I start in the name of Allah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim
Praise be to Allah the Lord of the worlds. To Him belong the endowments and proper commendations. May Allah raise the of our master Muhammad and protect his nation from what he fears for it.
The knowledge of the religion is the most honourable knowledge. The prophet ﷺ said what means:
He who walks a path seeking knowledge [of Islam] Allah shall facilitate for him an easy path to paradise. Related by At-Tirmidhiy.
The highest ranking of knowledge is the principles of the creedal knowledge as is understood from the saying of Allah the Exalted which mean:
Verily, you must know [by conviction] that no one is God but Allah
For that reason, the prophet ﷺ taught this knowledge to the companions before he taught them about the rulings of Islamic Jurisprudence.
The meaning of ‘Ash-hadu alla-illaha illal-Lah’ [No one is God but Allah] is that I firmly belief in my heart and declare with my tongue that nothing deserves to be worshipped except Allah.
The meaning of ‘Ash-hadu anna Muhammadar-Rasulul-Lah’ [I testify that Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah] is that I know, believe and declare that Muhammad the son of ^Abdullah, the son of ^Abdul-Muttaleb, who is the son of Hashem, who is the son of ^Abdu-Manaf, from the tribe of Quraysh peace be upon him, is the slave of Allah and His messenger to all the humans and jinn. One must believe he was born in Makkah and sent as a messenger therein. He then immigrated to Madina and was buried therein.
It is a must to believe that every prophet sent by Allah must be attributed with truthfulness, trustworthiness and intelligence. Consequently, lying, dishonesty, vileness, foolishness, dullness, cowardice, are impossible to be among their attributes. They must also be attributed with impeccability, i.e., they are protected from ever committed blasphemy, enormous sins, and small abject sins, before and after prophethood.
It is a personal obligation for each and every accountable person [i.e., pubescent and sane] to know thirteen Attributes of the Attributes of Allah:
1. Al-Wujud [Existence] – Know that Allah the Exalted exists without a beginning and without an end. His existence is not caused by someone bringing Him into existence. Allah mentioned in the Qur’an in an ayah that means: The existence of Allah is indubitable. That is, there is no doubt in the existence of Allah.
2. Al-Qidam [Eterity] – Allah exists without a beginning, by necessity.
3. Al-Baqaa’ [Everlastingness] – Allah exists without an end by necessity; hence His existence does not end.
4. As-Sam^ [Hearing] – It is an eternal and everlasting attribute confirmed to the self of Allah the Exalted. Allah hears all hearable with His eternal and everlasting attribute unlike our hearing, without an ear or any other organ.
5. Al-Basr [Sight] – It is intellectually necessary that Allah is attributed with Sight. That is, He sees all seeable things and He sees His Self with His eternal and everlasting Sight. He sees without a pupil [eye] or any other organ because physical senses are attributes of creation.
6. Al-Kalam [Speech] – Kalam is an eternal and everlasting attribute of the self of Allah. By His Kalam, He the Exalted orders, prohibits, promises, and threatens. His Kalam is not like the speech of others. Rather it is eternal and everlasting as is His self and does not resemble the Kalam of creation. It is not by sound that occurs by airflow or the by the collision of bodies, nor is it interrupted by the closing of lips or movement of the tongue.
7. Al-Iradah [Will] – It is an eternal and everlasting Attribute of Allah by which He, the Exalted, specifies the intellectual possibilities with existence over non-existence, an attribute over another, and a particular time over another time.
8. Al-Qudrah [Power] – Allah is attributed with Power over everything, by necessity. The ‘thing’ here refers to what is intellectually possible. Hence, excluded from this is what is intellectually impossible; because it is impossible to exist.
9. Al-^Ilm [Knowledge] – Know that the knowledge of Allah is eternal and everlasting (i.e., without a beginning and without an end) as is the Self of Allah. Thus, He has perfect knowledge in His Self, His Attributes and what occurs in creation. He is not attributed with Knowledge that occurs (i.e., new knowledge). He knows about things before they occur.
10. Al-Hayat [Life] – Life is attributed to Allah by necessity. He is Alive, not like others who are alive. Allah’s life does not have a beginning nor an end and is not a combination of a soul or blood.
11. Al-Wahdaniyyah [Onness] – The meaning of Wahdaniyyah is that He is not a composition of parts. Hence, there is no self like His Self and there is no other who has an attribute like His attributes nor a Doing like His Doings.
12. Al-Qiyamu-Binnafs [Non-Neediness of Others] – Know that His non-neediness of others refers to that fact that He does not need anything. He does not need another to specify Him with existence, because needing others would negate Him being eternal and the fact that He is Eternal and Everlasting has been confirmed [by intellectual and textual proof] as a matter of necessity.
13. Al-Mukhalafatu Lil-Hawadith [Non-resemblance to the creation] – It is intellectually necessary that Allah the Exalted is attributed with Non-resemblance to the creation; meaning that He does not resemble any of His creation. He is not an entity ‘jawhar’ which must occupy space, nor is He a characteristic of an entity ‘^arad’. The entity ‘jawhar’ is what has a volume that fills up space and is self-contained, such as bodies. Conversely, the characteristic of an entity ^arad is not self-contained. It can only exist within an entity. Examples of ^arads are motion, stillness, connection, disconnection, colours, flavours, and smells. For this reason, imam Abu Hanifah said in some of his creedal treatise : “How can it ever be that the Creator resembles His creation!” It means that it is not intellectually possible, nor is it textually reported that the Creator resembles His creation.
Abu Sulayman Al-Khattabi said: “Certainly, what is obligatory upon us and upon every Muslim to know is that our Lord is clear of having an image or a form. For, certainly the image dictates having a ‘kayfiyyah’ [an aspect of the creation], and Allah and His Attributes are clear of aspects of creation.”
It is obligatory upon every Muslim to preserve one’s faith in Islam and protect it against whatever invalidates, abolishes and interrupts it; namely apostacy [ar-riddah]. We seek refuge with Allah the Exalted, from it.
Apostacy is of Three Categories
The Apostate Beliefs
This resides in the heart, and it includes: Doubting in Allah, His messengers, the Qur’an, the Day of Judgment, Paradise, Hell, Reward, or Punishment or having doubt in similar matters upon which there has been scholarly consensus [ijma^].
The Apostate Actions
Such as prostrating to an idol, or the sun, or any other creation with the purpose of worshipping it. Or, throwing the Holy Book of the Qur’an or papers that contain religious text in the trash, or any paper that contains any name of Allah, if the person knows the papers contain these names.
The Apostate Sayings
Such as swearing at Allah the Exalted, we seek refuge with Allah from apostasy. Imam An-Nawawiyy said: “If a man was angry with his child or young slave and hit him severely, then another person asked him, “how could you do this? Aren’t you a Muslim?” and to that his deliberate reply was, “No”, he blasphemed”. This was also said by other Hanafiyy scholars and others. This is clear proof that anger is not an excuse for one to escape the judgement of falling into blasphemy, as some people assume.
The Rule: Any belief, action or saying which belittles Allah, His Books, His Messengers, His Angels, His Rites, the well-known practices of His Religion, His Rules, His Promise, or His Threat, is blasphemy.
It is obligatory upon the apostate [murtadd] to return to Islam immediately by uttering the Testification of Faith [No one is God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah] and leaving out whatever caused apostacy. Moreover, it is obligatory upon one to regret having apostatised and to have a firm intention not to return to the same.
[1] [1] Al-Fiqh Al-Akbar explained by Mulla ^Aliyy (p. 323) and others.
