Categories of Tawheed in the Aqeeda books of the Salaf

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بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Notice This is the second part of a multi-part article that discusses the principles mentioned in الأصول التي يقوم عليها تقسيم التوحيد, written by Shaykh Sulṭān al-‘Amīri. It is a section from his to-be-published commentary on Kitāb At-Tawheed called المسلك الرشيد إلى كتاب التوحيد.

The original article can be found here or here.

A common suspicion the student of knowledge may run into by the those who Allah prevented from the proper understanding of Tawheed is that dividing it into categories is a bid’a innovated by Ibn Taymīyyah (d. 728H / 1328) and that it goes against the understanding of the Salaf. Just like most suspicions, it requires to be deconstructed before being responded to.

Such claim contains the following:

  1. Dividing Tawheed is impermissible and is a bid’a.
  2. Ibn Taymīyyah was the first to understand Tawheed in such a fashion.

The first point is already addressed in great detail here, as such division only serves as a way to better understand it and has plenty of evidence from the Sharee’a. This post will focus on the second point by mentioning examples from the ʿAqīdah books of the Salaf refuting this understanding to be first made by Ibn Taymīyyah.

The Salaf understood Tawheed the same way we understand it today

While the commonly known terminology (Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyya, Tawheed al-Asmaa was-Sifaat, and Tawheed al-Uloohiyya) is made popular by Ibn Taymīyyah for his exhaustive writing on this matter, many of the Salaf preceded him in understanding Tawheed and calling for it using the same approach (i.e dividing it into categories), and even used close terms to describe various categories of Tawheed.

Digging deep into the books of ʿAqīdah results in hundreds of quotations supporting this understanding. In the next few paragraphs, five pieces of evidence written by respected scholars of Islam are quoted to support that our understanding of Tawheed is the same as that of the Salaf. Their writings all date back hundreds of years before the era of Ibn Taymīyyah as well.

1. Abu Hanifa’s al-Fiqh al-Absat

In the book الفقه الأبسط attributed to Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān b. Thābit b. Zūṭā b. Marzubān (d. 150AH / 767), he affirmed the Aboveness of Allah as it would be unbefitting to realize Allah’s Lordship or Allah’s Oneness of Worship without affirming this attribute, using the same terms commonly used today.

Affirming the Aboveness1 [of Allah]

Abu Hanifa said, “Whoever says I don’t know if my Lord is above the heavens or on earth has committed disbelief, same applies for whoever says He is above the Throne but I do not know if the Throne is above the heavens or on the earth. Allah is invoked from above and not from below, as immanence is not a befitting attribute to Allah’s Lordship or Allah’s Oneness of Worship.

This is further proved by the narration of the man who came to the Prophet (ﷺ) with a black maidservant and said, ‘I am obliged to free a slave, does she suffice?’ The Prophet (ﷺ) said to her, ‘Are you a believer?’ and she replied, ‘Yes’. Then he asked, ‘Where is Allah?’ and she pointed to the heavens. So he said, ‘Free her, for verily she is a believer.’”2

The book can be found here or here.

2. Ibn Hibban’s Rawḍat al‑ʿuqalāʾ wa‑nuzhat al‑fuḍalāʾ

The great faqih of Khurasan and Muḥaddith, Muhammad b. Ḥibbān al-Busti (d. 354AH / 965) mentioned in the introduction of his book روضة العقلاء ونزهة الفضلاء his praise to Allah by acknowledging His Lordship and Oneness of Worship.

All Praise is due to Allah, the Unrivaled in His Oneness of Worship, the Almighty by His Majestic Lordship.3

The book can be found here or here.

3. Ibn Khuzaima’s Kitāb At-Tawheed

Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Ishaq b. Khuzaima (d. 311AH / 923) wrote التوحيد وإثبات صفات الرب عز وجل (Tawheed and Affirming The Attributes of The Lord), focusing on Tawheed al-Asmaa was-Sifaat in its first half and refuting those who deny some of Allah’s attributes like the Jahmiyya and the Mu’tazila.

[Ibn Khuzaima said:] I would hear from the junior seekers of Ḥadīth and knowledge who may have been attending some of the meetings of the people of waywardness and misguidance, among the Mu‘aṭṭilah, and the Qadariyyah / Mu’tazila, what made me fear that some [of these students] would deviate from the truth and the straight path to fabrication and misguidance regarding those two branches of knowledge. This made me author a treatise establishing a true stance regarding those fields of knowledge, 1) the belief in Predestination of what man does before it taking place and 2) the belief in all of the Attributes of Allah He attributed to Himself in The Qur’an, which falsehood cannot come to it from before it or behind it, sent down by the All-Wise, Worthy of all praise.4

The book can be found here or here. A translation in progress can be found here.

