The Islaamic Belief Part 2 (Al-Aqeedah at-Tahaweeyah)

The Islaamic Belief Part 2 (Al-Aqeedah at-Tahaweeyah)
Imaam Abu Ja'far at-Tahawi rahimahullaah


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 he 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', after He has
brought them lo life a first time, and deserves this name before bringing them
to life, 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 does not need anything. 'There is
nothing like Him and He is the Hearer, the Seer'. (al-Shura 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 degree 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. He gives guidance to whoever He wills, and protects them, and keeps them
safe from harm, out of His generosity; and He leads astray whoever He wills, and
abases them, and afflicts them, out of His justice.



25. All of them are subject to His will between either His generosity or His
justice.



26. He is exalted beyond having opposites or equals.



27. No one can ward off His decree or put back His command or overpower His
affairs.



28. We believe in all of this and are certain that everything comes from Him.



29. And we are certain that Muhammad (may Allaah bless him and grant him peace)
is His chosen servant and selected Prophet and His Messenger with whom He is
well pleased.



30. And that he is the seal of the prophets and the Imaam of the godfearing and
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 falsehood and deceit.



32. He is the one who has been sent to all the jinn and all mankind with truth
and guidance and with light and illumination.



33. The Qur'an is the word of Allaah. It came from Him as speech without it
being possible to say how. He sent it down on His Messenger as revelation. The
believers accept it, as absolute truth. They are certain that it is, in truth,
the word of Allaah. It is not created, as is the speech of human beings, and
anyone who hears it and claims that it is human speech has become an unbeliever.
Allaah 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
Allaah threatens with the Fire those who say 'This is just human speech' (al-Muddaththir
74: 25) we know for certain that it is the speech of the Creator of mankind and
that it is totally unlike the speech of mankind.



34. Anyone who describes Allaah as being in any way the same as a human being
has become an unbeliever. All those who grasp 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 Allaah 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
Allaah knows and wills. Everything that has come down to us about this from the
Messenger, may Allaah bless him and grant him peace, in authentic traditions, is
as he said and means what he intended. We do not delve into that, trying to
interpret it according to our own opinions or letting our imaginations have free
rein. No one is safe in his religion unless he surrenders himself completely to
Allaah, the Exalted and Glorified and to His Messenger, may Allaah bless him and
grant him peace, and 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 which it is 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 Allaah's true unity, clear knowledge and
correct belief. and that he veers between disbelief and belief, confirmation and
denial and acceptance and rejection. He will he subject to whisperings and find
himself confused and full of doubt, being neither an accepting believer nor a
denying rejector.



37. Belief of a man in the 'seeing of Allaah by the people of the Garden is not
correct if he imagines what it is like, or interprets it according to his own
understanding since the interpretation of this seeing' or indeed, the meaning of
any of the subtle phenomena which are in the realm of Lordship, is by avoiding
its interpretation and strictly adhering to the submission. 'This is the din of
Muslims. Anyone who does not guard himself against negating the attributes of
Allaah, or likening Allaah to something else, has gone astray and has failed lo
understand Allaah's Glory, because our lord, the Glorified and the Exalted, can
only possibly be described in terms of Oneness and Absolute Singularity and 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.