Answered by Shaykh Gibril F Haddad
As-Salamu `alaykum:
As you yourself said, they are extremists, and the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, said extremists shall definitely perish.
i) Imam ibn Katheer in his book of Islamic history- Al-bidaya Wal Nihaya comments on ibn Arabi He has a book named Beads of Wisdom in which there are many things that are apparently clear kufr. ii) Imam adh-Dhahabi said (in Siyar Alam an-Nubala) that if ibn Arabis book (Beads of wisdom) does not contain clear Kufr, then there is no Kufr in the world!
Our principle in brief is that anything in the Fusus that contradicts Ibn `Arabi's Aqida as set forth in the Futuhat (his later and much bigger work) must be dismissed as spurious unless it can be interpreted to conform to it. Ibn Taymiyya himself praised the Futuhat in his letter to Abu Nasr al-Manbiji.
Al-Dhahabi said in his Muqiza (on hadith science):
<<Animosity against Sufis is a plunge from which none escapes unscathed except one thoroughly knowledgeable with all the evidentiary proofs of the Law. Note that I do not limit such knowledge to the branches [of the Law]. For, concerning many of the states described by the people of truth (al-muhiqqin) among the Sufis, right cannot be told from wrong on the mere basis of knowledge of the branches. One must also possess firm knowledge of the principles of the Law and be able to tell apart the obligatory from the possible, as well as the rationally impossible from the customarily impossible. It is, indeed, a position fraught with danger!
For the critic of a true Sufi (muhiqq al-sufiyya) enters into the hadith:
"Whosoever shows enmity to one of My Friends, I shall declare war upon him."
While one that abandons all condemnation for what is clearly wrong in what he hears from some of them, abandons the commanding of good and the forbidding of evil.>>
Notice the subtleness of al-Dhahabi's words when he advises in essence that you must LEAVE ALONE THEIR PERSONS but may have to CRITIQUE SOME OF WHAT SOME OF THEM SAY when it seems wrong to you. Allah have mercy on him and them.
iii) Imam Izz ibn abdul Salam said about Ibn Arabi: (he is) an evil liar sheik who claims that this world is eternal (i.e. was not created by Allah) and embraces promiscuity.
This is contrary to Ibn `Arabi's belief as he stated in his `Aqida at the beginning of Futuhat al-Makkiyya, where he says, "This is my witness in my own regard, and it is the responsibility of each and every person that it reaches, to bring it forward if asked about it, whenever and wherever he may be." See http://www.israinternational.com/Aqidah.html.
So fear Allah even if those deviant attackers do not. Shaykh Sa`id al-Buti said you may spend your life not accusing anyone of kufr and be safe on the Day of Judgment; but if you accuse the wrong person just one time, then woe to you....
Remember that Ibn `Abd al-Salam also criticized tasawwuf then completely changed and followed Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili later in his life.
iv) Also, a prominent Hanafi Scholar, Imam Bukhari Al-Hanafi, declared that: The one who does not consider Ibn Arabi a kaafir, then he himself is a kaafir!
Yes, this is the same `Ala' al-Din al-Bukhari who said that Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya is a kaafir and anyone that gives Ibn Taymiyya the title Shaykh al-Islam is also a kaafir.
See more at
http://www.abc.se/~m9783/n/iarabi_e.html
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~alnur/ISLAM/GRMUSLIMS/Ibn_Arabi.htm
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