This video, an excerpt from Imam Marc's Saturday class on ʿaqīdah (creed and beliefs), discusses how the "problem" of good and evil are understood and resolved via the guiding light of the Qur’ān and the Sunnah.

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This new class taught by Imam Marc Manley will take place over the summer at Middle Ground as part of our Middle Ground Summer Dīn Intensive. The class will be held live on Fridays between Maghrib and al-‘Ishā’ Prayers. You can watch Session Eleven on YouTube:

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Due to a technical error the audio for Session Seven wasn’t recorded. I will leave some notes here for those who were not in attendance.

To say that pre-modern Arabia was isolated from the rest of the world would be an understatement and yet, despite this isolation, it was neither uninhabited, inactive, nor irrelevant. In fact, despite the nearly millennia and a half gap between the time of the Prophet ‎ﷺ and our time we’ll see that very little has changed in terms of human motivations and nature.

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Every human culture has its noble characteristics as well as its darker, predatory, and destructive aspects. From pre-modern Arabia to the modern global West, this remains true. As for the Arabian Peninsula (al-Jazīrah al-ʿArabiyyah), its people developed a sophisticated language, rich in meaning yet in stark contrast to the beauty and sophistication of the Arabic language was the tribal culture, often as harsh as it was exploitative.

Dr. al-Ṣallābī, the author of the book we are reading from in this class, al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah: ʿArḍ Waqā'i Wa Taḥlīl Aḥdāth (The Prophetic Biography: Presentation of Facts and Analysis of Events), presents the realities and events which comprised the world into which the Prophet ‎ﷺ would be born for examination and study, a world he and his Message would ultimately confront. This presentation and analysis is done not solely for the acquisition of facts but to also draw similarities between his time x and ours so that we can face and confront those challenges with the timeless wisdom of Allah’s Messenger, ‎ﷺ.

To appreciate the magnitude of the Prophet’s mission ‎ﷺ we must first understand the world the Prophet ‎ﷺ was born in and the culture he saws inherited, just as all of us do. The Arabian Peninsula was a land of extremes—vast deserts left little room for agricultural development. As a result, this pushed its people toward trade and seasonal markets for survival. Makkah stood as a major waypoint, its Qurayshi caravans journeying in the winter to Yemen and in the summer to al-Shām (as alluded to in the Qur’ān), while Yemeni merchants sailed the seas around them, seeking opportunities for commerce. Pre-modern Arabian society was bound together by tribal loyalties, pride in lineage, and the eloquence of poetry as cultural currency. Women more often than not were reduced to mere property. And while Arabs were (and remain) famous for this hospitality, this served as no impediment to the practice of usury, economic exploitation, and even infanticide, with the Qur’ān denouncing and condemning the burying of infant daughters.

These social conditions of pre-modern Arabia are far from being confined to a remote, alien past. In fact, upon examination, we can see that much of the past still echoes, or even rhymes, in our present “modern” society with unnerving familiarity. Human nature has not shifted so dramatically as we would like to pretend in the intervening fifteen hundred years; our world has simply traded desert garb for a digital wardrobe. Where the tribes of Quraysh guarded honor through bloodline, many today guard it through the curated “brand” of wealth, aesthetics as well as through nationalism, which is seeing a resurgence as of late.

Where the poet once commanded reputations with a well-turned verse, hip-hop artists or Instagram and YouTube influencers shape public opinion. Ancient practices of usury has been normalized with the ubiquitous presence of interest in virtually all transactions, with the poorest among us having to negotiate “Pay Day Loans” and other forms of predatory lending, ensnaring the poor and working class with crushing debt.

The devaluation of life is another troubling commonality between the world at the time of the Prophet ‎ﷺ and our own. In that era, infanticide was rationalized out of fear or poverty. In our time, poor women are sometimes urged to abort their babies with the claim that doing so will prevent poverty, and tragically, many follow this advice.

