Bismillahirahmanirraheem,
Allah is one without any partner.
There is nothing like Allah.
There is nothing that can overwhealm Allah.
There is no diety besides Allah.
Allah is the eternal without a beginning and enduring without end.
Allah will never perish or cease to exist.
Nothing happens except what Allah wills.
Imagination cannot conceive Allah nor can intellect comprehend Allah.
Allah does not bear any resemblance to any created being.
Allah is the Ever-Living who never dies and the All-Sustaining who never sleeps.
Allah creates without His being in need to do so and provides for His creation without any effort.
Allah causes death with no fear and restores to life without difficulty.
Allah has always existed together with His attributes since before creation. Bringing creation into existence did not add anything to His attributes that was not already there. As He was, together with His attributes, in pre-eternity, so He will remain throughout endless time.
It was not only after the act of creation that Allah could be described as `the Creator' nor was it only by the act of origination that He could he described as `the Originator'.
Allah was always the Lord even when there was nothing to be Lord of, and always the Creator even when there was no creation.
In the same way that Allah is the "Giver of life" after He has brought them to life a first time, and deserves this name before bringing them to life, so too He deserves the name of "Creator" before He has created anything.
This is because Allah has the power to do everything, everything is dependent on Him, everything is easy for Him, and He does not need anything. `There is nothing like Him and He is the Hearer, the Seer'. (al-Shura 42:11)
Allah created creation with His knowledge.
Allah appointed destinies for those He created.
Allah allotted to them (his creatures) fixed life spans (on earth).
Nothing about them was hidden from Allah before He created them, and He knew everything that they would do before He created them.
Allah ordered them to obey Him and forbade them to disobey Him.
Everything happens according to His decree and will, and His will is accomplished. The only will that people have is what He wills for them. What He wills for them occurs and what He does not will, does not occur. (***We have choice and freewill but without the will of Allah there can be no enactment of any choice or freewill as a manifest action & Allah created us, our choices & our actions. SubhanAllah.***)
Allah gives guidance to whoever He wills, and protects them, and keeps them safe from harm, out of His generosity; and He leaves astray whoever He wills, and abases them, and afflicts them, out of His justice.
All of them are subject to Allah’s will between either His generosity or His justice.
He is exalted beyond having opposites or equals. (There is no equal or worthy challanger who can oppose Allah in his power or any of his attributes, and all power belongs to Allah alone.)
No one can ward off His decree or delay His command or overpower His affairs.
We believe in all of this and are certain that everything comes from Him.
And we are certain that Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is His chosen Servant and elect Prophet and His Messenger with whom He is well pleased,
And that he is the Seal of the Prophets and the Imam of the godfearing and the most honored of all the messengers and the Beloved of the Lord of all the worlds.
Every claim to prophethood after Him is falsehood and deceit.
He is the one who has been sent to all the jinn and all mankind with truth and guidance and with light and illumination.
The Qur'an is the word of Allah. It came from Him as speech without it being possible to say how. He sent it down on His Messenger as revelation. The believers accept it, as absolute truth. They are certain that it is, in truth, the word of Allah. It is not created, as is the speech of human beings, and anyone who hears it and claims that it is human speech has become an unbeliever. Allah warns him and censures him and threatens him with Fire when He says, Exalted is He: `I will burn him in the Fire.' (al-Muddaththir 74:26)
Anyone who describes Allah as being in any way the same as a human being has become an unbeliever. All those who grasp this will take heed and refrain from saying things such as the unbelievers say, and they will know that He, in His attributes, is not like human beings.
`The Seeing of Allah by the People of the Garden' is true, without their vision being all-encompassing and without the manner of their vision being known. As the Book of our Lord has expressed it: `Faces on that Day radiant, looking at their Lord'. (al-Qiyamah 75:22-3)
A man's Islam is not secure unless it is based on submission and surrender. Anyone who desires to know things which it is beyond his capacity to know, and whose intellect is not content with surrender, will find that his desire veils him from a pure understanding of Allah's true Unity, clear knowledge and correct belief, and that he veers between disbelief and belief, confirmation and denial and acceptance and rejection. He will be subject to whisperings and find himself confused and full of doubt, being neither an accepting believer nor a denying rejector.
Belief of a man in the `seeing of Allah by the people of the Garden is not correct if he imagines what it is like, or interprets it according to his own understanding since the interpretation of this seeing' or indeed, the meaning of any of the subtle phenomena which are in the realm of Lordship, is by avoiding its interpretation and strictly adhering to the submission. `This is the din of Muslims. Anyone who does not guard himself against negating the attributes of Allah, or likening Allah to something else, has gone astray and has failed to understand Allah's Glory, because our Lord, the Glorified and the Exalted, can only possibly be described in terms of Oneness and Absolute Singularity and no creation is in any way like Him.
