Aqeedah
(Belief)
The meaning of ‘Aqeedah:
Whatever the slave believes (in the heart) and adopts as a way of life.
If this ‘Aqeedah is in opposition to what Allāh sent His Messengers with and to what He sent down in His Books, then this ‘Aqeedah will necessitate torment and suffering for the one who holds this false belief in this life and the Hereafter.
As for the sound and correct ‘Aqeedah then it is a reason:
-To be saved from the punishment of Allāh on the Day of Resurrection
-For Allah to expiate a person’s sins.
-For actions to be accepted and benefit the one who performs them.
Therefore, the sound ‘Aqeedah has a tremendous effect on the hearts, social behaviours and the civilisation structure.
[Al-Irshād ilā saheeh al-‘itiqaad wa-rad ‘alaa ahlis-shirk wal-ilhaad, pgs.10-12]
Questions
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-Uthaymeen رحمه الله answered:
To have a good opinion about Allaah means that when a person does a righteous action he should have good thoughts about his Lord that He will accept (that action) from him; when he supplicates to Allaah (The Mighty and Majestic) he should have good thoughts about Allaah that He will accept his supplication from him and will answer him; when he commits a sin and later repents to Allaah and leaves that sin he should have good thoughts about Allaah that He will accept his repentance; when Allaah (The Most High) decrees calamities in the world he should have good thoughts about Allaah, and that He (The Mighty and Majestic) only decreed those calamities for tremendous and great wisdoms; he should have a good opinion about Allaah in everything that Allaah (The Mighty and Majestic) decrees in this universe, and in everything that Allaah (The Most High) legislates upon the tongue of His Messenger (sallallahu alayhi wa ala aalihi wa sallam), that it is good and beneficial to the creation, even though some people may not comprehend this benefit, and may not comprehend the wisdom behind that which He legislated; however, it is (incumbent) upon us all to submit to Allaah’s decrees, whether they are religious decrees (rulings) or universal decrees, and to have a good opinion about Him, because He (The Exalted and Most High) is the One Who truly deserves all praise and glory.
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-Uthaymeen رحمه الله answered:
– The love of the Messenger ﷺ and the love of Allaah (The Mighty and Majestic) is fulfilled by following the messenger of Allaah ﷺ, so anyone who strives more in following the messenger of Allaah will be more worthy of loving Allaah (The Most High) and loving His messenger; Allaah (The Most High) says: ” say (O Muhammad), if you truly love Allaah then follow me, so Allaah will love you.. ” [3:31]
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– And the sign of loving the messenger is that a person eagerly seeks to follow his sunnah, without adding to it nor leaving anything out.
– And based on this, those who introduce innovations concerning the prophet ﷺ, claiming that it is done out of loving and revering him, in reality they neither loved him nor revered him, and that is because the reality of love and reverence (for the messenger) is to follow his prophetic traditions, and not add anything to his legislation or take out anything.
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– As for the one who wants to introduce into Allaah’s religion that which is not from it, then no doubt his love of Allaah and His messenger is deficient, because having good manners and true reverence requires that you do not put yourself before Allaah and His messenger. Allaah (The Most High) said: ” O you who believe, do not put (yourselves) before Allaah and His messenger (rather, wait for instruction and follow the way of the prophet ﷺ), but fear Allaah. Indeed Allaah is Hearing and Knowing… ” [49:1]
–
– [Noor ala Darb 1/220]
Shaykh Muhammad bin Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen رحمه الله answered:
– The deceased person does not see the seeing which is known in the dunya (this life), because by dying he has lost his senses, but he sees that which he sees in his grave from the world of the hereafter, and his grave is expanded for him for as far as he can see if he is a believer, and he sees the two angels when they question him about his Lord, his religion and his prophet.
– As for that which relates to the affairs of the dunya he does not see it, because he is veiled from the affairs of the dunya as a result of dying.
[Fataawa Noor ‘ala Darb, 1/240 ]
Shaykh Muhammad bin Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen رحمه الله answered:
– This is NOT correct, the rising of the sun from the west occurs later, because the Dajjaal (Antichrist), Ya’jooj & Ma’jooj (Gog and Magog), and the descending of Issaa (peace be upon him), all of them will happen before the rising of the sun from the west.
[Fataawa Noor ‘Alaa Darb , 1/233]
Shaykh Muhammad bin Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen رحمه الله answered:
– Loving wealth does not affect the Aqeedah nor the Deen (faith) provided it does not preoccupy a person from that which is obligatory or recommended. But if it does preoccupy from an obligation then it would be impermissible to busy oneself with it (wealth), and if it preoccupies from something that is recommended it would be better to busy oneself with that which is recommended than to busy oneself with the wealth.
– And it is incumbent that a person’s use of his wealth is in accordance with the Islamic Shari’ah (legislation), so he does not carry out a dealing involving oppression, or interest, or cheating; and in his dealings with people he does not claim that which is not for him (has no right to), nor does he deny that which is due on him.
– And a person’s love of wealth is natural, as Allaah (The Blessed and Most High) said: ” … And verily, he (man) is severe in the love of wealth. ” [100:8]
– And as He (The Most High) said: ” And you love wealth with much love. ” [89:20]
– And if a person’s love of wealth is for the purpose of increasing it in order to do righteous deeds then that would be good, for indeed how good is lawful wealth for a righteous man, and how many people were blessed by Allaah with wealth and Allaah (The Most High) brought about benefit through their wealth in Jihaad for the sake of Allaah, spreading the knowledge, helping the desperate, and other than that.
