The Foundations of the Islamic Belief
by Al Ghazali (died 505/1111)
Shaykh Ahmad Darwish Mosque of the Internet P.O. Box 601, Tesuque, NM
87574 USA Foreword by Professor Hasan El Fatih Dean of Umm Durman Islamic
University. This book was written in Arabic by Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali,
or Algazel as he was known to medieval Europe (died 505/1111).
His numerous works are well known, respected and quoted not only in
the middle east but in the higher universities of west. His contribution
to theology and philosophy have proved to be major cornerstones of resource
throughout the centuries.
During the revival of Greek philosophy in the middle ages, many Christians
were attracted and swayed by the persuasion of Greek logic. In an effort
to protect Christianity, Christian theologians relied upon the profound
arguments of Al Ghazali to defeat the adherents of Greek philosophy and
thereby protected their religion.
Al Ghazali's works have been translated and printed in many languages.
Comparative studies have shown that Jean Jacques Rousseau, known in the
west as the pioneer of children's education, based his ideas and methods
upon the work of Al Ghazali.
The Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam says of Al Ghazali:
"He was the most original thinker that Islam produced and its
greatest theologian."
A.J. Arberry, professor and director of the Middle East Centre at the University
of Cambridge, England referred to him as being:
"He was one of the greatest mystical theologians of Islam and
indeed of all mankind."
I pray that the readers will benefit from the sound reasoning which they
are about to embark upon and that it will open guiding channels of thought
that will give pleasure in this life and in the Hereafter.
Hasan El Fatih Umm Durman Sudan 1992
Contents of this Section
PREFACE
The Belief of the Sunni, The Way of the Prophet
The Meaning of the First Phrase of Witnessing
Transcendence
Life and Power
Knowledge
Will
Hearing and Seeing
Speech
Deeds
The Meaning of the Second Phrase of Witnessing
PREFACE
The first translation into English was by the late Professor Nabih Amin
Al Faris, American University, Beirut, October 31, 1962 with the examination
of Dr. John H. Patton, Professor of Religion Park College, Parksville,
MO. USA.
The reason for this work being undertaken yet again is due to the need
for updating this work and also to rectify English linguistic usages and
to adapt it for the computer with the addition of an index.
If the reader encounters difficulty in understanding some parts of this
book, we would advise a visit to the grand philosopher and Sufi of Islam,
Professor Hasan El Fatih, at the Mosque of Sheikh Muhammad El Fatih, Umm
Durman, Sudan.
It is interesting to note that in the English versions of the Bible
we found that the proper noun of the Creator referred to as "God" whereas
we found in the Arabic edition of the Bible the proper noun changes to
be "Allah" which is the same proper noun mentioned in the Arabic Koran.
In the Name of the Compassionate, the Merciful Allah,
This is the Book of the Foundations of Islamic Belief.
Chapter 1
The Belief of the Sunni, the way of the Prophet
The Exposition of the Belief of the Sunni, way of the Prophet, is embodied
in two phrases of witnessing (Shahadah) which form one of the Pillars of
Islam.
(A) The meaning of the first phrase of witnessing:
We say - our success is from Allah - praise be to Allah the Creator, the
Restorer, the One who does whatever He wills. He whose Throne is glorious
and whose Power is Mighty; who guides the select amongst His worshippers
to the righteous path. He who grants them benefits once they affirm His
Oneness by guarding the articles of belief from the darkness of doubt and
hesitation. He who leads them to follow the way of His chosen Prophet Muhammad
- praise and peace be upon him - and to follow the example of his companions,
the most honored, by directing their footsteps to the way of truth. He
who reveals Himself to them in His Essence and in His Works by His fine
attributes which none perceive except the one who inclines his ear in contemplation.
He who makes known to them that He is One in His Essence without any associate,
Single without any equal, Eternal without a similar.
Nothing precedes Him, He is without any beginning. He is Eternal with
none after Him, Everlasting without any end, subsisting without cessation,
abiding without termination He has not ceased and He will not cease to
be described by the epithets of Majesty. At the end of time He will not
be subject to dissolution and decay, but He is the First and the Last,
the Hidden and Apparent, and He knows everything.
i. Transcendence (Exaltation)
Allah is not a body possessing form, nor a substance restricted and limited:
He does not resemble other bodies either in limitation or in accepting
division.
