A Brief Text in tenets of Sunni- School of Imam Abu Al Hasan Al Asha'ari

[بلال النجار]

[ALIGN=RIGHT]بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الأخوة الأفاضل،

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.

هذه ترجمة كنت عملتها لمتن العقيدة السنوسيّة. وأضفت بين أقواس قليلاً من الكلمات التي من شأنها أن توضّح عبارة المتن عند إلغازها بسبب الترجمة. والله تعالى أسأل أن ينفع بها. وأرجو أن لا يضنّ عليّ أحد بأيّ ملحوظة مهما كانت صغيرة. فلعل هذه الكلمات بجهودكم المباركة وبتوالي نظر العارفين باللغتين وعقيدة الإمام السنوسي، أن تصل إلى أكمل صورة ممكنة للطاقة البشريّة، وبعد ذلك إن شاء الله تعالى نزيد في تهذيبها وتهذيب شرحٍ مختصر عليها، لعلّ الله تعالى يمنّ علينا بنشره ويكون فيه الفائدة. بانتظار تعليقاتكم ومناقشاتكم. والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله تعالى وبركاته. [/ALIGN]

[بلال النجار]

[ALIGN=CENTER]Assanousiyyato Assoghra
A Brief Text in Aqidah [Creed] of Sunni
School of Imam Abu Al Hasan Al Ashaari[/ALIGN]

[ALIGN=LEFT]In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Praise be to Allah, and blessing and peace be upon the messenger of Allah

Know that the rational judgment is restricted to three divisions: necessity, absurdity and possibility. Thus, the necessary that which cannot but exist, for its non-existence is inconceivable; and the absurd that which cannot but non-exist, for its existence is inconceivable; and the possible is that which both of its existence and its non-existence is conceivable

And it is obligatory upon the accountable, by Sharia, to know the necessary judgments as for our Lord Allah, the Great and Almighty, as well as the absurd judgments and the possible ones. And also to know as much as that about the Messengers, blessing and peace be upon them

Then, of these necessary realities [or judgments that every accountable must know] as for our Lord the Great and Almighty are the following twenty attributes

The Existence, The Sempiternity, The Everlastingness, His Transcendence to accidents, His Self-subsistence: that is The Most High does not lack a locus as well as an assigner; and The Oneness: namely He is one in being without a partner in His entity, in being unique in his attributes of majesty and in being alone in his acts without opponents]

Thus, these are six attributes; the first one [The Existence] is a subjective attribute and the next five are negative attributes.

Then, it is necessary for The Most High, to have seven attributes which are called The Denotative Attributes, and they are:

- The Power and The Will which pertain to every possible thing;
- The Knowledge which pertains to each of necessaries, possible things and every absurd supposals;
- The Life which does not pertain to anything;
- The Hearing and The Sight which pertain to every existent;
- And The Speech which does not resemble the speech of creatures in being a sound or letters, and pertains to all the pertinences of His Knowledge.

Then, it is necessary for Him to have another seven attributes that adhere and refer to The Denotative Attributes, and they are called The Semantic Attributes; and they are:

Being the Powerful, being the Willing, being the All Knowing, being the Alive, being the All-Hearing, being the All-Seeing and being the All-Speaking [with His beginninglessly eternal speech].

Of those absurd judgments as for Him are also twenty attributes which are the contraries of the first twenty; and they are:

Nihility, accidence, emergence of nihility and resembling incidents by:

- being a body that is His High Entity takes a shape or occupies an amount of the space];
- or being contingent that adheres a body;
- or being in a direction of a body, or having a direction;
- or being bounded by time or place;
- or being characterized by incidentals;
- or being described by smallness or bigness;
- or having purposes in His deeds or judgments.

And so it is inconceivable that He, Most High, is:

- Not Self-subsistent: by being an attribute that inheres [adheres] a locus, or lacks anything to assign Him with existence or any of His Attributes.
- Not being One: by being compound in His Entity, or having a resembling to His Entity or Attributes, or being in existence with Him anything that has an influence in any doing.
- Powerless on any possible thing, or creating something in the world with His unwilling to its existence or with bewilderment or by nature or by causality.
- Ignorant and its relative meanings, death, deafness, blindness and dumbness.

It is clear that what we have just mentioned are the contraries of The Denotative Attributes.

The conceivable possible ruling as for Him Most High, is doing [bringing to existence from nihility or annihilating any existing thing] every self-possible thing or leaving doing it.


