We believe that Allah is the First, before Whom nothing existed, and the Last, after Whom nothing will exist. He introduced Himself to us that He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the true Owner of them; that He makes the night merge into the day and the day merge into the night - Exalted be He; and that this observable universe testifies that Allah alone is the One Who created it and brought it into existence, and there is no other creator with Him.
He mentions countless signs that prove He is the One Who created this universe and brought it into existence, and He establishes the argument against us by what we see in ourselves and around us.
We believe in what the prophets and messengers believed in and have certitude in the proofs and arguments they brought forth, which point to Allah, the Exalted.
We believe that Allah is the Creator, and He did not create the creation for no purpose; rather, it is a perfect creation for a great purpose.
There are many other signs and proofs in the Qur'an, like the verses in Surat al-An‘ām and Surat an-Nahl, which all point to the existence and lordship of Allah Almighty. These are intellectual proofs and strong arguments that none can produce the like of them or even close. In their diversity, they are suitable for all people and sufficient for establishing the argument against them, notwithstanding the denial of the disbelievers and the hatred of the people of falsehood. Does the disbeliever have any proof but the denial and rejection?
We believe that Allah is the only Lord and Creator; that He alone began the creation and none took part in it; He creates by whatever means He wills; and that all things other than Him are created beings.
We believe that Allah is the Lord, Creator, Manager, and Possessor of everything, and that any created being does not have the power to manage his own affairs or the affairs of others, except as Allah enables him to.
We believe that Allah is the true King and Master, and the whole creation is submissive to Him, and all other kings preside over temporary and transient dominions.
We believe that Allah alone is the One Who gives life and causes death; that He is the One Who created death and life; and that He is the One Who takes away the souls.
We believe that Allah is the Provider, the Lord of Power, and the Mighty; none but Him provides for us and fulfills our needs. We believe that He encompasses everything in His knowledge, and nothing, great or small, escapes His knowledge; and He, Exalted be He, is the Knower of the unseen and the visible.
We believe that Allah Almighty subjugated everything through His power and rule.
We believe that to our Lord belongs the creation and the command; there is no true god or lawgiver but Him; He is the One Who created His servants, and He lays down laws and obligations and clarifies the religion, and He is their Master and He alone is Able to hold them accountable and give them the due recompense.
We believe that Allah, Glorified be He, created mankind and their actions.
We believe that the belief in Allah's lordship alone is not enough for one to be a believer, and it would not lead him to Paradise. This is because he does not believe that Allah is the only God worthy of being worshiped and that he should worship none but Allah, alone.
We believe that Allah is the only God, and none is worthy of being worshiped other than Him, alone, with no partner; that He is the Truth and all what they invoke beside Him is false; and that this great matter is the purpose for which Allah Almighty revealed the books, sent the messengers, and created Paradise and Hellfire - and there is a consensus among all the scholars of the Ummah about it and is established by the natural disposition and sound reasoning. We know with certainty that the main thing to which the prophets called their peoples was: to worship Allah Almighty alone and abandon the worship of everything else.
True worship is that which is sincerely devoted to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds, and done in accordance with the Prophet's guidance. Indeed, the worship of any other deity is false and void.
This main pillar and firm foundation of the religion of Allah - i.e. affirming the divinity of Allah alone and negating it from anyone else - is the core and mainstay of the messengers' call. It means: devoting people's deeds to the Creator alone.
In the Qur'an, Allah Almighty often mentions signs of His lordship as proofs, which entail worshiping Him alone, Exalted be He.
We believe that Allah is the sole Creator of these major cosmic signs, and since there is no creator with Him, none should be worshiped along with Him.
Allah Almighty diversified the signs He put as proofs of His divinity in a way that establishes the argument and makes the truth clear; thus people would not have any argument against their Lord.
The acknowledgement of Allah's divinity, along with the testimony that Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) is His Messenger, is the reason Allah laid down for making people's lives and blood inviolable.
Along with belief in Allah, there must be disbelief in false deities and disavowal of polytheism and its people.
