Aqidah and Islamic Theology
Aqidah in the Al-Azhar syllabus is taught within the Sunni Ash'ari and Maturidi framework, with the Mu'tazili and philosophical positions presented so that the student can refute them. Questions turn on definitions, the classification of God's attributes, the relation of essence and acts, and the correct position on disputed formulae.
Core rules and concepts
- Tawhid: oneness in essence, in attributes, and in worship. The scholars divide it into tawhid al-rububiyyah, tawhid al-uluhiyyah and the affirmation of names and attributes.
- Attributes: sifah salbiyyah (negating what is unworthy: qidam, baqa', mukhalafah li al-hawadith, qiyam bi al-nafs); sifah ma'nawiyyah (the seven: hayah, 'ilm, qudrah, iradah, sam', basar, kalam); sifah ma'nawiyyah in the sense of being living, knowing, powerful, willing, hearing, seeing, speaking.
- Kalam of God: an eternal attribute, not letters or sounds, uncreated. What is written in the mushaf, recited by tongues and preserved in hearts is God's kalam; the paper, ink and the servant's act of recitation are created. This answers both the Mu'tazili claim of createdness and the anthropomorphist claim of letters.
- Ru'yat Allah in the hereafter is affirmed without modality (6:103 is understood as covering this world).
- Iman: assent of the heart (tasdiq), with the Ash'ari position that deeds are not a constituent of the essence of iman.
- Qadar: God's decree; the servant acquires (kasb) his act, so neither pure compulsion nor full independence.
Worked example
Statement: 'The Qur'an is God's speech, created.' Refutation in three steps: (1) kalam is an eternal attribute, and an attribute cannot be separated from the one described by it; (2) the verse 'and God spoke to Musa directly' (4:164) affirms speech as an act of God; (3) what is created is our recitation, our writing and our hearing, not the attribute itself.
Traps that cost marks
- Describing God's attributes as 'the same as' His essence or 'other than' it without the Sunni formula (neither identical nor separate).
- Quoting Mu'tazili or Mujassimah positions as if they were Sunni.
- Confusing sifah salbiyyah with sifah ma'nawiyyah in classification questions.