Proofs

- The proof of His Existence Most High: is the occurrence or accidence of the world. Because if the world had no creator yet it happened by itself this would imply that one of the two equal things can be equal to the other and outweighing it without a reason; and that is absurd. And the proof on that the whole world is accident is its inseparability from the accidental incidents [Means that the incidents are inherent in everything in the world], and if anything whatsoever is inseparable from an accident then it is surly an accident. And the proof on that the incidents are accidental is witnessing them changing from nihility to existence and from existence to nihility [happening and vanishing].

- The proof of the necessity of His Sempiternity is that if He Most
High was not Sempiternal, He should be an accident that should lack a creator; and this is absurd as it leads to vicious circle or seriatim.

- The proof of the necessity of His Everlastingness is that if it was possible that He Most High can non-exist or lose any of His attributes, then He would not be Sempiternal; because His existence will be possible and not necessary, and the possible cannot be but an accident. How can we approve that while we have just verified His Sempiternity and His Everlastingness?

- The proof of the necessity of His Transcendence to all accidents is that if He Most High resembled any of them, He would be similarly an accident; which is absurd as you have known before the necessity of His Sempiternity and Everlastingness.

- The proof of the necessity of His Self-subsistence is that if He Most High lacked a locus, He would be an Attribute; and the Attribute cannot be characterized by the Denotative Attributes or the Semantic Attributes; and our Lord the Great and Almighty is necessarily described by these attributes, then He cannot be an attribute. Also, if He lacked anything whatsoever to exist or to have any of His attributes, He would be an accident. That is ridiculous! The proof affirmed the necessity of His Sempiternity and Everlastingness.

- The proof of the necessity of His Oneness is that if He was not one, this would imply that nothing of the world would happen, as He would be powerless. [This conclusion is taken from a proof called the proof of the opposition which presumes the existence of two Gods. Then it is granted that each one of them should have the Will and Power which pertain to every possible thing. Then the proof continues to verify the absurdity of the above presumption, either the two Gods agreed to do something, or they opposed in creating it by having different wills relating to that thing, or they shared doing it; because all these divisions lead to the powerlessness of both of them which implies that neither of them is God. As this proof is not detailed in this short, I am going to leave explaining it in details here to match the writing style of this book, and then a good commentary for this proof will follow, Allah willing].

- The proof of the necessity of His Power, Will, Knowledge and Life is that if any of these attributes was absent then nothing of the accidents would be created.

- The proof of the necessity of His Hearing, Sight and Speech is that these attributes were mentioned in the Holy Quran, the Sunnah and acknowledged by the consensus of Moslem scholars. And also if He Most High was not characterized by these Attributes, He would be characterized by their antonyms which are imperfections; this is ridiculous as imperfection and deficiency are absurd rulings as for Him.

- The proof of the possibility of His Doing [performing] any possible thing or leaving it, is that if it was reasonably necessary as for Him to do some possible thing or it was reasonably absurd as for Him to perform it, then that possible thing would turn into necessary or absurd; and that is ridiculous.

Messengers of Allah

As to the messengers of God, peace be upon them, the necessary rulings for them are: Truthfulness, honesty and notifying people with everything that they were ordered to tell. And it is unthinkable that they, peace and blessing be upon them, have any of the antonyms of these attributes which are: Lying, treason [by committing any forbidden deed either it is a prohibited sin or an inconvenient deed whose doer is reprehensible by Sharia even he doesnt gain a misdeed] and concealment anything of what they were ordered to disclose.
And it is possible as for them, the human accidents that do not lead to any imperfection in their high ranks.

Proofs

- The proof of their necessary truthfulness, blessing and peace upon them, is that if they were not truthful, this would imply the lying in the His Most Highs news since He confirmed their truthfulness by showing miracles on their hands that is considered the same as Gods saying: My servant said the truth in everything He is telling you in My name.

- The proof of their necessary honesty, blessing and peace be upon them, is that if they betrayed by committing a sin or inconvenient deed, then the forbidden or the reprehensible deed would turn into pious deed as we are ordered to model after them in their sayings and deeds; and God Most High do not order by forbidden or reprehensible deeds.

- The previous proof is the same proof of the necessity of their notifying to people all what they were ordered to notify. [Similarly we can prove the third].

- The proof of the possibility of human accidents as for them is seeing those accidents happening to them. Thinking about the reason why such accidents happen to them may lead either to Gods Willing to greaten their reward in the hereafter, or for legislation, or for entertaining them by taking them away from the life in this realm, or for reminding them of its lowliness in comparison with what He has prepared for them in the Hereafter, because He do not will with it a rewarding realm for His prophets and saints, especially when we consider their situations in this life realm [blessing and peace be on them].


Then all the meanings of this Aqidah are included in saying: No god but Allah and Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. For the meaning of the Godhood is: being in no need to anything whatsoever other than Himself and the absolute lack of everything whatsoever other than Him to Him. Therefore, the meaning of no god but Allah is: none but Allah Most High is not in any need to anything other than Himself and every other thing whatsoever is in absolute need to Him.

