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DOCUMENT PREVIEW: ‘FUNDAMENTAL AND OBLIGATORY TENETS OF SUNNI ISLAM’

ISLAMIC INFORMATION SERVICES

FUNDAMENTAL AND OBLIGATORY TENETS OF SUNNI ISLAM

It is related in "Shifa Sharif‟ of Imam Qazi Ayaz on page 362 and 363, “If anyone utters such a statement that declares the entire Ummah to be deviated, is surely a kaafir”

It is in Sahih Bukhari on page 893 and in Sahih Muslim on page 57, narrated from Abu Zarr RaĎīyAllāhu ánhu that the Holy Prophet śallAllāhu álayhi wa sallam said, “Whosoever claims someone to be filled with kufr or considers him to be the enemy of Allah and if this is not true then this remark of his returns to him”. Hazrat Abdul Ghani Nablusi Rahmatullah alayhi writes in his „Hadiqatun Nadiyya Sharah Tariqa Muhammadiya‟, Egypt Publication 1276 A.H, in Volume 2, on page 156, “Similarly, to label someone a Mushrik or something similar to it and if the recipient was not a Mushrik in the first place then the one who said it will become Mushrik”. “Whoever denies something from the necessities of faith, has definitely disbelieved, and whoever

doubts in his disbelief and his punishment has indeed disbelieved”. (Fatawa Bazzaziyya and Durr ul

Mukhtar)

It is said in Shifa, Khayriyya, Durar wal Ghurar, and Bazzaziyyah, “All Muslims unanimously agreed

upon the ruling that one who insults the Messenger is a kafir, a disbeliever, and one who doubts he is

a disbeliever has also disbelieved".

This is explicit kufr, in Fatawa Alamgiri, volume 2, pg. 258, it says: "If anybody mentions an attribute of Allah that is not in accordance to His Glory (like researching ghayb in this case) or if someone brought one's attention to a thought that will most likely lead to envision Allah's attributes to be partial, defective or in ignorance; then such a person is Kaafir", (Fatawa Hindiya, Nuraani Kutub khana, Peshawar, Vol.2, pg 257). In Bahaarur Raaiq it is mentioned in volume 5 on pg. 129, in Bazaair volume 3 on pg. 323 and in Jaami' al Fasooleen in volume 2 on page 298, "If anyone utters something that is against the Majesty of Allah, has become a kaafir", (Jaamiul Fasooleen, Al-Fasl Thaani Islamic Kutub khana, Banauri


town, Karachi, Vol. 2, pg 298).

CONTENTS:

The main elements of Islamic religious discourse,

People’s perception of religion, cult and the reality of Islam,

Basis of Sunni Islam

-Spiritual ethics

-Social model

-Legal system

-Theological system

Main stages in development of Sunni thought,

-The formative early Umayyad period

-The Middle period

-The Colonial period

Attitude towards other sects and religions as thought systems,

The various deviant sects in Islam, their views, and the verdict of the jurists upon them,

The three main pathways to apostasy,

-Denial of something which is known by necessity as an element of faith

-Insulting Allah and the Last Prophet

-Declaring the entire nation to be disbelievers

The main signs of schismatic and deviant groups,

-The two main schisms from early times, the Kharijites and Shiites,

-The Mutazilites

-The Jabarites

-Murjia

-Ibn Taymiyyah

-Ibn Taymiyyah and anthropomorphism

-Wahhabism

-The Deoband Movement

-Shiism

-The apostasy of the entire Islamic nation

-Superiority of Imams to Prophets

-Denial of matters known as necessities of faith

-Morally weak and satanic practices

-Apostatisation of leading other companions

-The Quran we have now is incomplete

-Political system

-The Goal of Sunni Movements in the UK

-Differentiating Islam from Cults and Religions

-Sunnism is the domain of Scholars, Youth, and Researchers.


BASIS OF SUNNI ISLAM

Sufism.

