The Ash'aris
Four Points from Al-`Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah
The great scholar, al-Hujjat al-lslām, Abū Ja`far al-Warrāq al-Tahāwī al-Misrī rahimahullāh said:
This is a presentation of the beliefs of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā`a, according to the school of the jurists of this religion, Abū Hanīfa al-Nu`mān ibn Thābit al-Kūfī, Abū Yūsuf Ya`qūb ibn Ibrahīm al-Ansārī and Abū `Abdullāh Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybānī, may Allāh be pleased with them all, and what they believe regarding the fundamentals of the religion and their faith in the Lord of the worlds.
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3. `Aqidah comes from the word `aqd, which means that which binds or knots. In this sense,`aqidah is sought in and of itself and sticks with the person completely. `Aqidah is sought after for itself, not only because it is a condition for the validity of actions. Even if an action is not obligatory, `aqidah is still neccesary-for it is the foundation of everything.
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6. `Aqidah is also called usul - or fundamentals. The fundamentals are those matters from which the subsidiary issues branch out. The scholar of creed have counted from the Usul, both those things that are clear cut and established (qati`), as well as those things that are conjectural (dhanni). In other words, things that allow no difference of opinion, and those that do allow a differencethings that shall be mentioned later on in the text of the Tahawiyyah.
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Shaykh`Abdul `Aziz ibn Baz said in his footnotes on the creed of Imam al-Tahawi:
However, upon closer examination, we find numerous errors in the above quoted words of Ibn Baz.
Read the full article/Pdf:
Four Points from al-`Aqīdah al-Tahāwiyyah
Shaykh Sa`īd Foudah
Shaykh Sa`īd Foudah
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Ibn `Abd al-Salam and Ash`ari Ta’wil
The great Imâm `Izz al-Dîn Ibn `Abd al-Salâm wrote a treatise on the principles of metaphorical interpretation of the Holy Qur’an according to the Ash`arî School entitled al-Ishâra ilâ al-Ijâz fi Ba`d. Anwâ` al-Majâz (Ed. `Uthmân H.ilmî, Cairo: al-Mat.ba`at al-`Amira, 1313/1895) which recently received a new edition. In it he states:
Also read: Here
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Imam al-Razi’s Interpretation of ‘Two Hands’
As for the saying of the Most High, ‘What prevented you from prostrating to the one that I created with My Two Hands [yaday]?.’ we reply:
Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
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One is required to take Allāh’s word, exalted is He, literally as long as there is no text, or consensus, or empirical necessity, which stops us from doing that. We know that everything that is in a place occupies that space and fills it and assumes its shape. One of the two things has to be. We know that whatever is in a place has to be limited by the limits of that place, as it has to be limited by a finite limit in the six or five directions in its space, and these are the attributes of bodies.
Read on:
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Imam al-Qurtubi’s Tafsir of the ayah: ‘He Then Established Himself Over the Throne’
Regarding God’s statement (may He be exalted): ‘He then established himself over the Throne’
Read the Tafsir:
Imam al-Qurtubi
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Mullah `Ali al-Qari’s Commentary on the Hadith al-Jariyah: ‘Where is Allah?’
Mulla ‘Alī al-Qārī (d. 1014 h. / 1606; Makkah), a Hanafi faqīh, a muḥaddith , an expert in language, a mutakallim, and a prolific author of important Islamic texts including the commentary on Abū Ḥanīfah’s al-Fiqh al-Akbar, which is a work on belief, and a ten-volume commentary on the Ḥadīth compilation Mishkāt al-MaSābīḥ.
Commenting on the words reported from the Prophet [sallallahu alayhi wa sallam]
“Where is Allāh?” in the Ḥadīth al-Jāriyah, he wrote:
Read: Here
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Imam al-Nawawi’s Commentary on the Hadith of the Slave-girl: ‘Where is Allah?’
The Prophet [sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam] asked her, “Where is Allah?” and she said, “In the sky (Fi al-sama)”; whereupon he asked her, “Who am I?” and she said, “You are the Messenger of Allah”; at which he said, Free her, “for she is a believer”.
This is one of the Hadīth which concerns the attributes [of Allāh]. There are two schools of thought (madhhab) in regards to such Ḥadīth both of which I have discussed repeatedly in the chapter Kitāb al-Īmān.
The first madhhab is to believe in it without concerning oneself with its meaning, while maintaining categorically that Allāh, hallowed is He, does not resemble anything, and maintaining that He transcends the attributes of created things [which madhhab is called tafwīḍ ].
The second madhhab is to interpret (ta’wīl) the Ḥadīth in a way which is commensurate with His greatness.
