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in the Qur'an, and should believe in them in detail. As for the other Prophets, belief
is necessary in them as a whole. As-Sa'd handed down an authority in his commentary on the
Maqasid that belief in all the Prophets as a whole suffices, but he was not
followed.
And someone put them into verse as follows:
"There is imposed upon every mukallaf a knowledge
Of Prophets in detail, who have been named
In that document of ours [i.e., the Qur'an). Of them are eight
After ten [i.e., eighteen]. And there remain seven who are
Idris, Hud, Shu'ayb, Salih, and similarly,
Dhu-l-Kifl, Adam, with the Chosen One [Muhammad] they close."
And it is necessary to confess that the Companions (sahibs) of the Prophet are
the most excellent of the generations. Then their followers (tabi's); then the
followers of their followers. And the most excellent of the Companions is Abu Bakr, then
Umar, then Uthman, then Aliin this order. But al-Alqami said that our Lady Fatima and
her brother, our Lord Ibrahim, were absolutely more excellent than the Companions,
including the Four [Khalifas]. And our Lord Malik [ibn Anas] was wont to say, "There
is none more excellent than the children of the Prophet." This is that the confession
of which is incumbent; and we will meet God confessing it, if it is His Will.
And of that the confession of which is also necessary, is that the Prophet was born in
Mecca and died in al-Madina. It is incumbent on fathers that they teach that to their
children. Al-Ajhuri said, "It is incumbent on the individual that he know the
genealogy of the Prophet on his father's side and on his mother's." A statement of it
will come in our Conclusion, if God will. The learned have said, "Every individual
ought to know the number of the children of the Prophet and the order in which they were
born, for an individual
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ought to know his Lords, and they are the Lords of the People." But they do not
explain, in what I have seen, whether that is required (mawjub) or desired (mandub);
the analogy (qiyas) of things similar to it would say it was required. His children
were seven, three male and four female according to the right view. Their order of birth
was: al-Qasim, he was the first of his children, then Zaynab, then Ruqayya, then Fatima,
then Umm Kulthum, then Abd Allah, he had the to-names (laqab) at-Tayyib and at-Tahir,
which are to-names of Abd Allah, not names of two other different persons. These were all
children of our Lady Khadija. And the seventh was our Lord Ibrahim, born of Mariya, the
Copt. So it stands. Let us now return to the conclusion of the Articles.
The Forty-second is the Veracity (sidq) of the Apostles in all their sayings.
The Forty-third is their trustworthiness (amana), that is, their being preserved
(isma) from falling into things forbidden (muharram) or disliked (makruh).
The Forty-fourth is their Conveying (tabligh) to the creatures that which they
were commanded to convey. The Forty-fifth is intelligence (fatana), These four
things are necessary in the Apostles in the sense that the lack of them is unthinkable.
And Faith depends on the knowledge of these, according to the controversy between as-Sanusi
and his opponents.
The opposites of these four are impossible in the Apostles, that is, Lying (kidhb),
Unfaithfulness (khiyana) in a thing forbidden or disliked, Concealment (kitman)
of a thing they have been commanded to convey, and Stupidity (balada). These four
are impossible in them, in the sense that the existence of them is unthinkable. And Faith
depends upon the knowledge of these, as has preceded.
These are Nine and Forty Articles and the Fiftieth is the possibility of the occurrence
of such fleshly accidents in them as do not lead to defect in their lofty rank.
And the proof of the existence of Veracity in them is that if
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