He is beyond having limits placed on Him, or being restricted, or having parts or limbs. Nor is He contained by the six directions as all created things are.
Al-Mi`raj (the Ascent through the heavens) is true. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was taken by night and ascended in his bodily form, while awake, through the heavens, to whatever heights Allah willed for him. Allah ennobled him in the way that He ennobled him and revealed to him what He revealed to him, "and his heart was not mistaken about what it saw" (al-Najm 53:11). Allah blessed him and granted him peace in this world and the next.
Al-Hawd, the Pool which Allah has granted the Prophet as an honour to quench the thirst of his Community on the Day of Judgement, is true.
Al-Shafa`a, the intercession (of Prophet Muhammad PBUH for his Ummah) which is stored up for Muslims (due to his accepted du’a) , is true, as related in the hadiths.
The covenant which Allah made with Adam AS and his offspring is true. (Where he asked “Alastu bi rabbikum?” (Am I not your lord) And they replied “Bella” (You are)
Allah knew, before the existence of time, the exact number of those who would enter the Garden and the exact number of those who would enter the Fire. This number will neither be increased nor decreased.
Likewise for the actions of people, as He knows among them what they would do. Everyone is facilitated for what was created for him. Deeds are judged as they are at the end of life. Those who are blessed are blessed by the decree of Allah, and those who are damned are damned by the decree of Allah.
The exact nature of the decree is Allah's secret in His creation, and no angel near the Throne, nor Prophet sent with a message, has been given knowledge of it. Delving into it and reflecting too much about it only leads to destruction and loss, and results in transgression. So be extremely careful about thinking and reflecting on this matter or letting doubts about it assail you, because Allah has kept knowledge of the decree away from human beings, and forbidden them to enquire about it, saying in His Book, “He is not asked about what He does but they are asked.” al-Anbiya' 21:23)
This in sum is what those of Allah's friends with enlightened hearts need to know and constitutes the degree of those firmly endowed with knowledge. For there are two kinds of knowledge: knowledge which is accessible to created beings, and knowledge which is not accessible to created beings. Denying the knowledge which is accessible is disbelief, and claiming the knowledge which is inaccessible is disbelief. Belief can only be firm when accessible knowledge is accepted and inaccessible knowledge is not sought after.
We believe in al-Lawh (the Tablet) and al-Qalam (the Pen) and in everything written on it. Even if all created beings were to gather together to make something fail to exist, whose existence Allah had written on the Tablet, they would not be able to do so. And if all created beings were to gather together to make something exist which Allah had not written on it, they would not be able to do so. The Pen has dried having written down all that will be in existence until the Day of Judgement. Whatever a person has missed he would have never got it, and whatever one gets, he would have never missed it.
It is necessary for the servant to know that Allah already knows everything that is going to happen in His creation and has decreed it in a detailed and decisive way. There is nothing that He has created in either the heavens or the earth that can contradict it, or add to it, or erase it, or change it, or decrease it, or increase it in any way. This is a fundamental aspect of belief and a necessary element of all knowledge and recognition of Allah's oneness and Lordship. As Allah says in His Book: "He created everything and decreed it in a detailed way." (al- Furqan 25: 2) And He also says: "Allah's command is always a decided decree." (al-Ahzab 33: 38) So woe to anyone who argues with Allah concerning the decree and who, with a sick heart, starts delving into this matter. In his deluded attempt to investigate the Unseen, he is seeking a secret that can never be uncovered, and he ends up an evil- doer, telling nothing but lies.
Al-'Arsh (the Throne) and al-Kursi (the Chair) are true.
He is independent of the Throne and what is beneath it.
He encompasses all things and that which is above it, and what He has created is incapable of encompassing Him.
We say with belief, acceptance and submission that Allah took Ibrahim as an intimate friend and that He spoke directly to Musa.
We believe in the angels, and the Prophets, and the books which were revealed to the messengers, and we bear witness that they were all following the manifest Truth.
We name the people who pray towards Mecca (ahl al-qiblah) as ‘Muslims’ and ‘believers’ as long as they remain upon (believe in) what was brought by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, recognizing and confirming as true everything he said and reported. (And not making haram halal)
We do not speak vainly about Allah, nor do we argue about the religion of Allah.
We do not argue about the Qur'an and we bear witness that it is the speech of the Lord of all the Worlds which the Trustworthy Spirit (Jibreel AS) came down with and taught the most honoured of all the Messengers, Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. It is the speech of Allah and no speech of any created being is comparable to it. We do not say that it was created and we do not go against the Jama'ah of the Muslims regarding it.
We do not excommunicate anyone who prays toward Mecca due to a sin, as long as he does not claim it to be lawful, nor do we say sins do not harm the faith of those who commit them.