- Accepting the foundation of Islamic thought to be achievement of higher moral awareness

and discipline, obedience to the divine will as communicated in the Quran, Hadith of the

Messenger, and legal texts, erasing vices and the effects of negative brainwashing from the

self, and reverence for the historic figures of spiritual wisdom, collectively known as Sufism

or ‘tasawwuf’.

- Sunni Islam grounds itself on wisdom attained through living experience. This wisdom is

only attained through personal struggle on the path known as tasawwuf, ihsan or Sufism, and

through upright men whose role it was to spread this knowledge using the Prophetic

method.

- Sunni Islam considers the importance of Sufism to consist of: a) spiritual practice such as

litanies and meditation in order to remove mental blockage in fulfilling the Divine Will and

b) respecting the words of the men whose task it was to disseminate this science. The Sunni

loyalists are thus distinguished from other pretenders to Islam by their practice of Sufi ethics,

where the other groups are devoid of this science in its entirety, considering it to be

something foreign to Islam.

Social Model:

- The necessity of establishing and maintaining a unified community based on the model of the

Sunnah and orthodox beliefs.

- Community prosperity being the means to achieve a higher quality of life.

- Sunni Islam is distinguished through organising life through the social model of sunnah and

jamaah, and this differentiates it from the deviant groups and individuals. Everything is

governed on the basis of the main group of believers (jama’ah) and the established practices

followed by this community (sunnah), transmitted historically by the Prophet, his

Companions, and the previous generations.

- The Sunni Islamic social model is designed specifically to serve the spiritual objectives of

Islam, maintenance of order and removal of disruptive cult elements. These objectives cannot

be achieved in society without the establishment of a community united on the methodology

of the Prophet and Companions. The truth is upheld and falsehood is averted by the presence

of this community, and so this is why it requires uniformity in beliefs according to consensus

of the previous generations of Islam.


Legal System:

- The importance of the law schools, the legal research of jurists, the impermissibility of

defiling the principles of deriving law, or seeking to create loopholes around verdicts reached

by consensus. The importance of legal uniformity.

- Sunni Islam is based on acceptance and adherence to the legal system of ‘Roots’ (Usul) and

‘Branches’ (Furu), developed by the early jurists of Islam. This legal system is represented by

the research of the classical jurists, each of whom adhered to the Usul of four main Imams,

Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafii, and Ahmed.

- Sunni Islam expects its adherents to adhere to the legal verdicts of one law school in relation

to method of performing ritual prayer, purification,etc. We do not accept legal verdicts

outside the consensus of the researchers of these four schools, unless it is corroborated

through legal precedent.

- The bases of Sunni Islamic law are four: 1. The Quran, 2. The Sunnah, 3. Analogy (Qiyas), 4.

Ijma. Matters agreed upon by consensus are non-negotiable. Whoever leaves the consensus

on certain issues of law is considered astray with regards to them, unless he has a valid

reason. Furthermore, whoever denies the validity of Consensus as a source of law is at the

very least considered a mubtadi (debaser/defiler of the law) and will no longer maintain the

privilege of membership of the community. Nobody can reformulate the method which is

used to extract rulings, this phase of development has long ended, and the commentaries

written by the jurists contain many creative methods for the implementation of law, therefore

there is no tolerance for someone to use underhand logic to overturn the verdicts of previous

jurists to create easy verdicts. Those who use underhand logic to legalise sin are debasers of

the law and equally considered traitors of the faith.

- There are enough options in the law of one school, and each school’s verdicts contain

a. Azaim: More difficult/advanced options and

b. Rukhas: easier/beginner options, and one can choose accordingly.

- Each law school also contains:

a. Zahir ar Riwaya: Majority/Preferred opinions transmitted from earlier lawyers and

b. Shawadh: Minority opinions, an individual should be cautious of choosing minority

opinions just to create facility for something that contradicts essential Islamic

principles.


