The Brilliance of the Minarets : An Explanation of the Terms of the Aqidah of Ibn Asakir (AICP)

ISBN: None
Author: Association of Islamic Charitable ProjectsAssociation of Islamic Charitable Projects
Publisher: Association of Islamic Charitable Projects (1994)
Pages: 95 Binding: Paperback

Description from the publisher:

ForewordIn the name of Allah, The Merciful to the believers and non-believers in this world and to the believers only in the next world. Praise be to Allah the Lord of the worlds. To Him belong the endowments, generosities, and proper commendations. May Allah raise the rank of Prophet Muhammad and his pure and kind Al and Companions, and protect his nation from that which he fears for it.Thereafter; the knowledge of the Religion is among the best of the acts of obedience; and it is the most worthy of allocating the precious time it takes to acquire it. This is especially so because at-Tirmidhiyy related that the Prophet, said: ”Allah facilitates a route to Paradise for he who follows a route to seek knowledge.”The greatest of all knowledge is that of the fundamentals of the creed. This is why the Messenger of Allah taught it to the Companions prior to teaching them the rules of the Religion. In his book, Misbah az-Zujajah, al-Busiriyy classified as sahih what Ibn Majah related that Jundub Ibn ‘Abdullah, may Allah raise his rank, said: "We were with the Prophet of Allah, , as young men. We learned the matters of the belief before we learned the Qur'an. Then we learned the Qur'an which added to our belief."We have found the ‘Aqidah (creed) advocated by Shaykh Fakhrud-Din Ibn Asakir, may Allah endow mercy on him, to contain a multiplicity of meanings in spite of its brevity. In it, the author summarized the creed of Ahlus-Sunnah wal Jama’ah with a few brief terms. Its words are easy for children to memorize and enjoyable for adults to study. Furthermore, it became famous among the Muslims. These qualities inspired us to explain its terms in order to facilitate learning and to propagate its message without using lengthy explanations.We presented what we wrote to the Renewer of the Century, the Shafi’iyy of this Era, the Rifa’iyy of the Time, the Defender and Reviver of the Sunnah, the Negator and Eliminator of the Innovations of Misguidance, the Faqih and Scholar of hadith, the Adherer to the Fundamentals of the Religion, the Linguist, ash-Shaykh ‘Abdullah Ibn Muhammad Ibn Yusuf Ash-Shaybiyy, al-Qurashiyy (by lineage), al-Harariyy (by home country), known as al-Habashiyy (Al-Habashiyy: refers to the fact that he is from al-Habashah, a country in Africa known as Abyssinia. The companion and cousin of the Prophet, Ja’far Ibn Abu Talib, immigrated there along with other companions.), may Allah protect him.He changed certain parts, added words to others, and approved the rest. We attempted to translate this document to some of the many languages in existence. We were assisted in our endeavors by the translation teams of the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects (AICP of North America) in North America, France, Ukraine, Australia, and China. We succeeded in producing translations in English, French, Spanish, Urdu, Russian, Turkish, and Chinese.We did this in the hope of earning the reward promised in the hadith of the Prophet that was related by al-Bukhariyy: “When the [Muslim] son of Adam dies, his deeds stop except for three: a charity resulting in continuing benefit, a beneficial knowledge, and a pious offspring that makes supplications to Allah for him.”We named this treatise The Brilliance of the Minarets. May Allah make it useful and widespread.