[Fataawaa Noor ‘Alaa Darb by, 1/55]
AQEEDAH (The Sound Creed)
Belief in Allāh, the Mighty and Majestic
Belief in Allāh is the basis and foundation of the sound and correct ‘Aqeedah (Islamic Creed).
It means to have absolute certainty that:
-Allāh is the Lord of everything that exists and it all belongs to Him (alone)
-He is the only Creator
-He is the only One Who controls all the affairs in the creation
-He alone deserves to be worshipped without any partners being ascribed unto Him
-Every deity besides Him is false and the worship of this deity is falsehood. Allāh, the Most High says:
‘’That is because Allāh is the True God, deserving all worship, having none like Him, no sharer and no rival, and those gods which the polytheists invoke besides Him are futile and false and not able to create anything, rather they are themselves created things. And verily Allāh, He is the Most High, The Most Great.‘’[Qur’ān 22:62]
-He , far removed from all imperfection, is the possessor of attributes of perfection and description of glory and exaltedness
-He is free and far removed from all shortcomings and defects
And this is the meaning of Tawheed with its 3 categories:
Tawheed ur Ruboobiyyah
Tawheed ul Uloohiyyah
Tawheed ul Asmaa was-sifaat
[Al-Irshād ilā saheeh al-‘itiqaad wa-rad ‘alaa ahlis-shirk wal-ilhaad, pg.29]
Belief in the Angels consists of believing:
-in their existence
-that they are honourable slaves of Allāh
-that Allāh created them to worship Him alone and execute His commands and carry out His orders
-in their different types and descriptions
-in the actions which they carry out that have been mentioned in the Qur’ān & Sunnah.
-in their virtue and high station with Allah the Mighty and Majestic.
[Al-Irshād ilā saheeh al-‘itiqaad wa-rad ‘alaa ahlis-shirk wal-ilhaad, pg.189]
Belief in the revealed Books comprises of being absolutely certain that:
-They are all true
-They are the speech of Allāh, the Mighty and Majestic
-They contain guidance, light and completely suffice whoever they were revealed to
We believe in the Books Allāh has named and they are:
-The Qur’ān
-The Tawrah
-The Injeel
-The Zāboor
We also believe in those Books which Allāh revealed but did not name, as only Allāh, glorified and exalted is He has knowledge of all the books He revealed.
The sending of the Books is from the mercy of Allāh upon His slaves due to mankind’s dire need for them. This is because the intellect of humans is limited and confined. The intellect does not comprehend all of the benefits and harms, even if there is some general comprehension of them.
Furthermore, the human intellect can be overcome by desires and evil intentions and desires can play around with the intellect. So if mankind were entrusted to their deficient intellect, they would most certainly become misguided, go astray and wander blindly. The wisdom of Allāh and His mercy to His creation necessitated that He revealed these books to those chosen ones from His Messengers in order to make clear to the people what these Books guide to and what they contain from rulings of justice, beneficial teachings and commands and prohibitions which are sufficient to reform humanity.
[Al-Irshād ilā saheeh al-‘itiqaad wa-rad ‘alaa ahlis-shirk wal-ilhaad, pg.195]
Belief in the Messengers is one of the foundations of Eemān (faith). The Messengers are the intermediaries between Allāh and His creations in relation to conveying His message and establishing His proof upon His creation.
Belief in the Messengers means:
● To believe in their message
● To affirm their Prophethood
● To believe they are truthful in what they informed their people of regarding Allāh
● They conveyed their messages
● And they made clear to the people that which no one can afford to be ignorant of.
[Al-Irshād ilā saheeh al-‘itiqaad wa-rad ‘alaa ahlis-shirk wal-ilhaad, pg.201]
It means to firmly believe:
-in its inevitable coming and to act in accordance with that.
-in the signs of the Hour that will definitely happen before it
-in death and what comes after it from the trial of the grave and its punishment and bliss
-the blowing of the horn
-the emergence of the creation from the graves
-the standing of the Resurrection and its horrors and frights, the details of the gathering
-distribution of the books of records
-setting up of the Scales (which will weigh the deeds)
-the Bridge (over the Hell-Fire)
-the Pond of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
-intercession and other than it
-Paradise and its bliss, the highest of which is to look at Allāh’s The Mighty and Majestic Face
-the Hell-Fire and its torment, the severest of which is that they (people of the Fire) will be prevented from seeing their Lord, The Mighty and Majestic.
[‘Alām as-Sunnah al-Manshoorah li-‘itiqaad at-Tāifah an-Nājiah al-Mansoorah, pg.269, question no.103]
It is the connection of Allāh’s Knowledge to the creation and that He willed it eternally before its existence, so nothing happens except that Allāh had known it, decreed it and willed it.
And to believe in the Pre-Decree comprises of four levels:
The first: is to believe in Allāh’s Eternal Knowledge about everything before its existence and from that is His Knowledge of the servants’ actions before they do them.
The second: is to believe that Allāh had recorded that in the Preserved Tablet.
The third: is to believe in Allāh’s all-encompassing Will for everything that occurs and His Total Power over it.
The fourth: is to believe that Allāh brought all creation into existence, and that He Alone is the Sole Creator, and everything besides Him is created.
[Al-Irshād ilā saheeh al-‘itiqaad wa-rad ‘alaa ahlis-shirk wal-ilhaad, pgs.339-340]