- Every individual is responsible for how he obeys the commandments, for basic issues, he is

responsible for educating himself about the laws of rituals, and for more complex issues, he

should seek aid from research or knowledgeable community members. Above all, each

individual is responsible for keeping a general intention to conduct himself with Islamic

moral principles. Islamic law facilitates this, it does not dictate.

- Issues on which there is a difference of opinion are open for re-evaluation, issues which have

been settled are non-negotiable and issues which are not yet discovered are open for

researchers to present their views.

- It is from ignorance to believe the difference between the law schools is based on malice, the

differences are subtle and scientific, and create versatility, they are not a hindrance to the

fulfilment of the Sharia.

- The Sharia is the basis of spiritual truth (realising the omnipotence of God in relation to Man),

and its abandonment is not accepted as a sign of higher spiritual attainment, but leads to

spiritual disaster, indulgence, laziness, arrogance and excess.

Theological System:

All followers of the Prophetic thought system uphold:

- The importance of uniting on the orthodox principles of creed, and the absolute rejection of

contradictory creedal tenets relating to the nature of God, predestination, the status of the

Companions, and most importantly, the status of the last Prophet concerning whom groups

such as the Salafi/Wahhabi collaboration and the group of Deoband which hold blasphemous

views.

- The importance of disassociating from cult ideologies and deviant sects within Islam, as well

as the importance of distinguishing Islam from other religions and absolute rejection of

considering Islamic thought as equal to other unauthorised religious systems and cults.

Divinity/Ilahiyat:

- Interaction with Allah does not need to be directly sought through extreme measures, but

occurs naturally for every human as they progress through life.

- The proximity/distance of a person from Allah is shown in their thought and deeds, some are

frivolous and misdirected, others are determined and rightly guided.

- Human beings’ thinking they are God is the biggest impediment to progress, holding this

thought leaves the soul’s energy open to exploitation and breeds social disorder.


- Allah is the highest being and origin of life, this reality is automatic and does not depend on

human perception for it to be so, it does not require humans to place Allah within a system so

that he can be comprehended by them.

- It makes no difference whether all people reject Allah’s existence and have no clue how the

‘system’ of the universe works, or whether they have complete knowledge. At the end, all

that matters is a human’s achievement of greatness or his failure to do so, in which case he is

solely dependent on the forgiveness of his Creator.

- Allah, as a matter of principle, is not subject to temporal stages like humans such as

‘progress’/ ‘regression’.

- Allah is always conceived as being the origin and source of creation; he is not mixed in with

creation in any way. You can’t pretend as though you see God in created things, but you may

express that you witness the ‘intelligent design’ or ‘divine imprint’ in created things.

- The main principle that all Islamic thinkers based their theological thought on was the

statement of Abu Bakr as Siddiq who said, ‚The height of our understanding of Allah is our

ignorance of Allah‛. This is in opposition to what people usually consider religion/religious

thought to be about.

- Ignorant people take a Christian understanding that religious people are like monks who

always are lost in contemplation of the divine and abandon any other experience to be gained

from life for this motive.

- The Islamic attitude did away with all this, and used the concept of God to motivate people

into practical activism. This attitude can be seen in the behaviour of Abu Bakr as Siddiq in the

way he dealt with the Muslim community after the passing of the Holy Prophet. Whereas

everyone was in a state of shock and sadness, the first Caliph showed inner strength and

practical activism by reciting a verse which brought people’s attention back to the present.

Most Muslims know about this incident but do not take heed of its practical wisdom. This

shows our thoughts are on the present and on the commands we are supposed to follow, not

up in the air.

- It is a sign that a person is deviating from objectives and practical goals if he starts to discuss

God theoretically without purpose, rather than focusing on achieving objectives and

commands, thus the early Salaf considered it a reprehensible innovation to excessively focus

on speculative theology, this is not in contradiction with the need to uphold obligatory tenets

of Sunni faith through debate: munazara/mujadala.

