In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the CompassionatePraise be
to Allah. Lord of all the Worlds.The great scholar Hujjat al-Islam
Abu Ja'far al-Warraq al-Tahawi al-Misri. may Allah have mercy
on him. said: This is a presentation of the beliefs of
ahl-al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah, according to the school of the
jurists of this religion. Abu HanTfah an-Nu'man ibn Thabit
al-Kufi, Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ibrahim al-Ansari and Abu
'Abdullah Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shay-bani. may Allah be
pleased with them all. and what they believe regarding the
fundamentals of the religion and their faith in the Lord of all the
Worlds.1. We say about Allah's
unity believing - by Allah's help - that Allah is One. without any
partners.2. There is nothing like
Him.3. There is nothing that can
overwhelm Him.4. There is no god
other than Him.5. He is
the Eternal without a
beginning and enduring without end.6.
He will neither perish nor come to
an end.7. Nothing happens except
what He wills.8. No
imagination can conceive of Him
and no understanding can comprehend
Him.9. He is different from any created
being.10. He is living and never dies. He is
eternally active and never sleeps. 11.
He creates without being in need to
do so and provides lor His creation without effort.12.
He causes death without fear and
restores to life without difficulty.13.
He, together with His attributes,
has existed since before creation. Bringing creation into
existence added nothing to His attributes that was not already
there. As He was, together with His
attributes, in
pre-eternity, so will
He remain throughout endless
time.14. It was not only after the act
of creation that He could be described as 'the Creator' nor
was it only by the act of origination that He could be described
as 'the Originator'.15. He was
always the Lord even when there was nothing to be Lord of, and
always the Creator even when there was no creation.16.
In the same way that He is the
'Bringer to life of the dead', and deserves this name even before
they were brought to life in the first place, so too He deserves the
name of 'Creator' before He has created them.17.
This is because He has the power to do
everything. Everything is dependent on Him, everything is easy
for Him, and He needs for nothing. 'There is nothing like Him
and He is the Hearer, the Seer'. (al-SMra 42: 11)18.
He created creation with His knowledge.
19. He appointed destinies for those He
created.
20. He allotted to them fixed life spans.21.
Nothing about them was hidden
from Him before He created them, and He knew everything that
they would do before He created them.22.
He ordered them to obey Him and
forbade them to disobey Him.23.
Everything happens according to
His decree and will, and His will is accomplished. The only will
that people have is what He wills for them. What He wills for
them occurs and what He does not will, does not occur.24.
Out of His generosity, He gives guidance
to whoever He wills, protecting and keeping them safe from
harm; out of His justice, He leads astray whoever He wills,
abasing and afflicting them.25. All of them
are subject to His will whether it be His generosity or His
justice.26. He is exalted beyond, having
neither opposites nor equals.27. No one
can ward off His decree, put back His command or overpower
His affairs.28. We believe in all of this and
are certain that everything comes from Him.29.
We are certain that Muhammad (may Allah
bless him and grant him peace) is His chosen servant, selected
Prophet and His Messenger with whom He is well pleased.30.
And that he is the seal of the prophets, the
Imam of the God-fearing, the most honoured of all the
messengers and the beloved of the Lord of all the Worlds.31.
Every claim to prophethood after Him is
false and deceitful.32. He is the one who
has been sent to all the jinn and all mankind with truth and
guidance, with light and illumination.33.
The Qur'an is the word of Allah. It came
from Him as speech without it being possible to say how. He
sent it down upon His Messenger as revelation. The believers
accept it as absolute truth. They are certain that it is, in truth, the
word of Allah.It was not created like the speech of human beings,
and anyone who hears it and claims that it is human speech is an
unbeliever. Allah warns him and censures him and threatens him
with Fire when He says, Exalted is He: 'I will burn him in the
Fire.' (al-Muddaththir 74: 26) When Allah threatens with Fire
those who say This is just human speech' (al-Muddaththir 74: 25)
we know for certain that this is rather the speech of the Creator,
that it is totally unlike the speech of mankind. 34.
Anyone who describes Allah as being in
any way the same as a human being is an unbeliever. All those
who understand this will take heed and refrain from saying things
such as the unbelievers say, and they will know that He, in His
attributes, is not like human beings.35.