The realm of entertainment likewise mirrors the past. In the Prophet’s time ‎ﷺ, poetic competitions were revered in a way similar to the prestige we now grant to athletes and musicians. Celebrity culture and viral fame in our age have become modern heirs to an old tradition rooted in ignorance, vanity, and self-indulgence. An indulgence driven by fear-based decision making and an anxiety of poverty. This latter was especially powerful, one which still continues to fuel harmful decision-making today.

The Qur’ān confronted and transformed these destructive patterns, not by erasing culture but by reorienting its values toward justice, compassion, and accountability before God. If these patterns still persist in our time, we must ask ourselves: what would transformation look like today, and what values would we need to recover to make it possible?

What we see here of the Prophet’s world ‎ﷺ are not distant parallels but living patterns, virulent mutations of the same impulses for status, influence, and control. In tracing these echoes from the past, we are not merely studying the world of the Prophet ‎ﷺ and the Arabs before Islam. We are, in many ways, holding up a mirror to ourselves.

The following are some notes from our new class, The World of the Messenger of Allāh ‎ﷺ, part of our Middle Ground Summer Dīn Intensive.

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The Roman Empire

The state and “default setting” of the pre-modern world was one of exploitation and domination. Those who wielded power had no concept of responsibility towards those they governed over; their only concern was extraction and exploitation. And for the most part this was universal. Islām, as a revelation and a system, comes as a lightning rod and disrupter: those who rule, and those who are ruled, will have a mutually beneficial relationship.

Force was the primary way of negotiating social hierarchies. The author says about Syria, for example:

When we consider these historical facts and observations, we can see that Islām was truly a revolutionary force, turning normal social conventions upside down.

The coincidences that we see between the Roman Empire and today’s American Empire cannot be ignored. Much of American foreign policy relies upon interfering in foreign states, attacking them on trumped up charges or aggression or terrorism, imposing our rule over them. Just as Islām was a revolutionary idea (one which recognized the sovereignty of others) at the time of its revelation, so too is Islām today a threat to those who would seek to subjugate under the same false pretenses. Not solely for this reason, but without a doubt, so long as there remains injustice and tyranny in the world there will be those who look to the guidance of Islām as a means of confronting and mitigating that tyranny and injustice.

Even in today’s world there remains the problem of rulers who see no humanity or worth, beyond resource-extraction, in their ruled populations. This is the world that islam came into, the world it came to confront, and it’s a problem that still needs confronting today.

In America, for example, there is not simply a growing divide between “the have’s and the have-nots” but between the political class and everyone other than the political class.

Another aspect of how the pre-modern world of the Prophet’s remains similar to ours is the predilection towards excessive argumentation and esotericism. As for the former, this remains much the same today as it did then only today we have X (formerly Twitter) and social media, as well as podcasts. These have become the arenas by which these debates take place. As for the esotericism, it too has found a home on podcasts and YouTube channels where all manner of exotic topics are explored from aliens to AI. Like its pre-modern progenitor, these debates are not conducted by experts, scholars, and theologians, but rather have become the preoccupation of everyday people:

In other words, the notion of there being a Transcendent Truth, an ultimate maxum to which all truth-claims and morality had to appeal to and justify itself by, waned and as a result the common people drifted towards disunity and confusion.

Islam comes into this to bring unity and certainty as well as a gravity to life. People were losing the idea that (1) life had a purpose and (2) that that purpose was not to entertain oneself (and soul) to death. This is also central to the mission and character of the Prophet.

You can watch the full video here:

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In Session Two, we build off of our introduction by restating an important foundational fact in the study of ʿaqīdah (creed): ʿaqīdah is about being bound and tied to God. A binding that encompasses what we must believe about Allāh and what we must reject about Him. ʿAqīdah is a domain or field of knowledge that allows us to correctly know God (maʿrifah): intellectually as well as emotionally. And for this class, which focuses on the study of ʿaqīdah by way of the Two Shahādahs (testimony of faith), this also includes knowing the Messenger ‎ﷺ as well.