- There is further wisdom in this. It means we do not always walk around acting with an

unnatural, self-produced conception of Allah in our minds.


- We are focused entirely on the moment and the action. We do not seek to elaborate upon or

delve into the nature of the ‘being’ of Allah. We do not seek to delve into the nature of his

attributes, we accept the attributes that he is described with in the Quran, the height of our

understanding is that he is beneficent, and also that his wrath is swift. Keeping basic

understanding, we only seek after knowledge of what we should be doing, and what actions

are beneficial to us in this life and the next.

- We should not seek to infuse our thinking with thoughts of God or mentally hold him in our

minds, nor do we perform actions imagining God looking at us from some high place, God is

beyond temporality. This delusion distracts us from who we are as human agents, and

reduces from our own personal experience of reality, alongside developing many other

unnatural thought tendencies which are then blamed on Islamic thought or on Allah the

Exalted. Unnatural thought through ‘envisioning’ God temporally is a mental disease found

in Wahhabi minded thinkers, it breeds fear and insecurity, and is not a sign of spiritual

attainment.

- If any group are sat discussing the nature of God, we leave, we disagree with discussing the

nature of God as if he was an entity that is accessible to human epistemology, or something

that can be discussed or categorised within human terms, or experienced using human

emotions. It is seen as a sign of weakness in the eyes of the righteous predecessors and

theologians.

- We do not engage with God emotionally. Our focus is on our imperatives and duties, we do

not leave these in order to sit and take illusory pleasure from ‘speculating’ on God, this is the

action of weak people, who do not necessarily follow the divinely prescribed teachings. Our

beliefs and theology have been clearly defined from the early times, and scholars only went

into speculative discourse to refute deviant beliefs.

- Our only relation with God in terms of our living experience is that we carry out his

imperatives and laws, and believe in the Prophets he sent- full stop.

- We do not deem it wise to discuss God as our ‘friend’ or ‘beloved’ or within humanly

accessible terminology.

- We consider it necessary for modern people to let the Sufis of the past be Sufis.

- People living in the modern age should not pretend that they are going through the same

experiences as Bistami, Al Junayd, Ibn Adham, Ghazali, Jilani, Shadhili, Rumi, Ibn Arabi, or

any others.


- This will be taken to be seen as a sign of decadence, deviance, excess, weakness, and

stupidity.

- Suffice it to cite Ibn Arabi who said, ‚Knowledge is superior to love‛.

- Our only purpose in a theological gathering is to tell people their limitation in understanding

the nature of the being of Allah, and to describe to them what is lawful and unlawful with

respect to their understanding of God, and that which is healthy, and that which is unhealthy.

- We do not share, like some sects and religions, ‘obsession’ with God. We aim to be practical

and upright men like the Companions, we eat healthy, work hard, and participate in physical

activities.

- We investigate the scriptures and study the sciences, we study evil and its activity on Earth,

we investigate health and medicine, we enjoy entertainment and sports, and when people

deviate, we inform them of their errors. By understanding our limits, we excel.

- Sunni Islam maintains adherence to the views of the Ashari and Maturidi scholars on the

issues of controversy in early history, this includes divine attributes, divine justice and

predestination. An individual who aspires to be known as ‘Sunni’/Orthodox should at the

very least know the names of these scholars and have a general understanding of their

position regarding 1) interpretation of anthropomorphic verses and 2) free will, and also

know about the belief in how the universe is constantly be re-generated by God, and that if

He were to remove His power for an instance, everything would cease to exist, and that it

does not exist indepdently. They should know that these two were men who did not receive

information through magical means or revelation, and that Imam Ashari studied the Quran

and Hadith afresh to attain his views after reverting from Mutazilite philosophy, so that they

know that everything in Islamic thought is based on human research, and is based on debate

and discussion.