We hope that Allah will pardon the people of right action among the believers and grant them entrance into the Garden through His mercy, but we cannot be certain of this, and we cannot bear witness that it will definitely happen and that they will be in the Garden. We ask forgiveness for the people of wrong action among the believers and, although we are afraid for them, we are not in despair about them.
Certainty and despair both remove one from the religion, but the path of truth for the people of the qiblah lies between the two (He must not despair with certainty that he will be in hell not rejoice with certainty that he will end up in paradise. A person must fear and be conscious of Allah's reckoning as well as be hopeful of Allah's mercy. This is the Middle way of a believer)
A person does not step out of belief except by disavowing what brought him into it. (İ.e renouncing his testification of La ilaha ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah, and that disavaowing can be done by the action of shirk or renouncing an article of faith or part of an article of faith)
Belief consists of affirmation by the tongue and acceptance by the heart (of La ilaha ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah)
And the whole of what is proven from the Prophet, upon him be peace, regarding the Shari'ah and the explanation (of the Qur'an and of Islam) is true.
Belief is, at base, the same for everyone, but the superiority of some over others in it is due to their fear and awareness of Allah, their opposition to their desires, and their choosing what is more pleasing to Allah. (Of words and actions)
All the believers are `friends' of Allah and the noblest of them in the sight of Allah are those who are the most obedient and who most closely follow the Qur'an.
Belief consists of belief in Allah. His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day (Day of Judgement), and belief that the Decree - both the good of it and the evil of it, the sweet of it and the bitter or it - is all from Allah.
We believe in all these things. We do not make any distinction between any of the messengers, we accept as true what all of them brought.
Those of the Ummah of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who have committed grave sins will be in the Fire, but not forever, provided they die and meet Allah as believers affirming His unity even if they have not repented. They are subject to His will and judgement. If He wants, He will forgive them and pardon them out of His generosity, as is mentionied in the Qur'an when He says: `And He forgives anything less than that (shirk) to whoever He wills' (al-Nisa' 4: 116);
We (may) perform prayer behind any Imam who prays towards Mecca (people of the qiblah) whether right-acting or wrong-acting, and (accept) doing the funeral prayer over any of them when they die. (As long as they did not utter kufr against the articles of Eeman or make what is clearly stated as haram as halal.)
We do not say that any of them will categorically go to either the Garden or the Fire, and we do not accuse any of them of kufr (disbelief), shirk (associating partners with Allah), or nifaq (hypocrisy), as long as they have not openly demonstrated any of those things. We leave their secrets to Allah.
We do not agree with killing any of the Ummah of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, unless it is obligatory by Shari'ah to do so.
We do not rebel against our Imam or those in charge of our affairs even if they are (sometimes) unjust (i.e guilty of wrongdoing), nor do we wish evil on them, nor do we withdraw from following them (in their right ways). We hold that obedience to them is part of obedience to Allah, The Glorified, and therefore obligatory as long as they do not order to commit sins. We pray for their right guidance and pardon from their wrongs.
We follow the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh) and the (majority of the) Jama'ah of the (Sunni) Muslims and avoid deviation, differences and divisions.
We love the people of justice and trustworthiness, and hate the people of injustice and treachery.
When our knowledge about something is unclear, we say: `Allah knows best'.
We accept wiping over leather socks in ablution, for the traveler and the resident, as has come in the narrations.
Hajj and Jihad under the leadership of those in charge of the Muslims, whether they are right or wrong-acting, are continuing obligations until the Last Hour comes. Nothing can annul or controvert them.
We believe in Kiraman Katibin (the noble angels) who write down our actions for Allah has appointed them over us as two guardians.
We believe in the Angel of Death who is charged with taking the spirits of all the worlds.
We believe in the punishment in the grave for those who deserve it, and in the questioning in the grave by Munkar and Nakir about one's Lord, one's religion and one's prophet, as has come down in ahadith from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and in reports from the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them all.
The grave is either one of the meadows of the Garden or one of the pits of the Fire.
We have faith in the Resurrection and the recompense for actions on the Day of Resurrection, the presentation of deeds, the reckoning, and the reading of the book of deeds, the reward and punishment, the Bridge over Hell (al- sirat), and the Scale (al-mizan)
The Garden and the Fire are created things that never come to an end and we believe that Allah created them before the rest of creation (meaning mankind) and then created people to inhabit each of them. Whoever He wills goes to the Garden out of His Bounty and whoever He wills goes to the Fire through His justice. Everybody acts in accordance with what is destined for him and goes towards what he has been created for.
Good and evil have both been decreed for people.