He is not a substance and substances do not reside in Him; He is not
a quality of substance, nor does a quality of substance occur in Him.
Rather, He resembles no existent and no existent resembles Him. Nothing
is like Him and He is not like anything. Measure does not bind Him and
boundaries do not contain Him. Directions do not surround Him and neither
the earth nor the Heavens are on different sides of Him.
Truly, He is controlling the Throne in the manner in which He said and
in the sense in which He willed - in a state of transcendence that is removed
from parallel and touch, residence, fixity of location, stability, envelopment,
and movement.
The Throne does not support Him, but the Throne and those who carry
it are supported by the Subtleness of His Power and are constrained by
His Firmness. He is above the Throne and Heavens and above everything to
the limits of the earth with an aboveness which does not bring Him nearer
to the Throne and the Heavens, just as it does not make Him further from
the earth.
Rather, He is Highly Exalted above the Throne and the Heavens, just
as He is Highly Exalted above the earth. Nevertheless, He is near to every
entity and is "nearer to the worshipper than his juggler vein" and He witnesses
everything since His nearness does not resemble the nearness of bodies,
just as His Essence does not resemble the essence of bodies.
He does not exist in anything, just as nothing exists in Him: Exalted
is He that a place could contain Him, just as sanctified is He that no
time could limit Him.
For, He was as before He had created time and place, and just as He
was, He is now. He is distinct from His creatures through His attributes.
There is not in His Essence any other than Him, nor does His Essence exist
in any other than Him.
He is Exalted from change and movement. Substance does not reside in
Him and the quality of substance do not befall Him. Rather, He is in the
attributes of His Majesty beyond cessation. And He is in the attributes
of His Perfection. He is not in need of an increase in perfection. In His
Essence, His Existence is known by reason (in this life).
In the Everlasting Life, His Essence is seen by the eyes of the righteous
as a favor from Him, and a subtlety as a completion of favors from Him
through their beholding His Gracious Face.
ii. Life and Power
He is Living, Able, the Conqueror and All-subduing.
Inadequacy and weakness do not befall Him; slumber does not overtake
Him nor sleep; annihilation does not prevail over Him nor death. He is
the Owner of the visible and invisible Kingdom, and of Power and Might.
His are dominion, subjugation, creation, and command; the Heavens are rolled
in His Right and created things are subjugated in His Firmness.
He is Single in creating and inventing. He is Alone in bringing into
existence and innovating. He created all creatures and their deeds, and
decreed their sustenance and their life span; nothing decreed escapes His
Firmness and the mutations of the affairs does not slip from His Power.
Whatever He decrees cannot be numbered neither does His Knowledge end.
iii. Knowledge
He is Knowledgeable of all the known, encompassing all that happens in
the depths of earth to the highest heavens. He is Knowledgeable in which
there is not an atom that escapes His Knowledge in heaven and earth.
Rather, He knows the stamping of the black ant upon the solid rock in
the darkest night. He perceives the movement of a particle of dust in mid-air.
He knows the secrets and that which is more hidden.
He is the Overseer of the whispering of the self and the flow of thoughts,
and the most deepest concealment of the selves.
With a knowledge which is ancient from eternity and by which He has
not ceased to be described through the ages.
Not by a knowledge which is subject to updating by occurring and
circulating in His Essence.
iv. Will
He is the Willer of all existence and the Planner of all contingent things.
There is nothing that occurs in His visible or invisible world except by
His prior planning and His execution whether it is little or plenteous,
small or large, good or evil, benefit or harm, belief or unbelief, gratitude
or ingratitude, prosperity or loss, increase or decrease, obedience or
disobedience all is according to His Wisdom and Will, what He wills occurs
and what He does not will does not occur. There is not a glance of the
onlooker nor a stray thought that is not subject to His Will.
He is the Creator at first, the Restorer, the Doer of whatsoever He
wills. There is none that rescinds His command, and none that supplements
His decrees, and there is no escape for a worshipper from disobeying Him,
except by His Help and Mercy, and none has power to obey Him except by
His Will. Even if mankind, jinn, angels, and devils were to unite to try
to move the weight of an atom in the world or to render it still, without
His Will they would fail.
His Will subsists in His Essence amongst His Attributes. He has not
ceased to be described by it from eternity, willing, - in His Infinity
- the existence of the things at their appointed time which He has decreed.
