those whom He willed. This is so because the pronoun in the saying of Allah and His saying refers only to Allah–without any probability whatsoever of it referring to the slave. The meanings that Hizb at-Tahrir adopt clearly contradict the Book of Allah.