The Creed of the People of the Prophetic Way

Qāla al-ʿallāmah Ḥujjat al-Islām Abū Jaʿfar al-Warrāq al-Ṭaḥāwī bi-Miṣr, raḥimahu Allāh: hādhā dhikru bayāni ʿaqīdati Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah, ʿalā madhhabi fuqahāʾi al-millah: Abī Ḥanīfah al-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit al-Kūfī, wa Abī Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Anṣārī, wa Abī ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī, riḍwānu Allāhi ʿalayhim ajmaʿīn, wa mā yaʿtaqidūna min uṣūl al-dīn, wa yadīnūna bihi li-Rabbi al-ʿālamīn.

Praise belongs to Allah alone, the Lord of the worlds. The most learned scholar, the proof of Islam, Abū Jaʿfar al-Warrāq al-Ṭaḥāwī, from Egypt, may Allah shower him with mercy, states that the following is an exposition of the creed of the people of the prophetic way and the majority of scholars, the Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah, in accordance with the understanding of Muslim jurists such as Imam Abū Ḥanīfah al-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit al-Kūfī, Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Anṣārī, and Abū ʿAbdullāh Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī. May Allah have mercy on them all. It includes their beliefs about the theological foundations of the religion, upon which they base their worship of the Lord of the Worlds.

A number of things are being said here. First, he says this in Egypt. He is from Egypt; that is what his name tells us. He is called Ḥujjat al-Islām, the proof of Islam. He says that what follows is the creed, the creed being the set of tenets of faith. This was something Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī compiled. Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī was also a follower of the Ḥanafī school of thought. He too benefited from what they had inherited from Abū Ḥanīfah, in terms of his theological ideas and research. This work became more popular than any work by Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī, for instance, or, in fact, even works ascribed to Abū Ḥanīfah.

He finds it sufficient, as a support for this book, to say: this is of Abū Ḥanīfah; this is based on the beliefs of Abū Ḥanīfah, Abū Yūsuf and Imam Muḥammad al-Shaybānī. That basically says two things. One is that these were authorities: they should be recognised as such, and they were recognised as such before. Regarding them as jurists alone has, in a way, toned down their image as theologians. The other is that they were taking from a heritage. Everything is from the Qur'an and Sunnah; but he found it sufficient to say: this is the belief of these great scholars, Abū Ḥanīfah, Abū Yūsuf and Imam Muḥammad al-Shaybānī.

The Jamāʿah is the Ṣaḥābah, the Tābiʿūn, and others who come afterwards: the group, the majority. The biographies of these imams are not gone into here, because they can be read about quite easily; lots of books have been written about that. The focus here is on the ʿaqīdah aspects.