As to The Most Highs being in no need to anything, this surely necessitates each of Existence, Sempiternity, Everlastingness, Transcendence to all accidents, Self-subsistence and being far above imperfection which includes the necessity of Hearing, Sight and speech for Him; because if all these attributes were not necessary for Him, He would lack either a creator or a locus to subsist, or lack who can rid him of the imperfections. Also, its taken from being far above the imperfections that He Most High has no purposes [that He benefit from] in His acts and rulings, otherwise He will lack to what can obtain these goals and purposes; thats ridiculous as He The Great and Almighty is The Free of All needs.

Of that also, we can take that He is not obliged to do or leave doing any reasonably possible thing; as if He was obliged to do anything like rewarding believers for example, He would lack to that thing which He was obliged to do, to perfect Himself, because there is nothing that is necessary as for Him but His divine attributes of perfection; so how can we validate that, while He the Great and Almighty is the Full and The Free of all needs.

As for the absolute need of everything other than Him to Him, it necessitates His Life, and the generality of His Power, Will and Knowledge; because if any of these Attributes were missing then none of the accidents could exist, then nothing would be in need for Him [Because the reason why everything but Him is in need, is either the possibility of everything or its accidence or both of them, and everything but Him is possible or accident and such things can not be but in need to happen or exist, because it is unthinkable that any accident can happen by itself]. How can that be? While He most High is the reason why everything in being has happened, and everything is in need for Him.

Also, it necessitates to the Most High the Oneness; because if He had a partner in His Godhood, nothing would be in need for anyone of them, because both of them would be powerless as proved. How can that be? While we know that everything is in need for Him

Also, it entails the accidence of the whole world, as if anything of the world was sempiternal, it would be in no need of Him. How can that be true when everything must be in need for Him to exist and last?

Besides, it entails that none of the beings has any kind of impact or influence in any action in the whole existence; otherwise that action would be independent and in no need of its Creator- Our Lord The Great and Almighty. How can that be true when everything must be in need for Him to exist and last? However, this case is entailed by considering that any of the beings can affect by nature. But if you consider that it can affect by an embodied power within it, as many ignorant people say, then this is also illogical; because our Lord The Great and Almighty would be in need of a medium to accomplish some deeds; and that assumption is false as you have already known that The Most High is free of all needs [So things happen directly by the Willing Powerful God without any medium].

Therefore, it is clear to you that the word: No god but Allah comprises the three divisions that the accountable person is obliged to know as for our Lord The Great and Almighty; and they are: the necessary judgments, as well as the absurd judgments and the possible ones.
As for saying: Muhammad, blessing and peace be upon him, is the apostle of Allah, this includes the belief in all the prophets, in the angels, in the heavenly books and in the Last day. Of that also, we can take the necessity of the messengers truthfulness otherwise they would not be trustees for our Lord The Great and Almighty who all-knows hidden secrets.

Also we can take the impossibility of their committing any of forbidden deeds, as they were sent to teach people by their sayings, deeds and even their silence [when they see or know about some deed and do not object it, it means that this deed is legal and allowed]; this entails that any action they did, surly does not violate the commandments of God Most High who picked them out of all His creatures, and entrusted them with the secrets of His revelation.

Also we can take the possibility of the human accidentals on them, because such things do not affect their message or disparage their high grade with the presence of God, on the contrary that may increase their rank.

With this, it is now clear for you that the words of testimony [concerning God and His messenger] with their few letters comprehend all what the accountable has to know of the Faith tenets, as for both of Allah and his prophets blessing and peace be upon them.

Perhaps, because of its shortness with the fact that it contains the whole tenets of faith, God chose it to translate the Islam of the hearts of the people, and He Most High has not accepted Faith from anyone by any means except expressing it.

So, the wise person has to say it much recalling what it contained of the tenets of faith, so that it can mix with the his flesh and blood, and when the person acts that he or she will see that it has unlimited secrets and wonders by God willing. Success is granted by God. No lord but Him who is the One and The Only one who is worthy of worship.

We supplicate to Allah to whom be ascribed all perfection and majesty: to make us and our well-beloved persons knowing the meaning of and able to bear the witness with of the Word of Testimony: No god but Allah and Muhammad is the apostle of Allah.

Finally, may Allah bless our master Muhammad as much as the beings remember him and the unconscious ones forget about him. May God be pleased with all of his companions and their followers by doing the right and well up to the Last Day, and Peace be upon the messengers, and praise be Allah.


With the help of Allah, It Finished.[/ALIGN]