Usul al-Din
- Author died
- 593 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah
Usul al-Din (The Principles of Religion) is a treatise on Islamic theology and creed by the Hanafi jurist and theologian Jamal al-Din al-Ghaznawi (d. after 593 AH / 1197 CE).
Authorship and Context
The work was authored by Jamal al-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud ibn Sa'id al-Ghaznawi (also recorded as Ahmad ibn Mahmud ibn Sa'id), a Hanafi scholar who resided in Aleppo and served as a repetitor (muʿīd) at the Nuriyya al-Halawiyyin Madrasah during the directorship of Ala' al-Din al-Kasani. In biographical and bibliographical literature, the work is commonly referred to by the title Rawdat al-Mutakallimin fi Usul al-Din (The Garden of Theologians on the Principles of Religion) or simply Rawdat al-Mutakallimin.
The historian Kamal al-Din Ibn al-'Adim reported seeing an autograph copy of the work, on which al-Ghaznawi inscribed a postscript imploring the reader to overlook any oversights and charitably correct inadvertent errors.
Abridgment and Related Works
Al-Ghaznawi prepared an abridgment of the text, titled al-Muntaqa min Rawdat al-Mutakallimin (The Selection from the Garden of Theologians), also known as Mukhtasar Rawdat al-Mutakallimin. In addition to this standalone theological work, al-Ghaznawi incorporated a dedicated section on theology (usul al-din) alongside legal theory (usul al-fiqh) and substantive law (furu') within his comprehensive work al-Hawi al-Qudsi.
Publication
The work was edited under the title Usul al-Din by 'Umar Wafiq al-Da'uq and published by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyya in Beirut in 1419 AH (1998 CE).
Answer updated