'The Seeing of Allah by the People
of the Garden' is true, without their vision being
all-encompassing and without the manner of their vision being
known. As the Book of our Lord has expressed it: 'Faces on that
Day radiant, looking at their Lord'. (al-Qiyamah 75: 22-3) The
explanation of this is as Allah knows and wills. Everything that
has come down to us about this from the Messenger, may Allah
bless him and grant him peace, in authentic traditions, is as he
said and intended. We should not delve into this interpreting it
according to our own opinions and letting our imaginations have
free rein. No one is safe in his religion unless he surrenders
himself completely to Allah, the Exalted and Glorified, and to
His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and
unles he leaves the knowledge of things that are ambiguous to
the One who knows them.36. A man's
Islam is not secure unless it is based on submission and
surrender. Anyone who desires to know things beyond his
capacity to know, and whose intellect is not content with
surrender, will find that his desire veils him from a pure
understanding of Allah's true unity, clear knowledge and correct
belief. He will find that he veers between disbelief and belief,
confirmation and denial and acceptance and rejection. He will be
subject to whisperings and find himself confused and full of
doubt, being neither an accepting believer nor a denying
rejector.37. A man's belief in the 'seeing of
Allah by the people of the Garden' is incorrect if he tries to
imagine what it is like or interprets it according to his own
understanding. For the interpretation of this 'seeing',
indeed the meaning of any of the subtle phenomena which are in
the realm of Lordship, can only be achieved by
strict submission. Interpretation
must be avoided. Those
who do
not avoid
negating Allah's attributes
and of likening Allah to something else, have goneastray and
have failed to understand Allah's Glory. For our Lord, the
Glorified and the Exalted, can only be described in terms of
Oneness and Absolute Singularity. No creation is in any way like
Him.38. He is beyond having limits placed
on Him, or being restricted, or having parts or limbs. Nor is He
contained by the six directions as all created things are.39.
Al-Mi'raj (the Ascent through the heavens)
is true. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,
was taken by night and ascended in his bodily form, while awake,
through the heavens, to whatever heights Allah willed for him.
Allah ennobled him in the way that He ennobled him and
revealed to him what He revealed to him, 'and his heart was not
mistaken about what it saw' (al-Najm 53: 11). Allah blessed him
and granted him peace in this world and the next.40.
Al-Hawd, (the Pool which Allah will grant
the Prophet as an honour to quench the thirst of His Ummah on
the Day of Judgement), is true.41.
Al-Shifa'ah, (the intercession, which is
stored up for Muslims), is true, as related in the (consistent and
confirmed) Ahadith.42. The covenant
'which Allah made with Adam and his offspring' is true.43.
Allah knew, before the existence of time,
the exact number of those who would enter the Garden and the
exact number of those who would enter the Fire. This number
will neither be increased nor decreased.44.
The same applies to all actions done by
people. They are done exactly as Allah knew they would be done.
Everyone is eased to what he was created for and it is the action
with which a man's life is sealed which dictates his fate. Those
who are fortunate are fortunate by the decree of Allah, and those
who are wretched are wretched by the decree of Allah.45.
The exact nature of the decree is Allah's
secret in His creation. Neither angel nor Prophet has been
given knowledge of it. Delving into this and reflecting too
muchupon it only leads to destruction and loss, and results in
rebelliousness. So be extremely careful about thinking and
reflecting on this matter or letting doubts about it assail you. For
Allah has kept knowledge of the decree away from human beings,
and forbidden them to enquire about it, saying in His Book, 'He
is not asked about what He does but they are asked'. (al-Anbiya
21: 23) So anyone who argues: 'Why did Allah do that?' has gone
against a judgement of the Book, and anyone who goes against a
judgement of the Book is an unbeliever.46.
This, in sum, is what those of Allah's
friends with enlightened hearts need to know and what
constitutes the degree of those firmly endowed with knowledge.