- The importance of knowing the origins of Sunni theology is so that the laypeople do not

unnecessarily get confused, innocently believing that every answer has a set question in Islam

and so that they cannot navigate through difference opinions. It is so that they are aware that

Islamic thought is based on a history and climate of debate and discussion, and that they are

under an obligation to acknowledge the research of the older authorities rather than sticking

to certain stubborn, inherited beliefs and positions regarding God, Predestination, the World,

and human activity and thought.

- Sunni theology contains all the tenets of essential belief that are needed for an individual’s

salvation, because these beliefs guard an individual from delving into speculation on matters

that lead to mental instability and confusion. Sunni Islamic Theology is based on the research


of past theologians, but this body of information can still be grown and developed by

analysing new problems in light of the principles identified in Islamic theology.

- A person is identified as a Sunni Muslim when he identifies himself with the theology of

Ashari/Maturidi, is familiar with their thought and has read one or more of the works of this

scholarly group. Allegiance to a Sufi order alone does not qualify as a Sunni Muslim, even

less so if his spiritual guide is not versed in Islamic Theology and Law.

- Sunni Theology must therefore be visible in the thought of an individual, it must be visible

that he knows that this knowledge is comprised of the views of many researchers and

theologians throughout history, and not just the statement of one man.

- The essence of Sunni Islamic Theology is the science of Heresiography, which differentiates

the beliefs of the Ahlus Sunnah from the beliefs of deviants, and labels the possessor of

deviant thought as ‘defiler’/ ‘disbeliever’, accordingly (mubtadi/kafir). Without this, the

boundaries of faith and spirituality will be broken, and the path to brainwashing people will

be open for charlatans and fanatics who pose as representatives of prophetic thought.

- Heresiography is key to spiritual attainment, an individual must know how to track the

thought of cults, so that he can be free of it, therefore, there is no spiritual attainment without

knowing the different creeds of deviants and cults and being able to denounce them with

conviction.

- The Ashari and Maturidi schools served defence of orthodox beliefs in their particular

regions; there is no essential difference except for methodology, same as law schools. They

dealt with the issue of understanding the verses of the Quran that describe Allah as

possessing physical attributes, and with the issue of free will and divine justice. Asharis do

not prefer to use metaphorical interpretation with regard to attributes; they regard it as

necessary that a person understands God is not like a human being in any way.

- Maturidi theologians use metaphorical interpretation, they describe the ‘Hand’ of God as

representing ‘Power’. Asharis and Maturidis have the same belief in free will, that man

possesses the will to choose to act or not to act, and Allah is the source of power. Therefore in

theological matters, the adherents of Sunni Islam are not expected to not describe Allah with

human attributes, and to not go to extremes in belief in predestination, consenting to

compulsion theory (jabr), nor that man is the source of power of his actions.

- Aside from these authors, Sunni Islam considers as valid the research of the Sufi scholars who

expanded on metaphysics in greater detail, particular those who described the metaphysical

realities of the Prophet, like Ibn Arabi and Imam Rabbani.


MAIN STAGES IN DEVELOPMENT OF SUNNI THOUGHT

Sunni Theology comprises of adopting the correct beliefs from the three main stages of theological

development, and failure to do so brings an individuals’ faith into question. The stages are: the

formative early Ummayad period, the Middle period and the Colonial period.

The Formative Early Umayyad Period:

- In this period, the views which were considered significant to uphold by orthodox

theologians were:

1. The doctrine of partial free will and human responsibility for their actions;

2. the impossibility of evil being attributed to Allah;

3. the doctrine of God’s absolute transcendence above being ascribed human attributes,

emotions and physical features.

- Also decided upon by the majority of theologians was the doctrine of the impermissibility of

cursing or slandering the Companions, and upon the validity and merit of the four caliphs in

the order of which they appeared: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali. Also agreed upon was

the doctrine that a major sinner is not to be considered a disbeliever, nor is he in a middle

state between the two, but that he is a believing transgressor (mumin fasiq).