Those who prefer to interpret said that in the present Ḥadīth the Prophet [sallallahu alayhi wa sallam] meant to examine her to see whether or not she was one of those who worships idols on the earth, or one of those who maintain the uniqueness of Allāh (muwahhidūn) and believe that the creator, the disposer, and the one who effects [all things] is Allāh, no one else. For when [those who maintain the uniqueness of Allāh (muwahhidūn)] supplicate [the Transcendent God], they turn [their attention, or their hands] to the sky just as when they pray [the ritual prayer] they face the Ka‘bah; yet, that does not mean that Allāh is located in the sky just as it does not mean that He is located in the direction of the Ka‘bah. Rather, they turn [their attention, or their hands] to the sky because the sky is the prescribed direction of orientation (al-Qiblah), just as the Ka‘bah is the prescribed direction of orientation (al-Qiblah) for the ritual prayer (al-Salāh).
So when she said that He is in the sky, it was known that she was one of those who maintain the uniqueness of Allāh (muwahhid), and not a worshipper of idols.
Al-Qadi `Iyad said : There is no disagreement whatsoever among any of the Muslims–their fuqahā’ (experts on the rules of the Sharī‘ah), their muhaddithūn (experts in the science of Ḥadīth transmission, and criticism), their mutakallimūn (ulamā’ of Kalām; that is, dialectic theology), their polemicists (naḍhār) and their ordinary followers (muqallid)–that the outward meaning of those texts [from either the Sunnah or the Qur‘ān] in which it is mentioned that Allāh is in the sky is not meant [literally]; for example, the words of the Exalted:
“Are you assured that He who is in the sky will not cause the earth to swallow you up?”
These and similar texts [which mention that Allāh is in the sky or seem to imply that] are not to be taken literally (‘alā ḍāhirihī ); rather, according to them all [that is, all the Muslims and the experts of every field of the Sharī‘ah as mentioned above], they are to be taken idiomatically (mu’awwalan).
So whoever from among the muḤaddithūn, and the fuqahā’, and the mutakallimūn permitted using the term of the direction up (jihat alfauq) [in relation to Allāh] without presuming any limit, or without conceiving how [He might be in the direction up] interpreted in the sky to mean over the sky [that is, He whose authority, or power is over the sky].
Whereas, whoever from among the great majority of polemicists (naḍhār), and mutakallimūn, and the people of transcendence (asḤāb al-tanzīh) denied that He had any limit, and maintained the impossibility of ascribing any direction to Him, hallowed is He, they interpreted the texts in a variety of ways according to the requirement of the context. They mentioned interpretations similar to what we mentioned previously [that is, in his commentary which, however, al-Nawawī did not cite].
Then he [`Iyad] said: I wish I knew what exactly it is that has united the People of the Sunnah and the Truth, all of them, on the necessity of refraining from thinking about the reality (al-dhāt) [of Allāh], as they were ordered [by the Lawgiver], and the necessity to keep silent about what perplexes their intelligences (al-‘aql), and to prohibit explaining how (al-takyīf) [is the divine reality], and in what form (al-tashkīl) [is it]. They kept silent and refrained from [thinking or speaking about the divine reality (al-dhāt)] not because they had any doubt about the Existent, or about His existence [but because they recognized that His reality is beyond comprehension].
Their silence does not impair their belief in His uniqueness (al-tauḤīd); rather, it is the essence of al-tauḤīd [for the recognition that He is other than whatever we imagine Him to be is a requirement of the transcendent perspective of al-tauḤīd]. Some of the ulamā’ overlooked [some of the strict requirements of the divine transcendence] and indulged in using the term direction (al-jihah) [in relation to Allāh] fearing to take unwarranted liberties [in interpreting the revealed texts of the Sharī‘ah]. But it raises the question of whether or not there is any difference between explaining how (al-takyīf) [is the divine reality] and between ascribing directions to Him.
No doubt, the course which offers salvation from deviation for those for whom Allāh has ordained success is to restrict oneself to using such terms as the Law (al-Shar‘) itself has used like “and He enforces His will over (fauqa) His slaves,” or the words “then He subdued [or took control; istawā] of the Throne,” while understanding such terms with reference to the verse which comprehends the universal principle of transcendence (tanzīh); namely, His word: “Nothing is like Him.” For reason can not accept anything which contravenes this universal principle of the Law.
And that is the discourse of the Qadi, may Allah Most High have mercy on him.
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Aqeedah, Aqidah, Aqida
To think according to principle, to possess true faith and believe and accept the true Commands of Islam is known as "Aqeedah".
If one's Aqeedah is corrupt, then one's Imaan is improper and if one's Imaan is not proper, then his Amaal (actions) are useless.
Aqeedah is the Soul
Imaan is the Body
Amal is the Garb
To have good and strong Imaan, one must have the proper Aqeedah. It is for this reason that we quote a few un-Islamic beliefs together with the proper Islamic answers, so that we may, after reading about them, repent from any false and corrupt beliefs that we may hold and, thereafter, hold firmly to the proper Islamic beliefs.
To hold improper Aqidah leads to Kufr, whereas proper Aqeedah is strength for Imaan.
