Doctrinal Issues on Which Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn Reported Consensus in the Chapter on the Last Day

Abstract

Abstract:

1.    Ijmāʿ (scholarly consensus) is defined as the agreement of the qualified jurists (mujtahidūn) of the Muslim ummah in a given era, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, on a religious matter. It is a binding legal proof that must be adhered to and acted upon.

           2.Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn paid significant attention to matters of consensus, and the number of theological issues in which he cited consensus exceeds one hundred across the various chapters of ʿAqīdah (Islamic creed).

          3.Among the issues on which the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—reported consensus are: the existence of the Last Day, the obligation to believe in it, the affirmation of the punishment and bliss of the grave, the blowing of the trumpet, resurrection and gathering, intercession, the distribution of the records (dawāwīn), accountability and recompense, the scale (mīzān), the Prophet’s basin (ḥawḍ), the bridge (ṣirāṭ), the current existence of Paradise and Hell, their eternal nature, the entry of disbelieving jinn into Hellfire, and the beatific vision of Allah on the Day of Judgment.

1.   The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—preceded a number of major scholars in documenting these consensus positions on issues related to the Last Day, including al-Ashʿarī, Ibn Ḥazm, Ḥarb al-Kirmānī, Abū Zurʿah and Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, Ibn al-Qaṭṭān, Ibn Taymiyyah, and others.
2. Certain groups among the people of innovation (ahl al-bidʿah)—such as the Jahmiyyah, the Khawārij, and the Muʿtazilah—disagreed with Ahl al-Sunnah on some of these matters, although some among them agreed with Ahl al-Sunnah in many of them.