The Middle Period: This covers the span of time between the end of the Abbasid caliphate up until

the Ottoman/Mughal/Safavid empires, ending just before Colonialism. In this period, important

notable controversies upon which creed was developed were:

- The Ismaili group, who used drugged assassins to eliminate their opponents, and claimed

that they possessed secret teachings from an infallible Imam who was in occultation.

- From this emerged the writing of Al Ghazali in refutation of the belief in a hidden Imam and

the credibility of information received this way. Also, there emerged the view that an

individual could not abandon the external meaning of the religion in favour of the internal,

which amounted to apostasy. The knowledge of Ahlus Sunnah became more distinguished

from cults, it became clear that it was cults who relied excessively on supposedly ‘inspired’

knowledge from infallible sources and Ahlus Sunnah relied solely on research conducted

within the legal framework of ijtihad and taqlid.


- Ibn Taymiyya emerged, who deviated from his original beliefs and began to espouse strange

views, asserting that God had a physical body and was composed of atoms. Refuting him on

these principles and considering him a disbeliever became an additional sign of Sunni Islamic

identity.

- Scholars such as Subki and Qadi Iyad tightened the boundaries of blasphemy towards the

Prophet, and authoritative verdicts were written concerning the one who curses God and his

Prophet. These were instrumental in the controversy of the Colonial period. A contributor to

this field was also Ibn Abidin who wrote Tanbih al Wulat Wal Hukkam, concerning those who

slandered the Prophet and his Companions.

- In this period there was also a Shia and Syncretist (din e ilahi/ one world religion)

collaboration for power in the court of Akbar I, which was countered by the efforts of the Sufi

reformer, Imam Ahmed Sirhindi. The corruption that spread through syncretism in that

period necessitated that Sunnism distinguish itself by explicitly freeing itself from all false

ideologies.

- Those who therefore fail to do so in this era, do not qualify as members of the Prophetic

community. Rejection of false creeds is essential to Islamic faith, this is a scientific matter and

not an emotional one, and does not necessarily imply conflict and tension.

The Colonial Period:

- Sufi beliefs about the metaphysics of the Prophet were upheld in response to denigrators of

his status from the Madrasa at Deoband.

- Blasphemy laws against the Prophet were reiterated as per Qadi Iyad and Ibn Abidin.

- From this period, syncretism resurfaced in the form of Nadwa. It was refuted by Imam

Ahmed Rida Khan in Fatawa al Haramayn. In this document, the blasphemy of Mirza Ghulam

Ahmed, the false Prophet, was also denounced. The disbelief of the four scholars of Deoband

affiliation who blasphemed the Prophet’s status was unanimously declared by scholars of the

Holy Sanctuaries at the initiative of the resourceful Imam Ahmed Rida Khan (collected in

Hussam al Haramayn) and also the majority of scholars in British India at the time (collected in

Sawarim al Hindiyya).

- His movement for the preservation of respect for the status of the Prophet, resistance to the

effects of Colonialism, maintaining spiritual belief and practice, and giving verdicts according

to the Hanafi school of law thus became an addition to the growing identity of orthodox

Islam and the title of ‘Barelvi’ comes from the town where this movement originated, given

by the opponents of Sunni thought (usually Shia and Wahabis) to the adherents of Imam

Ahmed Rida’s spiritual and theological positions. Needless to say, there is no cult/group

called Barelvi, it is actually a derogatory remark to Indian Sunnis, however, people who treat


the writings of Imam Ahmed Rida Khan as possessing value over the Quran and Sunna, and

who use his name for unIslamic practices deserve to be called the cult of Barelvism and are to

be considered deviant until they re-read his legal and spiritual positions and mend their

ways.

- The period of modernisation initiated in the Ottoman State by Ataturk was similarly resisted

by the Sufi reformer, Said Nursi, known as Bediuzzaman (Wonder of the Age), who

represented an Ottoman version of the Sunni Islamic revival offered by Ahmed Rida Khan.