4. Ibn Batta Al-‘Ukbari’s Al-Ibanah Al-Kubra

Abu Abdullah ‘Ubaidullah b. Muhammad b. Battah al-‘Ukbari al-Hanbali (d. 387AH / 923) authored الإبانة عن شريعة الفرقة الناجية ومجانبة الفرق المذمومة (Al-Ibaana) which has not been found in its complete form, containing the following commentary:

The Shaykh said, “Allah knew that Adam would sin before He created him, and prohibited him from eating from the Tree while He already knew he would eat from it. He created Satan so he would disobey His command by not prostrating to Adam, yet He commanded him to prostrate and He knew he would not. What took place is what He already knew and not what He commanded.

He also created Pharaoh and He knew he would claim Lordship and corrupt the lands and destroy the people, and sent Moses to command him to realize Tawheed and to affirm Allah’s Oneness of Worship and He knew he would not submit, thus realizing what He knew but not what He commanded.5

The book can be found here or here.

The Shaykh said, “… this is because the essence of the belief in Allah that creation ought to belief is of three matters:

  1. The slave affirms Allah’s Existence so he is distant from the position held by those who deny the existence of a Creator.
  2. To believe in Allah’s Oneness, so he may be distant from beliefs of the Pagans who affirmed the existence of a Creator yet worshipped others besides Him.
  3. To believe in Him having Attributes which He has to be attributed with, like Knowledge, Capability, Wisdom and everything He attributed to Himself in His Book, as we came to realize that many of those who believe in His Oneness in the general sense may deviate in His Attributes, thus making his deviance in Allah’s Attributes a slander from properly achieving Tawheed. 6

The book can be found here or here.

5. Ibn Mandah’s Kitāb At-Tawheed

The authenticator of Ibn Mandah’s (d. 395AH / 1005) Kitāb At-Tawheed called كتاب التوحيد ومعرفة أسماء الله عز وجل وصفاته على الإتفاق والتفرد said in the introduction that the book is divided into four categories of Tawheed.

Description of the book and its articles

The author divided Tawheed into four categories, as he made Allah’s names a separate category, followed by Allah’s attributes. The categories of Kitāb At-Tawheed the author mentioned are:

  1. Oneness of Lordship
  2. Oneness of Worship and that is the realization of La Ilah Illa Allah
  3. Oneness of Allah’s names
  4. Allah’s attributes

The author started discussing the Oneness of Allah by mentioning His Lordship, further affirming Allah’s Oneness of Worship through it. He mentioned plenty of shreds of evidence from the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the athaar of the Salaf and ther interpretation of the Qur’an, focusing on the Oneness of Worship as the Prophets were sent to promote, as every Prophet was sent to his people to make them worship Allah alone.7

The book can be found here or here.

Conclusion

The examples provided are strong pieces of evidence to support that understanding Tawheed by dividing it into categories and if necessary author a book about one category of Tawheed is a practice done by the Salaf.

Another common suspicion to refute the categorization made is that the word Ilaah and Rabb do not contain different meanings which is incorrect. Both refer to Allah yet they contain different meanings, and such distinction was made by Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān b. Thābit b. Zūṭā b. Marzubān, Ibn Hibban, Ibn Batta and Ibn Mandah.

Ibn Khuzaima’s quotation shows how he feared for the junior students of knowledge as they are still new to the journey and the heart is weak. The student of knowledge is advised to ask Allah for firm knowledge, not to let such accusations get into his heart easily, and to avoid listening to the people who deviated from the straight path.

  1. The term aboveness was chosen over transcendence as the latter may imply Allah’s Attributes being Perfect only, without focusing on the intenيed meaning of Allah being above His creation and that nothing is above Him. ↩

  2. الفقه الأكبر الشرح الميسر على الفقهين الأبسط والأكبر المنسوبين لأبي حنيفة ص. 135 ↩

  3. روضة العقلاء ونزهة الفضلاء ص. 14 ↩

  4. التوحيد وإثبات صفات الرب عز وجل ص. 10-11 ↩

  5. الإبانة عن شريعة الفرقة الناجية ومجانبة الفرق المذمومة, الكتاب الثاني, المجلد الثاني ص. 17 ↩

  6. الإبانة عن شريعة الفرقة الناجية ومجانبة الفرق المذمومة, الكتاب الثالث, المجلد الثاني ص. 172-173 ↩

  7. كتاب التوحيد ومعرفة أسماء الله عز وجل وصفاته على الإتفاق والتفرد ص. 33 ↩