So they come into existence at their appointed times as He has willed in
His Infinity without precedence or delay. They come to pass in accordance
with His Knowledge and His Will without variation or change.
He directs matters not through arrangement of thought and awaiting the
passage of time, and so no affair occupies Him from another affair.
v. Hearing and Seeing
He - the Most High - is the Hearer, the Seer. He hears and sees.
No audible thing, however faint, escapes His Hearing, and no visible
thing, however minute, is hidden from His Sight.
Distance does not prevent His Hearing and darkness does not obstruct
His Seeing. He sees without a pupil and eyelid, and hears without the meatus
and ears, as He perceives without a heart, and seizes without limbs, and
creates without an instrument, since His attributes do not resemble the
attributes of the creation, and as His Essence does not resemble the essence
of creation.
vi. Speech
He - the Most High - speaks, commanding, forbidding, promising, and threatening,
with a speech from eternity, ancient, and self-existing.
Unlike the speech of the creation, it is not a sound which is caused
through the passage of air or the friction of bodies; nor is it a letter
which is enunciated through the opening and closing of lips and the movement
of the tongue.
And that the Koran, the original Torah, the original Gospel of Jesus,
and the original Psalms are His Books sent down upon His Messengers, peace
be upon them.
The Koran is read by tongues, written in books, and remembered in the
heart, yet it is, nevertheless ancient, subsisting in the Essence of Allah,
not subject to division and or separation through its transmission to the
heart and paper [by this he meant that the movement of the reciter's tongue
and his management of the flow of air in his mouth and ear etc., or the
writer's inscription upon paper, all of which are created. Whereas the
logic of Ghazali addresses what is beyond this human quality and dimension
of time and physic. Thereby he refers to the Koran before one's movement
of the tongue or transcription onto paper. Most errors have come from our
human dimensions, and that we try to describe Divine attributes through
our own limited human attributes - Darwish]. Moses - Allah praised him
and gave him peace - heard the Speech of Allah without sound and without
letter, just as the righteous see the Essence of Allah - the High - in
the Hereafter, without substance or its quality.
And since He has these qualities, He is Living, Knowing, Willing, Hearing,
Seeing and Speaking with life, power, knowledge, will, hearing, sight,
and speech, not solely through His Essence.
vii. Deeds
He, the Exalted, the High, there is no existence except Him, unless it
occurs by His action and proceeds from His Justice, in the best, perfect,
complete and just ways.
He is Wise in His verdicts. His justice is not to be compared with that
of worshippers, because it is conceivable that the worshipper is unjust
when he deals with properties of other than his own. But, harm is not conceivable
from Allah - the High - because He does not encounter any ownership of
other than Himself, in which His dealing could be described to be harmful.
Everything besides Him, children of Adam and jinn, angels and devils,
heaven and earth, animals, plants, and inanimates, substance and its quality,
as well as things perceived and things felt, are all originated things
which He created by His Power and before they were nothing, since He existed
in Eternity alone and there was nothing whatsoever with Him.
So He originated creation thereafter as a manifestation of His Power
and a realization of that which had preceded of His Will and the realization
of His Word in eternity, not because He had any need or necessity for it.
He is magnanimous in creating and inventing and in imposing obligations,
not doing it through necessity.
He is Gracious in beneficence and reform, though not through any need.
Munificence and Kindness, Beneficence and Grace are His, since He is able
to bring upon His creatures all manner of torture and to try them with
all kinds of pain and affliction. Even if He should do this, it would be
justice from Him, it would not be vile, it would not be tyrannous.
He - the Mighty, the Glorified - rewards His believing worshippers for
their acts of obedience according to generosity and encouragement rather
than according to their merit and obligation. For there is no obligation
upon Him in any deed towards anyone and tyranny is inconceivable in Him.
For there is no right upon Him towards anyone.
As for His right to be obeyed it is obligatory and binding upon all
creatures because He made it obligatory upon them through the tongues of
His prophets and not by reason. But He sent His prophets and showed their
truthfulness through explicit miracles, and they conveyed His commands
and prohibitions as well as His promises and threats. So it became obligatory
upon all creatures to believe them and what they brought.
(B) The meaning of the second phrase of witnessing which is the witnessing
for the messengers and their message.
