Aqeedah al wasitiya explained by Shaykh Maher

[Abu Thar Jawad]

بسم الله

Indeed all praise belongs to Allah, we praise him seek His aid and forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and the evil of our actions. Whomsoever Allah guides there is none to misguide him and whomsoever Allah misguide there is none to guide him. I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah alone without any partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.

O you who believe! Fear your Lord who created you from a single person and from him, He created his wife and from them He created many man and woman. Fear Allah through whom you demand your mutual rights and the wombs. Surely Allah is ever an all watcher over you. O you who believe! Fear Allah and be truthful and precise in your speech. He will rectify your deeds for you and forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His messenger then he has achieved a great success.

Verily the best of speech is the speech of Allah and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, and the worst of matters are those innovated matters and every innovated matters is bid’a and every bid’a is a misguidance and every misguidance is in the hellfire.


To proceed.


We are still reading from the book Al Aqeeda al wasitiyah by Sheikh al Islam Ibn Taimiyah rahimahu Allah. We say Al Aqeedah al wasitiyah because Ibn Taimiyah rahimahu Allah wrote to the just nation informing them of the belief of the pious predecessors. When they asked him about it, he said it is a summary resumed so that people understand their religion and their belief that is mandatory for them to know their belief in Allah, in His Angels and the last day and other matters from what the Prophet salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam has been patient upon and from the affairs of the unseen.


But before we start: do we find in the Quran or the Sunnah the word Aqeeda? Answer: This word has been collected from the scholars with agreement or agreed upon and there is no blame or sin in using it. Even though you do not find it in the Book or the Sunnah.


In the Sunnah we have the word Tawheed as it has come in sahih muslim and others. The prophet (SAW) came with the Tawheed Talbeah (the announcement of arrival) Labaik Allahuma Labaik...la shareek lak. Shaykh goes on and say the use of the word Aqeeda is not blameworthy as it does not contradict the Islamic law. But if it was contradicting the law then it would not be permissible. If the people of innovation specify a word or a title then it is not permissible to imitate them in the convention the same way as if it differed the law it would not be permissible to use it in our customs as mentioned above.

The prophet salla Allahu ‘alayh wa sallam has forbade us to call the isha prayer the ‘atama prayer meaning the darken prayer saying: “Let not the expressions overcome you”, meaning do not call the isha prayer the ‘atama prayer. This kind of convention is not befitted as the Prophet salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam forbade it, but the word Aqeeda does not have an impermissibility and it does not refer to the Islamic law but it is a terminology of information.


In Arabic the word aqeeda is from the word (‘aqd) attached. The man either attaches his heart to the truth or to falsehood. So if he attaches it to the truth, then he has believed in Allah and in what Sheikh Al Islam wrote in his book Al Aqeeda al Wasitiya, so we will say that his belief is correct or either he attaches it to falsehood then it is differing it like the belief of the Jahmiya, the Asha’ira, the Sufiya, the Tabligh, the Ikhwan or other groups who corrupted the path of the pious predecessors. Therefore their Aqeeda is corrupted.


Someone might say that our differing is not in the Aqeeda but in the methodology, like the tabligh and the ikhwan. It is not true. Our differing is indeed in the belief. They are not upon the methodology of the salaf in the way they implement their deen. They base their deen in the reasoning, so their form of dawah does not follow the Prophet & the Salaf who are the the companions. They are upon the manhaj of the Mu’tazeela in decision making of their dawah, for example the Tabligh differ with us in the way of calling to Tawheed. They do not make it a collective duty to call to Tawheed. They only call to Tawheed Al Rububiya (the Lordship) and forbid their members of their group to call to Tawheed Al Uluhiya.

They only call to Tawheed Al Rububiya and we know this is not where the issue is or the argument occurred with the prophet (SAW).


"If you ask them who created the heavens and the Earth they will say Allah".


So the Prophet didn't argue with his people in Al Rububiya but in the Tawheed Uluhiya (divinity). The argument with their statement and the prophets occurred in the Tawheed of Uluhiya (divinity).

Allah said :


"And we sent not before thee any messenger that we reveal to him that There is no deity except Me, so worship Me."

"And we certainly sent into every nation a Messenger (saying): worship Allah alone and avoid Taghut (all false deities)". - Meaning do not worship anything besides Allah.