Recognition of his contribution to Sunni thought is seen as a sign of correct Islamic

theological attitude. It must be stressed that an individual’s Islamic theological attitude

cannot simply comprise of one scholar from one time, but it should consist of a healthy and

broad variety of orthodox theorists from all three of the key periods mentioned in this

document.

-

- A person who gives excessive attention to one scholar above all others out of sheer partisanship is in

danger of falling into cult mentality and lose the essence of the communal (jama’i) philosophy of Sunni

faith, and will undoubtedly incur loss, mentally and spiritually.

-

- ATTITUDE TOWARDS OTHER SECTS AND RELIGIONS AS THOUGHT SYSTEMS

- -It is the belief of the adherents to the Prophetic way of Islam, that cults represent a threat to

the human race. This is due to the fact that they present themselves as followers of Prophets

but they obstruct others from worldly and spiritual success by deception. They deceive in the

guise of sincere advisers.

- -This reality does not make us extremists or a political threat. From the earliest period, the

distinguishing factor of the Sunni community was that it reserved the right to denounce

incorrect decisions made by the state in an academic fashion and at the same time, we do not

regard armed rebellion as a valid method to attain political authority. In the same way,

aspects of other religions or religious movements we view to be upon deviance will be

communicated academically; there is no need for hypocrisy or fear, nor extremism or

undisciplined show of force.

- -To the anxious and undisciplined youth: If you use force unnecessarily, it will be known that

you are weak in reality.

- -Their deviance begins internally and then manifests in twisted words, their deviance is not

criticised on the basis of their rational processing or words only, these are taken as indicators

of a perceived deeper malady, Islamic heresiographers were not superficial.

- -When the Last Prophet announced that 72 sections of his nation would be in hellfire, he was

not doing so for the sake of amusement. All of these 72 sections allied themselves with

Satanic objectives and abandoned the Prophetic way, they call to hell and belong nowhere

other than its deepest depths.

- -Religious movements and groups deviant from the Prophetic norms will continue to

manifest on Earth as long as humans despair over their attainment of success, and tie their

fates to lesser beings than Allah. Human worth is thus shown in worship of the one true God

alone and rejecting subservience to demonic entities or deviant humans.


- -The only people bound for hellfire in the holy books are the cultists and sociopaths who sell

their souls for worldly benefit and devote themselves to carrying out Satan's agenda on Earth,

those who are righteous are not guilty, and if they were truly righteous, would adhere to the

proper beliefs of the Prophetic way and escape punishment.

- -The Sunni Islamic thought system necessitates that religions and thought systems that are

considered deviant from the norms of the Last Messenger be announced as such, we do not

possess the authority to ignore or sweep aside fundamental differences that we are duty

bound to resist.

- -We strive to live according to the norms of the Last Messenger and his community, and to

use our knowledge and research to wage intellectual struggle against other religions and

sects that we consider as deviant and detrimental to human salvation, which is the domain of

expertise possessed by the Last Messenger.

- -As his community, our job is to work in this way also. However, we only make

disagreements in an academic fashion, and to individuals and groups who truly deserve

intellectual attention, not just every individual who possesses religious views, in this way we

are not fanatics about spreading our creed, we communicate it academically to whoever we

naturally encounter.

- -Our views are not literally ‘our views’, these are the natural and inevitable facts about which

human history is a natural testament, this is not something doctored by Islamic scholars.

- -Whoever communicates Islam as if it was something small and cheap, and who uses every

opportunity to preach needlessly, has dishonoured and disrespected the Islamic thought

system.

- -Deviant sects within Islam are to be regarded as a problem dealt with inside the community,

for which outside interference nor expertise is needed. It is the responsibility of those who

have knowledge of the Islamic intellectual tradition to categorise and denounce the

possessors of corrupt Islamic thought as debaser (mubtadi) or disbeliever/heretic (kafir/zindiq)

when it is absolutely clear, so that the community may be warned of his distance from

guidance.