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ʿAqīdah is the study of knowing Allāh and His Messenger ‎ﷺ, our obligations to both. What we must believe about them and what we must reject. Additionally, ʿaqīdah is the glue the binds us together as a community. It is how we know and attest to each other as Muslims.

But even as it relates to those aspects of Allāh’s descriptions, Names, or Attributes, especially those we have to reject, ʿaqīdah is ultimately an affirming act and knowledge discipline.

The Doctrines of “Lā ilāha illā Allāh”

For Session Two, the attributes that are obligatory for us to believe about Allāh which we discussed were:

The attributes that are obligatory for Allāh, Exalted is He, and what we must affirm in our belief about Him:

• Existence (al-wujūd). We must be that Allāh exists.

• Pre-eternity (al-qidam). We must be that Allāh exists without conditions or constraints or limitations. In other words, there has never been a point or time in which Allāh did not exist. He, Exalted is Allāh, is Eternal (see the video for our discussion between eternal and immortal).

• Everlastingness (al-baqāʾ). Similar to the point above.

• Absolute dissimilarity to created things (mukhālafatuhu taʿālā lil-ḥawādith). We must believe in Allāh’s complete and total uniqueness, bearing no resemblance to, or likeness of, His creation.

• Self-subsistence (qiyāmuhu taʿālā bi dhātihi). Allāh does not require sustenance or aid of any kind.

• Negation of purpose (nafy al-gharaḍ). This means Allāh does not exist for any purpose, aim, or goal, unlike His creation of the Jinn and humans (see video for explanation).

• Negation of obligation to do or not do anything im/possible. See the video where Imam Marc discusses questions such as “can Allāh have a son?” or “could Allāh create a four-sided triangle?”

• Hearing and being All-Hearing (al-samʿ, sāmʿiyyah). Allāh Hears and is All-Hearing in His Hearing and was not/cannot be deaf.

• Sight and being All-Seeing (al-baṣar, baṣīriyyah). Allāh Sees and is All-Seeing in His Sight and was not/cannot be blind.

• Speech and being a Speaker (al-kalām, mutakallim). Allāh Speaks and is All-Capable in His Speech and was not/cannot be mute/dumb.

• Life and being Living (al-ḥayāh, ḥayy). Allāh Lives, is Living, and does not die.

• Power and being All-Powerful (al-qudrah, qādir). Allāh is All-Powerful and always does as He plans or wills.

• Will and being Willful (al-irādah, murīd). Allāh is Willful and nothing can thwart His Will.

• Knowledge and being All-Knowing (al-ʿilm, ʿālim). Allāh Hears and is All-Hearing in His Hearing and was not/cannot be deaf.

• Oneness (waḥdāniyyah)

• The belief that nothing in existence has any effect by nature or intrinsic power

• The origination of the world

The attributes that are impossible for Allāh, Exalted is He, and what we must deny in our belief about Him:

• non-existence (al-ʿadam). We must deny that Allāh at some point did not exist.

• origination (al-ḥudūth). We must deny that He came into existence at some point no matter how remote or ancient.

• perishing (al-fanāʾ). We must deny that Allāh can perish or die.

• resemblance to created things (al-mumāthlah li al-Ḥawādith). We must deny that any can resemble or emulate Him.

• dependence on a place or a specifier. We must deny that Allāh requires a spatial or material setting or that anything/anyone decides, limits, or causes Allāh to be the way He is. In other words, Allāh has no determiner.

• deafness, or that He be deaf. We deny that Allāh has been/is/could be unable to hear.

• blindness, or that He be blind. We deny that Allāh has been/is/could be unable to see.

• dumbness, or that He be dumb/mute. We deny that Allāh has been/is/could be unable to speak.