According to the Jama'atu Tabligh, calling to Tawheed al Uluhiya is not permissible as one of their leaders had mentioned to me. The same way I asked some of their known preachers more than once, they said to me we don't call to Tawheed of Uluhiya, we do not call them to slaughter to Allah alone or to take a vow to Allah alone. We tell them about Tawheed Al Rububiya that Allah is our creator, that Allah is our provider and the likes, until they leave off their sins like drinking alcohol... and we call them to come pray with the group. But we do not busy ourselves calling them to Tawheed Al Uluhiya ( which is the Oneness of divinity). Their methodology is base on reasoning like the Mu’tazila because of when they said "If we call them to the Tawheed al Uluhiya and to not slaughter to other than Allah, to not take a vow to other than Allah then it will delay our preaching. This is going to divide us from the one we are calling, and we are looking to unite with the people to bring their hearts together. The Sheikh goes on and said that Allah has not sent one Prophet without commanding him to call to Al Uluhiya.


And Allah says : "Say, This is my way; I invite to Allah with insight, I and those who follow me. And exalted is Allah; and I am not of those who associate others with Him." {Surat Yusuf:108}

Ashatibi has said : "the innovator is inferior to Allah."

So there is no doubt that the call is to the Tawheed Al Uluhiya.

Also the tablighis stated that they would not refute the ones that do tawaf (act of worship that consist of marching around while supplicating) around the graves and they only call them to go out with them. This is the difference they have with the paths of the prophets. And this is what made Sheikh Al Alama Bin Baz forbid going out with them in what they call “the khuruuj”.


Sheikh Abdel Razaak Afifi rahimahu Allah said: the group of tabligh, they are the innovators where ever they may be.


Sheikh Bin Baz was asked in Ta'if once, is the tabligh group from the 73 sects in hellfire mentioned in the hadith (prophet narration salla Allah ‘alayhi wa sallam): he said yes.


Regarding the ikhwan: sheikh Bin Baz rahimahu Allah mentioned that they do not call to the Sunnah. When the sheikh said that, he didn’t mean the recommended sunnahs as you can find from them some that would practice fasting Mondays and Thursdays, praying the night, pray on the first row… Rather what is explained in the book of Imam al Bahbaharee: Explanation of the Sunnah regarding the allegiance (loyalty) and disassociation, al wara wa al bara. Sheikh Maher goes on and say in case they are offered a position that befit in their wordly affairs they take it even if they have to compromise some of the deen.


The basic differing that us ahl- sunnah have with them is disassociating from the polytheists and the innovators. And uniting with the people of Tawheed and the sunnah.


The ikhwan forbid to call to allegiance and disassociation, they disregard the words that is a sufi, that is a rafidi… or warning against a sect or a crooked individual as they want to unit everybody. The proofs that they differed with us on this is not only what is known from Hassan al Bana but the statements before him from Muhammad Abdu and others saying: "let’s help each other on what we agree and forgive each other on what we disagree". And some ikhwan will also call the rafidi our brothers when the rafidi say: we don’t believe in what you have in Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and Tirmidi, and the Quran itself ¾ of it is deficient.


The Sheikh goes on and say we take our knowledge from what is certain far from deficiency. So how can we unit someone that firmly believes in the methodology of the pious predecessors with someone that does not believe in it. So whomever adopts a belief other than ahlu-sunnah then he has attached his belief on something worthless.


And the proof on that is the hadith in the sunan of Tirmidi and others: Awf ibn Malik reported that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said, "The Jews split into 71 sects: one will enter Paradise and 70 will enter Hell. The Christians split into 72 sects: 71 will enter Hell and one will enter Paradise. By Him in Whose hand is my soul, my Ummah will split into 73 sects: one will enter Paradise and 72 will enter Hell.' Someone asked, 'O Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him), who will they be?' He replied, 'The main body of the Muslims (al-Jama'ah).' Awf ibn Malik is the only one who reported this Hadith, and its isnad is acceptable." And in another version of this Hadith the Prophet (Peace be upon him) goes on to say that the saved sect, "...Are those who follow my path and my Sahaba's path" (Tirmidhi, vol. 2, pg. 89)


Sheikh said: we left off our reading at:


“And it forms part of the faith”: in this statement, the author means that the faith divides in two categories:


1. A generalized faith:


Allah says in Surat 2 Verse 177: It is not Al-Birr (piety, righteousness, and each and every act of obedience to Allah, etc.) that you turn your faces towards east and (or) west (in prayers); but Al-Birr is (the quality of) the one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the Angels, the Book, the Prophets This is general.


2. A detailed faith:


That you believe in His existence Praise be He, The Most High. That you believe in His Divinity, and that you believe in His Lordship, and that you believe in His Names and His Attributes. And in every aspects He informed us with from the unseen. No deities besides Him. And that is the Belief in Allah.


