Mulahazat hawl Kitab Aqidat al-Salaf wa al-Khalaf
- Author died
- 1418 AH
- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
Mulahazat hawl Kitab Aqidat al-Salaf wa al-Khalaf (Remarks on the Book "The Creed of the Salaf and the Khalaf") is a theological treatise written by the hadith scholar Abd al-Qadir bin Habib Allah al-Sindi (d. 1418 AH / 1997 CE) refuting a contemporary work that conflated the theological methodology of early Muslim predecessors (al-Salaf) with that of later speculative theologians (al-Khalaf).
Background and Context
The treatise was composed after the Dean of the Faculty of Hadith and Islamic Studies at the Islamic University of Madinah handed al-Sindi a copy of the book Hadhihi Aqidat al-Salaf wa-al-Khalaf fi Dhat Allah Ta‘ala wa-Sifatih. The dean had written an endorsement on the book's back cover warning that it contained intellectual confusion and deception (khalṭ wa-talbīs) and should not be read by junior students because its author lacked critical discernment between the creeds of the Salaf and the Khalaf. Al-Sindi subsequently undertook a detailed point-by-point critique to elaborate on the dean's summary remarks and clarify what he identified as ungrounded transmissions and conceptual errors. The treatise was published in serialized installments in the Journal of the Islamic University of Madinah (Majallat al-Jami'ah al-Islamiyyah).
Contents and Theological Arguments
Al-Sindi argues that treating the theological doctrines of the Salaf and the Khalaf as identical regarding God’s essence and divine attributes is fundamentally invalid. Drawing upon the framework articulated by Muhammad al-Amin al-Shanqiti, he outlines three foundational pillars of the creed of the Salaf:
- Affirming God's transcendence above resemblance to creation (tanzīh).
- Believing in all attributes affirmed in the Quran and the Sunnah without denial or negation.
- Relinquishing any attempt to comprehend the modality (kayfiyyah) of those attributes.
In contrast, al-Sindi argues that the doctrine of the Khalaf relies on figurative interpretation (ta’wīl), textual distortion (taḥrīf), and divestment of divine attributes (ta‘ṭīl). He cites admissions by scholastic figures such as Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazani in his commentary on al-Aqa'id al-Nasafiyyah, who noted that later scholars resorted to rational proofs because their interlocutors did not accept scriptural texts. Al-Sindi also references passages from the commentator on al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah and Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Saffarini's Lawami‘ al-Anwar al-Bahiyyah to rebut the theological maxim asserting that "the method of the Salaf is safer, while the method of the Khalaf is more knowledgeable and wiser" (ṭarīqat al-salaf aslam wa-ṭarīqat al-khalaf a‘lam wa-aḥkam).
Beyond conceptual definitions, the work examines historical deviations that emerged when theological disputants favored rationalistic philosophies over the primary texts of the Quran and the Sunnah, discussing early figures associated with theological innovation such as Amr ibn Ubayd and the origins of Mu'tazilism. Al-Sindi concludes by warning students of knowledge against circulating books that attribute unfounded statements to hadith scholars and speculative theologians alike before acquiring a solid grounding directly from scholars grounded in the Quran and the Sunnah.
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