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MADRASA AL-HIDAYA |
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MUSLIM SCHOOL OF RIGHT GUIDANCE |
THE SCIENCE WHICH INVESTIGATES
IT’S MEANING AND PROOFS
(THE MEANING AND PROOFS OF TAWHID)
Chapter 2 of
MIFTAH AL-JANNAH (KEY TO THE GARDEN)
of: AL-HABIB AHMAD MASH-HUR BIN TAHA AL-HADDAD
Rady Allahu ‘Anhu
Translated by: Dr. Mostafa al-Badawi
The meaning of this ennobling phrase (lā ilāha Illallāh) embraces all that we have set out in sum, and what the Imāms among the people of the science of Tawhīd have expounded in detail in their writings. It has been elucidated and conclusively proved in the Qur’an and the Hadiths of the Noble Prophet (may the best blessings and peace be upon him!). From these two sources the theologians have derived the categories of Divinity, Prophecy, and doctrines received in faith (sam‘iyyāt). They have discoursed on these matters with an abundance that is a cure and an illumination of hearts, and have called it the “Science of Tawhīd’, ‘The Science of Beliefs’ and the ‘Science of the Roots of Religion’ (usūl al-dīn). This science is preeminent over all other sciences and is to be relied upon implicitly. By its light believers are guided, and from its pure wellspring the Gnostics quench their thirst. This science together with the sciences of Qur’ānic commentary (tafsīr), Hadith, Law (fiqh), Jurisprudence (usūl al-fiqh), and Sufism, are among the Islamic sciences which no seeker of knowledge and gnosis can do without. Whoever knows what is obligatory for him of these will be clear about his case, possessed of insight into his religion, and shall be among the successful.
Beyond any doubt, the foundation of all this is knowledge of the One, the Unique, Whose majesty is sublime, together with certainty regarding His Oneness, His other exalted Attributes and beautiful Names, and His freedom from what does not befit His majesty. This knowledge is the utmost aim and the purest fountain, and is described as “the firm implantation of faith in the heart”. Now faith is a light that God cast into the heart of His servant to make its glass luminous so that it may perceive the hidden knowledges and secrets as though it were actually beholding and witnessing them. This results in the severance of all attachments other than that which is to God, and in single-heartedness before Him, tranquillity in His remembrance, fear and hope in Him, acquiring noble qualities of character and divesting oneself of reprehensible ones, addressing oneself to acts of obedience to Him, abstaining from rebellious and wrong actions, and winning His nearness and good pleasure – which is the greatest felicity of all.
Source: Sayyiduna Al-Habib Ahmad Mash-hur bin Taha al-Haddad, Miftah al-Jannah (Key to the Garden), translated from the Arabic by Dr. Mostafa al-Badawi, The Quilliam Press, London, 1990, p. 5-6.