nasafi 2020-07-19

001 – Creed 1

[The True essences of being]2

قَالَ أَهْلُ الحَقِّ : حَقَائِقُ الأَشْيَاءِ ثَابِتَةٌ ، وَالْعِلْمُ بِهَا مُتَحقِّقٌ ، خِلَافاً لِلسُّوفَسْطَائِيَّةِ.

001 – The people of truth (ahl al-ḥaqq)3 say that 4

The real essences (ḥaqāʾiq) of things5 exist in reality and that the knowledge of them is verifiable as real in contradiction to the Sophists.6

 

  1. the creed of Nasafī by Najm al-dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar b. Muḥammad al-Nasafī (d. 537/1143)
  2. Elder, Earl Edgar, A Commentary on the Creed of Islam. NY: Columbia University Press, 1950, p. 5 with modifications. Elder has the section titled: “Chapter 1: The Real Essences of Things.”
  3. According to the author ahl al-ḥaqq means ahl al-sunna wa-l jammāʿ, who by definition are those that follow the sunna and the consensus of the Prophet’s companions. Those who follow the sunna also by definition accept the Qurʾān as the primary source of knowledge.
  4.  What is meant by “say” is that all of the statements of the creed that follow and not any one particular sentence. i.e the next sentence.
  5. Reality exists, existence is real and knowledge of it is not only possible but factual and verifiable. Reality is not a dream state, or exists in some mind, nor is it alternate.
  6. Sophists, here  are relativist those that espouse the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to society or history and are not absolute.