CASE STUDY: Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī Al-Karābīsī

Question: Is it true that Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī Al-Karābīsī made the statement of the lafdhiyyah: لفظي بالقرآن مخلوق “My utterance of the Qur'ān is created”? And if that is true, did he later retract it? Sheikh Abu Bakr Al-Hammadi hafidahullah: He was indeed the one who introduced this; that is, Al-Karābīsī was the first to make this statement, and no one else preceded him in it. Rather, he was the one who introduced the phrase: “My utterance of the Qur’an is created.” However, there are scholars who said that he intended his own voice, not the Qur'ān itself. That is, he did not intend to say that the Qur'ān is created, but that his voice is created. Otherwise, his actual position was that the Qur'ān is the speech of Allāh, the Mighty and Majestic, and uncreated. Nonetheless, he introduced this innovated phrase, and it was denounced by Imām Aḥmad, who strongly objected to it. Al-Karābīsī persisted in this innovation and was therefore declared an innovator and deviant. This is because the term “utterance” (لفظ) may refer either to the sound (voice) or to the uttered words themselves—which, in this case, is the speech of Allāh, the Mighty and Majestic. This phrase is thus ambiguous and contains both truth and falsehood, and it offers an opening for the Jahmiyyah to exploit. For this reason, Imām Aḥmad and other scholars denounced it. When he showed obstinacy and did not retract his statement, the scholars declared him an innovator and a deviant. _ Imam Ahmad did not excuse this man and say that his foundation was Salafi. He did not assess him based on his intention, but rather on what he openly declared and persisted upon! CONCLUSION: If a Salafi errs and that error spreads—especially in matters where remaining silent is not permitted—then it becomes essential to highlight and warn against that mistake. This is to prevent people from associating with the religion of Allah that which does not belong to it, and to stop the ignorant from taking that error as a precedent due to the absence of criticism. Moreover, the mistake must be evaluated in light of the Shari’ah and given the appropriate ruling it deserves.