SUMMARIZATION OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF RELIGIOUS

BELIEFS

WRITTEN BY:AL ALLAAMAH ASH SHAIKH ABDUR RAHMAN AS-SADEE

INTRODUCTION

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all that exists, may He send praise and salutations of peace upon Muhammad, his family, companions and followers until Judgment Day.

To proceed:This is a very short summarization of the fundamentals of religious beliefs and important great principles. I have restricted myself to mere indication and bringing attention to them without extensive discussion or mentioning evidences. It is closer to being a sort of index for the issues so that their core principles, status and place in the religion is known.Then, whoever may have an ambition regarding knowledge could pursue their elaboration and evidences in the relevant places. If Allah so wills and allows me to live long enough, I will have elaborated on these objectives and explained their proofs.

The First Fundamental:Monotheism

The definition of monotheism that includes all of its categories is:The belief and eemaan of the heart that Allah is singled out with perfect attributes and singled out with all types of worship.

Included in this is:Monotheism of Lordship which is: believing Allah is singled out with created, providing and every type of control.Monotheism of Divine Names and Attributes which is: Affirming what Allah affirmed for His Self, and what His Messenger affirmed for Him of Most Beautiful Names and Lofty, Perfect Attributes without resembling Him to the creation or making any similitudes and without altering their meanings or negating them.Monotheism of Worship is: Singling Him out alone with any type or category of worship, making them solely for Him without ascribing any partners to Him in any of that while believing in His perfect godhood.

Included within Monotheism of Lordship is: Affirmation of ( ) Divine Decree and Predestining, that whatever Allah wills comes to pass and whatever He does not will would not happen, and that He is Al Ghaniyy Al Hameed (Free of need. Worthy of All Praise).

Included within Monotheism of Divine Names and Attributes is: Affirmation of all of the meanings of Allahs beautiful names as reported in the Book and the Sunnah.

Belief in them is on three levels:

Belief in the Names Belief in the Attributes Belief in the Rulings of His AttributesSuch as: knowing that He is Aleem, the possessor of knowledge, knowing all things. Qadeer, possessor of ability, able to do all things. In like fashion are the rest of His Beautiful Names.

Included in that is: the affirmation of His highness over His creation, His being risen above His throne, His nightly descent to the lower heaven in a manner befitting His Majesty and Magnificence.

Included in that is: affirmation of His eternal attributes ( )that He is never without such as hearing, seeing, knowledge, highness etc., as well as His attributes of action ( ) which are the attributes connected to His divine will and power such as: Speech, creating, providing, mercy, raising above his throne, descending to the lower heaven as He wills.

All of these attributes are affirmed for Allah without likening him to His creation or rejecting His attributes. All of them subsist by His essence and He is described with them and has never ceased and will not cease speaking and acting. He does as He wills and says what He wills, when He wills, as He wills. He does not cease being described with speech and known with mercy and kindness.

Included in that is: the belief that the Quran is the revealed, uncreated speech of Allah. It originated with Him and shall remain eternally. He is the one who spoke it in truth. His speech can not be exhausted or cease.

Included in that is: the belief that He is Qareeb (ever near) and Mujeeb (responds to hHis creation) while simultaneously being Above and Most High. There is no contradiction between His perfect highness ()and perfect nearness ()because nothing is like unto Him regarding all of His qualities and attributes.

Monotheism regarding Divine Names and Attributes is not complete until: one believes in all that has come in the Book and the Sunnah of Divine names, attributes, actions and their applications in a manner befitting the Magnificence of the Originator and knowing that just as nothing resembles Him in His essence then likewise none resembles Him in His attributes.

Whoever thinks that there exist in some logicalities that which necessitates reinterpreting some attributes in other than their known meaning has strayed into manifest error.

Monotheism in Lordship is not complete until: the slave believes that the slaves actions are created by Allah, that their will follows in accordance to Allahs will, that they possess ability and intention whereby their actions occur and that is relative to what is ordered and forbidden.

These two matters do not contradict:-Affirming Allahs general inclusive will regarding, existing essences, actions and attributes -While affirming the slaves ability to act and speak.

Monotheism in worship is not completed until: the slave is sincere to Allah in his intentions, statements and actions, until he leaves off major polytheism that completely negates monotheism utterly. It is devoting any type of worship for other that Allah.

The perfection of that is to leave off minor polytheism. It is: every accessible means that leads to major polytheism such as: swearing by other than Allah, slight showing off etc..