For there are two kinds of knowledge: knowledge which is
accessible to created beings, and knowledge which is not
accessible to created beings. Denying knowledge which is
accessible is disbelief, and claiming knowledge which is
inaccessible is also disbelief. Belief can only be firm when
accessible knowledge is accepted and inaccessible knowledge is
not sought after.47. We believe in al-Lawh
(the Tablet) and al-Qalam (the Pen) and in everything written on
it. Even if all created beings were to gather together to make
something fail to exist, whose existence Allah had written on the
Tablet, they would not be able to do so. And if all created beings
were to gather together to make something exist which Allah had
not written on it, they would not be able to do so. The Pen has
dried having written down all that will be in existence until the
Day of Judgement. Whatever a person has missed he would have
never got it, and whatever one gets, he would have never missed
it.48. It is necessary for the servant
to know that Allah already knows everything that
is going to happen in His creation and has decreed it in a
detailed and decisive way. There is nothing that He has created
in either the heavens or the earth that can contradict it, add to,
erase, change, decrease, or increase it in any way. This is a
fundamental aspect of
belief and
a necessary
element of
all knowledge and
recognition of
Allah's oneness
and10Lordship. As Allah says in His Book:
'He created everything and decreed it in a detailed way'.
(al-Furqan 25: 2) And He also says: 'Allah's command is always a
decided decree'. (al-Ahzab 33: 38) So woe to anyone who argues
with Allah concerning the decree and who, with a sick heart,
begins delving into this matter. In his delusory attempt to
investigate the Unseen, he is seeking a secret that can never be
uncovered. He ends up an evil-doer, telling nothing but lies.49.
AI-'Arsh (the Throne) and al-Kursi (the
Chair) are true.50. He is independent of the
Throne and what is beneath it.51.
He encompasses everything and is
above it, and what He has created is incapable of encompassing
Him.52. We say with belief, acceptance and
submission that Allah took Ibrahim as an intimate friend and
that He spoke directly to Musa.53. We
believe in the angels, and the Prophets, and the books which
were revealed to the messengers, and we bear witness that they
were all following the manifest Truth.54.
We call the people ofourqiblah Muslims
and believers as long as they acknowledge what the Prophet, may
Allah bless him and grant him peace, brought, and accept as true
everything that he said and told us about.55.
We do not enter into vain talk about Allah
nor do we allow any dispute about Allah's religion.56.
We do not argue about the Qur'an and we
bear witness that it is the speech of the Lord of all the Worlds
which the Trustworthy Spirit came down with and taught the
most honoured of all the Messengers, Muhammad,
may Allah bless him and grant him peace. It is the speech of
Allah and no speech of any created being is comparable to it. We
do not say that it was created and we do not go against the
consensus of the Muslim community regarding it.57.
We do not consider any of the people of our
qiblah to11be unbelievers because of any wrong action they have
done, as long as they do not consider that action to have been
lawful.58. Nor do we say that the wrong
action of a man who has belief does not have a harmful effect
upon him.59. We hope that Allah will
pardon the people of right action among the believers and grant
them entrance into the Garden through His mercy. However, we
cannot be certain of this, about any individual and we cannot
bear witness that they will definitely be in the Garden (except for
those whom Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) mentioned). We ask
forgiveness for the people of wrong action among the believers
and, although we are afraid for them, we are not in despair about
them.60. Both certainty and despair remove
one from religion, but the path of truth for the people of the
qiblah lies between the two (i.e. a person must fear and be
conscious of Allah's reckoning as well as be hopeful of Allah's
mercy).61. A person does not step out of
belief except by disavowing what brought him into it.62.
Belief consists of affirmation by
the tongue and acceptance by the heart.63.
And .the whole of what is authentically
related from the Prophet, upon him be peace, regarding the
Shan'ah and the explanation (of the Qur'an and of Islam) is
true.64. Belief is, at base, the same for
everyone, but the superiority of some over others in it is due to
their fear and awareness of Allah, their opposition to their
desires, and their choosing what is more pleasing to Allah.65.
AD the believers are 'friends' of Allah and
the noblest of them in the sight of Allah are those who are the
most obedient and who most closely follow the Qur'an.66.
