al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah – Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq

al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Recap: the awliyāʾ of Allāh are every believer with taqwā, and walāyah means love and support

• Continuing aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's statement on īmān in Allāh, His angels, books, messengers, the Last Day and the decree

• What belief in the messengers implies: following the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and leaving innovations

• Inward belief must be correct for outward action to be valid

al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Recap: aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's statement "Īmān is one, and its people are equal in its foundation", and why this is a mistake following Abū Ḥanīfah and the jurists

• Īmān in the heart also varies, not only outward actions

• aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī: "The believers are all awliyāʾ of ar-Raḥmān, and the most noble of them with Allāh are the most obedient and the most adherent to the Qurʾān"

• No servant fully reaches taqwā as it should be, which exposes the claims made by the Sufis for their saints

al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Recap: īmān is belief in the heart, statement of the tongue and action of the limbs

• Factors affecting the level of īmān, including closeness to the time of the Prophet ﷺ

• aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī (raḥimahullāh): "Īmān is one, and its people are equal in its foundation"

• Next: the believers as the awliyāʾ of Allāh

al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Recap: īmān with Ahl as-Sunnah is belief of the heart, speech of the tongue and action of the limbs, and it increases and decreases

• aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's definition, "affirmation with the tongue and belief in the heart", falls short by leaving out action

• How the five principles fit together, and the evidences from the Qurʾān and Sunnah

• The correctness and comprehensiveness of the view of Ahl as-Sunnah on īmān

al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Continuing the discussion of aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's definition of īmān and the proofs that actions are part of īmān

• The ḥadīth of Jibrīl, where īmān is explained by the inward pillars and Islām by the outward pillars

• The ḥadīth of the delegation of ʿAbd al-Qays, where īmān in Allāh alone is explained by the outward pillars, used by Ibn Taymiyyah (raḥimahullāh) in Kitāb al-Īmān

• "Īmān is seventy-odd branches, the highest is saying lā ilāha illallāh, the lowest is removing harm from the path, and modesty is a branch of īmān": speech, action of the limbs and action of the heart

• Īmān in Ahl as-Sunnah's understanding: speech of the tongue, belief of the heart, actions of the heart and limbs, increasing and decreasing

• Next lesson: the five positions of the sects on īmān

al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's definition: "Īmān is affirmation with the tongue and belief with the heart," with commentary from al-Albānī, Ibn Bāz (raḥimahumallāh) and Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān (hafidhahullāh)

• Why the definition is deficient: aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī followed the jurists of Kūfah, among whom irjāʾ arose

• Irjāʾ as a reaction to the Khawārij, countering one innovation with another, later carried on by the Māturīdīs

• Expanding on the issue from the words of Shaykh Ṣāliḥ Āl ash-Shaykh (hafidhahullāh): īmān is firm belief that is followed by action

• Examples: one told his car is being stolen, or that the building is on fire, who does nothing has not truly believed the report

al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Recap: the balance between hope and fear, for oneself and for the believers

• aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī (raḥimahullāh): "The servant does not leave īmān except by denying that which entered him into it"

• This does not mean juḥūd is the only way a person leaves Islām

• Shaykh al-Albānī (raḥimahullāh): this is the madhhab of the Ḥanafīs and Māturīdīs, opposing the Salaf such as Mālik and ash-Shāfiʿī

• How excluding actions from īmān spread from Kūfah, and why errors here lead to the mistakes of the Khawārij or the Murjiʾah

al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Recap: hope and fear for oneself and the believers; neither despairing of Allāh's mercy nor feeling secure from His punishment

• Continuing the ten means by which punishment is repelled and sins are removed

• Istidrāj: the slow, gradual onset of punishment upon those who feel secure from Allāh's plan

• Next: aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's statement "The servant does not leave īmān except by denying that which entered him into it"

al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Continuing Shaykh Ṣāliḥ Āl ash-Shaykh (hafidhahullāh)'s points on aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's statements on hope and fear, from the fifth benefit

• "We hope for the doers of good among the believers": the believers include the muḥsin and the sinner

• Hope for Allāh's mercy is not restricted to the doers of good

Questions and answers:
1. If a person prays witr before sleeping, can he wake and pray a few rakʿahs of tahajjud?
2. Can one say "as-salāmu ʿalayka yā Rasūlallāh" at the grave of the Prophet ﷺ?
3. Does the writing, the second level of al-qadar, include what happens to a servant in the grave, on the Day of Judgement and in Paradise or the Fire?
4. Is al-irādah al-kawniyyah the same as al-mashīʾah, and does it continue in the Hereafter?

al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī: "We hope for the doers of good among the believers that He pardons them and enters them into Paradise by His mercy, but we do not feel secure for them nor testify Paradise for them"

• "We seek forgiveness for the sinners among them, we fear for them, but we do not cause them to despair"

• How a believer views himself and other believers in obedience and disobedience

• This position opposes two groups: those who make Muslims despair of Allāh's mercy, and the negligent who feel secure

• Should fear and hope be equal? Four views, the correct one being that it differs according to the situation