Notes and Takeaways

It is an error to say that God exists for a purpose. The reason being is that if God were to have a reason for being then He would be like us: we do have a reason for existing as Allāh says in Sūrah al-Dhāriyāt:

• The study of ʿaqīdah directs us to understandings of God which do not contradict even if we do not comprehend “how”.

• Allāh does not require fire to punish, nor water to give life, nor medicine to heal. These created things (causes) exist, but He is not bound by them, and therefore God is in no need of them and conversely, they are not bound to Him.

Watch the full Session Two video here:

The following are some notes from our new Dīn intensive class for the summer, 80 Principles of Islām in the Declaration of Faith (العقائد الثمانون في شهادتي الإسلام) by Dr. ʿAbd al-ʿĀlim al-Quraydī.

Session 1 — Introduction

“These creeds have been taught in the well-known centers of Islamic learning throughout the Islamic world since Islam first entered those lands up to the present day—such as al-Azhar and its university in Egypt; al-Zaytūnah and its university in Tunisia; al-Qarawiyyīn and its university in Fās; the ‘Umayyad Masjid in Damascus and its College of Sharīʿah; the Abū Ḥanīfah College in Baghdad; the Sanūsiyyah and Asmariyyah universities in Libya; the Tarīm learning center in Yemen; and the centers of knowledge in Makkah.”

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“This is the prevailing creed embraced by the scholars of the Islamic Maghrib, the al-Shām (the Levant), Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, the Arab Gulf states, the Arab regions of the Horn of Africa, the Muslim countries of Black Africa, the Islamic nations of Southeast Asia, and the official creed of the Fatwa Councils in Australia, Indonesia, and the countries of Europe and America.”

“al-Bukhārī narrated in his al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr and al-Tārīkh al-Ṣaghīr, and Aḥmad in his Musnad, and also al-Bazzār, Ibn Khuzaymah, al-Ṭabarānī, al-Ḥākim, and al-Suyūṭī in their compilations, the ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ regarding the conquest of Constantinople (al-Ḥākim, al-Suyūṭī, and al-Dhahabī authenticated it):

“Verily, Constantinople shall be conquered. How excellent is the commander who will conquer it, and how excellent is that army!”

And the commander and his army were upon these very creeds.”

“And Ibn Mājah narrated in his Sunan from the Prophet ﷺ (Hadith no. 3993):

‘The Jews split into seventy-one or seventy-two sects. The Christians split into seventy-one or seventy-two sects. And my ummah will split into seventy-three sects—all of them will be in the Fire except one: the Jamāʿah (the main body).’

And in a narration of al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsaṭ (no. 4886):

They asked: “And which is that group?”He replied: “That which I and my companions are upon today.”

And in a narration of al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr (no. 8035):

“All of them are in the Fire except the sawād al-aʿẓam (the great majority).”

“And the Prophet ‎ﷺ answered as to what the sawād al-aʿẓam was as follows:

“Whoever is upon what I and my companions are upon; who does not dispute in the religion of Allah; and who does not declare any of the people of tawḥīd to be disbelievers on account of a sin—for him is forgiveness.”

Narrated by al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr, no. 7659.

The great majority throughout the ages of Islam have been those who upheld the creed of Islam—the creed whose issues were detailed and its branches organized by Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī and Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī, and which was ascribed to them. The ummah received it with acceptance, and it became an illuminating lamp that lit up the beacons of the Islamic world throughout the ages.

Imam Marc’s First Takeaway

In the study of faith and creed the first thing that often comes to mind is one must believe this or that. Seldom do we associate faith and creed with behavior, manners, and etiquette. So when the Prophet ‎ﷺ said (من لم يُمارِ في دين الله) we should take this not only to heart but take it as a part of creed itself.

Commentary on miryah (مِرْيَةٌ):

Allāh mentions this word in the Qur’ān in several places. Let’s take a look to give us an indication of not only its meaning but the tone with which the Qur’ān employs it.