Belief consists of belief in Allah, His
angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and belief that
the Decree - both the good and the evil of it, the sweet and the
bitter of it - are all from Allah.1267. We
believe in all these things. We do not inake any distinction
between any of the messengers, we accept as true what each of
them brought.68. Those of the Ummah of
Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who have
committed grave sins will be in the Fire, but not forever, provided
they die and meet Allah as believers affirming His unity - even if
they have not repented. They are subject to His will and
judgement. If He wants, He will forgive and pardon them out of
His generosity. As is mentioned in the Qur'an when He says:
'And He forgives anything less than that (shirk) to whoever He
wills' (al-Nisa' 4: 116); and if He wants, He will punish them in
the Fire out of His justice and then bring them out of the Fire
through His mercy, and for the intercession of those who were
obedient to Him, and send them to the Garden. This is because
Allah is the Protector of those who recognize Him. He will not
treat them in the Next World in the same way as He treats those
who deny Him and who are bereft of His guidance and have
failed to obtain His protection. O Allah, You are the Protector of
Islam and its people; make us firm in Islam until the day we meet
You.69. We agree with performing the
prayer behind any of the people of the qiblah whether they be
right-acting or wrong-acting, and in performing the funeral
prayer over any of them when they die.70.
We do not categorically say that any of
them will go to either the Garden or the Fire, and we do not
accuse any of them of kufr (disbelief), shirk (associating partners
with Allah), or nifaq (hypocrisy), as long as they have not openly
demonstrated any of these things. We leave their secrets to
Allah.71. We do not agree with killing any
of the Ummah of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant
him peace, unless it is obligatory to do so by Shan'ah.72.
We do not recognize rebellion against our
Imam or those in charge of our affairs even if they are unjust, nor
do we wish evil on them, nor do we withdraw from
following13them. We hold that obedience to them is part of
obedience to Allah, The Glorified, and is therefore obligatory as
long as they do not order us to commit sins. We pray for right
guidance for them and for their wrongs to be pardoned.73.
We follow the Sunnah of the Prophet and
the Jama'ah of the Muslims, and avoid deviation, differences and
divisions.74. We love the people of justice
and trustworthiness, and hate the people of injustice and
treachery.75. When our knowledge about
something is unclear, we say: 'Allah knows best'.76.
We agree with wiping over leather socks (in
Wudu) whether on a journey or otherwise, just as has come down
in the (consistent and confirmed) ahadith.77.
Hajj and jihad under the leadership of
those in charge of the Muslims, whether they are right or
wrong-acting, are continuing obligations until the Last Hour
comes. Nothing can annul or controvert them.78.
We believe in the Kiraman Katibin (the
noble angels) who write down our actions. For Allah has
appointed the two over us as guardians.79.
We believe in the Angel of Death who is
charged with taking the spirits of all the worlds.80.
We believe in the punishment in the grave
for those who deserve it, and in the questioning in the grave by
Munkar and Nakir about one's
Lord, one's religion
and one's prophet, as has come down in
the ahadith from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him
and grant him peace. We believe in reports from the
Companions, may Allah be pleased with i hem all.HI. The grave
is either one of the meadows of the Garden or our of the pits of
the Fire.H.' We believe in being brought back to life after death
and in bring recompensed for the actions on the Day of
Judgement. We also believe in al-'Ard, that actions will be shown
and14al-Hisab, being brought to account for them. And Qira'at
al-Kitab, reading of the records; in the reward and punishments
and in al-sirdt (the Bridge) and al-Mlzan (the Balance).83.
The Garden and the Fire having been
created never come to an end. We believe that Allah created them
before the rest of creation and then created people to inhabit
each of them. Out of His bounty, whoever He wills goes to the
Garden and out of His justice whoever He wills goes to the Fire.
Everybody acts in accordance with what is destined for him and
goes towards what he has been created for.84.
Good and evil have both been decreed for
people.85. The capability in terms of
Tawfiq (Divine Grace and Favour) which makes an action
certain to occur cannot be ascribed to a created being. Such
capability is' integral with action. Whereas the capability of an
action in terms of having the necessary health,
ability, being in a position to act and
having the necessary means, exists in a person before the action.
It is this type of capability which is the object of the dictates of
Shari'ah. Allah the Exalted says: 'Allah does not charge a person
except according to his ability', (al-Baqarah 2: 286)86.
People's actions are created by Allah but
earned by people.87. Allah, the Exalted, has
only charged people with what they are able to do and people are
only capable of doing what Allah has charged them with (and
favoured them to do). This is the explanation of the phrase:
'There is no power and no strength except by Allah.' We add to
this that there is no stratagem or way by which .anyone can avoid
or escape disobedience to Allah except with Allah's help; nor
does anyone have the strength to put obedience to Allah into
practice and remain firm in it, except if Allah makes it possible
for them to do so.88. Everything happens
according to Allah's will, know ledge, predestination and decree.