The capability in terms of Tawfiq (Divine Grace and Favour) which makes an action certain to occur cannot be ascribed to a created being. This capability is integral with action, whereas the capability of an action in terms of having the necessary health, and ability, being in a position to act and having the necessary means, exists in a person before the action. It is this type of capability which is the object of the dictates of Shariah. Allah the Exalted says: `Allah does not charge a soul (with an İslamic obligation) except according to his ability'. (al-Baqarah 2: 286) (as in the case of Hajj or Zakat being Fard only if one is has the means, or Fasting only Fard if one is healthy enough)
People's actions are created by Allah but earned by people.
Allah, the Exalted, has only charged people with what they are able to do and people are only capable of doing what Allah has granted them to do. This is the explanation of the phrase: "There is no power and no strength except by Allah." We add to this that there is no stratagem or way by which anyone can avoid or escape disobedience to Allah except with Allah's help (İ.e his willing); nor does anyone have the strength to put obedience to Allah into practice and remain firm in it, except if Allah makes it possible for him to do so.
Everything happens according to Allah's will, knowledge, predestination and decree. His will overpowers all other wills (İ.e the desires of the creatures as in reality there is no other will) and His decree overpowers all stratagems. He does whatever He wills and He is never unjust. He is exalted in His purity above any evil or perdition and He is perfect far beyond any fault or flaw. `He will not be asked about what He does but they will he asked.' (al-Anbiya' 21: 23)
There is benefit for dead people in the supplication and alms-giving of the living.
Allah responds to people's supplications and gives them what they ask for.
Allah has absolute control over everything and nothing has any control over Him. Nothing can be independent of Allah even for the blinking of an eye, and whoever considers himself independent of Allah for the blinking of an eye is guilty of unbelief and becomes one of the people of perdition (damnation).
Allah is angered and can be pleased but not in the same way as any creature.
We love the Companions of the Messenger of Allah but we do not go to excess in our love for any one individual among them nor do we disown any one of them. We hate anyone who hates them or does not speak well of them and we only speak well of them. Love of them is a part of Islam, part of belief and part of excellent behaviour, while hatred of them is unbelief, hypocrisy and rebelliousness.
We confirm that, after the death of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the caliphate went first to Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, thus proving his excellence and superiority over the rest of the Muslims; then to `Umar ibn al Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him; then to `Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him; and then to `Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him. These are the Rightly-Guided Caliphs and upright leaders.
We bear witness that the ten who were named by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and who were promised the Garden by him, will be in the Garden, as the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, whose word is truth, bore witness that they would he. The ten are: Abu Bakr, `Umar, `Uthman, `Ali, Talhah, Zubayr, Sa'd, Sa'id, `Abdur-Rahman ibn `Awf and Abu `Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah whose title was the trustee of this Ummah, may Allah be pleased with all of them.
Anyone who speaks well of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his wives and offspring, who are all pure and untainted by any impurity, is free from the accusation of hypocrisy.
The learned men of the first community and those who followed in their footsteps - the people of virtue, the narrators of the Ahadith, the jurists and analysts- they must only be spoken about in the best way and anyone who says anything bad about them (accusations of evildoing) is not on the right path.
We do not prefer any of the saintly men among the Ummah over any of the Prophets but rather we say that any one of the Prophets is better than all the awliya' put together.
We believe in what we know of Karamat, the marvels of the awliya' and in authentic stories about them from trustworthy sources.
We believe in the signs of the Hour such as the appearance of the Dajjal and the descent of `Isa ibn Maryam, peace be upon him, from heaven and we believe in the rising of the sun from where it sets and in the emergence of the Beast from the earth.
We do not accept as true what soothsayers and fortune-tellers say, nor do we accept the claims of those who affirm anything which goes against the Book, the Sunnah and the consensus of the Muslim Ummah.
We agree that holding together is the true and right path and that separation is deviation and torment.
There is only one (acceptable) religion of Allah in the heavens and the earth and that is the religion of Islam. Allah says: “Surely religion in the sight of Allah is Islam.” (Al `Imran 3:19)
Islam lies between going to excess and falling short, between the likening of Allah's attributes to creation (tashbih) and divesting Allah of attributes (ta`til), between determinism and freewill, and between sureness (of salvation) and despair (i.e losing hope in Allahs mercy)
This is our religion and it is what we believe in, both inwardly and outwardly, and we renounce any connection, before Allah, with anyone (who is not a family member İ.e wife, parents, syblings & uncles for example) who goes against what we have said and made clear.
We ask Allah to make us firm in our belief and seal our lives with it and to protect us from variant ideas, scattering opinions and evil schools of view such as those of the Mushabbihah, the Mu'tazilah, the Jahmiyyah the Jabriyah, the Qadriyah and others like them who go against the Sunnah and Jama'ah and have allied themselves with error. We renounce any connection with them (in religious brotherhood) and in our opinion they are in error and on the path of destruction.
We ask Allah to protect us from all falsehood and we ask His Grace and Favour to do all good.
Amin.
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