al-Riwayatayn wa al-Wajhayn - al-Masail al-Aqdiyya Minhu

al-Riwāyatayn wa-al-Wajhayn – al-Masāʾil al-ʿAqdīyah Minhu (Arabic: الروايتين والوجهين - المسائل العقدية منه, "The Creedal Issues from The Book of Two Transmissions and Two Faces") is the theological section of the broader legal and doctrinal treatise Kitāb al-Riwāyatayn wa-al-Wajhayn by the Hanbali jurist and theologian al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā Ibn al-Farrāʾ (380–458 AH / 990–1066 CE) al-Udda fi Usul al-Fiqh+1. The work gathers doctrinal and theological matters in which multiple transmissions (riwāyāt) were reported from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal or divergent opinions (wujūh) were held by his companions, examining their proofs and weighing between the positions al-Riwayatayn wa al-Wajha…+1.

Background and Context

Kitāb al-Riwāyatayn wa-al-Wajhayn originally comprised sections on legal rulings (fiqh), legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh), and theology (uṣūl al-dīn / ʿaqīdah) al-Jami li Ulum al-Imam A…+1. While the jurisprudential and legal theory portions were edited across four volumes by Abd al-Karim al-Lahim, the theological portion forms the concluding part of the work and represents one of Abū Yaʿlā's surviving creedal writings alongside works such as Ibṭāl al-Taʾwīlāt and Masāʾil al-Īmān al-Riwayatayn wa al-Wajha…+1.

Contents and Structure

The theological section covers fifteen distinct doctrinal questions where multiple reports or differing Hanbali stances exist al-Riwayatayn wa al-Wajha…:

1. The preferential ranking between Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib
2. The Divine ascension over the Throne (al-istīwāʾ)
3. The discussion surrounding the concept of limit (al-ḥadd)
4. The Divine descent (al-nuzūl)
5. The Night Journey (al-isrāʾ)
6. The Prophet's vision of his Lord
7. Whether knowledge (al-maʿrifah) increases and decreases
8. The interpretation of the prophetic tradition لا تسبوا الدهر ("Do not curse time")
9. The issue of the utterance regarding the Qur'an (al-lafẓ fī al-Qurʾān)
10. The letters of the alphabet (ḥurūf al-muʿjam)
11. Whether faith (al-īmān) is created or uncreated
12. Whether the caliphate of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq was established by explicit designation (al-naṣṣ) or by consensus and selection (al-ikhtiyār)
13. Whether Yazid ibn Mu'awiya is judged to be a transgressor (fāsiq)
14. The excommunication of those who do not declare the unbelief of designated innovators (takfīr man lā yukaffir al-mubtadiʿah)
15. Forsaking the innovator (hajr al-mubtadiʿ) al-Riwayatayn wa al-Wajha…

Method

In each issue, Abū Yaʿlā quotes the differing transmissions reported from Ahmad ibn Hanbal along with the points of agreement or disagreement expressed by later Hanbali authorities al-Riwayatayn wa al-Wajha…+1. He presents the scriptural and traditional evidence for each stance, sometimes championing one view and other times presenting the variants without expressing a preference al-Riwayatayn wa al-Wajha…+1.

Publication

This specific theological portion was edited by Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Khalaf and published by Dar al-Bukhari under the titles al-Riwāyatayn wa-al-Wajhayn (Masāʾil Uṣūl al-Dīn) and Masāʾil min Uṣūl al-Diyānāt al-Jami li Ulum al-Imam A…+1.