Some Qur’ānic references to the use and definition of miryah (مِرْيَةٌ):

Shaykh al-Quraydī continues,

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. May peace and blessings be upon the Master of the Prophets and Messengers, our leader, our beloved, and our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, and upon his pure (anqiyā’) and righteous family, his just (ʿudūl) and virtuous companions, and his pious (atqiyā’) and righteous followers — a continuous and inseparable peace and blessing until the Day of Presentation and Meeting.

“Indeed, these eighty tenets contained within the two testimonies of tawḥīd

“I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, and I bear witness that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ”

are the beliefs that save from the punishment of Allah on a Day when none will be saved except by His grace and mercy, according to Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah.

They are the beliefs upon which the unified word of the infallible ‘Ummah has gathered — the ‘Ummah whose infallibility was affirmed by al-Hilālī in his report of the ḥadīth in which the Prophet ﷺ said, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him):

“Allah will never gather my ‘Ummah upon misguidance. Ever. And the hand of Allah is over the Jamāʿah (main body). So follow the great majority (al-sawād al-aʿẓam), for whoever isolates himself will be cast into the Fire.”

The great majority of Muslims — nine-tenths of them — are upon this moderate creed. The followers of the four madhāhib adhere to this creed and accept no other in belief since the ‘Ummah received it with acceptance. This has made it the creed of the great majority of Muslims, the creed upheld in their major bastions of knowledge and great universities across the centuries. Indeed, it is the very foundation upon which fatwā is based in the fatwa councils throughout the Islamic world today.

وَنَظَرًا لِأَنَّ مِفْتاحَ الإِسْلامِ هُوَ الشَّهادَتانِ، وَهُما الَّتَيْنِ تَحْمِلانِ بَيْنَ طَيَّاتِهِما ما يَجِبُ أَنْ يَعْتَقِدَهُ المُؤْمِنُ مِنْ عَقائِدَ في حَقِّ اللهِ وَرُسُلِهِ – كَما تَقَرَّرَ لَدَى عُلَماءِ الأُمَّةِ – فَإِنَّ ما قُمْتُ بِهِ في هذَا الكِتابِ لَمْ يَتَجاوَزْ ذِكْرَ هذِهِ العَقائِدِ وَشَرْحَها وَتَوْضِيحَها.

And given that the key to Islam is the two testimonies of faith (the Shahādatān), which encompass within them what a believer must hold as belief concerning Allah and His Messengers — as established by the scholars of the ummah — then what I have done in this book does not go beyond simply mentioning these beliefs, explaining and clarifying them.

I do not claim any merit of precedence in this regard, for that was earned before me by our great scholar Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ al-Yaḥṣubī, as he is credited with being the first to articulate the beliefs of Islam contained in the two testimonies of faith. Many others followed him throughout the ages.

But I considered it part of my task in this work to organize what had been scattered on this topic — especially since the act of organization and arrangement is a matter of ijtihād (personal scholarly effort), as is evident in the work of those who preceded me. I ask Allah to forgive me and them and to place what we have done in the scales of good deeds on the Day of Presentation.

It should not be left unsaid that learning these beliefs and their evidences at the hands of scholars removes the Muslim from the dispute concerning the validity of the faith of the muqallid (the one who imitates without full understanding), since learning them is considered an aid to the intellect in reflection and contemplation, ultimately leading to knowledge of Allah — for those who possess the capacity for reflection.

As for the common people (ʿawāmm), there is scholarly consensus on the validity of their faith, as their natural disposition is inherently inclined toward the oneness of Allah, His pre-eternality, and the originated nature of everything else that exists. They are not required to express their faith using the technical terms or detailed formulations of the theologians.

Indeed, it has been reported that “the common people are believers, and they are the majority of the people of Paradise.”

And among the supporting evidence for this is the saying of the Prophet ﷺ:

“Whoever prays our prayer, faces our qiblah, and eats from our slaughtered meat — then he is a Muslim who has the protection (dhimmah) of Allah and His Messenger, so do not belittle Allah’s protection.”

Watch Session One on YouTube