Dārul Qur’ān, Sydney

Al-‘Aqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwīyyah (العقيدة الطحاوية):
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التَّوْحِيدُ Monotheism
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نَقُولُ فِي تَوْحِيدِ اللَّهِ مُعْتَقِدِينَ بِتَوْفِيقِ اللَّهِ
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَاحِدٌ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ -
وَلَا شَيْءَ مِثْلُهُ -
وَلَا شَيْءَ يُعْجِزُهُ -
وَلَا إِلَهَ غَيْرُهُ.
قَدِيمٌ بِلَا ابْتِدَاءٍ, دَائِمٌ بِلَا انْتِهَاءٍ.

We assert regarding Allāh's unity, believing by Allāh's enablement, that
1. Allāh is one (Wāḥid), He has no partner (Allāh is one without any partner).
2. Nothing is like Him.
3. Nothing incapacitates Him (There is nothing that can weaken Him).
4. No deity exists save Him (There is nothing worthy of worship but Him).
5. [He is] eternal without a beginning (Allāh is preexistent without origin), [He is] eternal (enduring/everlasting) without an end.
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Al-‘Aqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwīyyah (العقيدة الطحاوية):
[Bayān 'ittiqād ahl al-sunnah wal jamā'ah (بيان اعتقاد أهل السنة والجماعة)]
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Al-‘Aqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwīyya is a popular exposition of Sunni Muslim doctrine written by the tenth-century Egyptian theologian and Hanafi jurist Abu Ja’far Ahmad al-Misrī Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī al-Ḥanafī (d. 321 AH/933 CE).

There are a number of Muslim commentaries of the Tahawiyyah including ones by Isma'il ibn Ibrahim al-Shaybani (d. AH 629 (1231/1232 CE)), Najm al-Din Mankubars (d. 652 AH), Shuja' al-Din al-Turkistani (d. 733 AH), Siraj al-Din al-Ghaznawi (d. 773 AH), Akmal al-Din al-Babarti (d. 786 AH), Ibn Abi al-Izz (792 AH), 'Abd al-Ghani al-Maydani (d. 1298 AH), Abdullah al-Harari (d. 1429 AH), Omar Abdullah Kamel (d. 1436 AH), and Sa'id Foudah.

It comprises 105 key points that list the essential matters in the creed of the Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā'ah.

The earliest manuscripts preserved in Alexandria were written in AH 783 (1381/1382)

The texts raises many points of creed that are essential matters and defines the belief of the Sunni Muslim, covering following the topics:

1. Exposition of the Creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah
2. Divine Unity
3. Allah's Eternal and Everlasting Names and Attributes
4. Allah's Preordination
5. Muhammad (S) and His Description
6. The Qur'an: the Eternal Word of Allah
7. The Beatific Vision
8. The Prophet's Night Journey (S) and Ascension
9. The Prophet's Basin (S) and Intercession
10. The Covenant Made with Adam (a.s) and His Progeny
11. Divine Decree and Predetermination
12. The Preserved Tablet and the Pen
13. Allah's Attribute of Creating
14. The Throne and the Footstool
15. The Angels, the Prophets and the Revealed Books
16. Declaring the People of the Qiblah to be Muslims
17. Debating about Allah's Essence
18. Arguing about the Qur'an
19. The Impermissibility of Accusing a Muslim of Disbelief
20. The Meaning of Faith
21. Faith Neither Increases nor Decreases
22. The Fate of Major Sinners
23. The Status of a Muslim
24. Rebelling Against Muslim Leaders
25. Wiping Over Footwear
26. Hajj and Jihad
27. The Guardian Angels who were Scribes
28. The Grave and its States
29. Resurrection
30. Paradise and Hellfire
31. The Ability that Accompanies Acts
32. Slaves' Actions
33. Supplication and Alms on Behalf of the Deceased
34. Allah's Wrath and Pleasure
35. Loving the Companions of the Prophet (S)
36. The Order of the Caliphate
37. The Ten Given the Glad Tidings of Paradise
38. Speaking Well of Scholars
39. The Rank of Sainthood
40. Portents of the Final Hour
41. Diviners and Soothsayers
42. Adhering to the Congregation

Imām Abu Ja’far Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī:
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According to Imām al-Dhahabi, his name was Abu Ja’far Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Salamah ibn ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Salamah, al-Azdi al-Hajari al-Misrī Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī al-Ḥanafī. He was born at Ṭaḥā, a village in upper Egypt. His forefathers came from the Yemen to Egypt and settled there after it had come under the Muslim rule. There is a considerable difference of opinion as to the year of his birth. The years 229 AH/843 CE, 230 AH/844 CE, 238 AH/852 CE and 239 AH/853 CE are mentioned by different biographers. Al Sam‘ani asserts that he was born in 229 AH/843 CE. He died in Egypt in 5 November 933 CE /14 Dhul Qa’ada 321 AH.

