50 ESSENTIAL BELIEFS

This is a quick reference of 50 essential beliefs

This is based on Imam Ibrahim al-Bajuri’s short epistle for students of kalam to know those attributes essential and impossible for Allah ta’ala; and attributes essential and impossible for His prophets alayhimu’s salatu wa’s salam.

Imām Shaykh Ibrāhīm ibn Muĥammad ibn Aĥmad al-Bājūrī al-Shāfiýī was born in the year 1198 AH.

After basic education he received from his father, he went to Al-Azhar in the year 1212 at the age of 14.

He studied under prominent scholars such as Shaykh Muĥammad al-Kabūr, Shaykh Ábdullāh al-Sharqāwī, Shaykh Muĥammad al-Fađālī, Sayyid Dāwūd al-Qiláāwī and others. After graduation, he became a teacher in his alma mater and in 1263 at the age of 65, he became the head of Al-Azhar University.

50-essential-beliefs

The Nasafi Creed

The People of Reality (Ahl al-Haqq), as opposed to the Sophists (Sūfistā’iyya), say: The realities of things are conclusive and the science thereof is convincing.The sources of knowledge for mankind are three:

1. Sound Senses (al-hawās al-salīma),
2. True Narration (al-khabar al-sādiq), and
3. Reason (˓aql ).

The Nasafi Creed

The Noble Creed

Monotheism: That the world has a Maker; [Who is] Pre-eternal; has always existed and will always exist; Whose existence is incumbent; Whose nonexistence is impossible. He is the Great; the Supreme; characterised with all the attributes of merit and free from all the bearings of shortcoming and inferiority. He is the Creator of all the creation; Knower of all [the types of] what is to know; Capable of [performing] all possibilities; Intender of all [the aspects of] existence; Alive; Beholder; there is no semblance to Him, none opposite to Him, none equal to Him, and none like Him . He has no associate in the incumbency of existence (wajib al-wujud); nor in the right of being worshipped, and nor in creating and determining [the affairs of the creation].

The Noble Creed

The Tahawi Creed

In representing the beliefs of the People of the Prophetic Way and the Majority Group (Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jama`a), according to the methodological school of the jurists of this religion, namely Abu Hanifa al-Nu`man b. Thabit al-Kufi, Abu Yusuf Ya`qub b. Ibrahim al-Ansaei and Abu `Abdullah Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Shaybani, may Allah be pleased with them all, and what they believe regarding the principles of the religion and their faith in the Lord of all the Worlds, Imam Abu Ja`far al-Tahawi, may Allah have mercy on him, said, as do the aforementioned Imams – We say regarding the oneness of Allah, believing, by the grace of Allah, that:

The Tahawi Creed