It is not sufficient that faith reside in the heart, but it should also be uttered by the tongue and acted upon by the body parts. Faith varies in the heart, by increase and decrease.
In faith, a person should be sincere to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, and certain, not doubtful, and his faith should be based on knowledge, sincerity, acceptance, submission, compliance, and truthfulness in words and deeds, along with love for this religion, the One Who legislated it, the one who came with it, and those who follow it.
As Allah clarified the reality of faith and its requirements and pillars, He also cleared the suspicions raised by obstinate polytheists and pointed out that they have no valid justification for their polytheism, for these presumed equals are created beings, who cannot create anything and have no power over even an atom's weight in the heavens or on earth.
The Almighty Lord also maintained that those equals, who are worshiped beside Allah, do not hear the call of those who call upon them; and even if they can hear it, they are not able to respond; and on the Day of Judgment, they will reject their polytheism and disavow them.
He also made clear that those equals who are worshiped beside Allah cannot bring about any benefit or cause any harm; so, how could they be worshiped?
Moreover, Allah Almighty rejected the worship of angels, pointing out that they, although close to Allah, cannot intercede for anyone without His permission. So, if this is the case, how could they be worshiped beside Allah?!
And the prophets and messengers, despite their high status in worldly life and the Hereafter, do not have power to benefit or harm themselves; so what about others who are lower in rank!
We believe that Allah is One in His attributes of perfection and majesty, and to Him belong the most excellent names and most sublime attributes. This is attested by wise minds and the sound natural disposition and unanimously agreed upon by the scholars of the Muslim Ummah. Rather, all divine messages demonstrated Allah's beautiful attributes, names, and actions. Our Lord dismissed the deities of the polytheists as being unable to hear or see.
We believe that He is as He described Himself and as the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) described Him. There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing. We affirm for Him what He established for Himself and the Prophet established for Him, and we negate from Him what He negated from Himself or the Prophet negated from Him, without engaging in ta‘tīl (denial), tamthīl (likening), takyīf (asking how), or tahrīf (distortion).
We know with certainty that Allah Almighty possessed His attributes before He created the creation and that He has the utmost perfection, majesty, and excellence from eternity to permanence, for He is the First and the Last, before Whom there was none and after Whom there will be none; He is the First with His names, attributes, perfection, and glory, and He is the Last with His names, attributes, perfection, and glory.
We believe that some of Allah's attributes are associated with His Essence, such as life, knowledge, hearing, seeing, hand, and fingers, and other attributes are linked to His will, like anger, pleasure, and coming down.
We believe that He does whatever He wills whenever He wills and however He wills, and He honors whomever He wills and humiliates whomever He wills; none can repel His command or reverse His decree and judgment.
We believe that some of Allah's attributes are ultimate, such as hearing, living, and seeing, and other attributes are mentioned in a restricted manner, and should remain so, like describing Himself, Exalted be He, as "plotting" against His enemies if they engage in plotting, and "forgetting" them if they forget Him.
His attributes include knowledge, hearing, seeing, living, sustaining, and speech. He possessed the attribute of speech before creating the creation and speaking to them. Our Lord's speech is linked to His will; whenever He wills, He speaks. Allah's attribute of speech occurs in the Qur'an in various aspects. He speaks to His servants; He privately converses with and calls those He wills from among them; and He will talk to the creation on the Day of Judgment, and they will hear His speech on that Day.
We believe that Allah veiled Himself from His creation with a veil of light. So, they cannot see Him in worldly life, though some of His prophets heard His speech when He spoke to them from behind a screen. He also spoke to Mūsa (peace be upon him).
Some of our Lord's speech is described as being more recent than other speech, and some parts are more excellent than others.
His speech includes the Qur'an and all divine books revealed to His messengers, such as the Scrolls of Ibrāhīm and Mūsa (peace be upon them), the Torah, the Gospel, and the Psalms. All of them are the word of Allah, and Jibrīl heard it directly from Him and came down and conveyed it to the prophets and messengers. The Torah is particularly characterized by the fact that Allah revealed it written in the Tablets. Allah's speech and words are not created beings. Indeed, His speech is distinct from that of His creation. Do you not see that He separates between the creation and the command? We differentiate between Allah's Shar‘i words and His words represented by His cosmic signs.