Imām Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī was mainly interested in Hadith and Fiqh, and was regarded as one of the greatest Muhaddithīn and fuqaha’ of his time. According to Abu Ishāq al Shīrāzi, he was the last leader of Ḥanafī Fiqh in Egypt. He began to study Shāfi‘ī Law under his maternal uncle Imām Abu Ibrahim Ismaīl al Muzani (d. 264/878), the most celebrated pupil of Imām al Shāfi‘ī, and then leaving his school he took up the study of Ḥanafī Law under al Shaikh Abu Ja‘far Ahmad b. Abi `Imran (d. 285/898), who became the Chief Qādī of Egypt in 270/883. Different versions are given by his biographers of his conversion to Ḥanafī school, but the most probable reason seems to be that the system of Imām Abū Ḥanīfa appealed to his critical insight more than that of Imām Shāfi‘ī.

Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī went to Syria in 268/882 for further studies in Ḥanafī Law and became a pupil of Qādī Abu Khazim ‘Abd al Hamid b. Ja‘far, the then Chief Justice of Syria. He learnt ḥadīth from a large number of shaykhs especially from those who visited Egypt at his time, and had also many pupils of distinction.

His original contribution to Ḥadīth literature, so far as we can estimate, is that he introduced a new system of collecting legal traditions, developed a new method of interpreting and harmonizing the conflicting traditions, and adopted a new criterion for criticizing them. His predecessors and contem-poraries, the authors of al Kutub al Sittah (the Six Canonical Compilations) collecting traditions according to their own standards and principles, left out a large number of genuine traditions.

Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī made a strenuous effort to collect all the genuine legal traditions of the Prophet (saw), narrated by different authorities on a particular subject, together with the opinions of the Companions of the Prophet (saw), their successors and the distinguished jurisprudents. He then scrutinized traditions (aḥādīth) and showed by evidence which of them were authentic, strong, weak, unknown, or such as might be supposed to have been repealed. Thus, his collection provided for the scholars an un-precedented opportunity to judge for themselves the merits or demerits of a particular tradition. The criterion for judging the genuineness of a tradition, according to the traditionists in general, was the isnād (chain of the narrators), and so they paid greater attention to the scrutiny of the isnād than to the scrutiny of the text (matn) of a tradition. But Imām Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī, while scrutinizing a tradition, took into consideration the matn as well as the isnād of the tradition. He also aimed at a harmonizing interpretation in case of conflicting traditions.

Imām Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī, like Imām al Māturīdī, was a follower of Imām Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 150/ 767) in jurisprudence as well as in theology. He wrote a little treatise on theology named Bayān al Sunnah wa al Jamā’ah, generally known as al-‘Aqīdat al Tahāwiyyah. In the introduction to this treatise, he says he will give therein an account of the beliefs of the Ahl al Sunnah wa al Jamā’ah according to the views of Imām Abū Ḥanīfa, Abu Yūsuf, and Muhammad al Shaybāni - the well known jurisprudents of the Ḥanafī fiqh. So, the importance of his creed lies in the fact that it corroborates the views of Imām Abū Ḥanīfa, the founder of the school, that have come down to us from different sources. Imām Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī made no attempt to explain the views of the Imām or to solve the old theological problems by advancing any new arguments. His sole aim was to give a summary of the views of the Imām and to show indirectly that they were in conformity with the traditional views of the orthodox school.

The difference between him and Imām al Māturīdī – the two celebrated authorities – on the views of the Imām is quite evident. Imām Al Māturīdī was a thorough dialectician and his main endeavour was to find out a philosophical basis for the views of the leader and to support these views by scholastic reasoning, and thereby bring them closer to the views of the rationalists. On the other hand, Imām Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī, as a true traditionist, did not favour any rational discussion or speculative thinking on the articles of faith, but preferred to believe and accept them without questioning. There is no reference in his creed to the critical examination of the method, sources, and means of knowledge, or the foundation on which his theological system is built. So, his system may be termed as dogmatic, while that of Imām al Māturīdī as critical. The critical method followed by Imām Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī in Ḥadīth is quite lacking in theology. Thus, though both of them belong to the same school and uphold faithfully the doctrines of their Imām, they differ from each other in temperament, attitude, and trends of thought.

He is a distinguished author of many important works of which the following may be worth mentioning here:
1. Ma‘āni al-Āthār (معاني الآثار)
2. al-‘Aqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwīyyah (العقيدة الطحاوية)
3. Aḥkām al-Qur’ān al-Karīm (أحكام القرآن الكريم)
4. Al-Mukhtaṣar fil-Furū‘ (المختصر في الفروع)
5. Sharḥ Mushkil al-Āthār (شرح مشكل الآثار)
6. Sharḥ Ma‘āni al-Āthār (شرح معاني الآثار)
7. Sharḥ al-Jāmi‘ al-Kabīr (شرح الجامع الكبير)
8. Sharḥ al-Jāmi‘ aṣ-Ṣaghīr (شرح الجامع الصغير)
9. Ash-Shurūṭ aṣ-Ṣaghīr (الشروط الصغير)
10. Ash-Shurūṭ al-Kabīr (الشروط الكبير)
11. Ikhtilāf al-‘Ulamā’ (إختلاف العلماء)
12. ‘Uqūd al-Marjān fī Manāqib Abī Ḥanīfa an-Nu‘mān (عقود المرجان قي مناقب أبي حنيفة النعمان)
13. Tārīkh al Kabīr (تاريخ الكبير)
14. Ḥukm Arāḍi Makkah al-Mukarramah (حكم أراضي مكة المكرمة) etc.