- -Again, these labels are not emotional but simply legal categories relating to the domain of

personal status which we are obliged to maintain awareness of.

- - If no scholar is communicating the information relevant to this science (heresiography) in

this period, people should make comparisons with previous cases in order to make a decision

about someone they suspect of theological deviance, and communicate their findings in the

most academic way possible.

- -Sunni Islamic theology is concerned with the views of other religions also, as well as

religious movements that are newly invented. This is part of the domain of Islamic

theological activity due to the premise that the highest spiritual expertise and mastery is

possessed by the Last Messenger.

- -To emphasise, we are neither a cult, nor a bigoted group and therefore denunciation or

refutation of other religions is to be done academically and preferably using their own

sources by those who are qualified to do so.

- -Again, there is no action taken by the members of the Prophetic community unless it is seen

that the situation is dire and that falsehood and evil is rampant beyond control by either


global communities or governments, and thus we proceed with utmost caution, in accordance

with the prophetic way.

- -Our diplomacy and tact however is not a sign of weakness, nor is it to be understood that we

are a pacifist group who refrain from taking action against aberrance, but that we value our

own actions and even more, seek to observe the will of the Creator before we impose our

own.

- -The situation today has progressed to a higher level of injustice where people equate Islamic

thought with the thought of other religions and consider them as equals. Any who believe in

this way, or consider the views of the majority Ahlus Sunnah as compatible with the views of

corrupt groups are not valid members of the Islamic community and are to be considered to

belong within the legal category of ‘disbeliever’ until they amend their views and choose to

represent Islam more accurately.

- SUGGESTED THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE:

- For theology of the early Islamic period, one should read Aqida Tahawi (Bayan as Sunnah), Fiqh

al Akbar, and Kitab al Luma Fil Itiqad by Ibn Qudama al Maqdisi. These are short and explain

the correct position on matters relating to the nature of God and predestination.

- For the authoritative position on stray sects and cults, one should read Farq Bayn al Firaq by

Baghdadi, and Milal Wan Nihal by Shahrastani.

- For the authoritative position on blasphemy laws against God and the Last Prophet one

should read Sayf al Maslul, by Subki, Rawdatut Talibin by Nawawi, Ash Shifa by Qadi Iyad,

and Tanbih al Wulat by Ibn Abidin. Also included is Al I’lam bi Qawati al Islam by Haytami and

Faysal at Tafriqa by Al Ghazzali.

- To read about the Ismaili Cult, one should read Fadaih al Batiniyya by al Ghazali. To see the

summary of orthodox views during al Ghazali’s time, one should read Kitabl al Irshad by al

Juwayni, and al Iqtisad fi’l Itiqad by al Ghazali, or the chapter on belief from the first volume of

Ihya.

- To read about the errors of Ibn Taymiyya, one should read Durratul Mudiyya by Subki and ar

Raddu li man qaala bil jiha by Ibn Jahbal al Kilabi.

- For examples of Orthodox creed during the Mughal controversy, individuals should read the

Maktubat (Correspondences) of Imam Ahmed Sirhindi, his treatise, Radd ar Rawafid, and

Takmil al Iman by Abdul Haq Dehlavi, one of his contemporaries.

- To read a summary of orthodox views moving closer up to the time of colonialism, one

should read Hujjatullah al Baligha by Shah Waliallah. To see the relevance of refutation of

Shiite ideology during that period, one should read the work Tuhfa Ithna Ashariyya by Shah

Abdul Aziz Dehlavi, the son of Shah Waliallah.

- To become aware of the controversies and the correct Islamic theological position regarding

them during colonialism, one should see the English translation of Ahmed Rida Khan’s

Tamhid al Iman as well as the comprehensive survey published as Hussam al Haramayn.

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