The Belief of the Old Women of Naysābūr

Al-Ghazālī has a whole chapter about this in his Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, which speaks about how the majority of the inhabitants of paradise, those who will more easily get into paradise, will be al-bulh. Al-bulh are those people who are just simple, simple people. They are not very complex. They are not asking too many complex questions. For them, just as the footprints in the desert and the droppings of an animal indicate where those came from, the universe around them, simply by pondering over it, indicates that there is a Creator; and they have firm belief in that.

There is, for instance, the account of an older woman in one of the old Islamic cities who saw a great commotion going on. A large group of people was surrounding a person. She asked what was going on, and was told: "Don't you know? Al-Rāzī, ʿAllāmah al-Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, is visiting the city, and these are all the people who have come to welcome him and to hear him." "What's so good about this person?" "He has about a hundred proofs; he can provide about a hundred evidences for the existence of Allah (swt)." So the woman asked why she would need all of that. She already had firm yaqīn. She did not need a hundred proofs to believe in Allah (swt).

Imam al-Ḥaramayn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Juwaynī was one of the greatest theologians, one of the greatest mutakallimīn of the Ashʿarī school: a very great Shāfiʿī scholar, but a scholar also of ʿaqīdah, of Islamic theology. After great discussion, before he died, he said that he was dying with the belief, or on the belief, of the old women of Naysābūr: meaning that that was all he really needed to gain success, and that all of these complexities were not necessary. Obviously, that has to be put in perspective; it has to be taken in its context.

But the point is that nowadays there are a lot of these complex theories outside. And for those who are interested and curious, whom these things inspire to study, or make more curious to research them, an advanced understanding of Islamic ʿaqīdah becomes very necessary, extremely necessary. Otherwise a person goes into intellectual trauma, or loses their faith completely. And may Allah (swt) protect us from this.