Allah sent the unlettered, of Quraish, Prophet Muhammad - praise and peace
be upon him - with His Message for Arabs and non-Arabs alike, to the jinn
and humanity. Therefore Allah superseded other religions by the Religion
of Prophet Muhammad - praise and peace be upon him - except that which
He confirmed amongst them.
He favored Prophet Muhammad over all other prophets and made him the
master of mankind, and declared incomplete any profession of faith which
attests to Oneness, which is " There is no god except Allah, " unless
it is followed by the witness to the Messenger, which is your saying, "Muhammad
is the Messenger of Allah." He obligated all nations to believe in everything
he informed of the affairs of here and the Hereafter.
Allah will not accept the belief of any one (worshipper) until he believes
in that which the Prophet informed of the affairs that occur after death,
the first of which is the question of the angels Munkar and Nakeer. These
are two awesome and terrifying beings who will make the deceased sit up
in the grave, both soul and body; they will ask him about the Oneness of
Allah and about the Message, asking, "Who is your Lord, and what is your
Religion, and who is your prophet?" They are also known as the two examiners
of the grave and their questions are considered as the first trial after
death.
Again, one should believe in the punishment of the grave, and that it
is real and that His Ruling is just over both the body and soul in accordance
with His Will.
And one should believe in the Scale with the two pans with its indicator
- the magnitude of which is like the stages of the Heavens and the earth
- in it, the deeds are weighed by the Power of Allah, and its weights or
measures are the mustard seed and the atom, in order to establish exact
justice.
The records of good deeds will be placed in a fine image in the scale
of light, and then the balance will be heavy according to its rank with
Allah, by His Virtue.
The records of the evil deeds will be cast in an evil image in the scale
of darkness, and they will be light in the balance through the Justice
of Allah.
One should believe also that the Bridge is real; it is a Bridge stretched
over Hell, sharper than the edge of the sword and finer than a hair. The
feet of the unbelievers slip on it, according to the decree of Allah -
the Exalted - and they will fall into the Fire; but the feet of the believers
stand firm upon it, by the Grace of Allah, and so they are driven into
the Everlasting residence.
And one should believe in the frequented pool, the Pool of Prophet Muhammad
- Allah has praised and given him peace. From which the believers will
drink before entering Paradise and after crossing over the Bridge. Whoever
drinks a single mouthful from it will never thirst again. Its width is
the distance of one month's journey; its waters are whiter than milk and
sweeter than honey. Around it are ewers in number like the stars of the
sky, and into it flow two springs from al-Kawthar.
And one should believe in the Judgement and the distinctions between
those in it, that some will be closely questioned, that some will be treated
with forgiveness and that others will enter Paradise without questioning
- these are the nearest.
Allah will ask whomsoever He will of the prophets concerning the deliverance
of the Message, and whosoever of the unbelievers concerning their rejection
of the Messengers; and He will ask the innovators concerning the way of
the Prophet (sunnah) and the Muslims concerning their deeds.
One should believe that the believer in the Oneness of Allah (if he
enters Hell on account of his sins) will be released from Hell fire after
he has been punished, so that there will not remain in Hell one single
believer.
One should believe in the intercession of the prophets, of the learned,
and of the martyrs, then the rest of the believers - each according to
his influence and rank before Allah.
Whosoever remains of the believers and has no intercessor will be released
through the Grace of Allah, the Mighty, the Glorified.
Therefore not one single believer will abide in Hell forever; whosoever
has in his heart the weight of an atom of belief will be brought out from
there.
One should believe the virtues of the Companions - may Allah be pleased
with them - and their different ranks, and that the most excellent of mankind,
after the Prophet - Allah praised and gave him peace - is Abu-Bakr, and
then `Umar, and then `Uthman, and then `Ali - may Allah be pleased with
them - and one should think well of all the Companions and praise them,
just as Allah - the Mighty, the Glorified - and His Prophet praised them
all - Allah has praised the Prophet and given him peace -. All these were
reported in the news and witnessed traditions (of the Prophet). Therefore
whosoever believes in all this and believes in it without doubting will
be among the people of truth and the congregation of the Way of the Prophet
(sunnah), and indeed has separated themself from the followers of error
and party of innovation.
So we ask Allah to perfect our faith and make us steadfast in the Religion
for us and for all Muslims through His Mercy. Truly He is the Most Merciful.
And may the praise of Allah be upon our Master Muhammad and upon every
chosen worshipper.
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