The meaning of the belief in His Existence is that you acknowledge that He exists. And this is what al jahmiya denied saying: your attributes that you give to Allah like the istiwa (establishing, rising), the hearing, the view and the likes requires resemblance in His creations so we must leave off these attributes, so that we will not resemble His Glory with any of His creations. So they leave all these attributes that Allah has attributed to Himself and His messenger salla Allahu ‘alayih wa sallam.


We tell them that this is impossible as the one that does not exist would be absent or non-existent. Is our attribute to Him, Praise be He, that He exists means that He has been created or that He resembles creatures. The creatures exists and Allah exists, this does not mean that we attribute the same type of existence to both.


The correct saying is that He is existent with an existence that characterizes Him different from our characteristics. As He informed to us in His book. Believing in the existence of Allah is part of our nature. I have stopped a young boy one day by the beach, the kid was looking like he was 2 years old. I could not say that he was from a family of knowledge, he was from amongst those people (the common people). So I asked him : where is Allah? And he pointed to the sky that He is in the heaven.


The proof on this from the Quran in surate 7 verse 172:


And [mention] when your Lord took from the children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants and made them testify of themselves, [saying to them], "Am I not your Lord?" They said, "Yes, we have testified." [This] - lest you should say on the day of Resurrection, "Indeed, we were of this unaware."


Based on this the takfiris would say that the disbeliever has fallen into ignorance and disbelief in Allah when he originally was muslim, shaykh says that this is incorrect.


What is correct is to say that the fitrah (natural faith) is a condition but there is another condition which is the delegation of prophets with their setting up of proofs and evidence.


What would be the benefit of Allah statements:


“Messengers giver of good news and warners that there will be for Allah to mankind evidence.” 32:48


Therefore we understand that there is two conditions, the fitrah and the evidence from the prophets. To expose the evidence to the disbeliever, it is sufficient that he understands that Mohammed is a prophet that has come with the Quran, a miracle. That there is no other deity worthy of worship but Allah. That he can only sacrifice or slaughter to Allah alone.


Allah says: And your God (Ilahukum) is One, There is no deities but He.


And after naming to him names of messengers you realize he acknowledges the truth. Then the evidence of the message has been exposed. Even though he does not submit to it as he does not want to oppose his fathers. He senses that this is the truth because as soon as you tell him about the prophets like Hud, Youness, and the last prophet Mohammed (SAW) and you talk to him about Tawheed, this disbeliever feels that these words are in agreement with his natural disposition. What he would have needed is to cure his heart because his nature would agree with us even though when we talk to him he lies and says no I disagree. If this person freed himself from his desires he would accept your preaching but if his desires influence him then it will blind his sight. You would have done your part and leave him off to others or remain patient with him that Allah might guide him. But Avoid sitting in their presence so that their tribulations does not affect you. This is the belief in Allah and there is many verses on it like:

“Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, and the ships which sail through the sea with that which is of use to mankind, and the water (rain) which Allah sends down from the sky and makes the earth alive therewith after its death, and the moving (living) creatures of all kinds that He has scattered therein, and in the veering of winds and clouds which are held between the sky and the earth, are indeed Ayaat (proofs, evidences, signs, etc.) for people of understanding.” [Suratul-Baqarah, 2:164]


In the dawah of the prophets the first thing they called to is Tawheed (Oneness) and not that they think or ponder first that Allah is our provider that Allah is our creator like what the Tabligh do, and that's the way of the philosophers. And Allah says:

"O Mankind worship your Lord"[al-Baqarah 2:21].

So this is the way of the messengers, and other ways are errors. What would be the point to call them to leave off alcohol or to pray if their heart is not pure from polytheism? What is the point to call them to stop their sins if when they pray their hearts is to other than Allah and their hearts is to their idols? There is no benefit on quitting alcohol and the creeds are corrupted. We ask Allah for protection.

The belief in Allah's Uluhiyah, we understood from studying the book of Tawheed that it means a duty towards the worship. La Ila Ila Allah -meaning- La ma'buda be haqin illah Allah - There is no deity worthy of worship other than Allah. The proof on this is the statement of Allah in His book:

"And your Ilah is One Ilah"[al-Baqarah 2:21].

Worship Him alone openly with your actions and inwardly with your heart with hope. No other deities but Him, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. The meaning of Al Rububiyah (Tawheed of Lordship), is that Allah is the Creator, the Provider, and the likes. The proof on this type of Tawheed is

"And if you asked them who created the heavens and the Earth” 39:38.

“Blessed is He in Whose Hand is the dominion, and He is Able to do all things." 67:1.