His will overpowers all oilier wills and His decree overpowers all
stratagems. He docs whatever He wills and He is never unjust.
He is exulted15in His purity above all evil and perdition. He is
perfect, far beyond any fault or flaw. 'He will not be asked about
what He does but
they will be
asked.' (al-Anbiya 21: 23)89.
There is benefit for dead people in the
supplication and alms-giving by the living.90.
Allah responds to people's supplications
and gives them what they ask for.91. Allah
has absolute control over everything and nothing has control over
Him. Nothing is independent of Allah for the blinking of an eye.
Whoever considers himself independent of Allah even for the
blinking of an eye is guilty of unbelief and becomes one of the
people of perdition.92. Allah is angered and
pleased but not in the same way as any creature.93.
We love the Companions of the Messenger
of Allah but we do not take our love for any one individual
among them to excess nor do we disown any one of them. We
hate anyone who hates them or does not speak well of them and
we only speak well of them. Love of them is a part of Islam, part
of belief and part of excellent behaviour, while hatred of them is
unbelief, hypocrisy and rebelliousness.94. We confirm that, after
the death of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and
grant him peace, the caliphate went first to Abu Bakr al-Siddlq,
may Allah be pleased with him, thus proving his excellence and
superiority over lhe rest of the Muslims; then to 'Umar ibn
al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him; then to 'Uthman,
may Allah In- pleased with him; and then to 'Ali ibn Abi Talib,
may Allah be pleased with him. These are the Rightly-Guided
Caliphs and upright leaders.9.5. We bear witness that the ten who
were named by die Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and
grant him peace, and who were promised the Garden by him, will
be in the Garden, as the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him
and grant him peace, whose word is truth, bore witness^^^16that
they would be. The ten are: Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, 'Ali,
Talhah, Zubayr, Sa'd, Sa'Td, 'Abdur-Rahman ibn 'Awf and Abu
'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah whose title was the trustee of this
Ummah, may Allah be pleased with all of them.96.
Anyone who speaks well of the
Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and
grant him peace, and his wives and offspring, who are all pure
and untainted by any impurity, is free from the accusation of
hypocrisy.97. The learned men of the first
community and those who followed in their footsteps - the people
of virtue, the narrators of the Ahadlth, the jurists and analysts -
must only be spoken about in the best way. Anyone who speaks
ill of them is surely not on the right path.98.
We do not prefer any of the saintly men
among the Ummah over any of the Prophets but rather we say
that any one of the Prophets is better than all the awliya put
together.99. We believe in what we know of
Karamat, the marvels of the awliya and in
authentic stories about them from trustworthy
sources.100. We believe in the signs of the
Hour such as the appearance of the Dajjal and the descent of 'Isa
ibn Mary am, peace be upon him, from heaven. We believe in the
rising of the sun from where it sets and in the emergence of the
Beast from the earth.101. We do not accept
as true what soothsayers and fortune-tellers say. Nor do we
accept the claims of those who affirm anything which goes
against the Book, the Sunnah and the consensus of the Muslim
Ummah.102. We agree that holding
together is the true and right path and that separation is
deviation and torment.103. There is only
one religion of Allah in the heavens and the earth and that is the
religion of Islam. Allah says: 'Surely religion in the sight of Allah
is Islam'. (Al 'Imran 3: 19) And He also says: 'I am pleased with
Islam as a religion for you'. (al-Ma'idah 5: 3)17104.
Islam lies between going to exeess
and falling short, between Tashhih (likening of Allah's attributes
to anything else), and Ta'tjl
(denying Allah's
attributes), between fatal ism and
refusing decree as proceeding from Allah and between
certainty (without
being conscious of
Allah's reckoning) and despair (of Allah's
mercy).105. This is our religion and
it is what we believe in, both inwardly and outwardly, and we
renounce any connection, before Allah, with anyone who goes
against what we have said and made clear.We ask Allah to make
us firm in our belief and seal our lives with it. To protect us from
variant ideas, scattering opinions and evil schools of thought
such as those of the Mushabbihah, the Mu'tazilah,
tbeJahmiyyah. the.Jabrivah, the Qadriyyah and others like them
who go against the Sunnah and Jama'ah and have allied
themselves with error. We renounce any connection with them
and in our opinion they are in error and on the path of
destruction.