The Question of Īmān in the Ḥanafī-Māturīdī Creed: The Sources and the Four Governing Tenets
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57033/mijournals-2026-3-0325Keywords:
īmān, taṣdīq, iqrār, deeds, Ḥanafī-Māturīdī creed, al-Fiqh al-akbar, al- ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyya, istithnāʾ, takfīr, kalām sourcesAbstract
The article examines the doctrine of faith (īmān) in the Ḥanafī-Māturīdī tradition on the basis of its primary texts, from the treatises attributed to Abū Ḥanīfa through al-Ṭaḥāwī, al-Māturīdī and Abū al-Muʿīn al-Nasafī to the creed of Najm al-Dīn al-Nasafī and al-Taftāzānī’s commentary upon it. Four governing tenets are identified: that the essence of faith is assent of the heart; that verbal confession functions as a condition for the application of worldly legal rulings rather than as a constituent of faith itself; that deeds do not form part of faith; and that faith, in its essence, neither increases nor decreases. It is argued that these four are not independent rulings but a chain of consequences following from the initial definition, and that this internal consistency accounts for the stability of the doctrine across eight centuries of commentary. The article further traces how the formulation of the tenets was progressively refined while their content remained unchanged, and considers the practical consequence of the doctrine for the question of excommunication.Downloads
References
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