And every other kind of verses that shows the acts of Allah. The kufar of the Qurraish believed in the Rububiyah but not in its entirety. They disbelieved in some characteristics of it.

As Allah says:

“Say, Who provides for you from the heaven and the earth? Or who controls hearing and sight and who brings the living out of the dead and brings the dead out of the living and who arranges [every] matter?" They will say, " Allah ," so say, "Then will you not fear Him?" 10:31

So they believed in some of the Oneness of Lordship and disbelieved in some, and their argument occurred in the Uluhiya with the Prophet.

As you found amongst the Quraish that they believed in omens ( At-Tataiyur) which is concider shirk Ar Rububiyah like it came in sahih muslim that:

Mu'aweyah ibn Hakim Assulami reported that the Prophet said "verily from amongst us there is people that believe in omens." He (saw) said that "it is something that you find from amongst yourselves, do not let it mislead you."

The third type of Tawheed is the names and attributes: to believe in Allah's names and His attributes as it was specified in His book and as His messenger specified in the authentic sunnah without resembling none to Him, changing the meaning and questioning how. Here Sheikh Al Islam summarized some of the faith and he did not mention all of it. Why? Because at the time of the Sheikh, the arguing occurred more in the names and attributes of Allah with his people like the Jahmia, the Asha'ira and the likes therefore he specialized in that topic. The same way Sheikh Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahab arguing occured in the Uluhiyah so he specialized in Tawheed Al Uluhiyah.

Reading p.33 in the book of Sheikh-ul-Islam: “And it forms (...) to creation”:

Sheikh explains:

And the meaning of "with which Allah has qualified himself means that the Qur'an is in parts and one of it contains the attributes of Allah, the attributes of the Most Beneficient.

Say, "He is Allah , [who is] One {112:1}

So we believe in those verses that He described Himself with, our Lord of the heavens & the Earth. Like His statements:

Indeed your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in Six Days, and then He Istawa (rose over) the Throne (really in a manner that suits His Majesty) 7:54

So He decribed Himself that He rose over glory be He, it is not for anybody to belie Allah like the Jahmia.

We say the same thing Imam Maalik rahimahu Allah said: "The rising is known and the "How?" is ignorance and questioning it is innovating and believing in it is mandatory."

Sheikh Mahir explains that the questioning how He rose is bid'ah because the salaf didn't asked about it. But someone may say that this is just Imam Malik statements, like the Jahmia might tell you: "Imam Malik is a scholar and we are scholars too". The answer to the jahmia is that this is not from Imam malik alone but all agreed upon and none of the scholars has disagreed with Imam Maalik (rahimahu Allah).


And this is an evidence as Allah says: (And) if you differ in anything amongst yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger (SAW) 4:59 That means if we have not differed in anything it is a proof.

Even before the jahmia came around the prophet (SAW) has refuted them like in the sunan of Abu Dawud a hadith sahih: the prophet (saw) was on the minbar, people hearing him and He (saw) pointed to his ears and his eyes with his two fingers saying: “Hearer, Seer”. But not similar to our hearing or seeing.


Allah says: “There is nothing like unto Him and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer”.

It is not permissible to leave it off as the Jahmiya do.


Then Sheikh Al-Islam (rahimahu Allah) says: “without changing anything”:


Sheikh Maher explains that the “tahreef” changing is in two parts:


1. Verbal changing:


Adding or taking off letters words to change the meaning: Example: from Istawa to Istawla (Rising to taking over)


2. Changing the meaning:


Example: The Anger of Allah. Some deviant sects would tell you that Allah does not get angry but that He wants revenge.


As for the Ta’teel which means leaving off a meaning is also in two parts:


1. Ta’teel bi ghayr badan


Example: what is the jahmiya upon: saying that Allah does not rise on the thrown, or that He does not hear or that He did not speak to prophet Musa ‘alayhi salam.


2. Ta’teel badani


Example: what is the asha’ira upon: saying that Allah does not get angry but He wants revenge similar to tahreef as seen previously.


The worst is the asha’irah as they belied Allah. The jahmiya said Allah does not rise, the asha’ira said the same but added to it that Allah wants revenge. They added and lied.

Up to this point, I ask Allah to make this translation a benefit to the reader. May Allah correct our creed, guide us to apply what we learn and guide the astray ones to the correct understanding. Whatever is wrong is from myself and shaytan and what is correct is from Allah. Allah knows best and may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our prophet Mohammed.

Sheikh Maher Bin Dhafer Al-Qahtany

Translated by Abu Maryam Jaouad Al Maghrebi