Three Major Themes

Anyone who studies ʿaqīdah, and looks at Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī's work, or at al-Fiqh al-Akbar for example, will find that it primarily deals with one of three major themes. The first is called ilāhiyyāt, from the word ilāh. Ilāhiyyāt is basically the discussion of the divine being, Allah, and His attributes. That normally takes up at least half of any book, as becomes clear in the course of study. Half the book is normally taken up by ilāhiyyāt, because it is so important, because it is so complex, because it is so beyond us. It is a small window that we have been given, to understand whatever we can understand.

The second theme is nubuwwāt: the functions of prophethood, or prophecy. This concerns the prophets: what we believe about the prophets, and everything related to them, such as that they were inerrant, that they never committed sins, and so on. These are some of the beliefs that we need to have, and they are discussed in the second category.

The third aspect, which is normally the easiest of all of these, is eschatology, and the things which come after death: Paradise and Hell, the intermediate realm, and so on; the angels, and so on and so forth. These are called the mughayyabāt. Mughayyabāt is spelled mīm, ghayn, yāʾ, bāʾ, alif, tāʾ. Mughayyabāt are things that have been kept hidden from us.

Ilāhiyyāt is normally the most complex, because it discusses a being who is so beyond and transcendent, while we are so limited in our understanding. Then come the nubuwwāt, then the mughayyabāt.

A few other points will make things easier before the text itself begins, starting with some terminology. Some of these terms are later developments; they were not necessarily there in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), but they have become more important. There is nothing wrong with them. The ijmāʿ of the Ummah is the proof of their validity and permissibility.

Take, for example, the word qadīm, which means eternal. Qadīm means eternal, ancient, without beginning. It is not a word necessarily used in hadith, and it is not one of al-Asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā. But the ʿulamāʾ and the generations throughout have agreed that this is a word that can be used for Allah (swt), to describe His pre-eternity, His beginninglessness. So we cannot be such great literalists as to say that if a word was not used there, it is haram to use. That is a very limited way of thinking and of looking at things. These are simply terms that came up later on, and that aptly explain something. Those problems were not there at the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him). These problems are here now; they have to be discussed, so that people can be put back on the straight path.