People are upon varying levels regarding monotheism according to what they have undertaken of knowing Allah and undertaking His worship. The most complete of them through this door is he who knows the details of Allahs names, attributes, actions, blessings and their established meanings in the Book and Sunnah. He understands them with authentic understanding so that his heart fills with awareness of Allah, veneration, magnification and love of Him, steadily turning to him and having all of the summonings of his heart drawn towards Allah, directed towards Him alone without partners.

All of his movement and stillness is devoted to the perfection of faith and total sincerity untainted by anything of corrupt ambitions. So he finds tranquility with Allah, knowing Him, turning to Him, enacting, abstaining, competing himself and completing others through invitation to this tremendous fundamental. So we ask Allah by His bounty and generosity to graciously bestow that to us.

THE SECOND FUNDAMENTAL:BELIEF IN THE PROPHETHOOD OF ALL OF THE PROPHETS IN

GENERAL AND THE PROPHETHOOD OF MUHAMMAD IN PARTICULAR

This fundamental is built upon one believing and having eemaan that all of the prophets were specially chosen by Allah for His revelation and being sent. He made them intermediaries between Him and the creation in conveying his legislation and religion.Allah aided them with evidences proving their truthfulness and the validity of what they came with.They are the most perfect of creation in knowledge and action, the most truthful, most righteous and best in character and deeds. Allah specially endowed them with special qualities and virtues unparalleled by any other persons. Allah made them free of every despicable character trait.They are infallible in what they conveyed from Allah.Nothing was reported or conveyed by them save what is true and correct.It is mandatory to believe in them and all that they received from Allah and to love and venerate them.

These matters are established for our prophet Muhammad in the most perfect fashion.It is mandatory to know of all that he came with in a broad as well as a detailed sense, to believe it and adhere to obeying him in every affair, by affirming his information, enacting his command and abstaining from his prohibition.

Included with that is that he is the finality of prophets. His revealed law abrogated all other divinely revealed legislation. His prophethood and shariah remain until the inception of the final

hour. So there is no prophet after him and no shariah other than his in the fundamentals and branches of the religion.

Included in the belief in the Messengers is the belief in the scriptures. So belief in Muhammad requires faith in everything he came with of the book and Sunnah, in wording and meanings.

Faith is incomplete without that. The greater a persons knowledge, belief, recognition and implementation of that is, the more complete his faith will be.

Also, belief in the angels and predestination is included in this tremendous fundamental.

From complete faith in him: is that what he came with is known to be true and impossible to establish logical or physical evidence contrary to -just as it is impossible for revealed evidence to be established contrary to it. You find that the evidence of the book and sunnah proves and substantiates beneficial logical or physical matters, encouraging that they be learned and implemented.

The existence of that which has no benefit is also not negated in (the religious texts), although the religious evidence may forbid and dispraise them. This is also part of belief in what the Messenger came with, and much rather what was brought by all of the messengers.

THE THIRD FUNDAMENTALBELIEF IN THE LAST DAY

All that has come in the Book and Sunnah from that which will take place after death is from the belief in the Last Day. Such as: the states of the Barzakh () the events of Judgment Day and what they consist of from:

the reckoning () reward and punishment ( ) the intercession() the scales () the records of deeds taken by the right or left hand ()

the Bridge () the states of the Paradise and Hellfire and their

inhabitants ( ) the types of things Allah has prepared within both of

them for their inhabitants broadly and in detail.

All of that is included in belief in the Last Day.

The Fourth Fundamental:The Issue of What is Eemaan

Ahlus Sunnah believe in what has come in the Book and the Sunnah of the fact that Al Eemaan is: Affirmation of the heart that it contains the actions of the limbs.So they say: Al Eemaan is the beliefs of the heart as well as its actions, the actions of the limbs and the statements of the tongue. All of this is part of Al Eemaan.Whoever completes it inwardly and outwardly has perfected Al Eemaan. Whoever is missing something from it is deficient in part of their faith. These matters are seventy odd branches. The highest is the statement Laa ilaha illa Allah, the least is removing something harmful from the road, and shyness is part of faith.

Based upon this principle they conclude that people vary on different levels of Eemaan: Those closest (to Allah), the people of the right hand and those who wrong their souls. This is according to their standing regarding the religion and eemaan. They conclude that it increases and decreases, so whoever does something forbidden or leaves off something obligatory, then their mandatory eemaan decreases until they repent to Allah.

They base upon this fundamental that people are three categories:Some undertake all of the duties of eemaan and is as such are true believers.Some abandon them all. Such is a disbeliever in Allah.Some have within them belief and disbelief, or belief and hypocrisy, or good and evil. He has the alliance of Allah and deserves His honorable reward according to what he has of faith and he has the enmity of Allah and deserves Allahs punishment according to what he is neglecting of Eemaan.

