Introduction

Al-Aqeedah al-Hamawiyyah al-Kubra is a creedal epistle by Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyyah al-Harrani (661–728 AH / 1263–1328 CE), one of the most prolific and controversial scholars in the history of Islamic thought. Ibn Taymiyyah was born in Harran and grew up in Damascus after his family fled the Mongol advance. He studied Hanbali fiqh and hadith sciences under leading Syrian scholars and became head of the Hanbali school in Damascus at a young age. His output was extraordinary in volume, and his positions on theology, jurisprudence, and political thought generated disputes that continued long after his death in the citadel of Damascus.

Al-Aqeedah al-Hamawiyyah originated as a formal legal opinion (fatwa) composed around 698 AH in response to a written question from a questioner in Hama — hence the name. The question concerned the proper approach to Quranic and hadith texts that describe Allah with attributes such as rising above the Throne (istawa), descending, a hand, a face, and similar expressions. Should these texts be understood literally? Are they to be reinterpreted figuratively? Is it permissible to say anything beyond affirmation without qualification? Ibn Taymiyyah's answer became one of his most important theological statements, and the question of its original addressee gave the text its title.

The epistle presents Ibn Taymiyyah's argument that the correct approach to these texts is that of the Salaf al-Salih — the early Muslim scholars of the first three generations — who affirmed the attributes as they appear without asking how (bila kayf), without likening them to created things (tashbih), and without reinterpreting them through philosophical categories (ta'wil). He surveys statements from Sahaba, Tabi'in, and the four imams of fiqh to demonstrate that this was their unanimous position, and he argues that the later practice of systematic ta'wil — associated with later Ash'ari and Maturidi theologians — introduced categories foreign to the transmitted tradition.

The text is structured as a sustained argument rather than a brief list of tenets. Ibn Taymiyyah presents the competing positions, cites historical evidence for the Salafi approach, critiques the philosophical underpinnings of ta'wil, and responds to objections. The epistle is therefore both a statement of creed and a work of theological polemic, and it cannot be read in abstraction from the debates of his time.

Readers approaching al-Aqeedah al-Hamawiyyah should be aware that its arguments remain a subject of discussion among scholars of Sunni theology. Those who follow the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools dispute some of Ibn Taymiyyah's historical characterizations and his assessment of ta'wil. Reading the text alongside responses from other Sunni traditions gives a fuller picture of the actual range of scholarly opinion on these questions. What is not in dispute is the text's importance as a precise and rigorous statement of the Athari method and its historical evidence.