Aqeedah-Our First Priority !
All praise is for Allaah, Lord of all the Worlds, who ordered us to follow His Messenger (sal-Allaahu `alayhe wa sallam) and to call to His Way, and may Allaah send praises and blessings of peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family, his Companions, and those who truly follow them until the Day of Judgment. Aqeedah linguistically is derived from the term “aqad” which means tying, knotting, holding together or making firm. If one says, “Aqadtu such and such,” it means his heart is firm upon such and such. Therefore, al-aqeedah or al-itiqad means a firm creed that one’s heart is fixed upon without any wavering or doubt. It excludes any supposition, doubt or suspicion. When the Scholars of Islam, use the word aqeedah they are referring to the aqeedah of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah, the Creed of the best three generations of the sahaba, the Tabieen and those who followed them in the truth, it even refers to all those matters of knowledge which have been transmitted in authentic reports, it’s the root of religion, without its correctness a person is lost and confused. Prophet Muhammad (sal-Allaahu `alayhe wa sallam) was very much concerned through out his life with strengthening it in the hearts of his companions so that their religion would be built on solid foundation. Allaah, The Almighty, outlined the basics of Islamic Aqeedah saying : “the Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, as do the believers . All of them believe in Allaah, His Angels, His Books, and His Messengers .. (Surah Al-Baqarah 285) The heart of a believer must be firm on the “pillars” of Eman (faith).What is required is- knowing, understanding, submitting and implementing. In the famous Hadith of Gabriel, the Prophet answered, when he was asked, “What is Eman?” he said, “To believe in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers and the Last Day and predestination of good and evil.” knowing these pillars with correct understanding is must, thus the great Imaam, Imaam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him) called this vital subject as al-Fiqh al-Akbar “The Greater Understanding” and he authored a beautiful book on this very topic and named it as “al-Fiqh al-Akbar”.
Acquiring sound knowledge of aqeedah always stands the first obligation upon every Muslim. There has been no difference of opinion in this basic matter. Shaykh al-Islam al-Haruwi al-Ansari (d. 481 AH) (may Allah have mercy on him) stated at the beginning of his book, Itiqaad ahl al-Sunnah, “The first obligation upon the slave is the knowledge of Allaah. This is proven by the hadith of Muadh, when the Prophet said to him, ‘You will come to a people from the People of the Book. The first thing that you should call them to is the worship of Allah, If they gain the knowledge of Allah, then tell them that Allah obligates upon them five prayers during the day and night…”
0 comments:
Post a Comment