Aqeeda 1 Flashcards
Describe Obligatory Knowledge of Aqeeda
- Enough Creed (عقيدة) to secure one’s faith from falling into disbelief
- Enough Law (فقه) to secure one’s worship from error and invalidity
- Enough Inward Purification (تصوف) to secure one’s limbs and heart from committing sin
What is considered Essential Aqidah
- Knowing Allah and his attributes
- Believing in Him based on a reason
The first thing that is obligatory upon the morally responsible person is to know Allah. This is before even the obligation of belief in Him because you have to know about something before you can believe in it. Knowing Allah means knowing His attributes—what is necessary, possible, and impossible for Allah—not not knowing the reality of His entity, for the latter is not even possible for us to comprehend. Realizing this inability is a realization of the station of Allah. It is obligatory to have at least an extremely basic reasoning for why one believes (e.g., something must have created all of this creation). They say almost no one who believes would be bereft of the level of reasoning that is considered personally obligatory. Imam al-Ghazaali criticized scholars who said that it is personally obligatory to know detailed proofs, saying that they were constricting the Mercy of Allah and making Jannah a select endowment that only a limited number of the scholars of theology would enter. Are people who believe based completely on taqlid believers? Some said no, but others said (and this is the relied upon opinion) that belief is sound if it is based on firm conviction. For example if the one they followed left Islam, they would still believe.
Although everything we need to believe is in the Qur’an, learning aqidah helps you secure your faith. ‘Aqada means to tie something, like a rope. When you tie something, you prevent it from slipping, so learning aqidah prevents your faith from slipping.
Name and Describe the Categories of Rulings for Aqidah
- Legal - Made by Allah to govern the actions of the morally responsible.
- For example praying five times a day is fard.
- Normative - Established on the basis of observation.
- For example, fire burns, swans are white, gravity exists.
- These are merely associations. They can be broken because causation is entirely with Allah.
- Rational - Affirmed by the intellect alone, without recourse to revelation or observation.
- For example, 1 + 1 = 2.
- Prayer – Legal
- Normative – fire does not cause burning, Allah causes the burning. We are commanded by Allah, for abidiing to normative laws (bullet example).
- Rational – not based on relevation or observation, they are things that must be. 1+1 = always equal 2
- Picking up a mountain – is rational. It’s not something that we see, but why couldn’t Allah (swt) create people somewhere else in the universe who could do this.
- Its rationally possible to not require to breathe. could do something else to breathe instead.
Name and Describe the Categories of Rational Rulings
See Image.
Examples
- Necessary – 1+1 = 2
- Possible – creation that can Allah can make this or not. like animal who doesn’t need to breathe to live.
- Impossible – 1+1 = 3, triangle has 4 sides.
Describe the importance of logic by Imam Dardir
Explains in his sharh on aqida why we begin with the categories of rational rulings; he says understanding aqida depends upon understanding these categories because they define the parameters of sound thinking—they prevent us from affirming with our intellects that which is absurd or denying that which is necessary, and allow us to see the impossible as impossible.
Describe the Importance of Logic by Imam Juwaini (teacher of Imam Ghazali)
Said whoever cannot think along these lines is not fit to be called a person of intelligence. He said the definition of intellect is the ability to discern between the necessary, possible and impossible.
Describe the Importance of Logic by Imam Ghazali
You cannot rely on a person who doesn’t know logic. This is because if a person cannot see things as they are, their presentation of things should not be trusted.
What are the Attributes of Allah
See Image.
- In general we must ascribe every perfection to Allah.
- We also provide specific attributes, which are divided into Personal, Negative, and Affirmative. All other attributes of perfection return in meaning to these, so scholars condensed them for clarity.
What are the Attributes of Allah’s Prophets
- In general, we affirm everything that Allah has affirmed about His prophets
- But specifically, scholars have condensed all such attributes to these four, to which all others return.
Describe Aqidah in detail
- The important thing in life is attaining unto eternal felicity, and anything, including abstract sacred knowledge, which does not help to accomplish that is a waste of time.
- Scholars do not claim that this science (at a detailed level) is useful to strengthen your faith—it is good for some people to come out of doubt and disbelief.
- Detailed proofs are like medicine. If used by an untrained person, they can cause more damage than good. Also, they should not be administered unless needed. Many people are fine until they start studying aqida, then they start reflecting on detailed proofs with an untrained mind and become confused.
- As far as basic aqida, it is not like medicine but rather like immunization. It provides a foundation as a protective measure.
Conclusion of Aqidah
As long as we are comfortable with the essential requirements of faith, we shouldn’t let the fringe stuff trouble our faith
Can I answer each of these questions?
- What knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim?
- What are two essential requirements of faith in Allah?
- What are the three categories of rulings?
- What are the three categories of rational rulings?
- For each trait I mention, tell me whether it is necessary, possible, or impossible.
- In what ways is detailed aqeeda like medicine?
