Discussion on Ash'arism in Islam

I've said and written this repeatedly.

On Ask, Facebook, and in comments, and I said it in

some recordings

and I'm saying it to you now.

The Ash'aris, in my view,

are among Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah. Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah

are three: Ash'aris, Maturidis, and traditionalist Hanbalis.

Their disagreements do not necessitate excluding any one of them

from Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah.

This is what Sheikh Abd al-Baqi, Sheikh al-Saffarini, and a group of

our later scholars said and explicitly affirmed.

The Hanbali school settled on this view, and in its early days,

among its first generations, it was the same as well.

Speak and go on. There's nothing that would make me hide what I say.

So, are you an Ash'ari, Muhammad? No, I'm not an Ash'ari.

If I were an Ash'ari, I'd tell you. Some brothers call me an Ash'ari as if it were an insult.

It's not an insult. But I'm not an Ash'ari, so I won't claim something I'm not

part of.

If I were an Ash'ari, I'd tell you. I'm not ashamed of it. It's not something shameful.

I believe Ash'arism is not shameful.

If someone is an Ash'ari, I hold him in the highest regard. They are religious leaders.

They transmitted and carried the Sacred Law. Our chains of transmission to the Prophet

peace be upon him, and to the Holy Qur'an are all Ash'ari.

The interpreters of the two noble revelations and the leading jurists and legal theorists are Ash'ari.

So what are we supposed to do?

They are the crowns upon our heads, crowns of all heads. But I'm not Ash'ari.

I'll be Ash'ari over my dead body.