Tenets of Faith

A commentary by Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan on al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah, the most widely acclaimed and accepted work on the creed of Ahlus Sunnah wal-Jama’ah. Before you is the English translation of Sharh al-‘Aqidah al-Tahawiyah by Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan. This is an explanation of the renowned treatise on the Islamic creed entitled al-‘Aqidah al-Tahawiyah (The Creed of Imam al-Tahawi). The author of this treatise is Imam Abu Ja‘far al-Tahawi (239-321 A.H.), one of the leading authorities on the Hanafī madhab. The period Imam al-Tahawi lived in was the zenith of the dissemination of the Islamic sciences and he was just one of the giants that this era produced. To illustrate this: his teachers included Imām Isma’il ibn Yahya al-Muzani (a major student of Imām al-Shāfiī), those he collected hadith from included Imām al-Nasai (author of ‘Sunan al-Nasai’, one of the ‘Sahih Sittah’) and his students included the great muhaddith Imām al-Tabarani. The purpose of his treatise was to state the creed of the early scholars of the Hanafī madhab and to indicate its correlation with the views of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘ah in general. As Shaykh al-Fawzan states in his explanation: “This entails a refutation against those who associate themselves with the Hanafī school of fiqh in modern or recent times: They associate themselves with the Hanafī school but contradict Imam Abū Hanīfah in creed; rather they only follow his views in jurisprudence. They adopt the creed of those who profess kalām (theological dialectic) and the logicians.

This series of books presents stories of outstanding moral and educational value. The narrations are taken from texts of the Quran and authentic sunnah, enhanced by extensive remarks and commentaries, and supplemented with important conclusions and lessons.