The Creed of Al Tahawi – Translated by Shaykh Abu Adam
A Commentary on the Creed of Al Sanusi – Translated by Shaykh Abu Adam
The Creed of Al Tahawi – Translated by Shaykh Abu Adam
A Commentary on the Creed of Al Sanusi – Translated by Shaykh Abu Adam
May 11, 2008 at 6:44 pm |
From The Creed of Imam Tahawiyyah
{We adhere to} the People of {the Sunnah and the
Jamā’ah and avoid deviations, disagreement and
division.}That is, we do not deviate from ijmā’, and
do not disagree on issues that have different possible
answers in a way that involves division and enmity.
June 10, 2008 at 12:37 pm |
By “possible answer,” I mean that it falls within the realm of the sayings of Ahlu-s-Sunnah, and does not break Ijmaaˆ. See also the banner of this website for the quote of Al-Gahzaaliyy, which makes this clearer. Note that deviant opinions are in themselves divisive, and that refuting them is a duty by the order of the Prophet to stop disobedience by the hand if one is able, and if not, then by the tongue…
August 28, 2009 at 6:19 am |
Shaykh, just as the great scholars came together to defeat the greeks with their own terminology and concepts, should contemporary Sunni scholars do the same with Modern Science or its conclusions today?
But i do recall in some previous comments you mentioned they’re just old concepts attached to various observations that were defeated by kalam, but perhaps that was a specific argument. I was just wondering if there is a need to “modernise” usage of certain terminology, or perhaps introduce a way of raising a muslim’s awareness of our old kalam scholars in a modern context, especially for those educated muslims entering the scientific fields.
Ramadan Mubarak btw, may Allah forgive you for your sins, reward you for your effort, increase you in your knowledge and bring you closer to Him.
August 28, 2009 at 10:09 am |
Anything that would facilitate understanding is good, of course. However, it is a mistake to think that kalaam as a science branches out of science. It is the other way around. When we speak in kalaam about physical phenomena it is at a very high level. We only look at creation from the viewpoint of it being intrinsically possible in existence and requiring a beginning, or in terms of bodies, parts or incidents in them. Science does not affect the original arguments of kalaam for the existence of Allaah, because they are deductive arguments based on obvious premises, such as “the world changes,” “bodies are either still or moving.” Science also takes these things for granted and looks into the correlations of change, and does not question the obvious any more than we do. In fact, without bodies or change there would be no science. Besides, kalaam terminology is really not that overwhelming. By knowing the meaning of possible, impossible and necessary you have taken great strides. Of course, sometimes scientists sometimes make statements that are not strictly scientific, but more philosophical or purely intellectual, and in this case there may be a need to answer them. I think the easiest way for this is to learn the terminology and main principles of kalaam and then putting such statements of scientists in a kalaam perspective, and not the other way around, because kalaam is conceptually at a higher level. After all, kalaam deals with existence itself as a concept, while science studies the nature of things that are intrinsically possible in existence; the way they happen to be and correlate, which is not essential in kalaam. In other words, science does not have the conceptual breadth to cover the concepts of kalaam.
August 28, 2009 at 4:05 pm |
thanks for clearing that up shaykh. i suppose this just indicates the neglect of this key science amongst us especially as it is usually studied after the mastery of arabic, fiqh and hadith studies and its rare that scholars master both the religious sciences and secular too.
it’s also a shame that our arab brothers are more interested in funding dodgy preachers than to revive islamic sciences, thought, and solving other issues that are holding us back.