Examining the Saying "Predecessors' Approach is Safer While Successors' Approach is More Accurate and Knowledgeable"

Abstract

This research paper shows that the saying "Predecessors' Approach is Safer

While Successors' Approach is More Accurate and Knowledgeable” applies when it comes to the attributes of Allah, especially when referring to the His descriptive attributes such as sitting on the throne, His hands, and face, in addition to knowing what has mostly one agreed upon interpretation, and what has different interpretations which all seem applicable. A limited reference to the saying might emerge when referring to the views on the imitator's faith. The saying was clearly linked with the Ashaa'iris and Matrids.

It is noteworthy that although the saying is well known and many scholars refer to it in their works, it has no specific author. The argument about another approach that is different from the predecessors came when the phenomenon of interpretation appeared at the end of the third century on the hands of the Mu'tazilah. Most studies of Qur'an interpretation, Qur'an sciences, Hadith commentaries, Islamic theology, Islamic Jurisprudence and principles, mention those two approaches; nevertheless, describing the predecessors' approach as safer and successors' approach as more accurate and knowledgeable was not evident and prominent. However, when the successors' approach began to appear, the description of the predecessors' approach as safer and more accurate began to emerge.

The studies that the scholars discussed until the end of the seventh century describe the predecessors' approach as safe or safer, but do not describe the successors' approach as more accurate or more knowledgeable, and such may

bring to mind that the description of the successors' approach did not appeared

until later.

The first investigated text reportedly describes the successors' approach as more accurate, and this is what AlaaEddin AbdulAziz Al-Bukhari (died ٧٣٠ Hijri) mentioned in his book Kashf al-Asrar, Sharh Usul Al-Bazdawi (The Secrets Revealed, a Commentary on Usul Al-Bazdawi). Those who adopt this view have not agreed on one linguistic form for the saying, as they disagreed in what is meant by those descriptions.

A number of early Muslim scholars have discussed this saying and explained the mistakes it includes. Their approaches differed in discussing, responding, and falsifying it. The most prominent figure who opposed it is Sheik al-Islam,

Ibn Taymiyah, as he showed its falseness, invalidity, and contradiction in more

than a place in his books.