His attributes also include honor, subjugation, might, authority, pride, majesty, will, power, and mercy. Mercy is one of His attributes that describes Him.
Among His attributes is exaltedness; exaltedness of power, exaltedness of status, and exaltedness of essence. In its three aspects, exaltedness is an attribute that indicates His perfection. The noble Qur'an and the Sunnah, as well as sound reasoning and natural disposition, point to numerous forms of Allah's exaltedness; also numerous are the proofs that prove His exaltedness.
His attributes also include rising over the Throne, which Allah mentions seven times in His Book.
Among His attributes are love, pleasure, and hatred of His enemies; this is because they hated His pleasure and hated what He revealed to His Messenger (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him).
Other attributes are anger at His enemies and resentment against the disbelievers.
One of His attributes is that He plots against His enemies who plot against His close servants. Other attributes are severe wrath and deception of those who try to deceive Him; Allah deceives the hypocrites who try to deceive Him. Another attribute is that He mocks those who mock Him, Exalted be He.
His attributes also include laughter, wonder, coming, and attending on the Day of Judgment to judge mankind.
We believe in the attribute of descent and that our Lord descends to the worldly heaven in a real way that befits His majesty and greatness; it is not like the descent of created beings; rather, it is like all His other attributes which we believe in and know, without exploring their very nature or rejecting them. We believe in them just as they were reported to us by the truthful Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him).
We believe in Allah's attribute of ma‘iyyah (Allah being with the creation). Ma‘iyyah is of two kinds: Specific ma‘iyyah with Allah's close servants and messengers, which entails His support for them; General ma‘iyyah with all mankind, believers and disbelievers, and it entails knowledge, encompassment, ability, and authority.
Ma‘iyyah does not entail incarnation or union or contradict Allah's exaltedness, for it means, as unanimously agreed by the scholars, that Allah Almighty is with us by His knowledge, encompassment, and power.
And we establish that Allah has a face that befits His majesty and greatness and a hand that befits His majesty and greatness. It is mentioned in the Qur'an and the Sunnah in numerous forms. It is mentioned as a pair of hands, and that Allah holds and stretches it out and that He will fold the heavens therein and place the earth in His grip. His hand is also described as having fingers. All this proves that the hand mentioned in the Qur'an and the Sunnah is a real hand that befits the Almighty Lord. We should not try to know its very essence, liken it to the hands of created beings, or distort the verses and Hadīths wherein it is mentioned. Another of Allah's attributes is having fingers.
We believe that the believers will see their Lord on the Day of Judgment, as established by the Qur'an and authentic Hadīths in which the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) gave glad tidings to the believers that they will see their Lord with their own eyes on the Day of Judgment.
As Allah Almighty described Himself by the attributes of perfection, majesty, excellence, glory, and pride, He also negated from Himself the attributes of deficiency. The negation of attributes is not the basic rule in the Qur'an and the Sunnah; rather, the basic rule is to establish the attributes. The Qur'an and the Sunnah are abound with clarification of Allah's attributes as befitting His majesty, greatness, and perfection. When Allah negates an attribute from Himself, He does so to demonstrate the perfection in its opposite, or because humans have ascribed some deficiency to the Almighty Lord; so, He negates such ascribed deficiency from Himself.
We believe that Allah Almighty possesses the most excellent names and that His names reached the pinnacle of perfection. Nothing is more excellent than them. Moreover, an attribute can be derived from each name of Allah, and His names are numberless.
Our Lord warned us against profaning His names or denying them or negating their meanings.
The names and attributes of Allah which occur in the Qur'an and the Sunnah are too great to be contained by any book. We believe in these names and attributes as intended by Allah Almighty and as intended by our Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him), and we know that their reality is not grasped or encompassed by people, for they are beyond their ability to understand. And we do not make an effort to interpret them.