They conclude as a result of this tremendous fundamental that major and minor sins, that do not cause the committer to reach the level of disbelief, decrease a persons faith without expelling him from the fold of Islam and that he will not be eternally in Hellfire.

They do not label him with disbelief as is done by the Khawarij or negate eemaan from him as is done by the Mutazilah.

Rather, they say: He is a mumin due to his faith, a sinner due to his sin. So he absolutely has faith but absolute (mandatory) faith is negated from him.

By these fundamentals, eemaan is gotten in all of the texts of the Book and Sunnah.What results from this fundamental:Islam erases what preceded it.Repentance erases what preceded it.Whoever apostates and dies in such condition, their prior deeds are invalid.Whoever repents, Allah will grant him repentance.

Likewise as a result of this principle is concluded the validity of making an exception regarding faith, so that it is correct to say: I am a believer, Allah willing. This is because he hopes from Allah to complete his eemaan, so he makes this restricted exception. He hopes for firmness upon that until death, so he makes this restricted exception on such a declaration without any doubt on his part as regards having the core of faith.

Resulting from this fundamental likewise is that the core and amount of love and hate follows in accordance to the presence, absence, completion and deficiency of Eemaan, respectively.

Then according to that comes allegiance and enmity. For that reason therefore loving for Allah, hating for Allah, allegiance for Allahs sake and enmity for Allahs sake is considered part of Eeman.

Resulting from Eeman and necessary for its completion is loving for ones brother what one loves for their self.

Resulting from that also is loving the unity of the muslims and encouraging harmony and mutual love and abstaining from severing their mutual ties.

Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah are free from all blind allegiances, division and personal hatred. They view this principle to be from the most important principles of the eemaan. They do not view differing in issues that dont reach the level of being disbelief or innovation to necessitate separation.

Resulting from Eemaan is love of the companions of Allahs messenger according to their ranks, and that they have virtue, precedent and merits granting them superiority over the rest of the Ummah.

They seek nearness to Allah by loving them, spreading their virtues and withholding from engaging about any dispute that happened between them. They hold that they are the forefront of this nation regarding every praiseworthy quality, and that they are foremost of them to every good and farthest of them from any evil.

They believe that the nation is not without need of an Imam to establish its religious and worldly affair, repel from it the hostility of transgressors and that his leadership cannot be completed without being obeyed in that which is not disobedience to Allah.

They believe that Eemaan is not completed without ordering the good and forbidding evil by the hand, or else with the tongue, or otherwise with the heart according to its legislated levels and preserved methods.

In summary, they believe that undertaking these religious fundamentals in a legislated fashion is from the completion of faith and religion.

From the completion of this fundamental is their method regarding knowledge and action.

THE FIFTH FUNDAMENTALTHEIR METHOD REGARDING KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION

That is because certainly Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah believe and firmly adhere to the fact that there is no path to Allah and His honorable reward except through beneficial knowledge and righteous action.Beneficial knowledge is what was brought by the Messenger from Allahs Book and the sunnah of His Messenger. They strive to know its meanings and understand them as regards the fundamentals and the subsidiary issues.They employ all methods of deriving meanings from wordings:

(What is included in whole of meanings within the wordings of the texts)

(What is included in part of meanings within the wordings of the texts)

(What is implicit of further meanings within a text as prerequisite or necessitated beyond the wordings)

They exert their efforts in perception of that according to what Allah has endowed them. They believe that this is beneficial knowledge as well as what emanates from it of valid analogies, and wise objectives.Every knowledge that aids upon that, corroborates it or results from it is religious knowledge, just as anything that opposes or contradicts it is false knowledge. This is their method regarding knowledge.As for their method in action then they seek closeness to Allah by affirming and complete recognition of the beliefs of eemaan which are the core and basis of all acts of worship. Then they seek closeness to Him by fulfilling Allahs obligations as relates His Right and the rights of His slaves along with doing a lot of

supererogatory deeds, and by abandoning all that is forbidden and prohibited with the intention of doing so as worship for Allah alone.

They know that Allah accepts only every action done sincerely for His Noble Face, following thereby the way of the noble messenger, seeking Allahs assistance in traversing such beneficial ways that constitute beneficial knowledge and righteous action leading to every goodness, success and happiness both immediately and eventually.

All Praise is Due to Allah Rabbil AalaminMay He send Praise and Salutations of Peace upon Muhammad, His Family and Companions

5 Ramadan 1357 H.